Our faith is based on the Bible
DECLARATION OF FAITH
A statement of our core beliefs as a Christian fellowship
Considering the Bible as the complete and only divine revelation
– 2 Tim. 3:16—All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness.
– Rev. 22:18-19—I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this scroll; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this scroll.
– Col. 1:25—Of which I became a minister according to the commission of God, which was given to me for you, to complete the word of God.
– 2 Pet. 1:20-21—Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any one’s own interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
We firmly believe that God is eternally one and also eternally the Father, the Son and the Spirit, the three being distinct but not separate.
– 1 Cor. 8:4—Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.
– Deut. 6:4—Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one.
– Rev. 1:8—I am Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
– Rom. 9:5—Of whom are the fathers, and of whom, as regards things according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
– Heb. 1:8—But of the Son, “Your throne, O God, endures forever, and a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.” • Heb. 9:14—How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?
– Matt. 28:19—Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
– Isaiah 9:6—For to us a child is born, / to us a son is given, / and the government / is upon his shoulder; / and his name will be called / Wonderful, Counselor, / The mighty God, / The everlasting Father, / The Prince of Peace.
We hold that Christ is both the complete God and the perfect man. Without
abandoning His divinity, He was conceived in the womb of a human virgin,
lived a genuine human life on earth,
– Col. 2:9—For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
– 1 Pet. 2:22—Who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth.
– Romans 9:5—Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as pertains to the flesh, is Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
– Phil. 2:6-7—Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men. •
– Luke 1:35—And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born will be called the Son of God.
– Luke 1:31—And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
– Heb. 4:15—For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but one which in all points has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
And he died a vicarious, all-encompassing death on the cross.
– 2 Corinthians 5:21—He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.
– Romans 6:6—Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves.
– Hebrews 2:9—But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everything.
– John 12:24—Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
After three days he rose bodily and ascended into heaven. He is now in glory, fully God but still fully man.
– 1 Corinthians 15:4—And that he was buried, and that he was raised the third day according to the Scriptures.
– Luke 24:39—Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
– Mark 16:19—So the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
– Luke 24:26—Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
– 1 Timothy 2:5—For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
– Acts 7:56—And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.
We look forward to His imminent return with the kingdom of God, through which He will reign on earth for the millennium and for eternity.
– Heb. 10:37—“For yet a little while He who is coming will come, and will not tarry.”
– Rev. 22:20—He who testifies to these things says, Surely I am coming quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
– Rev. 3:11—I am coming quickly; hold fast that which you have, so that no one will take your crown.
– Matt. 16:28—Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
– Rev. 20:6—Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection; over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years. • Revelation 5:10—And You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign on the earth.
– Revelation 11:15—And the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.
We confess that the third of the Trinity, the Spirit, is equally God. All that the Father has and is, is expressed by the Son; and all that the Son has and is, is realized as Spirit.
– Acts 5:3-4—But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to deceive the Holy Spirit, to set apart for yourself some of the price of the land? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? and when it was sold, was it not under your authority? Why have you devised this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. John 4:24—God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.
– Col. 1:15—Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
– Col. 2:9—For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
– John 14:16-18—And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Helper, that he may be with you forever, 17 Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you.
– John 16:13-15—But when he, the Spirit of reality, comes, he will guide you into all reality; for he will not speak on his own, but what he hears he will speak; and he will show you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and show it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take of what is mine and show it to you.
We also believe that mankind is in need of God’s salvation. Although we were completely unable to meet the heavy demands of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory, Christ fulfilled all the requirements through His death on the cross. Through Christ’s death, God has forgiven us our sins, justified us by making Christ our righteousness, and reconciled us to Himself. On the basis of Christ’s redemption, God regenerates the redeemed with His Spirit to consummate His salvation so that they can become His children.
– Romans 3:23—For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
– 1 Kings 8:46a—If they have sinned against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy.
– 1 Tim. 2:4—Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
– Romans 7:22-23—For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
– Acts 15:10—Why then do you now test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
– Romans 8:3, 4a—For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh, 4a that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.
– Col. 2:14—Blotting out the handwriting written in the commandments, which was against us, which was contrary to us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
– Romans 3:24-25—Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to demonstrate his righteousness, in that in his forbearance God forgave the sins that were before.
– 1 Cor. 1:30—But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God—righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
– Romans 5:10—For if we, who were enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of
his Son, much more shall we be saved by his life, having been reconciled.
– Romans 5:18-19—Therefore, as through one trespass the condemnation of all men came to the condemnation of all men, even so through one righteous act the justification of life came to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.
– 1 Peter 1:3—Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
– John 1:12—But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.
Now, possessing the life and nature of God, believers enjoy daily salvation in His Body in this age and eternal salvation in the age to come and in eternity.
– 1 John 5:12: He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
– John 1:12: But to all who did receive Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
– 2 Peter 1:4: Through which He also gave to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
– Philippians 1:19: For I know that this will turn out for salvation to me through your petition and the abundant supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. – Heb. 5:9—And having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him .
– Mark 10:30—But now in this age he shall receive an hundredfold, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the age to come everlasting life.
– Rev. 22:1-2—And he shewed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out
of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the midst of it. 2 And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
In eternity we will dwell with God in the New Jerusalem, the fulfillment of God’s salvation for His elect.
– Revelation 21:2-3—And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
– Revelation 21:22—And I saw no temple in it: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.
– Revelation 3:12—He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; and I will write on him my new name.
– Revelation 21:7—He that overcometh shall inherit these things: and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
– Revelation 4:3—And he that sat was like unto a jasper stone, and like unto a sardonyx in appearance: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like unto an emerald in appearance.
– Revelation 21:18—And the building of the wall thereof was of jasper; and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
– John 4:14—But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.