ARTICLES OF FAITH

There is one true and living God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is personal, transcendent, and the sovereign Creator of all things.

Jesus is the Son of God and by Him all things were created. Fully human and fully God, He is God’s only begotten son. Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. While on Earth, Christ lived a sinless life, was full of grace and truth, performed good deeds and miracles, and taught the words of life. He was crucified, died a substitutionary atoning death, and His body was resurrected. Christ ascended into heaven, now intercedes for us, and will return to judge the living and the dead.

The Holy Spirit came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, put forth righteousness and judgment, regenerate, sanctify, and empower in ministry all who believe in Christ. The Holy Spirit draws people to Christ, and indwells believers as an abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. He enables Christians to live a Godly life, reveals the Word of God, and empowers believers through the exercise of all Biblical gifts of the Spirit as reflected through the fruit of the same Spirit.

All people are sinners by nature, separated from God and responsible for their own sin. However, salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin and accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all his or her sins are forgiven and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.

All people are born sinners and alienated from God. But those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with their heart that God raised him from the dead, shall be saved. Those who do so are born again, having been justified by faith in the shed blood of Christ. By God’s grace we are saved through faith.

Both the saved and the lost shall be resurrected; the saved will be resurrected to life and the lost resurrected to damnation.

All believers should be water baptized in obedience to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ as a sign of their spiritual death, burial, and resurrection unto the new life in Christ.

The Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, being the final authority on matters of faith, theology, doctrine, and conduct.

There is a universal Church of Jesus Christ. All believers are part of that Church. Christians are called to regularly assemble together in local expressions of that universal Church for worship, fellowship, instruction, observing the ordinances of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper and engaging in good works.

The worship of God should be spiritual, so we remain flexible and yielded to the Holy Spirit to direct our worship. Worship should also be inspirational, so we give a great place to music in our worship. Worship should also be intelligent, so our services place great emphasis on the teaching of the Word of God that He may instruct us how He would be worshipped. Worship of God is fruitful, so we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we have been truly worshipping Him.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second greatest commandment is to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. The true basis of Christian Fellowship is His love (agape), which is greater than any differences we possess and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians.

Christians are commanded, and predestined, to perform good works which glorify the Father.

Christians are to live lives that are holy because God is holy. Therefore, believers are to repent from their sin, resist temptation, and conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with the character of God, in whom they are to represent.

Marriage has been ordained by God and is the exclusive covenantal union between a man and a woman in which such union is a lifetime commitment. A civil government’s sanction of a union will be recognized as a legitimate marriage by the Church only to the extent that it is consistent with the definition of “marriage” found in these Articles.

Legitimate sexual relations are exercised solely within marriage. Hence, sexual relations outside of marriage (referred to in the New Testament as “porneia”) including but not limited to, adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, and pedophilia are inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible and the Church. Further, lasciviousness, transgender behavior, and the creation or distribution or viewing of pornography, are incompatible with the biblical witness.