What We Believe

God is a trinity, a triune spiritual Being, existing eternally in three distinct but perfectly equal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is holy, just, merciful, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and relational. God is the Creator of heaven and earth.

Jesus is God incarnate, conceived by the effluence of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, He had both the nature of humanity and deity, truly a God-Man. As human, subject to physical limitations and other human constraints; as God, Revealer of Truth in His own person and Emissary from the world of Light and Truth into the fallen, broken world of darkness. In teaching, Jesus’ authority is without parallel now and forever; in mercy Jesus’ compassion is without rival now and forever; in wisdom, Jesus’ guidance and savvy are incomparable now and forever; in righteousness, Jesus’ character is unsurpassed now and forever. He will judge the living and the dead; by His measure all created beings will stand or fall. He walked in obedience to the Father, even to His own death on a Roman cross, bearing the sins of the fallen human race. He was raised from the dead in victory over evil, and was exalted “to the right hand of God the Father” from whence He will come again to bring evil to an end, and restore the creation of God and fulfill His promises to and purposes for Israel.

The Holy Spirit was sent to regenerate, fill, empower, sanctify and lead God’s people in the establishment of His kingdom on earth. As such God does continue to dwell not just among but within those redeemed by Him. With the possession of the Holy Spirit, God’s people both personally and corporately are the Temple of God on earth.

The Holy Writings of the Old Testament (39 books) and the New Testament (27 books) are an inspired, infallible record of God’s dealing with His creation. They are composed by God’s human servants, inspired by God (“God-breathed”), and are completely trustworthy guides to the knowledge of God and contain all that is needed for salvation, and are useful for teaching, reproof, correction and guidance in righteousness.

For the Church, our final authority for faith and life is God’s message disclosed to us through the Scriptures understood and applied most accurately by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, and with study of that message in its original text and languages. The message of God has been revealed ultimately and perfectly in His Son, Jesus Christ.

We believe God intends for his message to be made available to all people. At various times and for various purposes translations of the Scriptures from their original languages are made. Not all translations are equal in their accuracy to the message in its original language forms. For questions regarding our doctrine and practices, we will rely on the use of those translations which most accurately reflect the original texts, grammar and syntax of the authors of the original writings. In our present generation, the New American Standard Bible, (NASB), would be representative of this kind of translation.

We believe that God created mankind and He wonderfully and immutably created them male or female. As such, He created men and women so as to complement and complete each other. We believe that God instituted marriage to be between a man, who was born male and a woman, who was born female. We believe God intended marriage to be an exclusive bond between man and woman.

The human race, though created in the image of God, and the epitome of His creation, fell from this stature of holiness and position of favor through disobedience and self-will into an impossibly weakened position of slavery to sin resulting in both physical and spiritual death. The result was perversion in behavior, thought and will.

Jesus lived a sinless life and died a sacrificial, substitutionary death providing an atonement for sin, satisfying the righteous demands of God the Father, restoring balance of justice to an imbalanced world, overwhelming the power of darkness with an unmatched power of love and selfless service. The benefits of this great work of the Son are ours as a gift through simple faith in Him.

Satan is the spiritual enemy of God and all His people. Satan is unequal in power among created beings both heavenly and earthly, but no match for the Son of God, who as the New Adam, has overturned the curse of the Fall and begun the battle against evil that will end in the restoration of Creation and the judgment of destruction of all evil. Satan’s objective is to destroy the work of God, to destroy the faith and the lives of those who belong to God; he is ruthless in this quest. Our only hope in this battle is Jesus. His presence with us is our strength; our spiritual union with Him is our hope. He is the Light which Darkness fears; clothed with Him and his power we continue His quest to enlighten all people, preaching to them the gospel of grace, freeing them from the bondage to sin, liberating them to a life of restoration to the image of God. And so clothed we fear no evil.

Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all people, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith. The local church is a visible expression of the universal church. Christ is our head and has called us to proclaim the gospel, to make disciples and to equip these disciples for the work of ministry. God encourages His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for the Lord’s Supper, for edification through the Scriptures, and through mutual encouragement in Christ.

As disciples of Jesus we are called on to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, to be obedient to God’s word, and to be witnesses of Jesus Christ by both our lives and our words through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to those who don’t yet know Him.