What We Believe

WHAT WE BELIEVE 

 

I.   The Scriptures

     The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man.  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 there, is the supreme standard by which all human conduct creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.

 

II.    God

       There is one and only one living and true God.  He 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.

 

A.  God the Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe.  He is all powerful, all knowing and all wise.

 

B.  God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God.  In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.  Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.  In His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.  He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion.  He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man.  In whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.  He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

 

C.  God the Holy Spirit

 

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 judgement.  He calls men to the Savior.  He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

 

III.   Man

         Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image.  He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation.  In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice.  By his free choice, man 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 inherited a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.  Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.  The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

 

IV.  Salvation

      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.  There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

V.  God’s Purpose of Grace

     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 sovereign goodness and is infinitely wise, holy and unchangeable.

 

VI.  The Church

     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.

 

A.  The Ordinance of Baptism

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior; the believer’s death to sin; the burial of the old life and the resurrection to walk in the newness of life in Jesus Christ.  Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to participation in the Lord’s Supper.

 

B.  The Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.