What We Believe

What We Believe

• God is bigger, better and closer than we can imagine.
• The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself and His purpose for creation (you and me).

We believe and affirm the Scriptures contained in both the Old and New Testaments as being the inspired Word of God, without error in its original writings, serving as the final authority for all Christian faith and life.  It cannot be added to or subtracted from, and serves as the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of men.

• Jesus is God showing Himself to us.

We believe that the Son, Jesus Christ, was and is the Promised Messiah, the Word of God in the flesh, fully man and fully God.  That He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, Mary.  We believe that Jesus lived a life without sin, and that He willingly, and obediently gave His life as a perfect and acceptable sacrifice for our sin and guilt.  That He was victorious over death and the grave in that He arose from the dead after three days, revealing Himself as alive to many witnesses, and has ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father until the appointed time of His eminent return for His bride, the church.

• Through His Holy Spirit, God lives in and through us now.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God, equal to the Father and the Son.  He was active in the Old Testament scripture, and came in His prophetic fullness to the Church at Pentecost.  He indwells, gifts, and empowers every believer.  He inspired the scriptures, and He continues to illumine and reveal the Word of God to man, while always glorifying the Son.

• Nothing in creation “just happened.”  God made it all.
• Salvation is the awesome plan of God for all who will believe

The Word of God declares that salvation is a free gift of God toward individuals, which is received through faith in Jesus Christ according to the merits of His sinless life and atoning sacrifice on our behalf.  We believe that man is incapable of satisfying judgment rendered against sin, nor is he able to fulfill the law of commandments, and is therefore desperately reliant upon God’s eternal gift of salvation by grace through faith.  We further believe that salvation results in justification and sanctification, and identifies us as members of God’s family – secure, sanctified, and justified by Christ alone.

• The Church is the organic expression of God’s purpose and love

We believe that the Church is comprised of individuals who have experienced salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and have become spiritually united with Him as the living expression of the Body of Christ, of which Christ is the head.  The Church is not a compilation of buildings or organizations, or religious systems, but rather a physically and spiritually living organism united together in local expressions of faith, relationship, and commission.  The commission of the Church, both corporate and individual, is to love God with all of their hearts, serving one another, while making disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the fellowship of believers.

• Baptism and Communion (Ordinances)

Water baptism by immersion is a believer’s biblical response to Christ’s command recorded in Matthew 28.  Baptism is performed as an outward sign, or testimony, of an inward work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit within a believer.  Identification with Christ in His death and burial is most clearly depicted through immersion, while the coming up out of the water speaks of one’s reception and participation in His resurrection life.

Communion, also known as The Lord’s Supper, is the second ordinance of the church.   It commemorates, by way of remembrance, the death of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  By way of reflection, our observance of Communion as a body of believers causes a fresh and renewing understanding of our identification with Christ, as well as our individual connection to His body, the church.

• God has allowed evil to provide us with a choice.  God can bring good even out of evil events and God promises victory over evil to those who choose Christ as their Savior and Lord.
• Heaven and hell are real places.  Death is a beginning, not the end.
• Christ is coming again.

We believe Jesus Christ will return to earth personally and visibly according to the promises in Scripture.  His purpose will be to manifest His absolute government on the earth.  Christians are exhorted to be watchful until His appearing.  While there are many viewpoints concerning His second coming, we believe Christians should look for His appearing with great anticipation without fear.

Scripture allows much diversity in the determining of views and opinions concerning the specifics of Jesus’ second coming, and so we reject the idea that any opinion can or should be used as a test of orthodoxy within a local body of believers.  Any view that has a scriptural validation concerning the end times is to be respected.