Statement of Faith
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Mark 13:31; John 8:31-32; John 20:31; Acts 20:32).
The Triune God
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is perfect in His love and in His holiness. He is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration. Immortal and eternal, He perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about His eternal good purposes to redeem a people for Himself and restore His fallen creation to the praise of His glorious grace.
Revelation
God has graciously disclosed His existence, wisdom, and power in the created order and has supremely revealed Himself to fallen human beings in the person of His Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God, who by His Spirit has graciously disclosed Himself in human words: we believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of His saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of His will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks.
Humanity
We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in His own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God Himself declared to be very good, serving as agents of God to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker.
The Fall
We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness for himself and all his progeny by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being, and condemned finally and irrevocably to death, apart from God’s own gracious intervention.
The Purpose of God in Redemption
We believe that God, from all eternity, in order to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love Him, did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass. He chose, before the foundation of the world, those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought into the blessings of salvation through Jesus Christ.
The Redemption of Christ
We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to His Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human, one person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed His heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven.
The Gospel
We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ: God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is Christological, centering on the cross and resurrection. The gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if His death and resurrection are not central.
Man’s Response to the Gospel
We believe that the message of the gospel calls for a response of faith and repentance. Faith requires not only knowledge of the content of the gospel but also individual trust and reliance upon Christ and His work for salvation. Repentance requires a sincere turning from sin to God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, resulting in a changed life that bears fruit consistent with repentance.
The Justification of Sinners
We believe that Christ, by His obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified. By His sacrifice, He bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By His perfect obedience He satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God.
The Power of the Holy Spirit
We believe that this salvation, attested in all Scripture and secured by Jesus Christ, is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by His powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with the Lord Jesus.
The Kingdom of God
We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins, the inward transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and obey God, and the prospect of the glory yet to be revealed.
God’s New People
We believe that God’s new covenant people have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem; they are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. This universal church is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each local church is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus Himself. Baptism is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, and the Lord’s Supper is connected with ongoing covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once-crucified and now-resurrected Christ, and anticipations of His return and of the consummation of all things.
The Priesthood of All Believers
We believe in the priesthood of all believers, and that all Christians are called to serve the body of Christ with the gifts and abilities God has given them. The church is led by a plurality of qualified elders who shepherd the flock, teach the Word, and provide oversight, supported by deacons who serve the practical needs of the congregation.
The Restoration of All Things
We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with His holy angels, when He will exercise His role as final Judge, and His kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust: the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of Him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness.
