The Holy Scriptures

I believe the true and living God has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures–the 66 books of the Old and New Testament.

The Holy Scriptures are God-breathed, divine in origin, infallible and inerrant, and are to be received as the authoritative Word of God.

The Holy Scriptures are the complete and sufficient revelation of God’s will for salvation and conduct, and are true and reliable in all the matters it addresses.

The Holy Scriptures are sufficient as our rule of faith, doctrine, and practice. As 2 Timothy 3:16 states, the Scriptures are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God

I believe in one true and living God who is eternal, holy, righteous, just, gracious, merciful, faithful, true, perfect, good, sovereign, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, and unlike anyone or anything else in all of existence. He is due all worship, honor, glory, and obedience.

The one true and living God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and of everything that exists both seen and unseen.

The Scriptures teach that God is triune in nature. Before anything was created, the one true God existed eternally as three distinct Persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each Person is fully God in nature and possesses the attributes of God.

Jesus Christ

I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man in one Person. He is the only begotten (meaning “unique, one of a kind”) eternal Son of the Father, supernaturally and miraculously conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin (Mary), a descendant of David.

The Lord Jesus lived a sinless life in perfect obedience to the Father and fulfilled the Law of Moses and the prophets. He lived, taught, preached, performed miracles, suffered death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, and was resurrected from the dead in the same physical body that was nailed to the cross.

After His crucifixion and resurrection, the Lord Jesus physically appeared to His disciples over a period of forty days. After this, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father in a glorified body where He mediates as the eternal High Priest of the Church and reigns over all of creation as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

At the appointed time, the Lord Jesus will literally and visibly return to the Earth a second time to judge the living and the dead, set up His Kingdom on earth, and every eye shall see Him.

The Lord Jesus did not spring into existence at conception as a created being, change His mode of existence from “the Father to the Son” at His incarnation, or “become God” through self-effort. He has always (from all eternity before anything was created) co-existed with the Father as the Son of God and has always been co-equal in Divine nature with the Father. He has always possessed the fullness of God, and never at any point of His eternal existence did He cease being God.

Though He existed in the exact form of God, He did not see equality with the Father as something to cling to. Instead, He chose to empty Himself of His Divine privileges, take upon Himself the form of a servant, and be made in the likeness of man. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore the Father exalted the Lord Jesus to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at His name every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The Father made Him the head over all things, including the Church, and He is worthy of worship, glory, and honor from men and angels.

The Exclusivity of Christ

I believe the Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life–no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). The belief that there are “many ways to God” is a false belief and in direct contradiction to Christ’s very own words.

He is the only Savior and the only Person who atoned for our sins, therefore He alone provides salvation. There is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:13).

It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that a person can be justified, reconciled back to God, and receive eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36). The Lord Jesus is our only hope for salvation and all other belief-systems and religions are erroneous.

The Holy Spirit

I believe in the Deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. He is distinct from the Father and the Son, and possesses all of the attributes of God. He has been sent from heaven to testify of Christ and glorify Him, and guide Believers into all truth.

He regenerates sinners and indwells born-again Believers. He is the agent by whom Christ baptizes all Believers into His body. He is the seal by whom the Father guarantees the salvation of Believers unto the day of redemption. He is the Divine Teacher who enlightens the eyes of our understanding and reveals the thoughts of God to us. He is the anointing who gives us the ability to discern between truth and error.

The Holy Spirit convicts men of sin, judgment, and righteousness. He produces the fruit of the Spirit (the character of Christ) in Believers, empowers us to be witnesses of Christ, and distributes spiritual gifts to us (as He wills) for the edification of the Church, for worship and service unto God, and for missions to the unsaved.

The Redemptive Work of Christ

I believe that God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins on the cross so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Lord Jesus was totally without sin, yet He took our sins upon Himself and died in our place on the cross in order to carry the full penalty of our sins and fully satisfy God’s judgment against sin.

By His sacrificial death on the cross, He made a perfect atonement for our sins and appeased God’s wrath against sinners, so that we might have His righteousness–the righteousness of God–counted to us by faith and be reconciled back to God.

Faith in the Person of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross is the only means by which a person can be saved, justified by God, and receive everlasting life. It is by faith in Christ alone that we are redeemed and set free from the power of sin and death.

