Welcome to our Membership 101 Core Beliefs Class
(all members are expected to attend before they become members, and occasionally on their own afterwards as they feel the need, after they become members)
What we believe about...
- GOD -
There is one and only one living and true God...The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes, but without division of
nature, essence, or being.
- GOD THE FATHER -
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace... God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
- GOD THE SON -
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary... He honored the divine law by His personal abedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
- GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT -
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God...He exalts Christ. he convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment...He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
- THE SCRIPTURES -
The Holy Bible was written by man divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation of Himself to man... It has God for it's author, salvation for it's end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for it's matter... The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.
- SALVATION -
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In it's broadest sense salvationi includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
- GOD'S PURPOSE OF GRACE -
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners... All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.
- THE CHURCH -
A New Testament Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covernant in the faith and fellowship of the gosped...and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth...This church is an autonomous body...The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
- BAPTISM & THE LORD'S SUPPER -
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water.... It is an act of abedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members...memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
- THE KINGDOM -
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the nuiverse and his particular kinship over the men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvatioin into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ... The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
- THE LORD'S DAY -
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day... It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion.
- MAN -
Man was created by the special act God, in his own image, and is the crowning work of his creation... By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race... The sacredness of human personality is evident therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
- FAMILY -
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society... Marriage in the unitying of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime... The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people... Children, from the moment of conception are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
- EVANGELISM & MISSIONS -
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations...to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.
-STEWARDSHIP -
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.
- RELIGIOUS LIBERTY -
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
- EDUCATION -
The cause of education in the kingdom of Christ is to co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence...there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility... The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
- THE CHRISTIAN & SOCIAL ORDER -
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and human society. The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness and vice.
- COOPERATION -
Christ's people should organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations.
- LAST THINGS -
God, in His own time, in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly...the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in the righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell... The rightious will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
