What We Believe

We believe the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, is God’s word and is truth without error. The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21

We believe that there is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

Genesis 1:1; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 6:1- 3; 40:12-28; 45:5-7; Jeremiah 10:10; Matthew 28:19; Acts 17:24-25; Romans 11:33-36; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 3:20

God the Father:

We believe that God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flowof the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus
Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah
10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7

Jesus Christ:

We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who became a man without ceasing to be God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a perfect life and died on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. Our salvation is guaranteed by His literal bodily resurrection from the dead. He is now exalted in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, where He ministers as High Priest for His people. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.

Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 24:14-43; John 1:1, 14; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Colossians 1:15-22; 2:9; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 7:25; 1 Peter 2:21-24

Holy Spirit:

We believe the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

John 10:28- 29; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2:12; 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:16

We believe that all things in heaven and on earth were created by God and exist for His power and glory. God created mankind in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. All human life is sacred because God created humankind in His own image, and because Christ
died for all humankind. Therefore, every human being, born and unborn, young and old, of all races, possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. The gift of gender, male and female, is part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning humanity was innocent of sin and was endowed by his
Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice humanity sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.

Genesis 1:26-28; 3; Ps. 8:3-8; 14:1- 3; 51:5; Isaiah 59:2; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23; 5:12; 19; 6:23; Galatians 3:22; Ephesians 2:1-3

We believe that every person is lost in sin apart from Christ and is in need of a Savior. Jesus Christ died as a full and sufficient payment for the sins of the entire world, and His shed blood is the only provision by which an individual may be delivered from the wrath of God. We believe that salvation is a gift of God and is received by humankind only through faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that humankind is justified by grace through faith alone, apart from human merit or works. We believe that all true believers, once saved, are kept secure in Christ forever.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. 

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5

We believe that the local church is a gathered community unified by a common faith in Jesus Christ, and is committed to one another and to bringing the kingdom of God to bear in the world around them. A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ autonomously. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3

We believe that the Lord Jesus has given the local church two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. All who have received Christ as Savior should be baptized by immersion as a symbolic testimony to their participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, believers should regularly partake of the Lord’s Supper as a symbolic remembrance of Christ’s death and as a testimony of our fellowship with Him and our unity as the body of Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:41-42; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

We believe that Christ will return personally and visibly to earth to fully establish his kingdom. God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

Isaiah 2:4; 11:9; Matthew 16:27; 18:8-9; 19:28; 24:27,30,36,44; 25:31-46; 26:64; Mark 8:38; 9:43-48; Luke 12:40,48; 16:19-26; 17:22-37; 21:27-28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 17:31; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 15:24-28,35-58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 1:5; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 5:1ff.; 2 Thessalonians 1:7ff.; 2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:27-28; James 5:8; 2 Peter 3:7ff.; 1 John 2:28; 3:2; Jude 14; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1-22:13

We believe marriage is created by God and defined by Scripture as between one biological man and one biological woman. Marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship with the Church and that the relationship between husband and wife should reflect the covenant relationship of Christ and the Church. We believe the word “marriage” means only a legal union between one biological man and one biological woman as husband and wife, and the word “spouse” refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or wife. Sexual activity is to occur exclusively within marriage. Marriages outside of these parameters will not be performed by church ministers or on church property.

Genesis 1:26-27, 2:24; Matthew 5; Colossians 3; Song of Solomon 1-8; Ephesians 5