STATEMENT OF FAITH
We affirm:
I. The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It is a guidebook for all believers and is to be read, meditated upon and obeyed as God's Word. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. He is the Father to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
B. God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. With His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, reconciling God and man. He will return bodily in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission in the future.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired men of God to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables people to understand truth, He exalts Christ, convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God. His infilling in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into maturity of faith. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race and therefore spiritual death and condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and fulfill the creative purpose of God. Christ died for every person; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ alone. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
V. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, observing the two ordinances of Christ- baptism and the Lord's Supper. It is governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes and each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The Body of Christ includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
VI. Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
VII. Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
VIII. Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ to make disciples of all nations. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
IX. The Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. They are to honor and obey parents. Parents are to to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through a consistent lifestyle, to make choices based on biblical truth for the glory of God.
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It is a guidebook for all believers and is to be read, meditated upon and obeyed as God's Word. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. He is the Father to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
B. God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. With His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, reconciling God and man. He will return bodily in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission in the future.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired men of God to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables people to understand truth, He exalts Christ, convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God. His infilling in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into maturity of faith. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race and therefore spiritual death and condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and fulfill the creative purpose of God. Christ died for every person; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ alone. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
V. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, observing the two ordinances of Christ- baptism and the Lord's Supper. It is governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes and each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The Body of Christ includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
VI. Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
VII. Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
VIII. Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ to make disciples of all nations. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
IX. The Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. They are to honor and obey parents. Parents are to to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through a consistent lifestyle, to make choices based on biblical truth for the glory of God.