What We Believe

The 66 books of the Bible, as originally given, are inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient as a foundation for life.

The infinite and holy God eternally exists in three persons identical in nature and perfection: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

In eternity past God freely established a plan that governs all things that have and will come to pass in His universe.

He upholds and governs all things with infinite power and wisdom.

God created humanity in His image, but our first parents rebelled against him and the guilt of Adam’s sin passed on to us so that we try to live under our own authority rather seeking God’s will and glory in all things.

We can do nothing on our own to restore our lost relationship with God.

Before the world began, God the Father determined to send God the Son to pay the penalty for our sin through his death on the cross.

God the Son came into the world through the virgin birth and, in a great mystery, his divine nature was united to a human nature in the single person, Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus lived a perfect life, died as our substitute, paying the penalty for our sin, and rose from the dead after three days so that we can have forgiveness by his grace.

God the Holy Spirit uses the Bible to convince people of their sin and need for forgiveness, and gives new spiritual life based on the life and death of Christ Jesus to all who believe.

All people may establish a relationship with God through faith in Christ Jesus.

The evidence of genuine faith in Christ Jesus is repentance of sin and ongoing commitment to the Lordship of Christ in every aspect of life.

Everyone who genuinely trusts Christ Jesus is eternally secure.

The local, or visible, church is the agency God has established to spread the good news of Christ Jesus and pass on the truth from generation to generation.

Christians are people set apart for God’s service and glory; as such, we must not cooperate with any religious organizations that compromise the truth of the Word of God.

Christ Jesus will take all genuine Christians home with him to heaven at the end of the church age (the rapture).

Following a seven-year period of judgment known as the Tribulation Period, Christ will return and establish a literal Kingdom on earth for 1,000 years.

Following Christ’s Kingdom on earth, all those who have rejected God’s grace will be condemned at the Great White Throne of Judgment and will experience eternal conscious punishment (hell).

God will also establish an eternal Kingdom in which all those who have trusted Christ will experience endless glory and joy (heaven).

We affirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured.

We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation.

We affirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the Father.

We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited.

We affirm that in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature.

We affirm that justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. In justification Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of God's perfect justice.

We deny that justification rests on any merit to be found in us, or upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's righteousness in us, or that an institution claiming to be a church that denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate church.

We affirm that because salvation is of God and has been accomplished by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify him always. We must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of God and for his glory alone.

We deny that we can properly glorify God if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either law or Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem or self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the gospel.

Adapted from the Cambridge Declaration, 1996