In general, we believe:
- in the One True Almighty God:
- Holy in all that God is and does;
- Perfect in all God's ways;
- Creator and Sustainer of the universe;
- Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient;
- desires to reveal God's-self through revelation to God's creation.
- in Jesus Christ, the Son of God:
- Eternal and has always existed with God;
- Incarnate, being both Man and God;
- Born of Mary;
- Died for our sins;
- Rose from the dead;
- Ascended to Heaven;
- Acts as our high-priest and intercessor;
- Will come back to earth again.
- in the Holy Spirit:
- Eternal and has always existed with God;
- Active and present in the world and in believers;
- Convinces the heart of sin,
- Regenerates those who repent and believe,
- Guides us to all Truth in Christ.
- that the bible:
- is divinely inspired by God;
- inerrantly reveals all things necessary for our salvation.
- that sin:
- is a violation of the commandment to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves;
- inherently separates us from God;
- ultimately leads to death;
- is not the same thing as a mistake or something done involuntarily;
- can be forgiven by repenting and believing in Christ through the power and regeneration of the Holy Spirit.
- that humanity:
- is naturally depraved;
- tends towards evil;
- is selfish by nature (which favors self above love of others);
- is incapable of saving itself;
- is capable of responding to the grace proffered by Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit moving within the hearts of each individual, whereby:
- the original nature is changed to a tendency towards good,
- is converted to loving by nature (favoring love of others above that which is selfish),
- and desires to see others regenerated in Christ.
Each of us may hold many and other beliefs, and we believe it is ultimately each believer's responsibility to come to a full and thorough understanding of their belief system and their faith so as to not only be able to present to another individual why we believe what we do, but so that their very faith is strong enough to withstand the obstacles thrown at us in this life. A faith with no foundation ultimately falls, and the foundation of faith is a firm understanding of why we believe what we believe.
Belief naturally follows generational lines: that is, we usually obtain our beliefs from our parents. But until we dig into those beliefs and determine why we believe them, those beliefs remain those of our parents – that is, those beliefs are not yet ours. Until they are ours, they will be easy to fell, and we will find it difficult to indicate to others why we believe what we believe.
Belief also follows from the church we attend: from the beliefs set forth from the denomination, from the leadership, and from the congregation around us. As with the beliefs of our parents, these beliefs are not ours until we dig into them to find out why we believe them.
It should never be viewed as sinful or wrong to question a belief. It is only by this very action that we can begin to understand why we hold a given belief; we must first ask the question “why?” In this process there will be beliefs that we determine to hold no truth for us, and there will be beliefs that we will continue to hold, while there may also beliefs that will require some sort of reconciliation in order to fit with what we perceive to be how things work. No matter what, we must always ask God for understanding so that we will not wander down paths that will lead us astray. That said, it is ultimately only those beliefs relating to salvation that are ultimately important – there are many secondary beliefs that we can all hold as believers (wrongly or rightly) that will not impact in any way our ultimate salvation.
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