Our Essential Beliefs

The deity of Jesus Christ - God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit. There is one God, the creator, who exists eternally in unity as three equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The triune God is loving, holy, infinite, just, and worthy of all worship. The Father accomplishes his plan of salvation through both redemption and judgment. All things will be subject to him, and his kingdom will have no end. The Father sent the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary when she was a virgin. Jesus became fully human while remaining fully God. Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus revealed the Father and the kingdom of God by his sinless life, teaching, and miracles. After he died for our sin, God raised him from the dead, and he is now at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son and gives life throughout creation. The Spirit draws people to repentance and new life in Jesus Christ. Through the Spirit’s indwelling, the Father and the Son are present to all believers, making them children of God.

(1 Matt 28:19; 2Cor 13:14 2 Exod 34:6-7; Psa 99:4-5 3 Exod 6:6; Rom 1:16-18 4 Psa 103:19; Rev 11:15; Eph 1:10 5 Matt 1:18-25 6 John 1:1, 14; Col 1:19; Heb 2:17 7 John 1:32; 14:7-10; Luke 4:18-19 8 Acts 2:32-33; Rom 8:34 9 Psa 104:21-30; Acts 2:33 10 John 16:7-15 11 Rom 8:14-17; 1John 3:24 )

We believe all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. We understand the whole Bible to be inspired in the sense that men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the words of Scripture.

Salvation is available to all people by the loving, redemptive act of the triune God. Through obedience to the Father, Christ gave himself as a ransom. Christ, who had no sin, became sin for us offering himself and shedding his blood on the cross so that in him we might become right with God. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ provide the way of salvation for those who, by God’s grace, repent from their sin and confess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

(John 3:16; Gal 4:4-7; Titus 2:11-14 22 John 8:28-29; Phil 2:8; Heb 5:8 23 Mark 10:45; 1Tim 2:6 24 2Cor 5:21; 1John 3:16 25 Rom 4:22-25; 5:19; 6:4-5; Heb 7:24-28 26 Rom 10:9; 1John 1:9; Acts 3:19; 4:12)

The Father sent the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary when she was a virgin. Jesus became fully human while remaining fully God. Anointed by the Spirit, Jesus revealed the Father and the kingdom of God by his sinless life, teaching, and miracles. After he died for our sin, God raised him from the dead, and he is now at the right hand of the Father.

(Matt 1:18-25 6 John 1:1, 14; Col 1:19; Heb 2:17 7 John 1:32; 14:7-10; Luke 4:18-19 8 Acts 2:32-33; Rom 8:34)

Our great hope is for the imminent return of Christ in the air to receive his own, both the living who will be transformed and the dead in Christ who will be resurrected bodily. Christ will complete at his second coming the restoration that began when he initiated God's kingdom at his first coming. Christ will liberate creation from the curse, fulfil God’s covenant to Israel, and defeat all powers that oppose God. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Ultimately, God will judge the living and the dead. Such judgement is God’s gracious answer to humanity’s cry for justice to prevail throughout the earth and is consistent with God’s character as loving, holy, and just. The unredeemed will go away into eternal punishment, but the redeemed into eternal life. The redeemed will enjoy the presence of God, where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

(1Thess 4:14-17; 5:1-2 48 Matt 13:24-41; Rev 11:15-17; Acts 1:6-7; 3:20-21; Rom 11:25-27 49 Rom 8:19-21; 1Cor 15:20-26 50 Phil 2:10-11; Isa 45:23 51 Acts 10:42; 1Pet 4:5 52 Mal 2:17-3:1; Rev 6:9-11 53 Matt 25:46; Dan 12:1-2 54 Isa 25:8-12; Rev 21:3-4)