CONCERNING THE BIBLE: We believe that the Holy Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, by which we mean that the books which form the canon of the Old and New Testaments as originally given are entirely inspired and free from all error in the whole and in part.  These books constitute the written Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and conduct.  (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19-21; Deuteronomy 29:29)

CONCERNING GOD: We believe in the one true God, eternal, infinite in glory, wisdom, knowledge, holiness, justice, power, and love, everywhere present, one in His essence, but eternally subsistent in three Persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God exists by virtue of His own intrinsic necessity, and He is ultimately responsible for the existence of all other things as their Creator. (Isaiah 44:6; Matthew 28:19; John 15:26; Genesis 1:1; John 1:3)

CONCERNING JESUS: We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord, the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity in human form—fully God and fully Man. We believe in His virgin birth, His status as the only begotten Son of God, His sinless life, the eternal all-sufficiency of His atoning death on the Cross, His bodily resurrection, and His ascension to the Father's right hand.  (John 1:1, 14; Matthew 1:18-25; Hebrews 4:15; Mark 15:22-37; Luke 24)

CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT: We believe that the Holy Spirit, Who is the Third Person of the Trinity, regenerates, indwells, baptizes, fills, seals, and anoints all who become children of God through Christ.  (John 3:5; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 5:16-25)

CONCERNING HUMANITY:

[1] We believe that Man was created by a definite act of God in His own image and is dependent upon and accountable to his Creator. By virtue of being made in God’s image, all human life is sacred and of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and individuals at every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 8:4-6)

[2] Just as God created humanity such that all people possess an equal and uniform intrinsic worth, He has also created us with a variety of virtuous distinctions. Chief among these is God’s division of humanity into men and women—a division that is fundamental, intractable, and grounded in the male and female bodies with which He has blessed us. As an entailment of this division, God has endowed us with the capacity for sexual congress, a capacity that He intends to be expressed only within lifelong monogamous marriages between a man and a woman—unions which have joy, mutual support, and procreation among their various ends. (Genesis 2:18-15; Mark 10:6-9; Proverbs 30:18-19; 1 Corinthians 11:14-16; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, cp. Deuteronomy 22:5)

[3] Despite our blessedness, through disobedience the first humans sinned and fell from their original state of moral perfection. Thus they brought upon themselves the penalty of sin: spiritual and physical death. We believe that these conditions—spiritual death, or the universal depravity of human nature, and mortality—have been transmitted to the entire human race, and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature that is inherently corrupt, and which cannot be spiritually changed by mere reformation apart from divine grace. (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:22-23, 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12)

CONCERNING SALVATION: We believe that salvation from sin and the ultimate consequences thereof is by grace through faith. Salvation is the free gift of God, neither merited nor secured in part or in whole by any virtue or work of man, but received only by repentance and personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This salvation affects the whole man, and apart from Christ there is no possible salvation.  (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 1:12; Titus 3:5; John 10:28; Philippians 1:6; Acts 4:12)

CONCERNING THE RETURN OF JESUS: We believe that, in God’s perfect timing, Jesus will return bodily and visibly to judge the world, to fulfill His redemptive purposes for mankind and all creation, and to establish the direct and visible rule of God in the world. (Revelation 19:11-16, 20:4-7; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 10:37)

CONCERNING the Afterlife: We believe that at death the souls of the redeemed are made perfect in holiness and enter into the presence of Christ, enjoying conscious fellowship with Him, there to await the resurrection of the body and, subsequently, an eternity of embodied bliss in the presence of God in the context of the New Heavens and the New Earth.  The spirits of the unsaved at death are kept until the final day of judgment, at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, they shall be judged, and cast into Hell, the state of final and everlasting punishment.  (I Corinthians 15; II Corinthians 5:8-10; Revelation 20:11-15)

CONCERNING THE CHURCH: We believe that the church can be spoken of in two distinct aspects. In one sense, the church is that one comprehensive body of the redeemed from all times and all places—both living and dead—who look to the Lord for their salvation. In another sense, a church is a local congregation of believers, of which there are many, who gather together to practice New Testament ordinances, to participate in worship, prayer, fellowship, teaching, and service, and to carry out the Great Commission.  The church, in both these aspects, is important, and both should be supported. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; Ephesians 1:22-23)

CONCERNING THE ORDINANCES: We believe that the ordinances given to the local church are two: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is a once-only act of conversion, the immersion of a believer in water, thus portraying the death, burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and publicly expressing the believer’s solidarity with Jesus. The Lord's Supper is the regular and repeated act of partaking of the bread and cup by the believer, patterned on Jesus’s Last Supper, as a continuing memorial of the crucified body and shed blood of Christ.  (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 8:38-39; Romans 6:3-4; I Corinthians 11:23-34; Matthew 26:26-38)

CONCERNING GOD’S INVOLVEMENT IN THE WORLD:  We believe that God is actively involved in the world today. God sustains the world in being, providentially caring for His creation through a variety of predictable processes He has set up within it—what are often called the regularities or laws of nature. At the same time, we believe that God has demonstrated a willingness to transcend these processes and that He sometimes acts in a more direct and miraculous fashion. As a result, while we are grateful for scientific advancement and accept such progress as part of God's unfolding plan, we believe it is appropriate to petition God for miraculous interventions as needed, so long as such interventions are in keeping with God’s character as revealed in the Bible and do not become distractions.  Such appropriate petitions include requests for the miraculous healing of both the physical and emotional health issues of human beings.  (James 5:14-15; Acts 28:8; Mark 6:13)

CONCERNING SECULAR GOVERNMENT: We believe that government is an institution approved by God. The lawful powers that be, while human and capable of error, are ordained by God as ministers of good to the governed.  It is a Christian’s duty, therefore, to honor secular authority, to seek its wellbeing through prayer, and to obey the laws of his land insofar as such obedience is consistent with his prior and ultimate commitment to God and to God’s Word. (Matthew 22:15-21; Romans 13:1-7; I Timothy 2:1-3)