What I Believe: Doctrinal Statement 

There is but one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5–7; 1 Corinthians 8:4), an eternal (Revelation 1:8), infinite (Job 11:7–10), absolute Spirit (John 4:24), without parts (Exodus 3:14; 1 John 1:5; 4:8), perfect in all His attributes, including incomprehensibility (Romans 11:33), omniscience (1 John 3:20), omnipotence (Genesis 18:14), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7–10), immutability (Malachi 3:6), and aseity (Exodus 3:14; John 5:26). 

God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes of all things according to His purpose and grace (Psalm 145:8–9; 1 Corinthians 8:6). He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1:1–31; Ephesians 3:9). He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption (Psalm 103:19; Romans 11:36). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator, He is Father to all men (Ephesians 4:6), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18). He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events (1 Chronicles 29:11). In His sovereignty He is neither author nor approver of sin (Habakkuk 1:13; John 8:38–47), nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures (1 Peter 1:17). He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would save to be His people (Ephesians 1:4–6); He saves from sin all who come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ; He adopts as His own all those who come to Him and thereby becomes Father to them (John 1:12; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Hebrews 12:5–9). 

Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, is eternal God, coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father, possessing all the divine perfections (John 1:1; 10:30; 14:9). All creation came into being through the eternal Son (John 1:3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2) and is presently sustained by Him (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). The eternal Son, without altering His divine nature or surrendering any of the divine attributes, made Himself of no reputation by taking on a full human nature consubstantial with our own, yet without sin (Philippians 2:5–8; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary (Luke 1:35) and thus born of a woman (Galatians 4:4–5), so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were joined together in one person, without confusion, change, division, or separation. He is therefore very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the redemption of His people through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross. We teach that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (Isaiah 53:3–6; John 10:15, 18; Romans 3:24–25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24). His incarnation, Christ fully possessed His divine nature, attributes, and prerogatives (Colossians 2:9; cf. Luke 5:18–26; John 16:30; 20:28). However, in the state of His humiliation, He did not always fully express the glories of His majesty, concealing them behind the veil of His genuine humanity (Matthew 17:2; Mark 13:32; Philippians 2:5–8). According to His human nature, He acts in submission to the Father (John 4:34; 5:19, 30; 6:38) by the power of Holy Spirit (Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:1, 14), while, according to His divine nature, He acts by His authority and power as the eternal Son (John 1:14; cf. 2:11; 10:37–38; 14:10–11). Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the redemption of His people through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross. We teach that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (Isaiah 53:3–6; John 10:15, 18; Romans 3:24–25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24).  Justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and that He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes as our Advocate and High Priest (Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38–39; Acts 2:30–31; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:12–23; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1). 

The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is eternal God, coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3–4; 1 Corinthians 12:4–6; 2 Corinthians 13:14), possessing all the divine perfections, including eternality (Hebrews 9:14), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7–10), omniscience (Isaiah 40:13–14), omnipotence (Romans 15:13), and truth (John 16:13). he Holy Spirit is not merely a force or a power but a distinct divine person who thinks (1 Corinthians 2:10–13), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), speaks (Acts 28:25–26), and can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). The Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration (Titus 3:5), baptizing all believers into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit also indwells them (Romans 8:9), sanctifies them (2 Corinthians 3:18), instructs them (1 John 2:20, 27), empowers them for service (1 Corinthians 12:4, 9), and seals them unto the day of redemption (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to the church unto its edification (Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:4–11; 1 Corinthians 14:26). The Holy Spirit glorifies neither Himself nor His gifts by ostentatious displays (1 Corinthians 14:33), but He does glorify Christ (John 16:13–14) by applying His work of redemption to His people in regeneration and sanctification (2 Corinthians 3:18; Titus 3:5). 

God is one in essence (having one mind, one will, and one power), eternally existing in three coequal and consubstantial Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)—each uncreated and distinct, and each equally deserving worship and obedience. Therefore, we teach that the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding (John 5:26); the Son is eternally begotten of the Father (John 1:14; 1:18; 3:16; 5:26; cf. Psalm 2:7); and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son (John 15:26). 

The Bible is God’s written revelation to man, given by the Holy Spirit, and constitutes the Word of God. The plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture is that every word is equally breathed out by God in all its parts (1 Corinthians 2:7–14; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20–21). 

The Word of God is an objective, propositional revelation (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 2:13), infallible (John 10:35), and absolutely inerrant in the original documents, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit (Psalm 12:6; 119:160; Proverbs 30:5). 

The Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice and is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses (Matthew 5:18; 24:35; John 10:35; 16:12–13; 17:17; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20–21). 

God spoke in His written Word by a process of dual authorship. The Holy Spirit so superintended the human authors that, through their individual personalities and different styles of writing, they composed and recorded God’s Word to man (2 Peter 1:20–21) without error in the whole or in the part (Matthew 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16). 

Salvation is of God by grace alone based on the redemption of Jesus Christ—the merits both of His life of perfect righteousness and His atoning blood—and not based on human merits or works (John 1:12; Romans 5:18–19; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8–10; 1 Peter 1:18–19).Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Himself, which He offered up to God through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14; 10:14), has fully satisfied the justice of God (Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 4:10), propitiated the wrath of God (Romans 3:25–26; cf. 1:18), procured reconciliation (Romans 5:10), and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven (Hebrews 9:15), for all those the Father has given to Him (John 6:39; 10:14–15, 28–29; 17:2, 9, 24). Regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which a renewed nature and spiritual life are given (John 3:3–7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5). It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God (John 5:24; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23). As a result of this divine illumination (2 Corinthians 4:6), the repentant sinner, so enabled by the Holy Spirit, responds in faith in Christ (1 John 5:1). 

Every believer is sanctified (set apart) unto God at conversion, declared to be holy, and is therefore identified as a saint. This sanctification is positional and instantaneous and should not be confused with progressive sanctification. This sanctification has to do with the believer’s standing, not his present walk or condition (Acts 20:32; 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30; 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 2:11; 3:1; 10:10, 14; 13:12; 1 Peter 1:2).  By the work of the Holy Spirit, a progressive sanctification by which the state of the believer is brought into greater conformity with the standing the believer positionally enjoys through justification. Through obedience to the Word of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the believer can live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ (John 17:17, 19; Romans 6:1–22; 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–4; 5:23).  Every saved person is involved in a daily conflict—the new creation in Christ doing battle against the flesh—but adequate provision is made for victory through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The struggle nevertheless stays with the believer all through this earthly life and is not completely ended until he sees Christ face to face. All claims to the eradication of sin in this life are unscriptural. Eradication of sin is not possible, but the Holy Spirit does provide for victory over sin (Galatians 5:16–25; Ephesians 4:22–24; Philippians 3:12; Colossians 3:9–10; 1 Peter 1:14–16; 1 John 3:2–9).