God

We affirm our belief in the one and only God, who eternally exists as three equally divine Beings: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This unique, true God is infinitely perfect in both love and holiness. The immortal and eternal Creator of everything, visible and invisible, He sovereignly governs all and is devoted to the redemption and restoration of His fallen creation. He is deserving of all praise and reverence.

Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 6:3; Matthew 5:48; 28:19; John 10:30; Colossians 1:16; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 John 4:8; Revelation 4:11

Sacred Texts

Through His created order and the Person of His Son, the Incarnate Word, God has kindly unveiled His existence and power. God communicates with us through His Spirit, graciously revealing Himself in human language via Scripture, consisting of sixty-six books from the Old and New Testaments. These texts serve as both a record and conduit of His redemptive work in the world. The Scriptures alone are the verbally inspired Word of God, authoritative and without error in their original form, complete in their disclosure of His plan for salvation, sufficient for everything God requires us to believe, and the ultimate authority in every sphere of knowledge they address. In essence, all of Scripture is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God.

Psalm 19:1–4; Proverbs 30:6; John 1:14; Romans 1:19,20; Hebrews 1:1,2; 2 Timothy 3:15,16; 2 Peter 1:19–21

Humanity

We uphold the belief that God created humans, both male and female, in His image. Adam and Eve were part of the created order, which God declared as “very good.” Both genders possess equal worth and value and have equal access to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Since we were created in His likeness, we believe that human life is sacred from conception until its natural end, and we must honor the physical, social, and spiritual needs of all people. In following Christ’s example, we believe that everyone should be treated with love, dignity, and respect.

Genesis 1:27,31; 9:6; Exodus 20:13; Mark 12:30,31; Galatians 3:28

The Downfall of Mankind

We believe that all people everywhere are lost and face God’s judgment. We believe that Adam, created in God’s image, marred that image and relinquished his original blessedness—for himself and all who followed—by succumbing to sin through Satan’s temptation. Now, all humans are estranged from God, corrupted in every aspect of their existence (physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually) and condemned to death—unless God graciously intervenes. Humanity’s greatest need is to be reconciled with the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; our only hope lies in the unmerited love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to Himself through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross.

Genesis 3:6–19; Romans 1:18; 3:23; 5:12–14; 1 Thessalonians 1:10

Jesus

We believe that the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person with two natures. Jesus, the prophesied Messiah of Israel, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and 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. He now sits at the right hand of God, serving as our High Priest and righteous Advocate.

We believe that through 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, appeased God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. Through His resurrection, Christ Jesus was vindicated by His Father, defeated the power of death and Satan who once held sway over it, and brought eternal 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 can be 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.

John 1:1,2,14; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 1:27–30; 15:3–5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Colossians 1:19–22; 2:9; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Timothy 2:5

Justification

We believe that Christ, by His obedience and death, completely settled the debt of all those who are justified. Through His sacrifice, He endured the punishment we deserved for our sins, providing a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By His perfect obedience, He met 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. Since 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, so 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.

Romans 3:21,22,24,26,28–30; 4:3,5; 5:1,9; 10:9,10; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8,9; Philippians 3:9

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and through His powerful and mysterious work, regenerates spiritually dead sinners. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life. In Him, they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family. The Holy Spirit is Himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, and in this age, He indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christlike living and service.

Matthew 9:13; John 1:12,13; 3:3–7; 5:21; 7:37–39; 16:7–14; Romans 6:13; Ephesians 1:13,14; 2:5; Titus 3:5

The Church and Its Great Commission

We believe that God’s new covenant people have been saved into the Church, His bride. This universal Church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus, each “local church” is, in fact, the Church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The Church is the body of Christ, the apple of His eye, engraved on His hands, and He has pledged Himself to her forever. The Church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world. This gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overlooked. Christ Jesus is our peace: He has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile all people to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. The Church serves as a sign of God’s kingdom when its members live for the service of one another and their neighbors, rather than for self-focus. The Church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit, and the continuing witness to God in the world. We believe it is the mandate of the whole church to go into the world and preach the gospel to every person.

Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:15; John 13:35; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27; Ephesians 4:11–16; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 21:2,9,10

The Resurrection

We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ when He will exercise His role as final Judge, and His kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in Hell, as our Lord Himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of Him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new Heaven and the new Earth, the home of righteousness. On that day, the Church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering, and triumph of Christ, with all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished. God will be all in all, and His people will be in the presence of His holiness, and everything will be to the praise of His glorious grace.

Matthew 16:27; 25:31–34; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:51–53; Ephesians 3:20,21; 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17; Revelation 1