What we Believe

The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are God’s complete, written revelation to humanity. Every word is inspired by God, completely true, without error, and free from falsehood. For God’s revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit still speaks today. The Bible is the supreme authority for our faith, standing above all human wisdom and tradition.

We believe in one God who exists eternally in three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe God is eternal, the creator of all things, all powerful, all knowing, present everywhere, never changing His nature, and always loving. He is active in His creation now, controlling and sustaining it. The Father was neither made, nor created, nor begotten from anyone. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man without ceasing to be God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived a perfectly sinless life, died on the cross as a substitute sacrifice for our sins, and physically rose from the dead. He returned to heaven and acts as our intercessor before God. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, brings new life to believers, lives inside every believer, guides us into truth, and gives us spiritual gifts to build up the church.

God created humanity, male and female, in His image and with free will to bring glory to His name. However, because of Adam’s first disobedience, a corrupt, sinful nature was passed to the entire human race. Jesus Christ, being fully God and fully man, is the only person to ever live a sinless life. The rest of humanity is alienated from God, faces the penalty of spiritual and physical death, and is completely unable to choose God or save themselves without His divine grace.

Salvation is a free gift of God. It cannot be earned. It is received only by personal faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. By His sacrifice, He bore in our place 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. Our salvation is anchored entirely in God’s grace from beginning to end, rather than our own works. We believe that all the redeemed are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever. Believers have freedom to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation. However, God’s Word clearly forbids using Christian liberty or grace as a license to sin.

Sanctification is the process where God sets the believer apart for His glory. As the believer relies on the Holy Spirit, they are given the power to overcome sin and live a holy life. While we are not perfectly sinless in this life, a true believer will grow in obedience to God’s Word.

We believe the Holy Spirit applies the salvation secured by Christ to His people. Sent by the Father and Son, the Spirit glorifies Jesus and is present in believers as the other advocate (Helper). He convicts the world of sin and regenerates spiritually dead sinners, bringing them to repentance and faith, thereby uniting them to Christ and justifying them before God by grace alone through faith alone. By the Spirit, believers are renewed, sanctified, adopted, share in the divine nature, and receive spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service, serving as the down payment of our promised inheritance.

The Gospel is the good news that God—the loving Creator, sovereign King, and holy Judge of all—has looked with mercy upon humanity. Though we were wonderfully and uniquely made in His image, we rebelled against Him, became separated from Him, and deserve death. In response, God sent His Son, Jesus, who is God in the flesh and the long-awaited King. Jesus lived a perfect and powerful life, died a sacrificial and substitutionary death, and rose from the grave in victory over sin, Satan, and death. Therefore, the Gospel is a summons from God for all people in all nations to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, turning from all idols to declare allegiance to Jesus alone as King and trust in Jesus alone as Lord. All who have not put their trust in Jesus Christ will experience everlasting, horrifying suffering in hell, while all who trust in Jesus will experience everlasting, satisfying communion with God in heaven.

The Church is the unified spiritual body of all born-again believers. Christ established the Church to glorify God by making disciples in every nation, tribe, people, and language. Because billions remain unreached and separated from God, we are committed to joyfully advancing the gospel to the hardest-to-reach places in the world, at any cost required of us.

Jesus commanded His church to observe two practices: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Communion). These practices do not save us, but they are essential steps of Christian obedience. Baptism is a public declaration of faith and an outward sign of an inward transformation symbolizing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is to be administered to those who have made a personal commitment to follow Christ, serving as a public declaration of their faith. The Lord’s Supper is an act to remember Christ’s sacrifice that He instituted on the night He was betrayed. It is a means of grace through which we reflect on Christ’s sacrifice, affirm our faith in His presence, and strengthen our unity as a body of believers.

We believe in the imminent and glorious return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He will return visibly, audibly, and in power to gather His people and to judge the living and the dead. His return will bring about the final victory over sin and death, establishing justice, righteousness, and the definitive fulfillment of God’s kingdom on earth. There will be a bodily resurrection of all people. The saved will receive eternal life, and those who have rejected Christ will face everlasting punishment. In light of His promised return, we are called to live in a state of readiness, faithfulness, and evangelism. We look forward to the day when Christ will return and make all things new, bringing to completion the hope that sustains us.

Satan is a real, fallen angelic being who actively opposes God and His purposes. He seeks to deceive, tempt and destroy; working to lead people away from the truth of God’s Word. However, he was completely defeated by Christ’s death and resurrection, and his ultimate destiny is eternal punishment. In light of this truth, we are called to resist Satan, stand firm in our faith and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome temptation.

God wonderfully creates each person as male or female in His own image. As part of God’s good design, He has made clear distinctions between men and women that pertain to their bodies and their complementary roles. We affirm that gender is a gift from God given for our good, and it should be gladly embraced. Because of how God has created us, it is neither possible nor desirable to change our biological gender.

God intends for men and women to complement each other in a one-flesh union. We believe marriage is defined only as the exclusive, lifelong union of one biological man and one biological woman and thus cannot exist between individuals of the same gender or between more than one man and one woman. This marital union serves as a picture of the relationship between Christ and His church. God ordains that intimate sexual activity is to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other. All sexual activity outside of this biblical definition of marriage—including adultery, homosexuality, and all other expressions of sexual immorality—is prohibited by Scripture. However, God offers mercy, redemption, and restoration to anyone who confesses and repents of their sin through Jesus Christ.

God is the author of life and all life, even life conceived in the womb, is precious to Him. Jesus Himself spoke of how precious children are, and we believe all unborn children are precious in His sight.