WHAT WE BELIEVE

GOD

The one true and living God—YHWH—is the LORD, Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all things. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is sovereign, all-powerful, ever-present, and all-knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future since He transcends all time and space. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as three Persons— God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. These three Persons execute distinct yet harmonious offices in the work of creation and redemption, and are worthy of the same confidence, obedience, and worship  

Gen. 1:1, 26; Deut. 6:4; Ps. 115:3, 138:5, 145:3; Jer. 10:10; Dan. 4:25; Matt. 3:16-17, 16:16, 28:18-19; Mk. 12:29; Jn. 1:3, 1:14, 4:24; Acts 5:3-4; Rom. 1:19, 20, 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; 10:31;  2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:5-6, 30; Col. 1:16-17, 2:9; 1 Tim. 1:17

THE FATHER

God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history, according to the purposes of His sovereign will. For His glory and by His word, He created the world and continues to uphold, sustain, and govern all things in order to magnify His glory and to bring about His ultimate plan of redemption

Gen. 45:5-7; Is. 40:26, 41:21-23; Ps. 33:10-11; Prov. 16:9, 33, 19:21; Lam. 3:37-38;Am. 3:6; Matt. 23:9; Lk. 10:21-22; Jn. 3:16; 6:27; Rom. 1:7, 11:36-12:2; 1 Tim. 1:1-2, 2:5-6; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:6

THE SON

Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He was not created by God, but has eternally existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit without beginning or end. Being made into the likeness of man, He perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature along with its demands and necessities, and identifying Himself with mankind’s weaknesses and temptations, yet He was completely without sin—fully God, yet fully man. He honored and fulfilled God’s Law by His personal obedience, and by His death on the cross He provided the way for mankind to be redeemed from sin and reconciled to the Father. He was buried, and after three days, He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared afterwards to His disciples. He then ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the Great High Priest and Mediator between God and mankind, praying and interceding for His Bride, the Church. He will one day return in power and glory to judge the world and to complete His redemptive mission.

Is. 53:10-12; Matt. 1:18-25, 16:16-27, 20:28, 28:6; Lk. 1:26-38; Jn. 1:1, 14, 18; 10:30, 17:3, 20:28, 30-31; Acts 1:9-11, 20:28; Rom. 5:6-8, 6:9-10, 8:34, 9:5; 1 Cor. 8:6, 15:3-8; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:4; Phil. 2:5-11; Col. 1:15-20; 1 Tim. 2:5, 3:16; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:1-3, 4:15, 7:25, 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:21-23; Rev. 12:10

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. Through His supernatural work, He enables men to understand the truth of God. He exalts Christ. He convicts people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls people to Jesus, and sovereignly brings about regeneration according to the will of the Father. 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 for the day of final redemption. His indwelling presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will one day glorify the believer into the fullness of the image of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Jn. 14:16-17, 26, 15:26-27, 16:9-14; Rom. 8:9, 14-17; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19; Gal. 5:22-26; Ep. 1:13-14

MANKIND

Mankind is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created mankind to be male and female as the crowning work of all His creation. In the beginning, man and woman—Adam and Eve—were innocent of sin and were endowed by their Creator with freedom to choose. By their choice, man and woman sinned against God and brought sin to the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man and woman sinned against God and were cut off from their original innocence, and only the grace of God can redeem humanity and enable them to fulfill the creative purposes of God. The sacredness of humanity is evident in that God created mankind in His own image, and in that Christ died in order to reconcile mankind to the Father. Therefore, every person of every ethnicity, both male and female, bears the Image of God, possesses full dignity, and is worthy of respect, Christian love and charity.

