God
We believe that there is only one true and living God, the creator and sustainer of all things. He is infinite, eternal, unchangeable. We believe God is revealed to us in the Godhead existent in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. These three are all one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfection, and are thus worthy of the exact same homage, confidence, and obedience (Genesis 1:1; Ephesians 1:3–6, 13–14; Matthew 28:9; Philippians 1:5–8; John 1:1, 3, 14, 18; Isaiah 9:6).
God the Father
The first person of the Trinity is God the Father, who orders all things according to his own purpose and grace and who continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events for his own glory. All people are called the offspring of God (Acts 17:29); therefore, there is a sense in which God is the father of all people as their creator. However, spiritually, God is the father only of those who believe in Christ (Galatians 3:26).
God the Son
Jesus Christ, the Son, is the second person of the Trinity. He possesses all of the divine attributes of and is thus coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial with the Father. The Son is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, born of a virgin in the fullness of time. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross to redeem man from sin, rose from the dead to provide justification for every believer, and ascended to the right hand of God, where he presently intercedes for all believers. He will again, in the fullness of the Father’s time, return in visible, triumphant, bodily form to overthrow sin, judge the world, and establish his kingdom in its consummated manifestation.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Spirit possesses all of the divine attributes of the Father and the Son and is therefore coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial with them. The Spirit is sent from God to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, cleanse, and secure us from sin. He is the indwelling guide, teacher, and strengthener of the believer.
Humans and Sin
We believe that humans were created in innocence by God for the purpose of fellowship with God and glory for God. Humans were tempted by Satan and sinned. Because of this, all people have been born in sin since that time and are by nature children of wrath. Sin is most basically rebellion against God and the end of sin is eternal separation from God (Genesis 1:26–27; Romans 5:12; Revelation 20:10; Isaiah 14:12–17).
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, verbally inspired Word of God, infallible as originally given by God. The Bible’s absolute truth and trustworthiness extend equally to all parts of the writings—historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetic—and thus constitute our only standard of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16–17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20–21; Matthew 5:18).
Salvation
We believe that Jesus Christ is the only savior from sin. He provided forgiveness and atonement from our sins on the cross and rose again to provide life and justification. Apart from Christ, there is no salvation. All people are under condemnation through personal sin, and deliverance from condemnation comes only by the righteousness of Christ, not human merit. This righteousness is bestowed upon or credited to the believer by grace through faith. The Spirit regenerates or gives new life to the one who makes this life commitment to Jesus, and that person is kept by God’s grace forever. This salvation is complete in Heaven, where the believer—as a resurrected, glorified body—will spend eternity reigning and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; Ephesians 2:8–9; John 3:16–19, 5:24, 6:47, 10:28–30; 1 John 3:2–3).
The Church
We believe that the Church is a unique organism composed of individuals who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as savior. The Church began on the day of Pentecost and will continue until Jesus returns. We believe that the Church exists in both a universal aspect, as the Body of Christ, and in a local assembly of believers (Colossians 1:18; Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 4:32–35; Ephesians 4:11–16).
Angelic Beings
We believe that God created an order of spirit beings, known as angels, before the formation of the world for the purpose of worshipping and serving him. We believe angels possess individual personalities and are intelligent, powerful, and inferior to God but superior to humankind. We believe Lucifer was one of the highest in rank of all the angelic beings in eternity past, but he sinned through pride and rebelled against God, thereby becoming Satan. We believe Satan’s proclaimed purpose is to oppose the plan of God. In carrying out his work, we believe Satan is aided by other fallen angels, known as demons or evil spirits. We believe there are unfallen angels, known as elect or holy angels, who carry out the will of God by ministering to people (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:6, 14; 2 Peter 2:11; Isaiah 14:12–15; 1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:12).
Death and Resurrection
We believe that death involves no loss of consciousness but that the soul of the redeemed passes immediately into the presence of Christ and that there is separation of soul and body until the resurrection of the dead, when the spirit, soul, and resurrected body will be reunited in glorified form in heaven forever. Thus, we believe in the bodily resurrection of all people, the saved to everlasting life but the lost who are not in Christ Jesus unto eternal condemnation (Revelation 6:9–17; 20:6, 13–15; Philippians 1:23; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5:8).