What We Believe
We believe that God
the Son, the eternal Word, took human nature to Himself and wasknown as Jesus,
the Messiah or Christ. We believe in His full deity, His virgin conceptionby
the work of the Holy Spirit, Hisfull humanity, His sinless life, His miracles,
His vicarious
and
atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the
Father and in His personal return in power and glory. We believe Jesus is the
promised Prophet, Priest, and King. As the Prophet, He revealed the mind of God
in His teaching. As the great High Priest, He offered Himself once and for all
as the only effective sacrifice for the sins of men, dying as an atonement,
which is both penal, and substitution. He continues His priestly ministry as He
intercedes for His people. As King, He began His reign as Messiah when He
ascended into heaven after His death and bodily resurrection. He will return
physically and visibly to reign on earth.
We believe in the full deity and the personality of the Holy Spirit. We believe that He bears witness to Christ Jesus through the Word of God, that He convicts people of sin, that He regenerates individuals, baptizing them into the Body of Christ, that He indwells, seals, fills, helps, and produces in believers the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit sovereignty gives spiritual gifts to believers, though no one particular gift is given to every believer.
We believe in justification by grace alone through faith alone. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation for all people. True believers in Christ Jesus cannot lose their salvation. We believe that all that put their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the Church, of which Christ is the Head. The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by building its members up in the faith, by instruction of the Word, by fellowship, by keeping the ordinances, and by advancing and communicating the Gospel to the entire world. The formation of the Church, the Body of Christ, began on the Day of Pentecost and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His Own at the Rapture. We believe there will be a seven-year period in which God will pour out His wrath on the earth, after which Christ Jesus will return to earth to reign over the Millennial Kingdom. When all His enemies are put under His feet, He will hand over the Kingdom to the Father. We believe that the final state of those who have trusted in Christ Jesus will be eternal bliss in the presence of God and that the eternal state of those who have not trusted in Christ will be one of conscious suffering in hell.