CREATION

God created and sustains the heavens and the earth, which display God’s glory. Formed in the image of God, both male and female, humankind is entrusted with the care of God’s creation as faithful stewards. As a result of human rebellion, sin and death entered the world, distorting the image of God and all of God’s good creation. Angels were created as supernatural beings to worship and serve God. Along with Satan, some angels chose to rebel and oppose the purposes of God. Christ gives believers victory over Satan and these demons.

SALVATION

Salvation is available to all people by the loving, redemptive act of the triune God.  Through obedience to the Father, Christ gave himself as a ransom.  Christ, who had no sin, became sin for us offering himself and shedding his blood on the cross so that in him we might become right with God. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ provide the way of salvation for those who, by God’s grace, repent from their sin and confess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Salvation means to receive the Spirit, to be forgiven, reconciled with God and others, born again, and liberated from sin and darkness, transferring the believer into God’s kingdom. Our experience of liberation includes healing — whether spiritual, physical, emotional, or mental — as a foretaste of our future, complete restoration. Those who remain in Christ and do not turn away are assured of salvation on judgment day by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

SPIRIT BAPTISM

On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus poured out the promised Holy Spirit on the church. As his return draws near, Jesus continues to baptize in the Holy Spirit those who are believers. This empowers them to continue his work of proclaiming with speech and action the good news of the arrival and coming of the kingdom of God. This experience is available for everyone, male and female, of every age, status, and ethnicity. The sign of speaking in tongues indicates that believers have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and signifies the nature of Spirit baptism as empowering our communication, to be his witnesses with speech and action as we continue to pray in the Spirit.

THE CHURCH

Jesus Christ is the head of the church. All who are united with Christ are joined by the Spirit to his body. Each local church is an expression of the universal church whose role is to participate in the mission of God to restore all things. Central to the church is the shared experience of the transforming presence of God. The church responds with worship, prayer, proclamation, discipleship, and fellowship, including the practices of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism by immersion symbolizes the believer’s identification with Christ in his death and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper symbolizes Christ’s body and blood, and our communion as believers. Shared together, it proclaims his death in anticipation of his return. The Spirit gives all gifts to the church to minister to others in love for the purpose of bearing witness to Christ and for the building up of the church. The Spirit also empowers leaders, both female and male, to equip the church to fulfill its mission and purposes.

RESTORATION

Our great hope is for the imminent return of Christ in the air to receive his own, both the living who will be transformed, and the dead in Christ who will be resurrected bodily. Christ will complete at his second coming the restoration begun when he initiated God's kingdom at his first coming. Christ will liberate creation from the curse, fulfill God’s covenant to Israel, and defeat all powers that oppose God. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Ultimately, God will judge the living and the dead. Such judgment is God’s gracious answer to humanity’s cry for justice to prevail throughout the earth and is consistent with God’s character as loving, holy, and just. The unredeemed will go away into eternal punishment, but the redeemed into eternal life. The redeemed will enjoy the presence of God where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!