What We Believe

The foundation of our church is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe that his life is a model for the way we should live our own, his death is the sacrifice that atoned for our sins, and his resurrection is the powerful hope we have for eternity.

We believe the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, to be the inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God, inspired in the original autographs, providentially preserved, and capable of changing lives by the power of God (Proverbs 30:5; Matthew 24:35; 2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is the sufficient Word of God for us, thus we do not believe modern apostles and prophets exist who can add to or improve on the Scriptures.

We believe in the Trinity of the Godhead; that there is only one true God, eternally existing in three uncreated Persons (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), distinct in their harmonious offices, yet having the same essence, nature, and attributes; equal in every divine perfection. (Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7). God is both one and three, and in all things he is holy, completely set apart from sin (1 Peter 1:15-16; James 1:13); infinite, without limitation (Job 42:1-2; Jeremiah 23:24); and eternal, without beginning or end (Psalm 90:2).

We believe Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God became flesh (Hebrews 1:8), was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21), died on a cross as the substitute for sinful people (Romans 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24), and bodily rose again on the third day (Matthew 28:6; 1 Corinthians 15:20).

We believe that God the Holy Spirit convinces men of sin, righteousness, and judgment; by whom all believers in Christ are called, regenerated, baptized into the body of Christ, indwelt, sealed, gifted, filled, and empowered for service (1 Corinthians 6:19; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:18). Thus, the Holy Spirit is active today, but we do not agree with the continuationist views of the Charismatic movement, thus we do not practice tongues-speaking or healing miracles.

We believe God directly created the universe from nothing in six literal days, apart from any process of evolution (Genesis 1-2; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11).

We believe all people are created in the image of God, but that through willful disobedience, Adam fell from his original state; that consequently every man is born with a totally corrupt sin nature, that he is personally guilty before God, and that he is under divinely decreed condemnation because of his sin (John 3:18-19; Romans 3:23; 5:12).

We believe in the salvation of people by grace alone on the basis of the vicarious, atoning death and shed blood of Jesus Christ, which is made effective to a person only upon his repentant faith (turning from sin to Jesus), which faith is not in any way a meritorious work or act of personal reformation, but it is a work of the Spirit of God, regenerating the one who was formerly dead in his trespasses and sins, but is now alive unto God (John 1:12-13; 14:6; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:1-10; Romans 7:18; 10:9).

We believe that one who is truly born again will, by the grace of God, persevere in belief and be kept saved forever, with the prospect of continually experiencing in his life the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit to mature him through the Word of God. Our belief in eternal security is not a freedom to live however we please but freedom and power to live how Christ pleases, without fear that he will lose us. The fact that we are eternally secure does not minimize our sinfulness; it magnifies Christ and his grace that abounds more than our sin (John 10:28; Romans 5:18-6:4; 8:38-39; Hebrews 13:5).

We believe that every Christian should live in a manner that honors and glorifies Christ, separating himself from the worldly system, and setting his affections on the things of God (Colossians 3:1-3; 1 John 2:15-17).

We believe in the local church, an assembly of immersed believers, as God's ordained institution for the perpetuation of the Truth and the advancement of his work in this age. We believe that it is the responsibility of the local church to glorify God, to edify itself, to evangelize the world, and to observe the ordinances of believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper. We further believe that the two offices of a New Testament church are those of pastor/elder and deacon (Matthew 16:18; 26:26-20; Acts 2:41; 8:35-37; 1 Corinthians 11:2, 23-26; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 10:24-25). We believe the church is to submit to government authorities as we would to God (Romans 13:1-2), unless those authorities demand obedience to them over God or step outside their bounds of God-given authority and attempt to usurp the authority of the parents in the home or the pastors in the church (Romans 13:3-4).

We believe that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. We believe marriage is the uniting of one naturally-born man and one naturally-born woman in a covenant commitment for a lifetime (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6). We believe adultery, sexual immorality, pornography use, homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, and polygamy to be perversions of God's plan for marriage and sinfully offensive to him. Furthermore, we believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female (Genesis 1:27). These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God, and rejection of one's biological sex is a rejection of God's sovereign choice. In addition, we believe that children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3); thus, we reject abortion as a murderous sin at any point in a woman's pregnancy (Psalm 139:13-16; Exodus 1:15-21; 20:13; Luke 1:39-44).

We believe that God, in his own time and in his own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Until then, those who have died in Christ are absent from the body and present with Lord, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies, which will take place when Jesus personally and visibly returns in glory to the earth. At that time, the dead will be raised, the faithful among the living will be caught up to meet the Lord, and Christ will judge all people in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of everlasting torment and darkness, where Satan too will be eternally punished. The righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward, experience endless joy, and dwell forever with the Lord in the new heaven and new earth which he will create (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Revelation 21:1-8).