The Bible

We believe that the Bible containing the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments is the inerrant Word of God and that that the words written by the authors were inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21). The Bible is our only infallible source of truth about God, about man, about where man came from and where he is going. In the Bible, God has given us what we need to know for salvation, godly and purposeful living, and a proper, though limited, understanding of him.

God

There is only one true and living God. God is a spirit being and he is one in his being or substance, but within the one substance there are three separate and distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4, Genesis 1:1-2, Psalm 2:12). All three persons are co-eternal and are equal in majesty, glory, and power, and each is to be worshiped as God.

Man

God created human beings so that he could have a people to be his own, so that he might dwell with them and be their God and they would be his people (Revelation 21:3). Man, as originally created was connected to God and in harmony with God (Genesis 1:31).

Sin

God gave our original parents free will, and set up a test through which they would be able to exercise their free will, either choosing for or against God (Genesis 2:15-17). Adam and Eve made the decision to choose against God and they suffered the consequences and brought, not only sin, but spiritual death, physical death and eternal death into the world. Adam and Eve lost their relationship with God and their basic natures changed so that at their core they were sinful and self-centered, not God-centered. Their fallen natures were passed down to their children through natural reproduction, so that the entire human race has been infected with sin and death and all are guilty before God (Romans 3:9-12, 19). There is nothing a person can do, in and of himself, to make himself acceptable to God. Man, left to his own devices, is helpless and hopeless.

Salvation and Jesus Christ our Savior

God, in his love made the decision to save some. God the Father enacted his plan to forgive people and give them the gift of life eternal with himself. God the Son came to earth to carry out the plan and God the Holy Spirit applies the plan to the lives of people.

Jesus Christ is God the Son who became a man so that he could live a perfect life and allow himself to be arrested, tried, convicted and executed (John 1:1,14, Romans 9:6). As Jesus was hanging on the cross, God the Father took our sins and put them on his Son and punished him in our place (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18). God, being just, has to punish sin, and in his love for us he punished Jesus in our place. Jesus took the wrath of God we deserve and he died. His body was put in a tomb, but on the third day he came back from the dead, never to die again (Revelation 1:17-18).

Salvation by Grace Alone Through Faith Alone

God is at work in the world bringing to himself a people to be his own. God the Holy Spirit works through the proclamation of the Bad News and the Good News to open the eyes and minds of those who are spiritually dead so that they are able to understand their plight and trust Jesus to save them from eternal condemnation and save them to a new life lived with and for him (Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 3:5).

The Church

The most important thing happening in the world today is the building of Christ’s church. It is the most important because it is God’s primary work in the world. Jesus said he would build his church and nothing would stop him or thwart him, and that is what he is doing (Matthew 16:18). The church is not a building, but is the people that God is bringing to himself through the gospel, a people to be his own possession (2 Peter 2:9). Therefore, the main action happening in the world is what God is doing in the church.

The Second Coming of Christ

One day Christ will return to earth in bodily form to judge all who have lived, and to usher in the eternal state. God will have what he set out to have from the beginning; a people to be his own, a people with whom he might live, and he will be their God and they will be his people (Revelation 21:3).