STATEMENT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, DOCTRINE, AND PRINCIPLES

 

We believe, affirm, and confess by conviction that:

 

GOD: is one, holy, good, unchanging, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the creator and sustainer of the universe. (Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 28:18-19; John 10:30, 17:22; I Corinthians 8:4; Ephesians 4:6)

 

THE BIBLE: is God-breathed, written by men in history inspired by the Holy Spirit, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, active, true, reliable, inerrant, a believer’s delight, and authoritative in all matters of faith and practice. (Psalm 119; John 10:35; II Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12; II Peter 1:20-21)

 

JESUS: is fully God and fully man, the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, sinless, performed miracles, crucified on a cross in history, bodily resurrected from the dead, ascended into heaven, the substitutionary and necessary atonement, the ransom for many, the conqueror of sin and death, the source of salvation for all believers, the hope of the nations, the way, the truth, the life, the resurrection, prince of peace, king, savior, Christ, and Lord. (Isaiah 9:6-7, 53:4-12; Matthew 12:21; Mark 10:45; Luke 1:30-35, 9:20; John 1:1-14, 1:18, 3:16-17, 11:25, 14:6; II Corinthians 5:18-21; Galatians 4:4; Colossians 1:15-19; I Timothy 2:3-6; II Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 4:15; I Peter 2:24, 3:18)

 

HOLY SPIRIT: is the third person of the triune God that inspired the authors of the Bible, regenerates the spiritually dead, indwells all believers, unifies all believers, and provides spiritual gifts and truthful guidance and counsel to believers. (John 3:3-8, 16:12-14; I Corinthians 12:3-30; Galatians 5:16-26; Ephesians 4:3-16, 5:18)

 

MAN: is purposed to glorify God in everything, created male and female by God in His image, fallen because of sin and willful disobedience to the law of God, dead in sin without salvation, and saved and reconciled to God only by grace through faith in Christ. (Genesis 1:27, 2:16-17, 3:1-24; Psalm 51:5; Acts 2:38; Romans 3:12, 3:23, 5:1-2, 6:23, 10:9-10, 11:29; Ephesians 2:1-3, 2:8-10; Colossians 3:23-24)

DISCIPLESHIP: is a command for all believers in all nations that involves teaching, requires obedience, surrender, and spiritual discipline, entails being part of the church body, places duties and obligations on parents, marriages, and families, calls for a renewing of believers’ minds and holding all thoughts and world views captive to Christ, necessitates being salt and light in the community, and demands obedience to God rather than men. (Deuteronomy 6:5-9; Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:13-16, 22:37, 28:19-20; Luke 14:27; Acts 2:42-47, 5:17-32; Romans 12:1-2; II Corinthians 10:4-5; Colossians 1:9-13; Hebrews 10:25)