God has made Himself known through His mighty acts of salvation (Exodus 6:7) and providence in the history of Israel (Ex. 3:14)  and through Jesus Christ (John 14:9). The Holy Bible is the true and faithful testimony to these historical acts and is the ultimate source of theological and moral authority in the Church (2 Tim. 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).      

Jesus redeems us through the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Luke 1:68-75; Matt. 1:21-23), who is God made Man (Phil. 2:5-11) and the only one through whom humanity can know God rightly and be saved from sin (John 14:5,6). Jesus alone is the only Savior of the world (Acts 4:8-12), because He alone is the incarnation of God – fully God (John 1:1-3) and fully human (Heb. 2:5-18). He was born through a miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:18,23), and lived a sinless life (Heb. 4:15) before freely choosing to give His life for the sins of the whole world (John 10:14-18; Heb. 4:7-9). Rising bodily from the grave (Acts 1:3), He overcame death making possible a new creation (Romans 6:1-14), ascended into heaven, to be enthroned at God’s right hand as our Intercessor (Heb. 7:25).      

The Holy Spirit (John 15:26,27) comes to dwell in us when we repent, believe and receive Christ as Lord (Acts 2:38). By the Holy Spirit, the truth of Christ (John 14:16,17), His faithfulness to God and His victory over death are applied to humanity and to our salvation (Acts 15:8).    

We believe the Bible to be the verbally inspired Word of God, without mistakes, as originally written.  It is the complete revelation of His will for salvation and the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for Christian life.

The Holy Trinity: One Substance (Deut. 6:4)  yet three distinct Persons (Matt. 28:19) – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). Faith in the Triune God rests upon the revelation and teaching of Jesus Christ and is guided by the ancient faith of the Church as expressed in the ancient councils.    

The image of God is the unique identifying mark of our human nature, for humanity was created by a special act in God’s work of creation by God’s will to make us in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26,27). However, through human unwillingness to trust in God’s goodness and our calamitous willful disobedience against God (Rom. 5:12), we became deeply fallen and hopelessly lost apart from God’s redeeming grace (Rom. 3:10-23).    

His offer of grace and salvation is a necessity for all who will be saved and is a possibility for each fallen person who bears the image of God through God’s love and enabling grace (John 3:16; Rom. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

Salvation begins by Him forgiving our sins (1 John 1:9) and justifying us through faith in Jesus and His death on the cross (Rom. 3:21-26). It continues as the transformation of our lives into the image of Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:20-24). God desires to fill us with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:17), and this fullness of the Spirit comes to us as a second act of God’s saving grace and occurs in us sometime after we have been born again by faith (Acts 2:1). The fullness of the Holy Spirit frees us from the dominating power of sinful desire (Gal. 5:16-26), purifies our hearts to love God whole-heartedly (Acts 15:8), empowers us to grow more deeply and consistently in grace and be more fruitful and effective in our service to God (Acts 1:8).  

The people of God are the Church – the living body of Christ (Eph. 5:25-32) – constituted by all who are united to Him by faith as members of His body. In all Christian traditions there are true disciples of Jesus. The Church is called upon to worship God, obey Christ, love one another, proclaim the gospel and witness to God’s justice, mercy and truth in the political, social, and economic needs of persons and cultures (Acts 2:41-47; Acts 4:32-37).  

The Return will usher in His Kingdom upon the earth in full righteousness and salvation at the end of this age (Rev. 11:15)  when Jesus Christ will return to renew all of creation (Rom. 8:18-25), gather His Church (Rev. 22), judge the world (Acts 17:31) and to rule in righteousness (Rev. 15:3,4).            

Blessing & judgment establishes finally and forever the blessedness of all who die in Christ (2 Cor. 5:1-10) and the everlasting pain and loss of all others (Matt. 25:41-46). Yet, we affirm that it is God’s desire that all should come to faith and be saved (2 Peter 3:9).