What We Believe

We believe that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Righteous Ruler of the universe. He has revealed Himself in nature, and in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: yet as one God. We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s one and only Son. The Scripture teaches that He is God revealed in flesh. In His Divine nature He is truly God and in His human nature truly man. He was crucified for man’s sin, yet is risen and glorified as Savior and Lord. He mediates between God and man and gives us access to the Father through His intercession. None can come to the Father unless they come through Him. We believe all of the attributes of God are ascribed to the Holy Spirit by the Scriptures. It is He who convicts and convinces men of their sin. He also convinces man of that which is right, and that a final day of judgment will come. He, it is, who comes to live in us at conversion, to open our understanding to the Scripture, and to lead us into the truth.

We believe that the Bible is God’s holy word. It is given by God, without error and is our only rule of faith and practice. We profit from reading His word and hiding it within our hearts that we might not sin against God! The Bible also speaks to us about wrong doing; even corrects us and gets us back on course as well as instructs us in right living.

We believe God created man in a state of innocence. Man, being tempted by Satan, willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and receiving God’s judgment of sin. All of Adam’s descendants inherit his fallen nature and thus have a natural desire to sin. We believe man receives pardon and forgiveness for his sins when he admits to God that he is a sinner, when in godly sorrow he turns from sin and trusts in the work of Christ as redemption for his sin. This acceptance of God’s great salvation involves belief in Christ’s death on the cross as man’s substitute and the fact of God’s raising Him from the dead as predicted. It is a salvation by grace alone and not of works. We believe it is God’s will that all be saved, but since man has the power of choice, God saves only those who repent of their sin and believe in the work of Christ on the cross. Those who refuse in this life to repent and believe have no later chance to be saved and thus condemn themselves to eternal damnation by their unbelief. We believe that there are strong grounds to hope that the saved will persevere unto the end and be saved because of the power of divine grace pledged for their support. We believe that any saved person who has sinned (whether we call him a backslider or sinner), but has a desire to repent, may do so and be restored to God’s favor and fellowship. Since man, however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost.