Statement of Beliefs

WE BELIEVE there is only one living God. He reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature, essence or being. (Mth. 3:16-17; Mth. 28:19; I Cor. 12:4-6; II Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; Eph. 4:4-6)

WE BELIEVE that the Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is the record of God's revelation of Himself to man. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ, the Word of God. (Psalm 119:89; II Pet. 1:20-21; Mth. 4:18; Luke 21:33; II Tim. 3:16; John 1:1; Rev. 19:13)

WE BELIEVE that man has fallen through sin from his original innocence as created by God, and that only God's grace can bring man back into fellowship with Him. (Gen. 1-3; Rom. 5:12-21; Rom. 1:19-32)

WE BELIEVE that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, partaking of the nature of both God and man but without sin, to redeem mankind from his fallen state through his death and spilled blood on the Cross, in which He took all the sin of the world on Himself and paid the penalty. His resurrection from the dead and Ascension to the Father completed that redemption. (Is. 7:14; Mth. 1:23; II Cor. 5:21; I Cor. 15:1-8; Rom. 4:25; Colossians 1:20-22; Heb. 9:12,22,24-26)

WE BELIEVE that salvation comes through faith in Christ and his finished work on the Cross, a free gift rather than a reward for effort or worth. (Rom. 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10,13; Eph. 2:8,9)

WE BELIEVE that believers are to be baptized by immersion in water as a symbolic testimony to their experience of the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord, and that they are to partake of the Lord's Supper as a reminder of Christ's sacrifice of His body and his blood, and His indwelling in us. (Mth. 28:19; Luke 22:19-20; Mth. 26:26-29; Acts 2:41; I Cor. 11:23-34)

WE BELIEVE in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit operating in the Church-- including speaking in tongues and physical healing-- and the power of the Spirit maintaining the believer in the daily walk of faith. (Luke 11:11-13; Acts 2:1-4, 38-39; Acts 8:14-17; Eph. 5:18; I Cor. 12-14; Rom. 8:5-11; 14-17, 26-27; I Pet. 2:24; James 5:14; Acts 4:29-31)

WE BELIEVE that Satan is real and exists to attack the saints and the church as the father of lies, and that we resist him through the truth of the scriptures as Christ did, and the certain knowledge that the adversary and "accuser of the brethren" was defeated at the Cross. (Job 1:6-12; Mth. 4:1-11; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14)

WE BELIEVE that Christ will return personally and visibly at the end of time to bring the world to its appropriate end. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, a place of everlasting torment, and believers will dwell forever in heaven with the Lord. (I Thess. 4:13-18; John 5:24; Mark 9:43-48; Rev. 22:12-15)