What We Believe

The Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all God and yet are distinct persons. (Matt. 3:16-17, 28:18-20; John 1:1-5; John 14:17). They serve in their roles in complete harmony as they work out God's sovereign plan (Eph. 1:3-14). God is holy, righteous, sinless, kind, merciful, and gracious to name a few of His characteristics. He loves selflessly (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; I John 3:1-3).

The Bible: The Scriptures are God's message to mankind and are inspired or God-breathed (1 Timothy 3:16-17). The writers were born along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) so that using their personality, experiences, and style, they wrote God's Word without error (Matt. 5:18). The original writings do not exist but there are many manuscripts, copies of portions of Scripture. When a translation uses a careful study of these manuscripts to stay as literal as possible while still making it readable, we know that we have God's Word.

Sin: Genesis 3 tells us that in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve yielded to Satan's temptation and disobeyed God's command. As a result, sin has been passed onto all mankind and results in both physical and spiritual death (Romans 3:23; 5:12; 6:23).

Salvation: A holy, righteous God can not ignore sin but because He is also loving, gracious, and merciful, He planned, before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4-5), for salvation. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin (Luke 1:26-33), live on earth sinlessly (Heb. 4:15), and then willingly die on the cross to satisfy the penalty for sin (Rom. 5:8; John 1:29). When He rose again, He conquered sin, death, and Satan. Salvation is not deserved nor can it be earned by anyone (Eph. 2:8-9). Instead, when one believes that they are a sinner separated from God by that sin, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who died for them and rose again, they are saved (John 1:12; 3:16) and are adopted as a child of God (Titus 3:4-7). Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The genuine believer will never lost their salvation (John 10:28-29; Rom. 8:35-39; I John 5:13).

The Church: Every believer is placed into the body of Christ at the moment of salvation (I Cor. 12:13) which is known as the universal church. Local churches however, are believers who meet together to worship God, to evangelize, to grow spiritually, to pursue unity, to encourage and exhort one another, and interact with other churches (Acts 2; Acts 15; Eph. 4; Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 1). These local churches are commanded to keep two ordinances, baptism (by immersion) and communion. Both ordinances remind us of Christ's sacrifice and do not forgive sin or save anyone, they are memorial in essence. There are two biblical officers, pastor (of which there may be more than one) called by the church and deacons elected by the church. Only believers become members and they govern the church through business meetings and through appointing responsibilities. Local churches are primarily for believers to worship and grow. They also help equip believers to share the Gospel and support missionary endeavors that spread the gospel around the world.

Family: The Bible teaches that family is God's first institution, is an important part of the church, and the building block of society. God created mankind in His image, and made them distinctly male and female (Gen. 1:26-27). He then established marriage between a man and woman only and it is intended for life (Gen. 2:18-25; Matt. 19:4-6). God designed sex for marriage only, where it is designed for pleasure and for bringing children into the world (Prov. 5:19; I Cor. 7:1-5; Song of Solomon). When a marriage is blessed with children, there is a great responsibility to teach them the ways of God (Deut. 6) and great joy in growing and serving together.

Spiritual Gifts: God gave spiritual gifts to the early church to help with the establishing and growing of local churches. The miraculous gifts like speaking in tongues (an actual language which one had not learned), performing acts of healing, and receiving new revelation were used to validate the message of the Gospel. As the Scriptures were completed and the church grew, these were no longer necessary and gradually went away. New revelation was forbidden and unnecessary, and faithful teaching from God's Word would be used to validate the truth of one's message. Some believe that non-miraculous spiritual gifts are still given today while others believe they are simply talents and abilities which God gave. Either way, they are to be for the benefit of the Church and not the promotion of the individual.

End-times: While the doctrine of last things is often debated, we believe in a dispensational approach to interpreting the Bible which lends to a more literal understanding of prophecy. There is nothing that needs to happen before our Lord returns once again. The age of the Church (the age of Grace) will culminate with the rapture where Christ returns to catch His bride away and we meet Him in the air to go to heaven. After the rapture, at some point relatively soon, the Tribulation period begins which we believe will be a literal 7 years duration. Satan will bring great havoc on the Jews and anyone who claims the name of Christ. God will send intense judgment on the earth like never before. When all seems lost, Christ returns with the church and destroys the enemies of God at Armageddon and binds Satan for 1000 years. He then sets up His Millennial Kingdom where He reigns in righteousness. At the end of 1000 years, Satan is loosed and there is one last rebellion which God quells with just a word from His mouth. Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire and all those who have rejected Christ join him there for eternity. The believers spend eternity in the new heaven and the new earth enjoying conditions like the Garden of Eden before sin.