The Scriptures

We accept the whole Bible, including the entire Old and New Testaments, to be the verbally inspired Word of God. We believe that the Bible is inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed. God reveals himself through his Word. We believe that one evidence of saving faith is a desire for and consistency in the study of God’s written Word. God spoke words and all that is came into existence. This is the power of words when they are God’s words. He has now put his words into a book we call the bible. Just as God has created the physical world AND sustains the physical world by the Word of his power, the same is true of the spirit of a believer in Jesus. When God creates a new spiritual life in a person we refer to it as being “born again”. We are “born again” by the Word of God and this new life in us is nurtured by and sustained primarily by the written Word of God. (Matt. 4:4, 5:18; Hebrews 1:3, 11:3; John 8:31-32, 16:12-13; 1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20)

God

We believe God desires that every person would come to know him and that he has revealed himself to all people through all that he has made. He has revealed himself more specifically through his written Word and through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Though he is God, he allows us to relate personally to him - and so we call him both “Almighty” and also “Father”. We believe in the mystery of the trinity. That is, God is one God existing in three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4, 2 Corinthians 13:14)

The Person and Work of Christ

We believe that the historic person Jesus Christ is the focal point of the Christian faith. We believe that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God. He was miraculously born of a virgin, lived a sinless life and paid the price for our sins by his substitutionary death on the Cross. We believe that three days later, Jesus Christ rose from the grave thus making our justification sure. Later, he ascended back to heaven, was seated at the right hand of God the Father, and he lives there now and forever to make intercession for us. We believe that he is coming to earth again very soon in order to judge the living and the dead. (John 1:1-2, 14; Luke 1:35; Acts 1:9; Romans 3:24, 8:34, 14:9; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 7:25, 9:24; 1 Peter 1:3-5, 2:24, 4:5)

The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

We believe that after Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the 1st century believers. We believe that every person who believes in Jesus thereafter receives the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts all people of sin. The Holy Spirit carries out all that the Father desires to do in the hearts of men including the regeneration of believers. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are taught the Scriptures, apply the Scriptures to our lives and remember the Scriptures when we need to remember them. The Word of God is called the “Sword of the Spirit”. It is the Holy Spirit who wields this powerful weapon. The Holy Spirit empowers us to carry out all that God asks of us. (Ephesians 5:18, 6:17; John 16:8-11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Romans 8:9)

Man

We believe that God made man in his image and likeness. However, because the first man, Adam, rebelled against God and chose his own way every person born thereafter inherited a sinful, rebellious nature. Man is completely depraved in the sense that his entire nature is corrupt and therefore will not choose God apart from divine intervention. In other words, because of sin we are separated from God and can do nothing in our own power to get back into relationship with him. (Genesis 1:26, 27; Romans 3:22, 23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1–3, 12)

Salvation

We believe that God desires that all men would come to know him personally. (1 Timothy 2:4) Salvation is the work of God, apart from any work of our own. We believe in a literal hell. Every person who does not place his faith and trust in the Jesus of the bible, evidenced by turning away from rebellious attitudes and actions and turning toward God in full submission to his will, is headed toward an eternity in a physical place of torment called hell. Jesus Christ died a brutal and bloody death on a cross so that we could receive forgiveness. The good news or “gospel” is that if we will only believe in Jesus Christ (put our faith in him) we will receive grace from God and be saved. We refer to this “salvation” in various ways including but not limited to: being “born again”, “following Jesus”, being a “disciple of Jesus”, being a “believer”, or “entering the Kingdom of God”. (Mark 6:12; Acts 17:30; Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-10; John 1:12; 1 Peter 1:18-19)