Beliefs

1. Confession - Statement of Belief

I. The Scriptures The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are the only inerrant, sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. Men of old were led to write the Scriptures, moved by the Holy Spirit, using their own words and style to reveal and record the Word of God in all 66 books. These have been supernaturally preserved through the centuries for the benefit of man and serve as the standard of revealed truth.

II. The Trinity God is exists and is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.

III. God There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself, all perfections, all holiness and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us through His holy Word as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. All three members of the trinity were present at creation and all three distinct persons have existed before time and were never created. His creatures experience Him in the intelligently designed order that reflects His person and creativity.

God the Father God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

God the Son Christ Jesus is the eternal Son of God and the fullness of deity in bodily form. In His incarnation as Jesus 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 without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience. In His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

God the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He helps us in our weakness, intercedes on our behalf in prayer, cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He is the seal of the New Covenant, sealing the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

IV. Providence God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.

V. Election Election is God’s eternal choice of some persons unto everlasting life; not because of foreseen merit in them, but of His grace and mercy in Christ; the elect are legally adopted, called, justified and glorified.

VI. The Fall of Man God originally created Man in His own image, wholly free from sin and in a state of perfection; but, through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his successive generations inherit a nature totally corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors of God’s commands.

VII. The Mediator Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, is the only begotten Son of God and the divinely appointed mediator between God and man. Being the fullness of deity and having taken upon Himself human nature, yet without sin, He perfectly fulfilled God’s law; suffered and died upon the cross for the salvation of His elect. He was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended to His Father, at whose right hand He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He is the only Mediator, the Prophet, Priest and King of the Church, and Sovereign Ruler of the Universe.

VIII. Regeneration Regeneration is a change of heart, brought about by the Holy Spirit, who quickens the dead in trespasses and sins enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the Word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they love God and men and practice holiness. This is a work of God’s free and special grace alone.

IX. Repentance Repentance is a gift given by God, wherein the Holy Spirit makes a person sensible of the manifold evil of his sin, humbles him with a godly sorrow, moves him to detest his sin, all with a purpose and resolve to walk before God and begin living for the motivation of pleasing Him in all things.

X. Faith Saving faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen regarding the promises of God revealed in His Word concerning Christ; trusting and resting upon Him alone for justification and eternal life. Faith is given as a gift to the lost sinner by the Holy Spirit and is accompanied by all other saving graces that propels a disciple of Jesus to a life of holiness.

XI. Justification Justification is God’s gracious, merciful, and full legal acquittal of sin, past, present, and future, for those who trust in Christ by Jesus taking upon Himself the full penalty God’s wrath on the cross for His elect bride. The justified receive a full transfer of Christ’s righteousness to the Christian’s legal account before God being declared spotless and righteous before a just and holy God at judgment.

XII. Sanctification Sanctification is the process whereby God transforms His people to be holy and perfect, conformed into the image of Christ. Those who have been regenerated, or initially sanctified, are also changed into the image of Christ by God’s Word and indwelling Holy Spirit. Ongoing sanctification, or progressive sanctification, follows regeneration and continues until death. Final sanctification happens at glorification when those who belong to Christ receive their glorified bodies at the resurrection and are made entirely holy.

XIII. Perseverance of the Saints Those whom God has regenerated by His Spirit will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere to the end; and though they may fall through neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be brought again unto repentance, and be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

XIV. The Church The Lord Jesus is the head of the universal Church, which is composed of all His true disciples, and in Him is invested supremely all power for its government. According to His commandment, and the model of Scripture, Christians are to join themselves in membership to a local church; and to each of these churches He has given necessary authority for administering that order, discipline and worship which He has appointed. The two offices of any local church are a plurality of Pastors/Elders/Overseers who oversee the instruction and governance of the church and Deacons who serve the church under the administration of the Pastors/Elders/Overseers.

XV. The Church’s Two Ordinances:

Baptism is one of two ordinance given by our Lord Jesus and the obligation for every believer, wherein he is immersed under water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as a sign of his fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ, of remission of sins, and of dedicating his life to God, and to live and walk in newness of life. Baptism does not in any way remove sin or gain heaven’s entrance. This ordinance is prerequisite to church membership and to participation in the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is the other ordinance of Christ Jesus, to be administered to baptized persons with the elements of bread and wine (or grape juice depending on conscience) and to be observed by His churches until His return and the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith and other graces of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge and renewal of their communion with Jesus, and of their membership in the local church. Scripture does not regulate the frequency of this ordinance but expects that the gathered saints that covenant together in the local church will regularly partake.

XVI. The Lord’s Day The Lord’s Day is a Christian institution for regular observance and should be marked by worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, resting from worldly pursuits, distractions, and amusements, works of necessity and mercy only excepted. This is a day set aside by Christians to delight in Jesus, resting in Him and His finished work on the cross.

XVII. The Mission of God’s People It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. At regeneration, God turns broken, lost sinners from their own self worship to worship the only wise God, the creator of heaven and earth. This renewal transforms every Christian into an Ambassador for Christ and Minister of Reconciliation who actively seeks to win others to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every Christian to first pursue a lifestyle of missional engagement in the community God has providentially placed us by a verbal witness supported by a markedly transformed Christian life, and in other places globally with the gospel of Christ Jesus.

XVIII. The Resurrection The bodies of men after death return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God; the righteous to rest with Him for eternity in the new creation; the wicked, to be reserved under darkness to the judgment of God’s holy wrath in a conscious everlasting torment in the second death. On the last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised and divided.

XIX. The Judgment God has appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world by Jesus Christ and His saints, when every one shall receive according to his deeds; the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment; the righteous into everlasting life who have been ransomed by Christ.

XX. The Christian and the Social Order All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose prejudice regarding ethnicity, every form of greed, selfishness, addiction and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, any form of marriage other than one man and one woman for life, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth recorded in Scripture.