About What We Believe
The Bible
It is the inspired Word of God and has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is 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.
God
There is one eternal God manifested in three persons: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. He is Holy and Merciful. 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. 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.
Jesus Christ
We believe that He is the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh and the Savior of all who believe on Him. He died on the cross, was buried and arose from the dead. He is now seated at the right hand of God. 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. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience; and 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.
Salvation
Salvation is the work of God by grace through faith in the person of Jesus Christ alone. Jesus died a substitutionary death for all who will believe on Him. All who will be saved must repent of their sin and believe on Jesus Christ to go to heaven. Man was created in a state of holiness under the law of his Maker, but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and in bondage to sin. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. Salvation was purposed by God in that he chose his people from the foundation of the world. This is an unconditional election of all who will be saved. It is perfectly consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is a most glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. It encourages the use of means in the highest degree. Those whom God has chosen to salvation will experience the new birth. (John 3:1-16) 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.
Christian Living
Those who are saved have a changed life and demonstrate that they are new creations in Christ. They live in love and obedience to the Lord who loves them. They do sin but they also confess their sin and receive restoration to fellowship with the Father. 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. It continues throughout the earthly life, and is accomplished by the use of all the ordinary means of grace, and particularly by the Word of God. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
The Church
The church is a visible assembly of baptized believers independent from any denominational or political control. Our church makes its own decisions from the will of the majority of its membership. Jesus formed his church during his earthly ministry with the intent that it would have a perpetuity throughout the ages. It was Christ’s intent that his church would form other churches throughout the ages until He returns. 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 through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. 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 newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper. Baptism can only be administered by the express authority of a new testament church of Jesus Christ.
The Return of Christ
Jesus Christ will literally and physically return to receive His children in the resurrection of the saints. The world will go through tribulation, after which Christ will come with His saints to establish His everlasting Kingdom on Earth.