WHAT WE ARE

We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is worthy to receive all glory and adoration. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Colossians 1:16-17, Psalm 33:10-11, 2 Corinthians 13:14)

We believe that God has inspired the words of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone constitute the Word of God, utterly authoritative, without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.(Psalm 12:6, Psalm 119, Matthew 24:35, 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to significant engagement in family, church, and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only normative pattern of sexual relations for men and women, serving as a type of union between Christ and his church. God ordains that men and women assume distinctive roles in marriage, which reflects the loving relationship between Christ and the church.

The husband exercises headship in submission to Christ and his word, in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Jesus, and the wife submits to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the church's ministry, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and be developed to their full potential. The distinctive leadership role of the elder within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation order and must not be sidelined by appeals to cultural developments. (Genesis 1-3, Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 Peter 3:1-7, Colossians 3:18-4:1, 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)

We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness – for himself and all his progeny – by falling into sin through Satan's temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being, and condemned to death apart from God's own gracious intervention. (Ephesians 2:1-3, 1 Corinthians 15:21, Romans 1:18-3:20)

We believe that from all eternity God determined in grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and to this end he foreknew them and chose them, all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer. (Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 1:3-14, Isaiah 46:9-10, Romans 9:11-18)

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this good news is Christological, centering on the cross and resurrection: the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central (the message is: “Christ died for our sins . . . [and] was raised”). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved). (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Romans 1:15-17, Ephesians 2:1-10)

We believe that, moved by love, the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven as our representative and substitute. On the cross, he canceled the debt of sin and reconciled to

God all those who believed. By his resurrection, Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death, defeated Satan, and brought everlasting life to all his people. By his ascension, he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else. (Romans 3:21-26, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9, Colossians 2:13-14)

We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified.

By his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins. By his perfect obedience, he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. (Romans 4:3-8, Romans 3:26, Galatians 2:16-17, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:1)

We believe that this salvation is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and, as "another Helper," is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with the Lord Jesus. We believe that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work in the New Testament are still at work today and are essential for effective ministry by both men and women. They are to be pursued earnestly, exercised lovingly, and in an orderly manner, in accordance with the teachings of Scripture, for the edification and equipping of the body for ministry. (Ephesians 5:18-21, John 16:4-15, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-21)

We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace. Living as salt in a decaying world and light in a dark world, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world nor become indistinguishable from it. Rather, we are to do good to the city, for all the glory and honor of the nations is to be offered up to the living God. (Mark 1:15, Luke 17:20-22, Romans 14:17, Revelation 12:10)

We believe that God's new covenant people is manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head.

The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her members' love for one another and for the world (Galatians 3-4, 1 Timothy 3:15, Ephesians 2:11-22, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Peter 2:4-12)

We believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal. They are God's pledge to us and our public submission to Christ. (Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Peter 3:21-22, Colossians 2:11-15, Mark 14:22-25, 1 Corinthians 11:23-27)

We believe in the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust to eternal conscious punishment in hell and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by

Christ, and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace. (Isaiah 65:17-25, Revelation 21, Romans 8:18-25, Hebrews 10:26-31)