What I Believe

The Bible. I believe the Bible is the verbally inspired word of God without error in the original writings and of supreme and final authority in faith and life (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21).

The Godhead. I believe in one God, eternally existing in three different but equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

The Holy Spirit. I believe the person of the Holy Spirit existed eternally with the Father and the Son (John 15:26; Heb. 9:14), and during this present age regenerates those who believe, baptizes them into the body of Christ, and indwells them permanently (Titus 3:5; 1 Cor. 12:13).

The Person of Christ. I believe Jesus Christ existed eternally with the Father and is wholly God (John 1:1-3; 10:30), was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and is also wholly man (Matt. 1:20-23; 1 John 4:2).

The Saving Work of Christ. I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all people as a substitutionary sacrifice, and that He arose bodily from the grave, ascended into heaven, and presently ministers as High Priest for those who have trusted Him (1 Cor. 15:3-4; Heb. 4:14).

The Condition for Salvation. I believe that all human beings are sinners, and as such are separated from God and in need of salvation (Rom. 3:23; 5:12). I believe that salvation is a free gift of God’s grace provided for all in the saving work of Jesus Christ (John 3:16; 1 John 2:2), and that any who simply and only believe in His saving work, not in their own good works, effort, or merit, will receive the gift of eternal life (Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8-9).

The Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers. I believe that all believers are kept eternally secure by God’s power (John 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1, 29-39), and that every believer can have absolute assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word (John 5:24; 1 John 5:11-13) which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as a basis for sinful behavior (Rom. 6:1-2; Gal. 5:13).

The Return of Christ. I believe in the imminent, personal, pretribulational return of Christ to rapture out His church (1 Thes. 4:14-18; 5:9), and the premillennial return of Christ with His church to Earth to establish His kingdom (Rev. 19:11-16; 20:4-6).

The Angelic Realm. I believe God created angels originally holy (Ps. 148:2-5), but under the deceptive  leadership of the person of Satan (1 Pet. 5:8) some now exist in a fallen state as demons (Jude 6).

The Spiritual Gifts. I believe that God sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts as He pleases (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:7-11) and that such as speaking in tongues, functioned as apostolic sign gifts, and are no longer normative today, having fulfilled their intended purpose (1 Cor. 13:8; 14:22; 2 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:20; Heb. 2:3-4). We believe that God, according to His sovereign will, does hear and answer the prayer of faith for the sick and afflicted (John 15:7, James 5:14-15; 1 John 5:14-15).

The Nature of the Church. I believe that all believers in this present age are united with the invisible Church, the body of Christ, through faith in him as Savior (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18), having been placed into the body through the baptism of the Spirit (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27).

The Ordinances of the Church. I believe water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the two ordinances of the church to be observed by all believers.
I believe that those who have believed in Jesus Christ as Savior should be baptized by immersion (Acts 8:36-38) as a public identification with Christ and a testimony of the believer’s spiritual new-birth (Matt. 28:19; Acts 16:31-33).
I believe the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic remembrance of the death and resurrection of Christ which should be observed regularly by all believers who are walking in fellowship with Him (Luke 22:14-23; 1 Cor. 11:23-29).

The Eternal State. I believe that at death the souls of those who have trusted in Christ as Savior immediately pass into His presence (2 Cor.5:8; Phil. 1:23) and remain in conscious bliss until they are joined again with their bodies in resurrection, after which they shall be with the Lord forever (1 Cor. 15:50-53; 1 Thes. 4:16-17), and that the souls of unbelievers at death pass into conscious misery until the final judgment when they shall be rejoined with their bodies and cast into the lake of fire to be punished forever (Luke 16:19-28; 2 Thess. 1:8-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15).

 

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