Regeneration and Salvation

I believe that salvation is a gift from God and wholly a work of God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is undeserved and cannot be earned by doing good works. Good works are the inevitable result of salvation, not the means by which a person gets saved or “stays saved.” Man is saved and justified by faith alone in Christ alone and by believing on His shed blood.

Those who place faith in Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross are born-again, made new, made alive unto God, and washed by the power of the Holy Spirit. They receive the right to become children of God and receive eternal life.

At death, the spirits of the redeemed immediately depart to be with the Lord Jesus and are welcomed into His blessed presence. At the second coming of Christ their bodies shall be raised and they will inherit a glorified body like that of Christ’s resurrected body.

Man

I believe that all men and women are created in the image of God, and therefore, have inherent value and dignity.

Being made in God’s image, all men and women are created equal and all human life is inherently sacred. This sacredness or “sanctity of human life” does not come from ourselves or from our own sense of “moral goodness.” It comes from the fact that God made us in His likeness and set us apart from the rest of creation. As such, the sanctity of human life should be respected and protected both within and outside of the womb.

When Adam sinned, sin entered into the world, and death through sin (the wages of sin is death). And so death spread to all men, because everyone sinned. As a result of the fall of Adam, God’s image in man was marred or distorted by sin and man was separated from God. We see the evidence of this all around us in the world today: moral degradation, broken and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships, and all manner of evil, injustice, and corruption.

In spite of mankind’s best efforts to improve themselves and attain “enlightenment,” they are utterly incapable of saving themselves by their own strength, and understanding the things of God by their own intellect.

Apart from spiritual regeneration through Jesus Christ, mankind is lost, without spiritual life, spiritually dead, darkened in their understanding, hostile to God, and under just condemnation to God. Unless they are born-again of the Holy Spirit, they cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of God.

At the end of time, all those who reject Christ, whose names were not found written in the book of life, shall be raised from the dead, judged according to their works, and punished for their rebellion against God. They shall be eternally separated from the blessed presence of God and be thrown into the lake of fire where they shall consciously suffer the second death. This is the final destination of the wicked.

The Church

I believe that the Church, the body of Christ, is a living spiritual organism composed of redeemed, regenerated believers.

The purpose of the Church is to glorify God, represent Christ to the world, preach the Gospel and make mature disciples of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus is the only Head, High Priest, Chief Shepherd, and Mediator of the Church both locally and universally. He is the Rock on which the Church is built. No man (or woman) has authority to lay claim to any of these things, or claim that they preside over the Church in any of Christ’s Messianic offices.

Local churches are congregations of believers, who assemble for worship, fellowship, discipleship, mutual edification, church discipline, the administering of water baptism, the Lord’s supper, and to be equipped for the work of ministry.

The Church of Jesus Christ is united in one Lord, one Faith, and one baptism. This unity is expressed by mutual love and care, and agreement in the Gospel and the truth of Scripture.

Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

I believe that water baptism and the Lord’s supper are ordinances that the Lord Jesus gave to the Church to testify of Him and do in remembrance of Him.

Although water baptism is not required for salvation, all believers should be water baptized because it was commanded by the Lord Jesus. It is an important ordinance by which a believer publicly identifies with Christ and symbolizes that he was baptized into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

It is not the “dipping” in the water that saves, but faith placed in Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross that saves. The only baptism that is required for salvation is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We are justified before God by faith in Christ, not by faith in Christ plus water baptism.

The Lord’s supper is a fellowship meal which was instituted by Christ to commemorate the giving of His body and the shedding of His blood for our salvation. The bread and wine are symbols of Christ’s body and blood, and do not change into any other substance.

 Marriage and Sexuality

I believe that God created only two biological sexes: male and female. These two distinct, complementary biological sexes together reflect the image and nature of God.

Individuals who claim to be the opposite sex or wish to “transition” into the opposite sex, are rejecting the image of God within themselves.

Biological sex is immutable (unchanging) and permanent. This means that a male will always be a male, a female will always be a female, and it is biologically impossible for a male to “become” a female (and vice versa).

I believe that God instituted marriage as a monogamous, lifelong, heterosexual union. God’s will is for sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman in the confines of marriage. God forbids all forms of sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman.

I believe that all forms of sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, pedophilia, sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment) are sinful and must be confessed to God and forsaken.

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)