What We Believe

The Bible, comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. The Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

There is one God existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—eternal in being, identical and perfect in nature and attributes, equal in power and glory. God is the Creator of all things, Lord of all creation, Redeemer of all who accept Him as Savior, and Judge of the living and the dead. Being sovereign over all creation, God is the moral lawgiver and morality is defined by His Word.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man without ceasing to be God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In His incarnation, He reveals God and redeems man.

Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins as our perfect substitute. He arose on the third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures, having conquered sin and death at the cross. Jesus Christ is now in Heaven, exalted at the right hand of God as High Priest, interceding on our behalf.

God created humans, both male and female, in His image and likeness. God instituted marriage to be between one man and one woman, which illustrates the relationship between Christ and His Church.

Satan, as the declared enemy of God, prompted the fall of humanity into sin. Because of Adam’s sin, all humanity inherited a sinful nature and became alienated from God. Man is unable to remedy his own lost condition.

Salvation is deliverance from our lost condition unto eternal life. It is the gift of God to man, offered by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit indwells believers, baptizes them into the body of Christ, keeps them secure forever, and begins His work of conforming them to the likeness of Christ.

At death, the soul and spirit of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass into His presence, until the soul and body are reunited in the resurrection. After death, the souls of unbelievers remain in conscious misery in hell until the final judgment, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord.

The universal church consists of all believers from Pentecost to the Rapture and is the body of Christ united by the Holy Spirit.

The local church, as the expression of the body of Christ, provides a venue for teaching the Word of God, for worship and fellowship, and for making Christ known through evangelistic outreach and missions. We observe Water Baptism as a believer’s public identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of what Christ accomplished in His death.

All believers are called to grow toward maturity in their personal relationship with Christ, to serve one another according to their spiritual gifts, and to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. The will and ability to accomplish these functions come through the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is the condition in the life of a believer where he is walking in love and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Spirituality is distinct from maturity.

God the Holy Spirit, in grace and apart from human merit, sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts to believers in the dispensation of the Church. At this point in the Church Age, some spiritual gifts are active while others have ceased.

Throughout history and according to His plan, God has accomplished His purposes through Gentiles, Israel, and currently the Church. We look forward to the Rapture of the Church, the Second Coming of Christ, the coming Millennial Kingdom, and the new heaven and new earth where believers will spend eternity in the presence of Christ.