What We Believe

We believe that the Bible (i.e., the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon) is the propositionally revealed Word of God, fully inspired in every part and without error in the original manuscripts. We believe it was written by human authors under the protection and guidance of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that it is complete and adequate in its record (i.e., the canon is closed), and that it has supreme and final authority, when accurately interpreted, in all matters of faith and conduct. We believe that the teachings of the Bible, when properly understood and applied, are binding on people of all generations, cultures, races, genders, and ages.

We believe that there is one true and living God, eternally existing (i.e., never created) in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – and that this is the God of the Bible. We believe each of these persons are united in common essence, equal in the attributes and perfections they possess, and execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence, and redemption. We believe these persons are equally worthy of our worship, confidence, and obedience.

We believe in God the Father, the first person of the trinity. We believe Him to be an infinite, uncreated, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, knowledge, wisdom, power, and love. We believe that He is sovereign over all creation, that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and judgment all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe in Jesus Christ, the historical person who was the incarnation of the second person of the trinity, now ascended into heaven. We believe He is God the Father’s only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. We believe He lived a sinless life during which He taught and performed many miracles as recorded in the four canonical Gospels, and that, by crucifixion, He died a substitutionary death of atonement, successfully satisfying God the Father’s holy judgment against the sin of man. We believe in His bodily resurrection which vindicated His teachings and claims to divinity, confirmed the atonement which had been accomplished, and offered a sign of the victory over sin and death which had been won. We believe in His ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, headship over the church, and personal visible return to earth in the future. We believe both the Old and New Testaments speak with reference to Him.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity. We believe that He has been sent forth by the Father and the Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, indwell, sanctify, enlighten, unite, empower, and seal all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe He is the divine agent through whom spiritual baptism occurs at the moment of conversion, and that His purpose is to glorify God through the transformation of believers into the image of Jesus Christ.

We believe that man was originally created by God in His own image and after His own likeness, free from sin and enjoying perfect harmony with God. We believe that man subsequently fell into sin by an act of voluntary choice, incurring the judgments of physical, spiritual, and eternal death, which is separation from God, and resulting in a humanity each member of which, save Jesus Christ, has inherited a sinful nature, is a sinner by choice, and is under the condemnation of God. We believe this universal depravity of man and the condemnation it incurs are conditions which cannot be remedied apart from divine grace.

We believe that salvation from sin, death, and eternal condemnation is found only through faith placed in Jesus Christ and the work of atonement which was accomplished through His death alone. We believe that no amount of human deeds, moral progress, or participation in ordinances is adequate to justify any person before God. We believe concomitant to every and all cases of saving faith will be a genuine repentance from sin and a regeneration of person by the Holy Spirit into a “new creation,” evidenced necessarily by the production of good works; while works do not save, they are the necessary evidence of a truly saving faith. We believe all persons who place such faith in Christ and persist in it will be forgiven their sins, spared God’s wrath, and will enjoy eternal communion with God.

We believe that a Christian should seek to glorify God in all things, and that this is best accomplished when he aims at loving God and loving his fellow man with all that he is, has, and does. This means that his conduct should strive for holiness and blamelessness before the world, that he should consider service a calling and not a mere obligation, that he should steward all of his resources (material possessions, time, energy, knowledge, etc.) faithfully, and that he should endeavor zealously to become, and help others become, fully mature in Christ.

We believe in the universal Church, a living spiritual body of which Jesus Christ is the head and all who have been baptized in the Spirit upon a true confession of faith are united members. We believe the members of this body are directed to associate and congregate themselves in local assemblies (or “local churches”) for instruction, worship, prayer, fellowship, service, and the administration of the ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s Supper). We believe that God has laid upon the members of these local assemblies the primary task of glorifying God through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world. We believe that the members of these assemblies are diverse, yet called to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We believe that Jesus Christ has commanded the local assembly of believers to observe the two New Testament ordinances of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe these two ordinances are to be observed in obedience to Jesus Christ as expressions of love and devotion, but they are not regarded as conditions for salvation. We believe that baptism symbolically represents death to the old life and resurrection with Christ to a new life, and that it is properly administered by immersion to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is observed as a memorial of Christ’s death, and that the elements are symbols of His body and blood.

We believe that God bestows Spirit-empowered gifts for service to all those in the body of Christ. We believe these gifts are diverse, distributed according to God’s own will and wisdom, allocated to all believers in some measure, and are for the purpose of edifying the universal and local church. We believe that it is possible for all the gifts described in the New Testament (save Apostleship) to manifest themselves in this present age, including the miraculous gifts (i.e., prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, miracle working, and distinguishing spirits). However, we also believe that the principal purpose for miraculous gifts during the apostolic period was to supernaturally validate the witness of the twelve apostles and the ministry of the early church until the closing of the canon of Scripture, and thus that caution and scrutiny are properly exercised with respect to any apparent manifestation of a miraculous gift today. We believe that in the case of legitimate manifestations of miraculous gifts, any and all Scriptural guidelines pertinent to their use are to be strictly observed.

We believe in the prophesied return of Jesus Christ. We believe that this return is still in the future and that it will be sudden, personal, bodily, and visible. We believe in a coming tribulation, the resurrection of the body, the establishment of a millennial kingdom on earth, the repayment of all according to their deeds, the final judgment, the eternal felicity of the righteous (believers) and the endless conscious suffering of the wicked (unbelievers).