Here is a brief summary of our core beliefs.
The Bible
The Bible is God’s special revelation to man about Himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is without error in its original autographs and is life-transforming and powerful because it is God’s holy Word.
God
God is the life-sustaining Creator of the entire universe, and all that is contained in it. He is omnipresent, He is omniscient, and He is omnipotent. The absolute attributes of God are holiness, love, and goodness. God exists, and has always existed as three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but still one God. All three Persons are equal in authority, with a hierarchy of purpose.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is, was, and always will be God, present in eternity past and eternity future, as a member of the Godhead. He became man through the conception of the Holy Spirit, and was born to Mary, who was a virgin. Upon taking the form of a man, He voluntarily emptied Himself of His godly attributes, while still retaining both His human and divine natures. Jesus became the substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind by willingly submitting Himself to be crucified on the cross. He died, was buried and rose again the third day, as was prophesied in Scripture.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is not merely an influence or power, but an equal, eternal, personal member of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit restrains sin and convicts humans of their sinful condition. At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, baptizes, and seals each believer. His ministry to the Christian includes teaching, leading, and empowering. The Holy Spirit endows believers with one or more spiritual gifts for life and ministry.
Man
God created man on the sixth day of creation, in His own image, innocent of all sin. The first man, Adam sinned willfully, thus bringing sin upon the entire human race. All men are born with a sin nature and cannot know God in their unregenerate state.
God immutably creates each person as male or female, which reflects the image and nature of God. Rejecting one’s biological sex rejects the created image of God. God designed marriage as a unique conjugal relationship joining one man and one woman in a single, exclusive, life-long union. God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman joined in marriage. All forms of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, polygamy, polyandry, bestiality, incest, pornography, and acting upon any disagreement with one’s biological sex) are sinful and offensive to God. God endows all human life with inherent dignity at every stage of development and it must be respected and protected from conception to natural death. Thus, the unjustified, intentional taking of human life before or after birth is sinful and offensive to God.
Salvation
The only way that man can be saved from eternal separation from God is to believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. One cannot earn salvation through works, but only as grace is poured out on the believer who has faith in Jesus Christ’s substitutionary work. Salvation is a permanent work of God.
Angels
Angels are beings created by God for His purposes, created as a higher order of being than mankind. They exist to worship and minister to God, to protect and provide for believers, and to act as messengers of God.
Satan and Demons
Satan is a literal being, originally created by God as a angel of light, who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven with one-third of the angels, who became his demons. Satan was the tempter who caused the fall of man, and he and his demons continue to work to interfere with God’s plan for mankind.
The Church
The church, which began at Pentecost is the body of Christ, and is made up of those professing faith in Jesus Christ, who have been baptized, who adhere to biblical doctrine, and who follow the moral standards of the Bible. Each church member is gifted by the Holy Spirit to edify the church and to function within the local body. The church is organized, as led by the Spirit, with various offices, all having Scriptural requirements.
End Times
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, 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, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.