OUR BELIEFS

We believe in one God, who eternally exists in three equally divine Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is worthy to receive all glory and adoration.

(Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 33:10-11, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4-6, Mark 1:9-11)

We believe that God has inspired the words of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone constitute the Word of God, which is utterly authoritative, without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, and sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.

(Psalm 12:6, Psalm 119, Matthew 24:35, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to significant engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, serving as a type of union between Christ and his church. God ordains that men and women assume distinctive roles that reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential. The distinctive leadership role of the elder within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation order and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments.

(Genesis 1-3, Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Colossians 3:18-4:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)

We believe that Adam, who was created in the image of God, distorted that image for himself and all his offspring by giving into Satan’s temptation and sinning against the Creator God. As a result, all human beings choose sin and are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being, and are condemned to death apart from God’s own gracious intervention.

(Ephesians 2:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:21, Romans 1:18-3:20)

We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end he foreknew them and chose them, all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

(Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 1:3-14, Isaiah 46:9-10, Romans 9:6-18)

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. The gospel is utter folly to the world, yet the power of God to those who are being saved. This good news is Christological, centering on the cross and the resurrection. The gospel message is: “Christ died for our sins…[and] was raised.” The gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central. This good news is also biblical, theological, historic, apostolic and intensely personal. Jesus’ death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures. He died for our sins to reconcile us to God, if the events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and are to be pitied more than all others. The message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events. Where the gospel message is received, believed, and firmly held, individual persons are saved.

(Romans 1:15-17, Ephesians 2:1-10, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 1 Corinthians 1:18-21)

We believe that, moved by love, the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified, rose on the third day and ascended into heaven as our representative and substitute. On the cross he canceled the debt of sin and reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death, defeated Satan, and brought everlasting life to all his people. By his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else and in nothing else.

(Romans 3:21-26, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9, Colossians 2:13-14)

We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully paid the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins. By his perfect obedience, he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God.

(Colossians 2:13-14, Galatians 2:16-17, Romans 4:3-8, Romans 3:21-26, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:1)

We believe that this salvation is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and has been given as another Helper to be in and with believers forever. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with the Lord Jesus.

(John 16:4-15, Ephesians 5:18-21, John 14:16, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-21)

We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in its blessings. Recognizing whose created order this is, and because we are citizens of God’s kingdom, neither withdrawing into seclusion from the world nor becoming indistinguishable from it, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, doing good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God. The kingdom of God, already present but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world toward the eventual redemption of all creation, and therefore inevitably establishes a new community of human life together under God.

(Mark 1:15, Luke 17:20-22, Romans 14:17, Revelation 12:10, John 13:35, 1 John 2:15-17) 

We believe that God’s new covenant people are the church (universal and local) of which Christ is the only Head. Each local church is the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her ordinances (baptism and communion), her mission, her discipline, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world.

(Ephesians 2:11-22, 1 Timothy 3:15, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Peter 2:4-12, 1 John 4:7-12, Galatians 3-4)

We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. Each are outward expressions of inward realities. Baptism is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, representing union with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper is connected with ongoing covenant renewal as a remembrance of the finished work of Christ on the cross. These are God’s gifts to his people and commanded by Christ for the church.

(Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 6:1-6, Mark 14:22-25, 1 Corinthians 11:23-27)

We believe in and eagerly await the personal, glorious and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust. The just will be raised to eternal life with Christ and the unjust to eternal conscious punishment in hell. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by Christ, and his people will be enthralled by his holiness – all to the praise of his glorious grace.

(Isaiah 65:17-25, Revelation 21, Romans 8:18-25, Titus 2:11-14, Hebrews 10:26-31)