The Holy Scriptures


The sixty-six books of the Bible constitute the Word of God given by the Holy Spirit as God’s written revelation to man.  The Word of God is verbally inspired, inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and God-breathed.  Penned by human authors under divine inspiration by the Holy Spirit, the Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
 

The Godhead


There is only one living and true God, infinite, omniscient, perfect, and holy.  While one in essence, God is eternally existing in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - each equally worthy of obedience and worship.
 


 

• God the Father


God the Father is sovereign in all creation, providence, and redemption.  He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass, continually upholding, directing, and governing all creatures and events.  Though completely sovereign, He is not the author or the approver of sin, nor does His sovereignty abridge the accountability of man for his moral, intelligent choices.  He saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, adopting them as His own.



 

• God the Son


Jesus Christ possesses all divine excellence, being coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father.  All things were created by God the Father according to His own will through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue to exist and operate.  Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, being God incarnate, accepting all essential characteristics of humanity, yet surrendering only the prerogatives of deity while retaining His divine essence.  Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption by shedding His blood and dying sacrificially on the cross.  Fulfilling the Father’s will, Jesus’ death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, and redemptive.  He was physically resurrected from the grave and then ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now is our Advocate and High Priest. 



• God the Holy Spirit


The Holy Spirit is divine and eternal, possessing all attributes of personality and deity.  He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and Son.  The Holy Spirit executes the divine will with relation to all mankind, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ.  He came uniquely at Pentecost to initiate and complete the building of the Body of Christ.  He is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ.  He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, indwelling, sanctifying, instructing, guiding, empowering, and sealing believers unto the day of redemption.



 

Man


Adam, the first man, was directly and immediately created by God, in His image and likeness, free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, and moral responsibility to God.  Adam’s sin of disobedience to God’s command resulted in the transmission of a corrupted nature in man’s loss of innocence, and in a penalty of spiritual and physical death to all men of all ages, Jesus Christ being the only exception.  Subject to the wrath of God, man became inherently corrupt, hopelessly lost, and utterly incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace.  All men are sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration.



 

Salvation


Salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ and the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works. Regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, instantaneously accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God, when the repentant sinner responds in faith to the divine provision of salvation.  Upon regeneration through faith in Christ, repentance of sins, and confession of Christ as sovereign Lord, God declares believers to be righteous and justified by imputing our sins to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to us.  Genuine salvation is manifested by good works, which are the proper evidence and fruit of regeneration.  Through progressive sanctification, the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ.  All the redeemed, once genuinely saved, are sealed by the Holy Spirit, kept by God’s power, and are thus secure in Christ forever.



 

The Church


All regenerated persons are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the Church, of which Christ is the Head.  The formation of the Church began on the Day of Pentecost and includes all genuine believers in Christ.  The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by building itself up in the faith, by instruction of the Word of God, by fellowship, and by advancing and communicating the Word of God (including the Gospel) to the entire world.  The emphasis of the Great Commission for the Church is to make disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.


 

Death


At physical death, the soul of the redeemed passes immediately into the presence of Christ through separation of soul and body without loss of consciousness.  The soul of the unredeemed passes immediately into punishment.  All men will be resurrected bodily—the redeemed to eternal life and the unredeemed to judgment and everlasting punishment.

 



Eternity


Jesus Christ will return to earth (personal, visible, and bodily) to establish His millennial kingdom on earth.  After this period, the unredeemed will be resurrected, judged, and committed to an eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire.  Those whose names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will enter the eternal state of glory with God, where a heavenly city will come down out of heaven to be the dwelling place of the redeemed, who will forever enjoy fellowship with God and one another.