FAITH

1.  The Bible is the Word of God and teaches us the truth about God, ourselves and our world.

 

2.  There is one God who exists in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

3.  God created mankind, male and female, to worship, develop, and enjoy creation, forever. Our first parents, however, betrayed God’s love and loyalty, making themselves, and all of their progeny, sinful, alienated, without hope. We sin because we are sinners.

 

4.  But God the Father, who is rich in mercy, chose to redeem his wayward people. God the Son, who took on flesh, lived and died as a substitute for his people. He rose from the dead, secured eternal forgiveness for believers, sent his followers to proclaim the gospel, and is working to make all things new. God the Spirit applies the work of the Father and Son to us by making our hearts new, convicting us of our sin, comforting us with the gospel, and renewing us to live for Christ and His kingdom.

 

5.  No person has the ability or desire to merit God’s forgiving mercy. Trusting in what Christ has done, which is only possible as God bestows, is the only way to be in relationship with God.

 

6.  Though we continue to struggle with our old nature, God does not cast us away. Rather, as a good father, He continues to expose us, convict us, challenge us, forgive us, and grow us. Those whom God saves, he saves. Therefore, we can have the assurance and security of His unbroken promises.

 

7.  Trusting in Christ is not a “once-in-a-lifetime” occasion; it is our new nature. We grow in Christ when daily we remember the gospel, turn from sin, and trust in God’s forgiving mercy. God sets his people apart for moral renovation, privately and publicly.

 

8.  At death, believers enter immediately into the presence of God where they will await the Day where all injustice, sin, evil, pain, and suffering will be judged. Those who are in Christ will be raised in honor, those who are in Adam will be raised in dishonor.

 

9.  God has given the Church to gather and grow followers of Christ. The Lord instituted two sacraments, or sacred signs, called Baptism and the Supper, visible depictions of God’s gospel, and rightly accompanied by the preaching of God’s word. Baptism is a sign of God's covenant with His people, Christ’s cleansing work, and the Spirit’s blessing of salvation.  It is rightly administered once to believers and their children. The Supper, or communion, is a sign of God’s work through Christ for salvation. In the Supper, Christ’s spirit is with his people, reminding and renewing them in his finished work, their perpetual need of the gospel, and other followers of Jesus.

 

10.  Jesus Christ will return to earth and will bring history to a close and fulfill the eternal plan of God. Until then, followers of Jesus continue to announce, promote, and live as committed participants in God’s work to redeem His world.