HUMAN CONDITION:
We believe that God created mankind in His own
image and for His own glory as the crowning work of His
creation. However, man sinned against God and thereby incurred not only
physical death but also spiritual death which is separation from
God. This spiritual death has been transmitted to the entire human race
(except for Jesus Christ) with the result that every person is born with
a sinful nature that rebels against God and is under condemnation.
SALVATION:
We believe salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who place trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation included regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
Justification, is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
Sanctification, is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue through the regenerate person's life.
Glorification, is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
GOD'S PURPOSE OF GRACE:
We believe election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. 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. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgements on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
THE CHURCH:
We believe in the one, universal Church made up of all who have trusted in Christ, who is the Head of the Church, which is His body. We also believe in the local church, which is an autonomous, local congregation of baptized believers who gather for worship, teaching, spiritual growth, service, fellowship and observance of the ordinances of baptism and communion. The local church operates under the Lordship of Christ and is governed by elders who are assisted by deacons. It grows as each partner serves the body using the spiritual gifts given to them by the Holy Spirit, resulting in maturity, unity, and glory to God. Christ has commissioned the church and its individual partners to spread the Gospel throughout the world.
BAPTISM & THE LORD'S SUPPER:
We believe that the Lord Jesus has given the local church two ordinances: baptism and communion. We believe in believers baptism. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church members and the Lord's supper. Likewise, believers should regularly partake in communion as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's death and as a testimony of our fellowship and our unity as the body of Christ.
THE LAST DAYS:
We believe that at God's appointed time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly to the earth and establish His kingdom. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the believers and unbelievers. At final judgement, those who rejected Jesus Christ (unbelievers) will be separated from God forever in Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. Believers, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and live in God's glorious presence as they worship and serve Him forever.
THE FAMILY:
We believe God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage can only be the uniting of one man and one women in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church to provide for the man and the women in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image.
The marriage models the way God related to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
Children from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle an example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.