The Pastors and Elders of our church gladly affirm the following beliefs. To learn more about our beliefs, please contact the church by email.
1. The Tri-une God
God is a Spirit who has revealed himself as a Trinity in unity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit-three Persons and yet one God. He is the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth, inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Exodus 20:2; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11)
2. Revelation
God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of his saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s truth exhaustively, but we affirm that, enlightened by the Spirit of God, we can know God’s revealed truth truly. The Bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.
3. Creation of Humanity
We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.
4. Man and The Fall
Man was created by God. This affirms that the first human beings were a special and unique creation by God as contrasted to being derived from any pre-existing life forms. Further, God created everything “after its kind”, which excludes any position that allows for any evolutionary process between kinds. We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate, creative acts of God over six literal days. Man was created in the image of God but chose to sin, and, in that sense, is lost; this is true of all men, and except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God; salvation is by grace through faith in Christ who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree; the retribution of the wicked and unbelieving and the rewards of the righteous are everlasting, and as the reward is conscious, so is the retribution. This statement excludes any position which asserts a temporary or complete cessation of consciousness, or merging with eternal oneness, or annihilation of the damned, or a “second chance” or a period of suffering or purification in preparation for entrance into the presence of God. (Genesis 1-2; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16,17; Romans 3:10, 23; John 3:3; Acts 2:38-39)
5. Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, which is to say, He is Himself very God; He took upon Himself our nature, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is fully God and fully man possessing both deity and humanity united in one person, without division of the person or confusion of the two natures. He died upon the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of the world. An individual receives the benefit of Christ’s substitutionary death by faith as the result of responding to the message of the gospel. Salvation is the free gift of God’s grace through faith alone, in Christ alone, therefore not dependent upon church membership, intermediaries, sacraments or works of righteousness to attain or sustain it. He arose from the dead in the body in which He was crucified; He ascended into heaven in that body glorified, where He is now our interceding High Priest; He will come again personally and visibly to set up his Kingdom and to judge the quick and the dead. This refers to the premillennial return of Christ at which time He will set up His millennial reign, during which time He will fulfill His promises to Israel. (Colossians 1:5; Philippians 2:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25; 1 Peter 2:24-25; Luke 24; Hebrews 4:14-16; Matthew 25: 31-46; Revelation 11:15-17; 20:4-6, 11-15)
6. The Gospel
We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: "Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).
7. The Redemption of Christ
We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he canceled sin, propitiated God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before him—Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
8. The Justification of Sinners
We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.
9. The Power of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; He was active in the creation; In His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and testimony; He is the agent in the new birth; He seals, bestows gifts, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer. (Genesis 1:1-3; Matthew 28:19; John 14:16, 17, 26; 16:8-11; Hebrews 9:14)
10. The Church
The Church of Jesus Christ is a distinct entity from Israel in the ongoing program of God. Further, this universal Church consists of all who possess saving faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from Pentecost to the Rapture of the church and which will represent every language, people and nation. The Church is an elect company of believers baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body; its mission is to witness concerning its Head, Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel among all nations; it will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before He appears to set up His kingdom. Christ will return in the air preceding the seven-year Tribulation at which time He will receive into heaven all believers who constitute His Church. During that tribulation period God will bring salvation to Israel and the nations while exercising judgment on unbelievers. (Acts 2:41; 15:13-17; Ephesians 1:3-6; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:6-8; 1 Corinthians 4:16-18) The Church is manifested through the local church which is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel. The two offices of the church are Pastors and Deacons, whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scripture. The Church observes two ordinances given by Christ to the Church. The first ordinance is believers’ baptism by immersion in water, under the authority of the local church, to identify with the crucified, buried and risen Savior, through whom we died to sin and rose to a new life. The second ordinance is the Lord’s Supper, which is the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes and should be preceded always by solemn self-examination. The elements themselves represent the body and blood of the Savior in symbol only. There is neither common nor efficacious grace extended to the recipient of these ordinances. (Matthew 3:16, 28:19-20; John 3:23; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Acts 2:41-42, 8:36, 38. 39; Romans 6:3-6; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-28; Colossians 2:12)