Gen. 1:26-27, 2:1-7, 3:1-7, 16-19, 19: 6:5, 12: 8-21; Jer. 17:9; Jn. 5:24; Rom. 1:18-23, 3:9-23, 5:12-19, 6:21, 23, 7:13, 8:6—7, 9:22; Eph. 2:1-3; 2 Thes. 1:9; James 1:14-15; 1 Jn. 3:14; Rev. 21:8

SIN

As a direct result of Adam and Eve’s rebellion towards God, humanity was forever marred by physical, spiritual, and eternal death, and all of creation was likewise subject to futility, including violence, famine, disease, and disaster. Adam’s fall became the fall of all his posterity in such a way that corruption, guilt, death, and condemnation have been passed down to every person in the human race throughout all time, and they now inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin and evil. Mankind is totally depraved by nature, born with an attitude and posture of disobedience to God, enslaved to this sin, and is morally unable to worship God rightly. Because of sin, Mankind is under God’s just condemnation and deserves His wrath in a place of punishment called Hell.

Gen. 3:1-7; Ps. 1:1-6; Rom. 3:9-23, 6:12-23; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 2:4-9; Col. 3:5-6; Heb. 12:3-4

SALVATION

Salvation involves the redemption of mankind, and is freely given to all who repent of their sins and believe Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood upon the cross, obtained eternal redemption for the believer. Salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

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; 3:1.; 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

ELECTION AND ETERNAL SECURITY

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is the glorious display of God’s kindness, and is infinitely wise, holy, mysterious, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. Because of this election, all who have been transformed by the grace of God will endure to the end, and will never lose their salvation. Those whom God has justified in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from His grace, but will instead persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves, but they shall forever be kept by the power of God through faith in Christ alone for salvation.

Prov. 28:13; Matt. 3:8-10; Mk. 1:15; Jn. 3:16, 36, 5:24, 6:40, 44, 65; Acts 2:37-38, 11:18, 13:38-39, 17:30, 20:21; Rom. 2:4-5, 3:21-28, 4:1-5, 4:17-25, 8:1, 9:1-29, 10:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:21, 7:10-11; Phil. 1:29, 3:9; Eph. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6; James 2:14-26

THE CHURCH

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous, local congregation of born-again believers, associated by Covenant in the faith and fellowship in the Gospel. They are governed by the commands of Christ, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seek to extend His Gospel to the ends of the earth. Every congregation must operate under the Lordship of Christ, and each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. The offices of the church are that of Pastor/Elder and Deacon. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed throughout all history—believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

Ps. 67; Matt. 5:14-16, 28:19; Lk. 22:19; Jn. 4:7, 10:16; Acts 1:8, 2:42-47, 6:1-6, 20:17-28; Rom. 3:22; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 1:22, 2:19-22, 3:6-10, 4:11-16, 5:19-23; Col. 1:18, 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:1-12; Titus 1:5-9; Heb. 3:13, 10:24-25; 1 Pet. 5:1-3).

SCRIPTURE

The Holy Bible was written by divinely inspired men who were guided by the Holy Spirit, and is God’s revelation of Himself to all mankind. God is its author, salvation is its end, and absolute truth—without any sort of error—is its contents. The Holy Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, is exclusively and entirely the Word of God. All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is—and will remain for all time—the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious views and practices should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

Ex. 24:4; Deut. 4:1-2, 17-19; Josh 8:34; Ps. 19:7-10, 119:11, 89, 105, 140; Is. 34:16; 40:8; Jer. 15:16; 36:1-32; Matt 5:17-18, 22:29; Lk. 21:33; 24:44-46; Jn. 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16; 17:11; Rom. 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Heb. 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:25; 2 Pet. 1:19-21

LAST THINGS

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world as we know it 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 righteously judge all nations. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment, while the righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward, and they will forever dwell with the Lord in a new Heaven and a new Earth.

(Ps. 16:11; Dan. 12:2; Matt. 3:12, 25:23, 16:27, 25:31-46; Mk. 9:43-48, 13:26-27, 14:61-62; Lk. 23:23; Jn. 5:28-29, 14:3; Acts 1:9-11, 17:31; Rom. 2:6-11; 1 Cor. 4:5, 13:12, 15:12-28, 51-57; 2 Cor. 5:1-10; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:15, 5:2-3; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13; Jude 24-25; Rev. 5:11-14, 14:11, 20:4-6, 11-15, 21:1-8)