Our Confession

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We confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s Son and has provided mankind’s only means of salvation from sin through His incarnation, atoning death, and bodily resurrection. Therefore, we, as a church body, seek to fulfill together our common calling of making Christ known in the
world. We do this in anticipation of His glorious return and the completion of His Kingdom to the glory of one God —Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Our Statement of Faith

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About the Bible

We believe that the Bible is God’s written revelation to man, and thus the sixty-six books of the Bible given to us by the Holy Spirit constitute the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:7-14; 2 Peter 1:20-21). The Word of God is verbally inspired in every word (2 Timothy 3:16), without error of any kind in the original documents. As such, the Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice (Matthew 5:18; 24:35; John 10:35; 16:12-13; 17:17; 
1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

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About the Trinity

We believe that there is one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4;
Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (John 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14) —each equally deserving worship and obedience.

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About God the Father

We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders, and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace (Psalm 145:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:6). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (Ephesians 4:6), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18).

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About Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial (of the same substance), and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30; 14:9). In the incarnation, the eternally existing second Person of the Trinity, being born of a virgin, accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-Man (fully God and fully man) (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9). Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross, and His death was voluntary, substitutionary, propitiatory (appeasing the wrath of God), and redemptive (John 10:15; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24). On the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day, the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (Romans 3:25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). Our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38-39; Acts 2:30-31; Romans 4:25; 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1).

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About the Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is a divine Person, eternal, underived (uncreated by the Father and not a secondary manifestation of the Father), possessing all the attributes of personality and deity. In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial (of the same substance) with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jeremiah 31:31-34 with Hebrews 10:15-17). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. The broad scope of His divine activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ; and transforming believers into the image of Christ (John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5; 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:22). We teach that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (Romans 8:9; 
2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13).

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About Humans and Sin

We believe that God created man in His own image and likeness. Man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self determination, and moral responsibility to God (Genesis 2:7, 15-25; James 3:9). Since the fall of man into sin, the image of God in man has been distorted, though not eradicated (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). In Adam’s sin of disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, he not only fell from his state of innocence into one of separation and alienation from God, but as the representative for all mankind, he also plunged the whole race into sin and death (Romans 5:12-21). All mankind became inherently corrupt and subject to the wrath of God (John 3:36; Romans 3:23; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3). Fallen man is blind and helpless, wholly incapable of spiritual self-reformation or rescue and is wholly in need of God’s salvation (Isaiah 64:57; Jeremiah 13:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:21-22).

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About Salvation

We believe that salvation is the gift of God through grace and is received by man only through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins (John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; 
2:8-9). We believe that regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which the divine nature and divine life are given (John 3:3-7; Titus 3:5). It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God (John 5:24), when the repentant sinner, as enabled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2: 4-5), responds in faith to the divine provision of salvation. At the moment of regeneration the believer passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life; being justified, accepted before the Father just as Christ, His Son, is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, and one with Him forever (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 2:10; 2 Peter 3:18; 1 John 4:17; 5:11-12).

We also believe that the greatest degree of reformation, the highest attainment of morality, the most attractive culture, baptism, or any other ordinance, cannot help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven. Only by a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, may one obtain salvation and thus become a child of God (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 26:28; John 3:5, 18; Romans 5:6-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:18-19, 23).

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About the Church

We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the church 
(1 Corinthians 12:12-13), the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 19:7-8), of which Christ is the Head (Ephesians 1:22; 4:15; Colossians 1:18). The Church exists both universally (i.e., the total number of genuine believers throughout history, Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 12:13) and locally (i.e., localized assemblies, Matthew 18:15-18; Acts 14:23; 20:17; Galatians 1:2).

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About Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

We believe that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:38-42). Christian baptism by immersion into water (Acts 8:36-39) is the solemn and beautiful testimony of a believer showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, and his union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Romans 6:1-11). It is also a sign of fellowship and identification with the visible Body of Christ (Acts 2:41-42). The Lord’s Supper is the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes, and should always be preceded by solemn self-examination (1 Corinthians 11:28-32). We also believe that, whereas the elements of Communion are only representative of the flesh and blood of Christ, participation in the Lord’s Supper is nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ, who indwells every believer, and so is present, fellowshipping with His people 
(1 Corinthians 10:16).

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About the Future

We believe in the second coming of Christ: that His return from heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious–a Blessed Hope for which we should constantly watch and pray, the time being unrevealed but always imminent (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7; Mark 13:33-37; Titus 2:11-13; Revelation 22:20).

We believe the bodies of men after death return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God – the righteous to rest with Him; the wicked to be reserved under darkness to the judgment. At the last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised (John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:12-28; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Philippians 1:23).

God has appointed a day when He will judge the world by Jesus Christ, when everyone shall receive according to his deeds; the wicked shall go into everlasting and conscious punishment; the righteous, into everlasting life (Matthew 25:46; John 5:22, 27-29; Acts 17:31; Romans 2:6-11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; 2 Timothy 4:8; Revelation 7:13-17; 14:9-11).