CONFESSION
OF FAITH

We believe there is one true and living God, the Creator, Redeemer, and Sovereign Ruler over all things. God is self-existent and infinite in being and perfection. He is one God eternally existing in one essence and three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God, yet there is only one God.

We believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in God the Son, Jesus Christ, eternally begotten but not made. All things came into being through him. He was before all things, and in Him, all things hold together. He took on a human nature for the sake of our salvation. He, therefore, is fully God and fully man. He suffered, died, was buried, resurrected, ascended, and sits at the right hand of the Father until He returns for the final judgment and consummation of the Kingdom. We believe in the Holy Spirit who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit unites believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth, and dwells within Christians. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son who, in turn, came to glorify the Father.

Gen 1:1; Exo 3:14; Deut 6:4; Jer 10:10; Matt 28:19; John 1:1–18; 15:26; 1 Cor 15:1–5; Eph 1:13–14; Phil 2:5–11; Col 1:15–20; Heb 1:1–3

We believe that God has made Himself known generally in creation and specifically in His Son, the incarnate Word, and Scripture, the inspired Word. The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments that make up the Bible were written by divinely inspired men under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is infallible, inerrant, and the final authority for Christian beliefs and living. It is necessary for knowing and responding to the message of salvation, as it reveals Jesus Christ and His redemption.

Ps 19:1–11; Luke 24:44–46; 2 Tim 3:15–17; Heb 1:1–2

We believe that all humanity—male and female—was created in the image of God and possesses intrinsic dignity and worth. All men and all women are meant to represent God in His creation. God’s good design establishes the distinction between men and women, and in the covenant of marriage, they complement one another in a one-flesh union. This covenant commitment establishes the only God-ordained pattern of sexual relations for men and women. Through the temptation of Satan, the first humans willfully transgressed the command of God and fell from their holy and happy state. Now all humanity inherits a corrupt nature that is opposed to God and his law. Therefore, humanity is under condemnation. 

Gen 1:27–30; 3:1–19; Ps 8:3–6; Rom 3:10–23; 5:12; Eph 5:22–33

We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. It is freely given to all who believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and respond through repentance and faith. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Salvation includes God’s grace in election and regeneration, in which God imparts new life to a spiritually dead person. God justifies believers through the sinless life, atoning death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus willingly substituted himself to bear the penalty for sin, and therefore, through the sinner’s faith, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Jesus to the believer. Thus, the believer enters a relationship of peace with God and union with Christ. Salvation continues through progressive sanctification, in which God enables the believer to grow in moral and spiritual maturity by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The final glorious result of salvation is that the believer will share eternal life with God in the new heavens and new earth.

Gen 3:15; Mark 1:15; Rom 3:23–25; 5:1; 8:29–30; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:1–10; Phil 1:6; Tit 3:5; Rev 21:1–4

We believe that God creates the church by His Spirit through His Word. Followers of Jesus who have responded to the gospel make up the church. They join together as a local body of baptized believers, covenanted in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, to glorify God by gathering under the preaching of God’s Word, observing the two ordinances of Christ as taught in Scripture, submitting to the authority of God’s Word, practicing the accountability of fellow believers, and working to carry out the mission of making disciples. Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

Matt 16:15–19; 28:18–20; Acts 2:41–47; 1 Cor 12:12–27; 1 Tim 3:1–15

We believe there are two ordinances of the church: believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Water baptism is only intended for those who have received the saving benefits of Christ through the new birth of the Holy Spirit. In obedience to Christ’s command, believers are immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a testimony of faith in Christ for salvation and a symbol of the believer’s union to Christ in His death and resurrection. It signifies that a former way of life has been put to death and vividly depicts the release from the mastery of Satan, sin, and death. The Lord’s Supper is for those who have genuinely trusted in Christ. It is a regular reminder of Christ’s work on the believer’s behalf. The Lord’s Supper symbolizes the atoning work of Christ in the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood. It is also an anticipatory act that should be observed until the Lord returns as a continual proclamation of the death of Christ and as a foretaste of the wedding banquet to come.

Matt 26:26–29; 28:19–20; Rom 6:3–5; 1 Cor 11:23–26; Col 2:12–13

Matt 16:15–19; 28:18–20; Acts 2:41–47; 1 Cor 12:12–27; 1 Tim 3:1–15

We believe God will bring the world to His intended end. The consummation of all things includes the future, physical, visible, personal, and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the glorification of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. In the consummation, Satan and all those outside of Christ will be separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal punishment. The righteous, in glorious bodies, will live and reign with Christ forever. The eager expectation of creation will be fulfilled, and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God. 

Luke 21:27–28; Acts 1:11; 1 Cor 15:24–28; 35–58; Phil 3:20–21; Rev 20:1–22:13