Basic Beliefs

The Bible 

was written by men, divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.


God 

is the one and only living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being. He is the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. In the eternal triune, He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.


God the Father

reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and all of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.


God the Son 

is Christ, the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities, and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet was without sin.


God the Holy Spirit

is fully divine. He inspired men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and affects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts God's children, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which believers serve God through His church.


Man 

is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by the Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in his own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.


Salvation 

involves the redemption of the whole man. It is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ,  who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer, as Lord and Savior. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.


Grace 

excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. 


The Church 

is a self-governing, local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, being governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.


Baptism and the Lord’s Supper 

are the two ordinances of the church. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience, symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior. Baptism is the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.  

 

Jesus Christ 

will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.