STATEMENT OF FAITH

  1. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original documents, and of final authority in all matters of faith and practice.
  2. There is one God, the Creator of all things, infinitely holy and eternally existent in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  3. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and sinlessly perfect. His sacrificial death on the cross is substitutionary and representative. He rose bodily from the dead and ascended to his Father’s right hand, where he now ministers as our Great High Priest. He will come again to receive his own unto himself and to reign in power and glory for all eternity.
  4. Each member of the human race is fallen, sinful and lost, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for the salvation of man. Redemption is wholly by the blood of Christ, and salvation is by grace alone through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  5. God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church.
  6. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer, who is sealed until the day of redemption and empowered to live a godly life.
  7. The church began with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and is composed of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. These believers are united to him and to one another by the indwelling Spirit. This means that the church, as a whole, is not an organization, but a living organism, known as the body of Christ.
  8. There are two Christian ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism signifies that the believer is buried with Christ and is risen with him to walk in newness of life. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial celebration, instituted by the Lord himself exclusively for his own. In the observance of this supper, believers remember him, they show his death until he comes, and they function as worshiping priests before God. Although baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances to be observed by the church until the return of Christ, they are not to be regarded as means of salvation, which is by grace alone through faith.
  9. Every true child of God possesses eternal life and being justified, sanctified, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, is safe and secure for all eternity.
  10. There will be a bodily resurrection of the saved and of the lost—of the saved, unto eternal life, and of the lost, unto eternal and conscious judgment.