BELIEFS
Statement of Faith
Our Statement of Faith puts forth a concise and clear declaration of what we believe as a church based on God’s revelation to us in the Scriptures. This document is not an exhaustive explanation of our beliefs, but it highlights and summarizes beliefs we deem as essential to membership of this local body and faithfulness to our Lord. We joyfully stand alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the ages in affirming the Apostles’ Creed (2nd Century), the Nicene Creed (325 and 381), the New Hampshire Confession (1853), and the Baptist Faith and Message (2000).
1. God - We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This one true and living God is infinitely perfect both in His love and in His holiness. From nothing, He created all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and worship. Immortal and eternal, He perfectly and completely knows the end from the beginning, sustains and rules over all things, and brings about His eternal good purposes to choose and redeem a people for Himself and restore His fallen creation, to the praise of His glorious grace. From eternity, God sovereignly decrees or permits all things that happen and continually upholds and governs all creatures and all events. Yet, God is in no way the author or approver of sin, nor does He destroy the will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.
2. Revelation - God has revealed His existence and power in the created order and has supremely revealed Himself to fallen human beings in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Moreover, God has graciously revealed Himself in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, which are both record and means of His saving work in the world. These writings alone constitute the inspired Word of God, which is authoritative and without error in the original writings. They contain complete revelation of God’s will for salvation and are sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do; the Word is final in authority over every domain of knowledge to which it speaks.
3. Humanity - We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in His own image. Adam and Eve belonged to the created order that God Himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agents to care for, manage, and govern creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their Maker. 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 move beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement in family, church, and civic life.
4. The Fall - We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessing by choosing to sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result of our sin nature inherited from Adam, all human beings are alienated from God. Having been born into corruption, all have therefore sinned and are due condemnation and death apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need of all human beings is to be reconciled to the God under whose just and holy wrath we stand; the only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to Himself.
5. God’s Plan - We believe that from all eternity God has chosen and purposed in grace to save guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation. This sovereign work is not based on foreseen merit or faith on the part of sinners, but is based upon God’s infinite wisdom and grace. We believe that God saves those He chooses, who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that He will one day glorify them—to the praise of His glorious grace. In love, God commands and implores all people to repent and believe.
6. Redemption through Christ (The Gospel) - We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to His Father, the eternal Son became human: fully God and fully human, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed His heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. He now is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising authority in heaven and on earth, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in Him we might be counted righteous before God; bearing sin on the cross, He canceled the penalty of that sin, reconciling to God all those who believe. By His resurrection, Christ Jesus 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 given us the confident hope of one day being with Him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else. We believe that this gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s grace as His gift of unmerited favor to sinners in Christ.
7. The Holy Spirit - Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by His powerful and mysterious work brings to spiritual life spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, baptizing them into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
8. Faith & Repentance – We believe, based on God's authority, everything written in the Bible concerning Christ, accepting and resting upon Him alone for salvation. The gift of saving faith is given by the Holy Spirit, is accompanied by all other saving graces, and leads to a life of holiness. We deny that the Bible presents any means of salvation other than God’s gracious adoption of sinners in Christ. We believe repentance follows from the mind- and heart-changing work of the Holy Spirit, which leads to regeneration and faith. It involves godly sorrow for, and detestation of, sin, and a desire to lead a life pleasing to God.
9. The Christian Walk - Those who have been made alive in Christ are also transformed into His likeness by God's Word and Spirit living in them. This sanctification is progressive through the strength God supplies, as all believers press on towards faithfulness, obedience, and joy in all God’s commands.
10. Perseverance of Believers - We believe that salvation is a work fully accomplished by God. All those whom God has chosen will neither totally nor finally lose their salvation but will persevere to the end and be saved forever. Though believers may sin through neglect and temptation, they will be renewed again to repentance and be kept by the power of God through faith for salvation.
11. The Kingdom of God - We believe that those who have been saved enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins; the inward transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and obey God; and the prospect of the glory yet to be revealed. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and light in a world that is dark, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it; rather, we are to do good, to the glory of God.
12. The Church - We believe in the universal church of which Christ is the Head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe the universal church is expressed in local churches, consisting of a company of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, discipleship, and fellowship. We believe the Bible defines the leadership of the church, under the authority of Christ, as elder-led, deacon-served, and congregationally ruled. According to God’s good design, faithful Christians will become part of a local church.
13. Baptism - We believe that baptism is a joyous response and public act of obedience to signify and celebrate the personal saving work of God. Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus, wherein the believer is immersed in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a sign of fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ. It symbolizes the cleansing of sins through the gracious sacrificial atonement of Jesus. And it demonstrates godly surrender to live and walk in newness of life and of unity with the local church.
14. The Lord’s Supper - The Lord's Supper is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus, to be administered with the elements of the bread and the cup, and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world. As a remembrance of the body and blood of Christ, it is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith, and to be a bond, pledge, and renewal of believers’ communion with Him.
15. Marriage and the Family - We believe that 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 is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. God has appointed differing and complementary roles for them within the home and the church. The marriage relationship models the union between Christ and His church. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, protect, and 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. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to teach their children the Bible, and through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
16. The Restoration of All Things - We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He will exercise His role as final Judge, and His kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal punishment, and the just to eternal joy in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son, in the new heaven and the new earth.