Our Beliefs
We believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news—the best and most important news that anyone will ever hear. We believe this good news is the central message of the Bible and is the true key to understanding it.
WE BELIEVE THIS GOSPEL:
Points to the sinfulness of man…
Because we have resisted God and rebelled against him, we are living in darkness, harming ourselves and spoiling creation. We are rightly separated from God and marked for judgment.
“No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Rom 3:10-12 NLT)
Demonstrates the grace of God…
Despite our rebellion, God in his mercy sent Jesus Christ to die in our place, the sinless for the sinful, so that God’s righteousness might be satisfied and we might be healed and reconciled to him.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. (Isa 53:6 NLT)
Provides power for living…
By laying his life down to purchase our pardon, Jesus opened the door for God’s spirit to once again dwell with us. When we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. He opens our blind eyes so we can see and transforms us from the inside out so we can live for God.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2Cor 5:17 NLT)
By accepting the pardon offered through Christ, and living in the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we no longer need to fear death. We know that God, who began a good work in us, will carry it to completion and take us to be with him forever.
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Php 1:6 NLT)
If God has done all of this for us and we still rebel and resist him, what more can he do than has already been done? What more can we expect than the judgment due us?
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. (Jn 3:16-19 NLT)
Because many have not yet heard or understood the good news, they continue in darkness, going their own way and remaining under the judgment of God. Christ can release them from guilt and the Holy Spirit can guide them into life. How can we not offer them the hope held out by Christ?
And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2Cor 5:18b-20 NLT)
Bible. The Bible is God’s Word for people, enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It contains everything needed for life and godliness. It is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. God’s Word is also the sword of the Spirit, our only offensive weapon in the full armor of God, to stand against the devil’s temptations and attacks.
God. There is only one God. He always was and always will be. He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God as the Father. God as “our Father in Heaven” is our Deliverer, our Healer and our Provider. He is Father to the fatherless and the One to whom we pray.
God as the Son. Jesus Christ created all things in the beginning. He later came to earth to purchase people back as our Redeemer (through His death, burial and resurrection), restoring the relationship with God for all who believe in Him.
God as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit draws all people to Jesus Christ, resides in all who receive Christ as their Savior empowers and guides us through life’s journey to Heaven.
Man. God created man, both male and female, in His own likeness and image. Man was given the earth to rule over and subdue but chose to disobey and fell short of the glory of God, becoming spiritually separated from God.
Salvation. All people have been separated from God by sin and the wages of sin is death, but Jesus died on our behalf that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation comes with God’s assurance that we know we have eternal life and that no one can remove us from the security of His hand.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is a demonstration of what has spiritually taken place in the life of a believer in Jesus Christ, identifying with Christ’s death (to our old ways), burial (down into the water), and resurrection (up from the water). Baptism represents both Christ’s resurrection from the tomb and the resurrection of all believers yet to come.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience where members of the church, through taking of the bread and the juice, remember the death of the Redeemer and look forward to His second coming.
Church. The church is the body of Christ working together to spread the message of salvation and to equip God’s people for service in the Kingdom.
Stewardship. Everything that we are and possess comes from God and has been given to us to care for while we are on the earth. We give back to God’s work through the local church so that the message of salvation through Jesus Christ may multiply across the land.
Kingdom of Heaven. In Christ, we are members of the Kingdom of God, yet are presently walking on this earth as strangers and aliens in a foreign land, eagerly looking forward to the coming kingdom at the end of this age with the return of Jesus Christ.
Sanctity of Human Life. We affirm the view of Scripture on the sacredness and dignity of all human life, both born and unborn.
Marriage. We affirm that sexual relationships honor God only when they occur within marriage between one man and one woman.
For a detailed explanation of our adopted beliefs within our contitution and bylaws you may visit this link: About our Beliefs