Statement of Faith

ARTICLES OF FAITH

1. The Scriptures: The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and records God’s revelation of Himself to man. It’s the infallible source of all divine truth. God is its author, salvation its end and its contents are 100% accurate.  It reveals the principles God uses to judge us and will remain to the end of the world the ultimate standard used to evaluate the correctness of all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions. Jesus Christ is the foundation of all Biblical principles.

2. God: There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and in all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature, essence or being.

(a) God the Father: God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

(b) God the Son: Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the nature of God and of man, and in whose person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

(c) God the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism and service.

3. Man: Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus a part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence; whereby his posterity inherits a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Amended 10-4-2006)

4. Salvation: Salvation is only through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification. (Amended 10-4-2006)

(a) Regeneration: Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to him as Lord and Savior. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.

(b) Sanctification: Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the Holy spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.

©) Glorification: Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

5. God’s Purpose of Grace: Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is a glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness and is infinitely wise, holy and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

6.All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect, and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

7. The Lord’s Supper: The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby believers in Christ, through partaking of the bread and of the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (Amended 10-4-2006)

8. The Kingdom: The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

11. Last Things: 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.

12. Marriage: Marriage has been instituted by God and is defined by God as an exclusive covenantal union of one man and one woman for a life time.

13. Human Sexuality: Legitimate sexual relations are exercised solely within marriage.