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Beliefs
The Inspiration of the Bible...
The Bible is the inspired Word of God passed down to us through generations. Though written by men divinely inspired, God is the author, salvation is its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, is its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. The Bible testifies to God as revealed through the person of Jesus, and teaches us what to believe. The sixty-six books of the Bible are the final authority for Christian faith and living.
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We believe the phrase Verbal Plenary Inspiration best describes the nature of the Bible - God’s perfect Word described through the hands of his prophets and church. It should be understood in its historical and literary context, but the spiritual truths are clearly discernable by those who look to see.
God...
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. Nothing happens except through Him and by His will. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
The Trinity...
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. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Though the same essence, the Bible presents them to us as responsible for different roles: the Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. Each person is distinct.
God the Father...
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
God the Son...
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He took on human flesh while remaining fully God. 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. 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. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.
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 judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. 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 unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
State of Man...
God, the uncreated God who had existed for all eternity, created light, matter, time, places, things and beings. He created everything from nothing. God created man and woman in His image making them distinct in all of creation. They were to procreate, fill the earth and subdue it. They also were to have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth. God gave humanity everything they needed and so much more. He created this world good – perfectly good. He held back just one thing: the knowledge of evil.
Satan in the guise of a serpent made his way into the garden and tested and tempted man and woman. They fell for the serpent's lies and committed the very first sin by eating the forbidden fruit. It was a simple act, but in doing so they declared their independence from God. Their act introduced death, destruction, and decay. We call this event the fall – humanity’s terrible downfall from perfection into sinfulness.
The decision of the man would have cosmic consequences. As the first human being, Adam had been created to be a representative - the representative of all humanity who would follow after him. His decisions would be binding on everyone who would follow in his lineage. Because of his decision, every person who would be born of Adam and Eve would now inherit his rebellion (sin). Earth was no longer a place of unbroken fellowship between God and man. It was a place of shattered fellowship. God and mankind were now separated by sin which man is unable to reconcile on their own.
The Exclusivity of Jesus...
Salvation comes by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. Mankind is inherently sinful. Because of our sin we deserve to be eternally separated from God in hell. But, because God loves us, He sent His Son Jesus to die in our place. Christ’s death on our behalf becomes effective to us the moment we put our faith in Him as our Savior. He is the only way.
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. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, imputation, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
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.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.
Imputation is the righteousness of Christ being imputed to believers - that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith. It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification.
Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
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. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
The Family...
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
The Church...
The church is the living body of Christ on earth. Christ is the head and the source of its life. The body is composed of those who have put their faith in Him as Lord and Savior.
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 spiritual 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. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of Elder/Pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Religious Liberty...
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work.
The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.
Two Sacraments...
We believe that Christ instituted two sacraments: Water Baptism of the believer and the Lord’s Supper.
In baptism we demonstrate outwardly our union with Christ through His death and resurrection. Through baptism with water, as an act of obedience, we testify to the washing away of sin by the blood of Christ, that we have been buried with him and then raised to new life. It is not necessary for salvation but is a sign to others of their new lives in Christ.
The Lord's Supper (Communion) is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church memorialize the death of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and anticipate His second coming through the partaking of the bread and the cup, the elements being symbols of his broken body and shed blood.
The Lord's Day...
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Stewardship...
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit...
Spiritual gifts are God-given and every believer has at least one. There are different gifts for different people and the scriptures tell us that we are not to be ignorant or unaware of them. All believers are commanded to earnestly desire spiritual gifts in their life but we do not earn or choose them…God gives them as he desires. Spiritual gifts are given to serve and build up the body of Christ. The use of Spiritual Gifts should always be in harmony with the Scriptures and should never be used in violation of Biblical standards.
Last Things (Eschatology)...
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world 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 judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.