Statement of Faith

Statement of Faith We believe in the inerrancy of the sixty-six books recognized as The Holy Bible since "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit"(II Peter 1:21, NKJV). "Every word of God is pure"(Proverbs 30:5). The entire Bible is centered upon Jesus Christ. As He once said , "You search the Scriptures…, and these are they which testify of Me"(John 5:39). We believe in the ineffable fact of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as seen in Isaiah 48:16, where the Messiah says, "And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit have sent Me." The Holy Trinity is disclosed in the scene of Jesus' baptism where reference is made to Jesus as He comes up from the water, to the Spirit of God who descends like a dove upon our Lord, and to God the Father as His voice is heard expressing His love and approval of the Christ. We believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ as prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 and recognized in Matthew 1:22,23. The undeniable fact that Isaiah recorded the prediction approximately seven centuries before Christ's first advent, and revealed that the Son who would be born (i.e., would be human) would be called "Immanuel"(i.e., would be God) is both wonderful and conclusive. We believe in the saving grace of Jesus' death on the cross, that we , "having now been justified by His blood,…shall be saved from wrath through Him"(Romans 5:9). "Now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself"(Hebrews 9:26). Further, we hold and proclaim: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved"(Acts 4:12). We believe in the gift of the Holy Spirit as God's promise to all who receive Christ, as told by the apostle Peter on the Christian's Day of Pentecost: "You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call"(Acts 2:38,39). This Holy Gift enables us to live the Christian life as our Lord intends since we "walk in the Spirit"(Galatians 5:16-25). We believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ as described in the Holy Record, and we recognize that this initiates the phenomenal process by which we who believe in Christ will be restored to bodily life in His image. Just as "there is a natural body" for the present, "there is a spiritual body" for eternity, as explained in I Corinthians 15:44. When the believer dies, he or she is "absent from the body" and "present with the Lord" in that very instant (see II Corinthians 5:8). The restoration of the body to the soul and spirit, however, comes later on that day of resurrection/translation which is described in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. We believe in the future second advent of Jesus Christ as foreseen by the apostle John and described in Revelation 19:11-16. With the redeemed of the ages following Him, He returns to defeat the works of Satan and unregenerate mankind, and to establish His kingdom on this earth.