The Bible
We believe that the Scriptures, in the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are inspired of God. It was written by human authors, under the supernatural guidance of the Holy spirit and error-free in the original writings. It is the supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Exodus 24:4; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalm 19:7-10; 119:11; Isaiah 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:26, 36; Luke 21:23; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 17:17; Acts 1:16; 2:16, 42; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:24-25; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 3:16.
We believe that all the Scriptures from first to last center on our Lord Jesus Christ and were designed for our practical instruction. Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; Acts 17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; 28:23; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
God
We believe in one living, sovereign, and all-glorious God, eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (commonly referred to as the Trinity); and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. He is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29; John 1:1-18, 10:30; Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 5:3,4; Mark 12:26, 36; Mark 13:11; Acts 1:16; 2:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14.
THE FATHER
The Father is the first Person of the Trinity who orders and directs all things according to His own purpose, pleasure and grace. He has decreed all things that come to pass for His own glory. He graciously involves Himself in the affairs of men, hears and answers prayer, and saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Matthew 6:9; John 5:19-24; Ephesians 1:3-6.
THE SON
Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Trinity. We believe that in the fullness of time God sent forth His eternal Son as Jesus the Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. We believe that, when the eternal Son became flesh, He took on a fully human nature, so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one Person, without confusion or mixture. Thus the Person, Jesus Christ, was and is truly God and truly man, yet one Christ and the only Mediator between God and man. We believe that Jesus Christ lived without sin, though He endured the common infirmities and temptations of human life. He preached and taught with truth and authority unparalleled in human history. He worked miracles, demonstrating His divine right and power over all creation: dispatching demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, stilling the storm, walking on water, multiplying loaves, and foreknowing what would befall Him and His disciples, including the betrayal of Judas and the denial, restoration, and eventual martyrdom of Peter. We believe that His life was governed by His Father‘s providence with a view to fulfilling all Old Testament prophecies concerning the One who was to come, such as the Seed of the woman, the Prophet like Moses, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Son of David, and the Suffering Servant. We believe that Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily in fulfillment of God‘s redemptive plan, that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, that He died, was buried and on the third day rose from the dead to vindicate the saving work of His life and death and to take His place as the invincible, everlasting Lord of glory. During forty days after His resurrection, He gave many compelling evidences of His bodily resurrection and then ascended bodily into heaven, where He is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for His people on the basis of His all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and reigning until He puts all His enemies under His feet.
The Saving Work of Christ – We believe that by His perfect obedience to God and by His suffering and death as the immaculate Lamb of God, Jesus Christ obtained forgiveness of sins and the gift of perfect righteousness for all who trusted in God prior to the cross and all who would trust in Christ thereafter. Through living a perfect life and dying in our place, the just for the unjust, Christ absorbed our punishment, appeased the wrath of God against us, vindicated the righteousness of God in our justification, and removed the condemnation of the law against us. We believe that the atonement of Christ for sin warrants and impels a universal offering of the gospel to all persons, so that to every person it may be truly said, ―God gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. Whosoever will may come for cleansing at this fountain, and whoever does come, Jesus will not cast out. Matthew 1:22-23; John 1:1-5, 14-18, 14:10-30; Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:3-4, 3:24-26; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Timothy 6:14-15; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Hebrews 2:17-18; Romans 3:24-26; Colossians 2:9.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity who executes the will of God with relation to all mankind. We believe that the Holy Spirit has always been at work in the world, sharing in the work of creation, awakening faith in the remnant of God‘s people, performing signs and wonders, giving triumphs in battle, empowering the preaching of prophets and inspiring the writing of Scripture. Yet, when Christ had made atonement for sin, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He inaugurated a new era of the Spirit by pouring out the promise of the Father on His Church. We believe that the newness of this era is marked by the unprecedented mission of the Spirit to glorify the crucified and risen Christ. This He does by giving the disciples of Jesus greater power to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, by opening the hearts of hearers that they might see Christ and believe, by revealing the beauty of Christ in His Word and transforming His people from glory to glory, and by manifesting Himself in spiritual gifts for the edification of the church.
We believe that, apart from the effectual work of the Spirit, no one would come to faith, because all are dead in trespasses and sins; that they are hostile to God, and morally unable to submit to God or please Him, because the pleasures of sin appear greater than the pleasures of God. Thus, for God‘s elect, the Spirit triumphs over all resistance, wakens the dead, removes blindness, and manifests Christ in such a compellingly beautiful way through the Gospel that He becomes irresistibly attractive to the regenerate heart. We believe the Holy Spirit does this saving work in connection with the presentation of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. Thus neither the work of the Father in election, nor the work of the Son in atonement, nor the work of the Spirit in regeneration is a hindrance or discouragement to the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples and persons everywhere. On the contrary, this divine saving work of the Trinity is the warrant and the ground of our hope that our evangelization is not in vain in the Lord. The Spirit binds His saving work to the gospel of Christ, because His aim is to glorify the Christ of the Gospel. Therefore we do not believe that there is salvation through any other means than through receiving the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, except that infants and severely mentally disabled persons with minds physically incapable of comprehending the gospel may be saved. John 14:16-17, 16:7-15; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 13; Ephesians 1:13-14, 5:18; Galatians 5:16-25, 2 Corinthians 3:17; Acts 1:8.
THE NATURE OF MAN
We believe that man (male and female) was directly created in the image of God to enjoy His fellowship and to fulfill God’s will on this earth. We believe that, as the head of the human race, Adam‘s fall became the fall of all his posterity, in such a way that corruption, guilt, death, and condemnation belong properly to every person; that is, in Adam, all mankind fell into sin by the disobeying of God and seeking knowledge beyond what God had originally given; consequently all men are spiritually dead and subject to the certainty of both physical and spiritual death apart from Jesus Christ. The fall of man was a once-for-all historical fact. Sin’s spiritually deadening effect spread to all men, each of whom is born with a sinful nature. Man can do nothing to merit salvation. all the adversity and suffering in the world is an echo and a witness of the exceedingly great evil of moral depravity in the heart of mankind; and every new day of life is a God-given, merciful reprieve from imminent judgment, pointing to repentance. Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7, 17; 3:1-24; 6:5; Psalm 14: 1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:18-32; 3:9-23; 5:12-21; 1 John 3:8; Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:1-9.