WHO WE ARE

It is important to know what a particular faith community believes. Here are the basics of what we embrace. But, whatever your background may be, we believe “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity."

• We affirm our confidence in the Bible

We affirm our confidence in the Bible as the inspired, inerrant Word of God. We teach that the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:13-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

• We acknowledge the Creator-God as our heavenly Father

We acknowledge the Creator-God as our heavenly Father, infinitely perfect, and intimately acquainted with all our ways. We teach that there is but one living and true God, an infinite, all-knowing Spirit, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-each equally deserving worship and obedience (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

• We claim Jesus Christ as our Lord

We claim Jesus Christ as our Lord – very God who came in human flesh — the object of our worship and the subject of our praise. We teach that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30; 14:9).

• We recognize the Holy Spirit

We recognize the Holy Spirit as the third member of the Godhead, incessantly at work convicting, convincing, and comforting. We teach that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity. In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3,4; 28:25,26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

• We confess that Adam’s fall into sin left humanity without the hope of heaven apart from a new birth

Only made possible by the Savior’s death and bodily resurrection (Genesis 1:26,27; 3:124; Romans 3:25; 5:12-18; 1 John 1:8). We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (John 10:15; Romans 3:24,25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24). We teach that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (Romans 3:25; 5:8,9; 2 Corinthians 5:14,15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18).

• We believe the offer of salvation is God’s love – gift

We believe the offer of salvation is God’s love – gift to whom God has elected to salvation. Those who accept it by faith, apart from works, become new creatures in Christ (John 3:3, 5; 1:12, 13; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; Ephesians 2:8, 9).

• We teach that there will be a sudden, personal, visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ

We teach that there will be a sudden, personal, visible, bodily return of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:44; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 22:20) and that His chosen should eagerly long for His return (Titus 2:12-13). His return will result in the judgment of unbelievers, the rewarding of believers, and the establishment of the new heavens and new earth for all eternity (John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Peter 3:10-13).

• We are convinced that all who have died will be brought back from beyond

We are convinced that all who have died will be brought back from beyond – believers to everlasting communion with God and unbelievers to everlasting separation from God (John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:4-6; 11-15).