FULL STATEMENT OF FAITH

WE BELIEVE:

1.  in one God, eternally existing in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Creator of all things; that He is infinite in all His perfections, all-knowing, all-powerful, unchangeable, and omnipresent; that He is sovereign over all things, and that He sustains all things by His power.  Genesis 1:1-3; Matthew 28:19; John 1:1-3; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 1:3-14.

2. That God created man in His own image, and in a state of innocence, and that Adam, our first ancestor, fell from grace and communion with God by his sin against God, and that as a result the image of God in man was corrupted,  and he and all his descendants suffered spiritual death, being separated from God, that all will suffer physical death as a result of sin, and that all are subject to the wrath of God. Genesis 1:26-31; 2:17; 3:6; 3:17-19; 3:23-24;  Isaiah 59:2; Romans 5:12; Hebrews 9:27.

3.That after the fall of all of mankind in Adam, God declared that He would send one who would destroy Satan and win victory over sin and death.  Genesis 3:15; 12:3.

4. That Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is Himself God, and He became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth; that He who is true God became true man united in one Person forever; that He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, and on the third day He was raised bodily from the dead, overcoming Satan, death and sin, that He ascended into heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He is our High Priest and only Mediator between God and men. John 1:1-2; 1:14; 20:25-28; Luke 1:34-35; 24:1-7; Romans 8:3; Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:14-16; 7:14-8:6.

5. That God the Holy Spirit has come forth from the Father and the Son to glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to our hearts; that He is of the same substance and equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son, and is to be believed in, loved, obeyed and worshiped; that He convicts us of sin, draws us to Christ, indwells our hearts, gives us new life, empowers and imparts gifts to us for service, instructs and guides us into all truth, and seals us for the day of redemption and resurrection of our bodies from death. John 14:16-17; 16:7-8; Romans 8:5-17; Ephesians 1:13-14.

6. That Jesus Christ will come again to the earth, personally, visibly, and bodily, and having been has given all power and judgment, will bodily resurrect and judge all mankind, and will consummate history and the eternal plan of God; that the righteous will enter the eternal state of blessedness in the presence of God,  but the wicked who have not placed their faith and trust in the death of Jesus Christ will be thrown into eternal torment and punishment with everlasting destruction away from the presence of God. Matthew 13:36-43; 25:31-46; Acts 1:11; 17:31; 1 Corinthians 15:20-56; Ephesians 1:10; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 5:1-10; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2 Timothy 4:1, 8;  Hebrews 9:27-28; 2 Peter 3:7; Revelation 20:11-15.

7. That a person can be reconciled to God only by a work of God’s free grace, through faith in Jesus Christ; that faith is wholly a gift of the grace of God; that no person will come to Christ for forgiveness apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit; and that only those who are born of the Holy Spirit and who receive Jesus Christ become children of God and heirs of eternal life.  John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5; Romans 5:15; Ephesians 1:4-6; 2:8-9.

8.That no person can be saved by his own works, for a person’s best works fail to meet God’s standard of righteousness, but that living in accord with the commands of God in Scripture are a mark of those who have been born again of the Spirit of God. Psalm 143:2; Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16.