Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Righteous Ruler of the universe. He has revealed Himself in nature and in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are all three distinct persons and fully God. God exercises a wise and caring providence over all beings and things.

We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s unique Son. The Scripture teaches that He is God revealed in flesh. He is both fully God and fully man, born of the virgin Mary. He was crucified for man’s sin and raised again on the third day as the glorified Savior and Lord who mediates between God and man and who gives us access to God the Father through His intercession. None can come to the Father unless they come by faith alone through Christ.

All of the attributes of God are ascribed to the Holy Spirit by the Scriptures. It is He who convicts and convinces men of their sin. He also convinces man of that which is right in God’s eyes and according to the Scriptures. It is He who comes to live in us at conversion, to open our understanding to the Scripture, and to lead us into all truth.

God used righteous men to write the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. They are the very words God intended us to have. They are given by God and without error. They are our only rule of faith and practice. The Word of God is sufficient for all things pertaining to godliness and fully profitable for “teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness”.

God created man in a state of innocence, in His image. Man, being tempted by Satan, gave in to temptation and willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and incurring God’s judgment upon sin. All of Adam’s descendants inherit his fallen nature and thus have a natural desire to sin. When one comes to an age of accountability, he is guilty of sinning before God and in need of salvation.

Man receives pardon and forgiveness for his sins when he admits to God that he is a sinner and in sorrow turns from sin and trusts in the work of Christ as redemption for his sin. This acceptance of God’s great salvation involves belief in Christ fulfilling the law in sinlessness, His death on the cross as man’s substitute, and His resurrection on the third day. It is a salvation by grace alone and not of works.

We believe that there are strong grounds to hope that the saved will persevere until the end and be saved because of the power of divine grace promised to them through the Holy Spirit. We believe that any saved person who has sinned and yet has a desire to repent, may do so and be restored to God’s favor and fellowship. Since man, however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost.

We believe the Bible teaches three ordinances for the church to practice: Baptism in water by immersion after making a confession of faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord’s Supper which is to be practiced until His return, and the Washing of the Saints’ feet, a practice that teaches humility.

We believe the Scriptures teach the resurrection of the bodies of all men, each in its own order; those that have repented and placed their faith in Christ will be glorified and enter into God’s presence and those who have rejected God’s gracious offer of salvation will experience the absence of God’s presence in hell.

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, who ascended on high and sits at the right hand of God, will come again to close the end of this age, glorify His saints, and judge the world.

We believe that Jesus commanded the church to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every person and make disciples of all nations. Because of this command, we believe in the work of missions as both a local and universal body of believers.