God

God is the ultimate creator being. Everything in the universe exists because of and is sustained by Him. He knows everything, sees everything, is everywhere at the same time, is dependent on nothing and no one, and exists completely outside of the limits of time. He exists in three equally divine, mutually submissive, persons called the Trinity-the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit

Man

Man was created by God for God's pleasure and placed on earth to steward its resources. Man's ultimate purpose in life is to please God. Man receives the fullness of Joy when his life is given to the Glory of God. Although man was created in God's perfect image, beginning with the first man—Adam—and despite the enormous amount of protection and provision given to him by God, he chose to rebel against the commands of God. This severed the relationship between man and God resulting in sin entering into the world and mortality for man.

Eternity

Everyone spends eternity somewhere. Death for man is just an open door into eternity. Those who have been reconciled back to God by receiving Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord will spend eternity in a very real place called Heaven. Heaven is a place with no sin and is filled with all of God's splendor. Those who refuse God on earth, either passively or actively, will spend eternity in a very real place called Hell. Hell is completely void of God. The Bible explains Hell as a place of eternal suffering, torment, shame, guilt, and pain. Hell is the result of God's wrath that, because of His perfection, cannot co-exist with sin.

Jesus Christ

Jesus is one of the persons of God in the Trinity. He is fully God and at the same time became fully man, leaving His place at the right hand of God and coming to earth as a baby in a specific time period in history. He grew to be a man and lived a sinless life. He spent 3 years doing public ministry where He proclaimed the coming of God's Kingdom by teaching, healing the blind, lame, deaf, and sick as well as performing other miracles to prove his authority over everything. His ultimate mission in the world was to bridge the gap between God and man. He fulfilled this mission by suffering and dying on the cross as the substitute to the punishment that man deserved to endure. This satisfiesGod's wrath for those who receive and submit to Christ as their Savior and Lord. After three days of being completely dead, Jesus defeated death and sin by being raised back to life and appearing to many witnesses on earth before returning back to Heaven with God theFather. He is the only mediator by which man can be saved and have a right relationship with God.

Salvation

Salvation from sin and God's wrath cannot be achieved or earned by man's "good works." Good doesn't look so good in the light of a perfect God. Therefore, salvation can only be received, as the Bible says, by grace through faith. It is by God's grace (giving man something he doesn't deserve) that He sent his son, Jesus, to die for man to mend the relationship between God and man. Those who submit to Jesus as their Savior and Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead will be saved.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is given to those who receive Christ as their Savior. He is a person of the Trinity that exists to draw unbelievers to Christ and help those who are believers of Christ, either by conviction of wrong or encouragement in right. The Holy Spirit speaks to the believer in many different ways, but He is most often sensed through a nudge of the heart or conscience. He also equips believers for their role in the advancement of the Church.

Baptism

Baptism is an outward, physical symbol of an inward, spiritual transformation that has taken place in someone's life. The Bible instructs that Baptism is only necessary once and is the first step for a believer after Salvation. The Bible also gives no example of Baptism being anything other than by being fully immersed into water and brought back up, therefore this Church will practice believer baptism by immersion. Jesus also demonstrated and instructed this.

The Bible

The Bible is God's actual word to man and the ultimate authority on truth. It was written with no errors and no faults by imperfect men under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Bible consists of 66 books in what is called the Canon — the books that over time have been tested and approved to be the books that God wants his people to have as His Word to them. The Bible tells the story of God and man and how God reconciled man back to Him through His son Jesus (see beliefs on God, Man, Jesus Christ, and Salvation).

The Church

The Church is the only thing Jesus left behind for us. It is not a building or a service, rather a group of people who have professed Christ as their Savior and Lord. He established the Church as his "bride" and the way by which God will spread the message of Jesus Christ and reconciliation. God promises that he will build and sustain His church through Godly men and women. The church will always remain no matter what other institutions, empires, or kingdoms fall throughout history.

Marriage

We believe that because God our Creator established marriage as a sacred institution between one man and one woman, the idea that marriage is a covenant only between one man and one woman has been the traditional definition of marriage for all of human history (“Traditional Definition of Marriage”). Because of the longstanding importance of the Traditional Definition of Marriage to humans and their relationships and communities, and, most importantly, the fact that God has ordained that marriage be between one man and one woman, as clearly conveyed in God’s inerrantScriptures, including for example in Matthew 19:4-6 where in speaking about marriage Jesus referred to the fact that “he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,” the Church hereby creates this policy, which shall be known as the “MarriagePolicy.”

Under this Ministry’s Marriage Policy, the Traditional Definition of Marriage is the only definition of marriage that will be recognized or accepted. No officer, employee, servant, agent, or any person, corporation, organization, or entity under the direction or control of this Ministry shall commit any act or omission, or make any decision whatever, that would be inconsistent with, or that could be perceived by any person to be inconsistent with, full support of this Ministry’s Marriage Policy and strict adherence to the Traditional Definition of Marriage rather than any alternative to the Traditional Definition of Marriage.

This Ministry’s Marriage Policy specifically prohibits acts or omissions including but not limited to permitting any Church assets or property, whether real property, personal property, intangible property, or any property or asset of any kind that is subject to the direction or control of the Ministry, to be used in any manner that would be or could be perceived by any person to be inconsistent with this Ministry’s Marriage Policy or the Traditional Definition of Marriage, including but not limited to permitting any Ministry facilities to be used by any person, organization, corporation, or group that would or might use such facilities to convey, intentionally or by implication, what might be perceived as a favorable impression about any definition of marriage other than the Traditional Definition of Marriage.

We believe this Ministry’s Marriage Policy is based upon God’s will for human life as conveyed to us through the Holy Scriptures, upon which this Ministry has been founded and anchored, and this Marriage Policy shall not be subject to change through popular vote; referendum; prevailing opinion of members or the general public; influence of or interpretation by any government authority, agency, or official action; or legal developments on the local, state, or federal level.