The following statement summarizes our core doctrinal beliefs. It is not an exhaustive statement, but a summary of our affirmations regarding the central doctrines of the Christian faith.
About the Bible
We believe that the 66 books of Holy Scripture as originally given are in their entirety the Word of God verbally inspired and wholly without error in all that they declare, and, therefore, are the supreme and final authority of faith and life.
About the Triune God
We believe in one Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
About God the Father
We believe that God, as the Father, reigns over His entire universe with providential care, holy justice, love and saving mercy, to His own glory. The Father is all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, and all-wise. He is fatherly in attitude toward all people, but Father, indeed, to those who have been made children of God through salvation in Christ.
About God the Son, Jesus Christ
We believe in the Virgin Birth and the Deity of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who is also Son of Man, with two distinct natures in one Person forever. We believe that the vicarious, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross made atonement for our sins, and it is effective for all who repent and believe. We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ensures the resurrection of all believers who have received God’s gift of eternal life.
About God the Holy Spirit
We believe that God the Holy Spirit has been sent by the Father and the Son into the world to reveal and glorify Christ, and to convict and draw sinners to Christ. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the quickening from death into life of believers, for bringing them into the Body of Christ, for transforming and empowering them for Christlike living, and for sealing them until the day of redemption. He provides the power for all believers to understand and apply God’s truth in love. He is also the source of power for all acceptable worship and ministry, and He imparts a diversity of enabling gifts that equip God’s people for service.
About Humanity – Creation
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and declared them “very good,” granting them all the capacities necessary to be His image bearers. They are the ancestors of the entire human race. They were designed and commissioned to care for and govern His creation, working in and ruling over all creation as God’s faithful servants and stewards. God created humanity to reflect and enjoy His glory.
About Humanity – Fall
We believe that because of voluntary sin against God, Adam and Eve fell into sin, and as a result all humanity is separated and alienated from God and thus spiritually dead – until God’s own gracious intervention. Each person is also responsible for every sin they have committed. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to God. God alone can rescue us and restore sinners to Himself.
About Salvation – Redemption
We believe that salvation from everlasting punishment and entrance into a state of fellowship with God are secured only by a personal belief that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross and by a definite receiving of Christ, through the Person of the Holy Spirit, into one’s inner being. This is to receive eternal life and to be sealed until the Day of Redemption.
About Sanctification
We believe that sanctification is the process by which believers, each one and all together – as set apart from sin and united in Christ – are increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. We believe that all believers are called to be in the world but separate from it.
About the Church
We believe that the Church, the Body of Christ, is composed of all persons living and dead who have been joined to Christ and one another by the power of the Holy Spirit, who are called to be identified with Christ in baptism and to remember His death in the Lord’s Supper. We believe that Christians are called to witness for Christ, to preach the gospel to all nations and to study the Bible personally through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
About the Return of Christ and the Restoration of All Things
We believe in the imminent, visible and bodily return of Christ to this earth to set up His kingdom and to judge the world in righteousness. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust – the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, and the just to eternal blessedness in God’s presence, in the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal home of righteousness. God will be all in all, His people will be enthralled with Him, and everything will be done to the praise of His glorious grace.