What We Believe

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body, ascended into heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God. He will return in power and glory.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows spiritual gifts.

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image, male and female, as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence, whereby his posterity inherit a nature inclined toward sin and stand under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship. Every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. Salvation is by grace through faith alone, not of works. It includes justification, sanctification, and glorification.

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. The dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell and the righteous in resurrected and glorified bodies to eternal life with God.