Our Beliefs

We believe:

God and the Trinity: We believe the Scriptures clearly teach that there is one God/Jehovah/Elohim who is an infinite being and who exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person is wholly God, equal in power and glory, and each possesses the attributes of God (self-existent, self-sufficient, infinite, eternal, immense, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, immutable, and one indivisible). Though undivided in nature, they each have different roles, eternally functioning in perfect harmony. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:18-20, John 1:1-14, John 14:5-14, Matthew 3:16,17; 1 John 5:6,7).

God the Son: We believe the deity of Christ is the centerpiece of Christianity. Jesus is God incarnate, 2nd person, of our triune God; he is the Messiah – the one and only way to God (John 8:24 & John 3:16). Jesus Christ is the God/Man - fully God and yet fully man. He existed eternally with God speaking this world into existence at creation (Col 1:16), then when the time was right, according to the predestined plan of God, he became flesh and dwelt among us and consequently will remain as such as he reigns in his Kingdom for all eternity. Jesus full deity: (Mat 4:5-7; John 1:1-3, 14, 18; 3:16, 18; 4:14; 5:18-20; 8:58-59; 10:26-36; Acts 20:28: Romans 9:5; I Cor 2:8; I Tim 3:16; Titus 2:13; Col 1:15-19; 2:9; 2 Peter 1:1; I John 4:14-15; 5:8-10). Jesus full humanity (1 John 1:1-3; 4:1-3; 2 Jn 2:7-11; Mat 4:4; 21:12; 27:46; Lk 1:34-36; 2:40; 24:36; Jn 2:12; 7:35; 8:40; 13:21; Heb 2:14-17; 5:8; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22-24; 3:18; 1 Jn 3:5).

God the Holy Spirit: We believe the Holy Spirit, like Christ, has been with God the Father since the beginning. In the beginning, God (Elohim, which is the plural form of God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit) created the heavens and the earth. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work in unity (Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:12; Mark 1:10-13). Relative to Christ’s death Hebrews 9:14 tells us “the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot as the perfect sacrifice to God”. We believe that at the time of our salvation the Holy Spirit comes to take up permanent residence in our physical body sealing our salvation until the day of our redemption. This sealing is a mark of ownership and therefore the believer can be assured that nothing can pluck us out of his hand( 1 Cor 6:19; John 14:16-17;Ephesians 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; 2 Cor 21-22 --- Eph 1:13-14; Eph 4:30; 2 Cor 1:21-22; Romans 8:23).

Bible: We believe the Holy Bible is the verbally, Holy Spirit-inspired Word of God; inerrant in its original manuscripts, complete with everything we need to live life and to live it in godliness (2 Peter 1:3; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23-25). Everything God needed or wanted us to know was God-breathed into the writers and was poured out onto the pages of the original autographs (2 Pet 1:19-21 / 2 Tim 3:16). There is nothing more that needed to be written nor revealed about God for our earthly journey.

Satan: We believe Satan is the adversary and he opposes all things good and of God. He is the Devil, who is first mentioned in the New Testament as the slander and accuser of God, Christ, and God’s people. He is a serpent in his craftiness and blooms into a dragon in his full destructiveness. He is the epitome of wicked and evil and therefore, by definition, he is absent of any good thing. He is the counterfeit and often can come looking quite similar to the truth but is in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He has the ability to appear as an angel of light (11Cor 11:14). We believe that Satan is alive and well, he is a prideful, angry, vindictive, evil angel who knows his time is limited and is therefore roaming all over this earth seeking who he may devour. He moves freely about stealing, killing, and destroying those whom he is able to and he has armies of followers who are dedicated to his mission. More than that, we believe at the Cross, Jesus Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 3:15); therefore, we can say with confidence… “Greater is he who is within me than he that is in the World”. Knowing this to be true, we still need to be aware of the Devil’s tactics because he is exceptionally cunning in his deception and he has been around for at least 6,000 years coming up with new tricks on how to wage war against our souls…"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6.12).

Sin: We believe that sin is disobedience to God. It is transgressing His standards either in sins of omission (what we neglect to do) or sins of commission (what we do) -- either ignorantly, willfully, or under deception. Sin is any degree of falling short of His glory/his standard of righteousness. Sin occurs when one is tempted by his own evil desires and then dragged away and enticed. Sin is rebellion against God. Some of the chief characteristics are…pride, selfishness, rebellion, depravity, wickedness, lawlessness, cruelty, corruption, unbelief, ingratitude, etc. God’s Word tells us that the hearts of mankind are totally depraved, that we have an innate inability to please God with our works and consequently, all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, therefore, our only source of redemption is God’s bountiful grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Salvation by Grace: We believe that Our LORD Jehovah is a righteous God. In Him, there is no sin, and can be no sin. Our Lord Jehovah is also a just God. If he did not punish sin, then he would not be just. Our Lord Jehovah is also a loving God who is full of grace and long-suffering mercy. As humans, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and thus must be under God’s righteous judgment and condemnation (Romans 5:18; John 3:18). The wages of sin is death, and without atonement for our sins, we are spiritually dead and the wrath of God remains on us (John 3:36). The gift of God, on the other hand, is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through faith alone in the atoning sacrifice, and subsequent resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are saved (Eph 2:8-10). We are justified, our guilt is removed and we’re baptized by the Holy Spirit at the moment we believe. Relative to works, the Bible says that God will know that we love Him if we keep his commandments and others will know that we are his disciples if we love one another (John 13:35, Phil 2:12-13) The fact that Christians strive to keep God’s commandments is the result of our salvation, not reason for it.

The Church: We believe the New Covenant church didn’t begin until Christ died. When Jesus asked his disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:18); This faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, was the foundation of the church. It was not Peter himself that was the rock, but the kind of faith Peter had just represented. Jesus is the cornerstone of the church – the stone lay in place for the rest of the church to be built upon (1 Cor. 10:4; 3:11; Eph. 2:20; Matt. 16:18; 21:42). At Pentecost the church was ushered in as a family of believers coming from all walks of life and all nations and they were all adopted into one family as children of God. The church is not a Baptist church and is not a Presbyterian church. It is a church of all tribes, tongues, and cultures. Romans 15:6 tells us: The church exists so “that together we may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ….”