The Scriptures: The Holy Bible is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. God is its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without error, for its content (2 Tim 3:16-17).
God: There is only one living and true God. He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and while having distinct personal attributes, He is without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father: God as Father reigns over His universe, His creatures, and stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son: Christ is the Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men.
God the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man: Man was created by God in His own image. By free choice man sinned and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image and in that Christ died for mankind; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation: The sole condition for receiving everlasting life is faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died a substitutionary death on the cross for man’s sin and rose bodily from the dead (John 3:16-18; 6:47; Acts 16:31).
Faith: Faith is the conviction that something is true. To believe in Jesus (“he who believes in Me has everlasting life”) is to be convinced that He guarantees everlasting life to all who simply believe in Him for it (John 4:14; 5:24; 6:47; 11:26; 1 Tim 1:16).
No act of obedience, preceding or following faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, such as commitment to obey, sorrow for sin, turning from one’s sin, baptism or submission to the Lordship of Christ, may be added to, or considered part of, faith as a condition for receiving everlasting life (Rom 4:5; Gal 2:16; Titus 3:5). This saving transaction between God and the sinner is simply the giving and receiving of a free gift (Eph 2:8-9; John 4:10; Rev 22:17).
Assurance: Assurance of everlasting life is certainty that one is eternally secure simply by faith in Jesus. Assurance of everlasting life is based only on the promise God makes in His Word that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ alone possesses everlasting life (John 5:24; 1 John 5:9-13). Good works, which can and should follow regeneration, are not necessary for a person to have assurance of everlasting life (Eph 2:10; Titus 3:8). Assurance is of the essence of believing in Jesus for everlasting life. That is, as long as a person believes in Jesus for everlasting life, he knows he has everlasting life (John 5:24; 6:35; 47; 11:27; 1 John 5:9-13).
Motivation: The believer is assured of everlasting life and is thus eternally secure, since that life is guaranteed by the Lord Jesus Christ to all who believe in Him, and is based upon His substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection (John 10:28-29; Rom 8:38-39). Therefore, it is inconsistent with the gospel and with Scripture to seek to gain or keep everlasting life by man’s goodness. The Scriptures, however, do present several motivations for obedience in the Christian life.
- A powerful motivation for living the Christian life is gratitude to God for saving us by His grace (Rom 12:1-2; 2 Cor 5:14-15; Gal 2:20 ).
- Believers should also be motivated by the knowledge that their heavenly Father both blesses obedience and disciplines disobedience in His children (Heb 12:3-11; Lev 26:1-45). God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that he also reaps (Gal 6:7).
- Every Christian must stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, not to determine his eternal destiny, for that is already set, but to assess the quality of his Christian life on earth (2 Cor 5:10; Rev 22:12). Anticipating either reward or loss of reward at the Judgment Seat should also motivate believers to perseverance and to faithfulness to God’s revealed will (1 Cor 3:10-17, 9:24 -27; Jas 5:8-9; 1 John 2:28). One’s capacity to glorify Jesus will forever be based on how faithful he was in his stewardship in this life (Luke 19:17, 19, 22-26).
Discipleship: The ultimate goal of the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer’s life is to produce spiritual maturity reflected in consistent Christlike behavior and attitudes (Gal 5:22-25; Luke 14:25-33; Col 1:23-29). Therefore, obedience to the Word of God, while not necessary for obtaining everlasting life, is the essential responsibility of each Christian (Rom 6:12-23; Heb 5:13-14; 1 Cor 2:14–3:4). However, the Bible does not teach that this obedience will be manifested in all believers. If a believer does not yield to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in his experience, failure will result, evidenced by sinful acts or even prolonged disobedience (1 Cor 10:1-13; Gal 5:16-21).
The Church: A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. The Church seeks to deliver the gospel to the ends of the earth and is an autonomous body. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed.
Evangelism & Missions: It is the duty of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations and to seek to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.
Baptism & the Lord’s Supper: Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the life and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
The Lord’s Day: The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in worship and spiritual devotion.
Stewardship: God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debt to the world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents and material possessions.
The Christian: Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in human society. The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness and vice.
Family: God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Marriage is the unity of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are created in the image of God. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.
Last Things: God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly. The dead will be raised and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. The righteous will dwell forever in the new Heaven and new Earth with the Lord.
