God
We
believe God is infinite, eternally self-existent, sovereign, and one God existent
as a loving unity of three equally divine Persons - the Father, the Son, and
The Holy Spirit. We believe that God has revealed Himself and His truth in the
created order, in the Scriptures, and supremely in Jesus Christ.
God the Father
We believe that God the Father is spirit,
perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, incomparable, and measureless in power and
love. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, hears and answers
prayer; and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him in faith through
Jesus Christ.
The Word
We believe the 66 books of the Bible are the complete,
verbally inspired Word of God, inerrant and infallible in the original
manuscripts. That the Holy Spirit imparted the Word and instructs through it
that the one aim in life and death is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We
believe the Bible to be the final authority in matters of faith and day-to-day
life, that properly understood bears the meaning of the author and not the
reader, and is interpreted in its significance by the Holy Spirit to each
individual believer. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it
teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
The Creation
We believe all creation is
the work of God who stands outside it, actively directs, and governs all its
actions and that He created everything out of nothing for His own purpose and
pleasure.
Man
We believe that man was
created in the image of God, and entered into a covenant of life with Him upon
the sole condition of the obedience that was due Him.
The Fall
We believe man (in Adam) succumbed
to the temptation of Satan and willfully breached that covenant (sinned), incurring
both physical and spiritual death (consequence), and the wrath of God (punishment;
eternal separation from Him.)
Sin
We believe that all men
from birth bear the mark of man’s original sin and are under condemnation,
corrupted in body and soul and prone to evil obtaining the wages of sin which is
death, eternal separation from God. We believe man is incapable of providing
redemption for himself in any way apart from the effectual, supernatural work
of God. Once obtained that relationship is eternal, being
established by new birth; fellowship, however, is dependent upon
obedience. We believe that redeemed man can, through sin, lose his fellowship,
joy, power, testimony, and reward, and incur the Father’s chastisement.
The Son of God
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of
God and Israel’s promised Messiah, became fully man without ceasing to be fully
God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin in
fulfillment of scripture. That He was promised and sent by the Father and the
Holy Spirit to sacrificially purchase for Himself a distinct people for His own
glory, that He lived a sinless life, performed miracles as evidence of his
messiahship; and fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of His coming.
Redemption
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life
of His own free will as the atoning sacrifice for the redemption of the elect.
That by His act upon the cross He bore the judgment required by God's holy
justice canceling our debt of disobedience and restoring us to fellowship with
Him.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ rose bodily from
the dead, never to die again, and ascended to the right hand of the Father
where, as high priest of His church, He mediates between God and man for those
who are repentant believers.
Our Rest
The atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus
Christ constitute the only ground for salvation. He now presents us to His Father as His purchased
possession, clothed in His righteousness, to the praise of the glory of His
grace forever. And now renouncing all merit of our own, we put all our trust
only in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ our Redeemer as we
cling to His promises that nothing can snatch us from His hand or separate us
from His love.
The
Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit
is the third person of the godhead who convicts the world concerning sin,
righteousness, and judgment. We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers all
believers for service in manifold forms as described in scripture.
Sanctification
We believe that the Holy
Spirit, who works faith in us and thereby unites us to Christ, effectually
applies the redemption purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ to all His people. Residing
in us in His fullness from the moment of our spiritual birth He baptizes the
elect into the one true Church, bestows spiritual gifts, works to restore us to
the image of God, and enables us to die to temptation and sin and to live increasingly
as the righteous people we are becoming. He works until this gracious gift is
accomplished in us, empowering us in good works and
transforming us to desire perfect holiness in the fear of God.
The Gospel
We believe that those who, by the
gracious gift of faith alone, and through no merit of their own, acknowledge by
the gift of repentance from their sins that Jesus Christ is both Lord and personal
savior are born again of the Holy Spirit and become children of God and
partakers of His divine nature and eternal life.
The Church
We believe that from eternity God chose the multitude of
His elect to be recipients of His grace and become citizens of His kingdom. We
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has established the Church as an embassy of
His kingdom with His elect serving as His ambassadors to make known His gospel,
shepherd the flock, defend the Word, and make disciples. We
believe the Church’s true membership is composed only of believers and that as
the sole head of the Church Christ has imbued it with unity, the preservation
of which He both requires and empowers by the Holy Spirit. And He has given the
Church two ordinances, neither of which is essential to salvation, that are to
be observed by all believers in obedience to our Lord until His return:
believer’s baptism as a testimony to Christ and identification with Him, and
the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of Christ’s death and shed blood. We believe
that
the Church, as a whole, is not an organization, but a living organism, known as
the Body of Christ, destined to be eternally with Him a living testimony of His
character.
Christian Living
We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be
separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him
supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one
another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s
Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat
the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to
make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word
and deed.
Angels and Demons
We believe in the reality and personality of angels. We
believe that God created the angels to be His servants and messengers. We
believe that Satan, originally a great and good angel, rebelled against God,
taking a multitude of angels with him. He was cast out of God's presence and is
at work with his demonic hosts to establish his counter-kingdom of darkness and
evil on the earth. Satan was judged and defeated at the cross of Christ and
will, at the end of the age, be cast forever into the lake of fire which has
been prepared for him and his angels.
Physical Death
We believe that at death the souls of the redeemed shall be made perfect in holiness and
pass immediately into Christ's presence, to remain there to enjoy conscious
fellowship with the Savior until the day of the resurrection. We also believe
that at death the souls of the lost go to Hell, where they remain until they are brought to be judged according to their works.
The Resurrection
We believe that at the end there will be universal
resurrection for judgment. The lost will be cast along with Satan, Death and Hades into the
The Future
The
coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy. We
believe that Jesus Christ who has once come in grace will come a second time,
imminently in glory, to judge the world in righteousness. We
believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will gather His church as He promised for the full enjoyment of
God eternally in
the new heaven and the new earth.