Our Beliefs
God the Father – We believe in God the Father: an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son – Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is truly and fully human as well as truly and fully divine, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in Godhead. We believe in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, and in His ascension to the right hand of the Father.
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. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life and empowered to perform God’s ministry on earth.
- The Word of God – We believe the sixty-six canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely inspired, inerrant Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts, and God’s complete, written revelation to humankind. We believe the Bible to be understandable and coherent in its primary purposes to disclose salvation, God’s will for godly faith and living, and its thorough-going testimony of Christ; when interpreted in light of its divine authorship through human agency, and according to principles of grammatico-historical interpretation.
- Mankind – We believe God originally created persons, male and female, in the image of God and free from sin. We believe all people are sinners by nature and choice and are spiritually dead. We also believe that those who repent of sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We believe God established marriage to be a lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Marriage so defined is the only permissible context for intimate sexual expression and is the foundation for the human family. We further believe that human life is precious and should be protected from the beginning, at fertilization, until death.
- Salvation – We believe in salvation by grace through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, according to the authority of the Word of God alone, and to the glory of God alone. We further believe that this salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross, is eternally secured by the Holy Spirit, and is received by faith, apart from any human merit, works, or ritual. We further believe salvation results in ever-growing love for God, righteous living, good works, and proper social concern. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.
- The Church – We believe that the Church is the spiritual body of which Christ is the head. We believe that the true Church is composed of all persons who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. We believe that this body expresses itself in local assemblies whose members have expressed a credible confession of faith in Christ and have associated themselves for biblical worship, discipleship, evangelism, service, and all things God has appointed through His Word for His glory.
Ordinances – We believe the ordinances of the local church are believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. These ordinances are tangible symbols reminding, reinforcing, and proclaiming the inward realities of saving faith and continued dependence on Christ. We also believe in the interdependence of faithful, like-minded local churches and the mutual submission of believers to each other in love.
Separation of Church and State – We believe that each local church is self-governing, under the Word of God, in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. We further believe that every human being is directly responsible to God in matters of faith and life and that each one should be free to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.
