Beliefs & Membership

Scripture

We accept the Bible, including the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, as the written Word of God. The Bible is an essential and infallible record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. It reveals to us the principles by which God judges humanity and the way of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Being given by God, the Scriptures are both fully and verbally inspired by Him. Therefore, as originally given, the Bible is God’s truth without mixture of error. Each book is to be interpreted according to its context and purpose in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through it in living power. All believers are exhorted to study the Scriptures and diligently apply them to their lives. The Scriptures are the authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine. They are totally sufficient and must not be added to, superseded, or changed by later tradition, extra-biblical revelation, or worldly wisdom. Every doctrinal formulation, whether of creed, confession or theology must be put to the test of the full counsel of God in Holy Scripture.

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19-21.

The Godhead

We believe there is only one living and true God, who eternally exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each are co-existent, co-equal, and co-eternal in divine perfection, all the while executing distinct but interrelated roles in works of creation, providence and redemption. They are without division in nature, essence or being. In one sense the doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery, yet it forms the foundation of Christian faith and life.

A. The Person and Work of God the Father

We believe that God acts as a loving and all-knowing Father in and amongst His Creation, exercising providential care over the flow of human history. In
accordance with the trinity, He is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-wise. To those who believe in Him through faith in Jesus Christ He gives the right to be called His children.

Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.

B. The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ, the only begotten, not made, Son of God, is the eternal Word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He is perfect in nature, teaching, and obedience. He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. In Him all things live and move and have their being. He was before all things and in Him all things are held together by the word of His power. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation and in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is the only Savior for the sins of the world having shed His blood and died a vicarious, substitutionary death on Calvary’s cross on our behalf. By His death in our place, He revealed the divine love and upheld divine justice, removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin, the third day He rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and the powers of darkness. For a period of forty days appeared to over five hundred witnesses performing many convincing proofs of His resurrection. He ascended into heaven where, at God’s right hand, He intercedes for His people and rules as Lord over all. He is the Head of His body, the church, and should be adored, loved, served, and obeyed by all people. We believe He will come again to claim his church, raising the dead in Him to everlasting life and ushering in His eternal Kingdom.

Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11;

C. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third person of The Trinity and precedes from both God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment and draws and awakens people to the new birth. He sanctifies the believer and calls all Christians everywhere to unity within the body. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son who in turn came to glorify the Father. He will lead the church into a right understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s Word. He is to be respected, honored, and worshiped as God, the Third Person of the Trinity.

Genesis 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11,14-16,26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 9:8,14; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

Man (Mankind)

We believe that mankind (hereafter “man”) was created, male and female, by God, in God’s image, and without sin that man might have fellowship with God. Yet, through the temptation of the serpent and the subsequent disobedience of the first man, Adam, all mankind fell from perfection, and as a result, all mankind inherited a sinful and depraved nature. While we still retain aspects of God’s image, being able to perform and participate in noble acts and other good deeds, we all fall short as broken individuals, incomplete before a perfect God. As fallen creatures, our incompleteness permeates all aspects of our being, affecting mind, will, and affections. We are responsible to God and subject to His divine wrath for sin. Being incapable of remedying our sorry state independently, we are completely dependent on God for His efficacious grace.

Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.

The Gospel and Salvation

We believe the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ as revealed in His birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. At the center of the Gospel story stands the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection and ascension of Christ. In the crucifixion, Christ died a substitutionary, propitiatory death, paying a divine penalty to God for our sins. This death satisfied the divine, appropriate wrath of God over our trespass, which was an offense to Him. In His resurrection, Christ defeated sin, death, hell, Satan, and the grave and ushered us back into a right relationship with God. His ascension cemented His authority and calls us to live in light of this new birth He guaranteed. In addition, the life that Christ lived in perfect obedience to the Father is credited on our behalf. He bore our sin and we became His righteousness.

Salvation is the gracious purpose of God and is grounded in the free unconditional election of God for His own pleasure and glory. It is received only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as the one and only true Savior. Saving faith always entails true repentance, which is marked by a changed life, that is a desire to follow and walk in the life of Christ being willing to deny oneself, take up one’s cross and die daily. However, these works done, independent of a saving faith are of no account and will not save.

Genesis 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11,14-16,26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 9:8,14; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

The Church

We believe God by His Word and Spirit creates the church, calling sinful men out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ’s body. The church is not a religious institution or denomination. Rather, the church is the blood bought people of Christ, both universal in nature, and local in scope and practice. The church universal is made up of all genuine followers of Jesus Christ, from every tribe tongue and nation on earth, who have personally appropriated the gospel. In the body of Christ all barriers of race, and social-economic status are destroyed as God builds us up into one beautiful masterpiece with Jesus as the head.

The church exists to worship and glorify God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also exists to serve him faithfully by doing his will in the earth. This involves a commitment to see the gospel preached and churches planted in the entire world as a testimony. The purposes of the church are missional in nature, desiring to make disciples through the preaching of the gospel and transforming of the culture around us.

The church local is the called and gathered people of God, that meets regularly for worship, prayer, instruction, the taking of the Lord’s Supper, and the use of spiritual gifts to serve and edify one another. The church is also the sent people of God, sent to be a transforming presence within the world around us, a city within a city, seeking to impact the places where God has called us.

Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3;
14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16;
5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3.

Ordinances

There are two ordinances of the church, established by Christ, which the church is to continually practice until Christ returns.

A. Baptism

Christian baptism is the ordinance by which an individual member of the body of Christ gives witness to his or her shared death, burial and resurrection with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In addition to baptism uniting us with Christ symbolically in death, burial, and resurrection, it is also an outer picture of an inner cleansing of the heart. With these in mind, it can be said also that baptism is an appropriate symbol for the beginning of the Christian life, although it is not necessary for salvation. Following the primary example of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as well as the secondary examples of others in the New Testament, who were baptized by immersion, baptism is to be done by complete immersion into water and subsequent rising.

Following the pattern given to us in the New Testament, only those who give a believable profession of faith should be baptized. This requires that those who are baptized have professed belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope for salvation, given evidence for that belief, and expressed desire to follow Christ in baptism. There is no age requirement given for those who would come for baptism; however, both child and adult, must give credible witness for a valid, verifiable, and consistent work of Christ in their heart. This designation of a credible, verifiable witness limits believers’ baptism to those capable of making a conscious, willful, independent decision.

B. The Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper is the ordinance in which believers in community participate in a symbolic remembrance of the breaking of Christ’s body and the pouring out of His blood for the remission of our sins. In taking the Lord’s Supper, we act in obedience to Christ, acknowledge his sacrifice on our behalf, proclaim our separation from the world, share in unity with other believers, and anticipate His second coming.

Any individual who has made a believable profession of faith and stands repentant with a clear mind before God should be allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper. This is due to the nature of the act as one that separates believers in Christ from those who are not, and to the consequences of partaking of the elements without being in right relationship with Christ.

Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30; 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26; Luke 3:21-22; 22:19-20; John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; 8:35-39; 16:30-33; 20:7; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 10:16,21; 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.

Last Things

We believe in the glorious, personal, and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of His kingdom. We believe in the resurrection of all mankind, the righteous and the unrighteous, to face final judgment. The righteous will enter eternal joy in the new heavens and new earth; the wicked will be condemned to eternal punishment in hell.

Matthew 16:27; 25:31-46; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Phil. 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:15; II Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; I Corinthians 4:5; I Corinthians 15; II Thessalonians 1:7-10; II Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 20:4-6,11-15; 21:1-8