What We Believe

                                                                        

The Bible:

We believe the whole Bible is completely and equally inspired and that it is the written Word of God.  As the Word of God, it is completely infallible and inerrant from cover to cover and still applicable today.  It the most important writing in the history of the world and contains life-changing truths throughout.  It was painstakingly passed down through history.  The Bible we have today remains the same as when it was written (as proven by overwhelming manuscript evidence).  We do not extend this belief to any other books that were rejected by the early church (eye witnesses of the events) or that were written long after the Bible was canonized.  These include gnostic gospels, “lost” gospels, and the Apocrypha.

 

God:

We believe that God is eternal in nature, all powerful, all knowing, all present, all loving, all holy, and completely just.  We also believe that God is eternally existent in three persons; namely, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Each member of the trinity is unique in personality and role, but all three remain completely unified in one Godhead.

 

We believe that everything was created, designed, and is sustained by God.  It was created perfectly and that perfection was tainted by the choice of man to sin and disobey God.

 

Jesus:

We believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father.  He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born to the virgin Mary, and that he lived a perfect human life.  While on this earth, he was both fully human and fully God.  He performed miracles, forgave sin, and ultimately died for our sins and rose again three days later.  This resurrection was testified to by  over 500 eye witnesses.   Afterwards, he ascended to heaven and is today at the right hand of the Father as an intercessor for us.

 

The Holy Spirit:

We believe that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, but a personal one who has a will, a personality, and can be grieved.  The Holy Spirit was sent to be our comforter and helper after Jesus physically left this earth.  We believe that the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to different people as He wills so that, together, we can be the complete body of Christ and fulfill the Great Commission.

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We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit subsequent to a clean heart.  We also believe in speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance as an initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

 

It is through the Holy Spirit that we see miracles, that we are empowered to cast out demons, to preach the gospel with authority, and to be endowed with power to do the mission that God has called us to.  It is through the Holy Spirit that we are transformed and set apart from this world.

 

Sin:

When man chose to sin and disobey God, everything that man had dominion over was affected by the curse of sin.  This curse of sin is the cause of death, disease, famine, etc. that we deal with in our world today.  These things were not part of God’s perfect plan, but were the result of man’s free will choice to disobey God.

 

We believe that every human being capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong has sinned.  Because we have all sinned, we are not capable of saving ourselves from the penalty of that sin, which is eternal separation from God.  Forgiveness of sin was paid for completely and finally with the death of Jesus Christ.  We can point out that sin in sin, but because we are also sinners, we are not qualified to judge anyone else for their sins.

 

Salvation:

Just as sin is committed by a free will choice to rebel against God, free will repentance is commanded of God and is necessary for the forgiveness of sins.  The ability to be forgiven without having to pay for sin ourselves is made possible because Jesus paid for those sins on our behalf.  Salvation, therefore, is made possible only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  Through salvation, we are born again into a new life distinct from our old life of sin.

 

Sacraments:

We believe in performing the three sacraments commanded by Jesus for us to observe.  These are the washing of the saints’ feet, the Lord’s Supper (communion), and baptism.  We believe in three types of baptism: spiritual baptism in Christ which happens at salvation, water baptism by immersion which is symbolic of salvation and not necessary for salvation, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit which follows salvation.

 

Holiness:

We believe that holiness is God’s standard of living for His people.  This means we are to live according to His commands, above reproach, and as His representatives on this earth.  Of course, we all fail at this from time to time, but as we continually pursue God, we believe that we grow to be more like our heavenly Father.

 

Eternal Consequences:

We believe that in this life we are responsible for making choices and that those choices have eternal consequences.  Ultimately, the most important choice we will make is whether to accept Jesus’ payment for our sins and repent of them or whether to refuse that payment.  The consequences of that choice will result in the verdict of our final judgment and will determine our eternal destination after this life...either to eternal life or to eternal death.

 

The Second Coming of Christ:

We believe that just as Jesus Christ was ascended to heaven, he will return again.  First, he will come to resurrect those saints who have died before us and to catch away the living saints with Him.  Second, he will come to reign on earth for a thousand years.

 

Love:

We believe that the entire Bible, taken as a whole story, is a love story of God loving mankind so much that He gave us the free will to choose to love Him back.  When mankind used that free will to betray God, He gave them the law to show us that earning our way to heaven was impossible and to show our need for a savior.  He then made the ultimate sacrifice to redeem mankind and restore the relationship we had broken with our sin.  Everything about our faith and what we believe always comes back to love.  God is defined as love, Jesus says that love will be the defining characteristic of his followers, and ultimately love was the reason Jesus came, died, and is coming back.