Statement of Faith

The Bible

The Bible contains not only the thoughts of God but the words of God. He spoke through the human agent, who recorded His revelation without error and this record reflects the human author’s own personality and educational level. The Bible speaks truthfully regarding the acts of God, the reality of this creation (both the physical and the spiritual dimension), and the reality of the human condition. It is through the Bible that we learn who God is, who we are in relation to Him, what our purpose in life is, and how we reflect God to the world around us.

God

God is one Being who exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—who are co-equal and co-eternal, yet distinct. God created all things through His will and spoken word. He has revealed certain aspects of His character and being through creation, and nature points to His eternal existence, His power, His authority, His impartiality, His transcendence (He exists independent of nature). He has revealed His character and being fully in the person of Jesus Christ and through His Word, the Bible, and this includes His holiness and moral goodness, His justice, His grace, His compassion, and His patience (as well as all His attributes that He reveals in His creation)

Man

God created man and woman in His image, who possess the ability to know God and to reflect Him to His creation. Through the free will that God created, man willingly chose, and continues to choose, to disregard God’s holy standard and to reject God, in order to pursue the sinful desires of his heart. Even though man is capable of doing some morally good things, at his core he lives only for himself without regard for God or others. As a result of his disobedience and rebellion, man experiences physical death, spiritual death (dead to God), and eternal death—he stands under God’s condemnation, and faces an eternity separated from God.

Jesus Christ

Jesus is the second person of the Trinity and shares fully in the very essence of deity. He took on full humanity by being born to a virgin, and this humanity includes sharing in the physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, and spiritual process of development. He experienced temptation but did not sin against God. He lived a sinless life where He obeyed God’s laws and commands perfectly. As a result, He served as our perfect substitute when He died on the cross. On the cross, He represented us—taking not only our sin and guilt against God but also the judgment and wrath of God against our sin. He died, and His death serves to satisfy God’s wrath, because He paid the price for us and His blood covers our guilt. His death provides us with the means to relate to God upon the basis of His righteousness. Jesus Christ not only died, but He has physically been raised from the dead. He currently stands at the right hand of God, and intercedes for all believers.

Salvation

Man is unable to relate to God in the manner God desires, which is to abide by His laws and commands perfectly. Man falls short of the moral goodness of God and stands under His wrath. There is nothing that man can do to remove His guilt before God—he cannot work off his guilt through a set of morally good and righteous acts nor can he persuade God to lower His standard of righteousness. As a result, God initiated a plan to provide man with the means to be reconciled to Him, and this culminated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We experience God’s forgiveness and reconciliation only by faith in the obedience, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, being saved is more than simply being forgiven; it means that God has transformed our heart so that we demonstrate a desire to live for Him and to follow Him. This is the mark of one who has experienced new life in Jesus: We exhibit this heart and life transformation by living in obedience to Him and to reflect His character accurately through our actions by loving others as He loves us, by acting with self-control and righteousness as He acts righteously toward us, by living with the hope that He has provided in Christ. Our salvation culminates with the redemption of our physical body (so that we no longer wrestle with temptation and sin) and this present creation (so that nature no longer lives under the presence of sin and God’s curse against sin which is death).

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and shares fully in the very essence of deity. He convicts man of sin and convinces Him of the truth of who Jesus Christ is and of his need for Him. He reminds us of what God’s Word teaches and gives us understanding and insight into what it says and means. He rebukes us when we choose to sin and to pursue a sinful course. He provides us with the strength we need to live in obedience to God. After the individual believes in Jesus Christ, He lives within that person—and serves as God’s promise that He will finish the work of salvation that He has begun; as God’s adoption certificate that the believer relates to God as His child; and as the mark of God’s ownership that the believer belongs to God and demonstrates his allegiance to God by serving Him

Church

The Church is the community of those who have been redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Head of the Church, and the Bible compares the Church to a human body. All believers possess talents and abilities, as well as spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit determines and gives to each believer which are to be exercised for the edification and growth of the Body. The Church serves as the physical presence of Jesus Christ to the world around it, and continues the ministry of Jesus. This involves making disciples who know and who follow Jesus through sacrificial acts of love; through acts of forgiveness extended to even its enemies; through acts of righteousness and moral goodness; and through unity in purpose.

End Times

Jesus Christ will physically return to the earth to establish His kingdom. Prior to this event, the world—both nature and humanity—will experience a series of judgments from God that will build in intensity and degree that will result in natural catastrophes, ecological disaster, disease, and death. Even though Jesus will rule over this world with righteousness and justice, it will be insufficient in changing the depravity within man—and they will rebel one final time to no avail. All of creation will stand before God at the Final Judgment: For creation, it will be judged with fire. For humanity, all whose name is not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into a lake of fire where the individual will experience total separation from God and the full consequences of his sin for eternity. For all whose name is found written in the Book of Life, he will dwell with God on a new heaven and earth. This will be a world where sin or the consequences of sin exist. The believer will have a redeemed body, and will see God face-to-face.