WHAT WE BELIEVE
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God. This means we believe the Bible is written by men, but every word is from God. All scripture is without error in its original autographs, and today can be reproduced accurately through the discipline of textual criticism. We can trust that our Bibles are the very words of God. The 66 books of the Bible are alone the “Constitution” of Christianity, in that they are the highest rule of faith and sole authority on all matters they speak on. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Pet 1:20-21)
We believe that God is 3 individual persons that make up one being. Thus there is one God, but three persons that are individually God: God the Father (Matt 23:9; Eph 1:3; Luke 23:46) Jesus the Son (John 8:58; John 10:33; John 20:28) and the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3:17; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14).
We believe that Jesus died and rose again (Acts 2:23-24; Luke 24:26-27), and that if we put our faith in him we will be saved from eternal damnation and enter into eternal life in heaven instead of eternal judgment in hell (John 3:16; Luke 23:43; Matt 25:46; Matt 25:41). We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, not by works (Eph 2:8-9; Gal 2:16; Rom 3:28). We believe that without repentance there is no faith, in the sense that if someone does not “change their mind” about their sin, they cannot truly believe in Jesus for salvation (Acts 11:18. 2 Peter 3:9; Luke 13:3). This does not believe we must be perfect or clean up a certain amount of our sin before we can be Christians. It means that we recognize we have sinned and are willing to follow Christ, which means we are willing to obey Christ. Sinless perfection is impossible on this side of heaven (Jam 3:2; Phil 3:12; Rom 7:15-20).
We believe God commands us to live holy lives. While we still sin, we are to strive to obey Christ in all that we do. We believe that our love for Christ translates into obedience for Christ; the more we love Christ, the more we will obey Him (John 14:15; 1 John 5:2-3).