The Bible (Scripture) is God’s Word and consists of the sixty-six canonical books found in the Old and New Testaments. Each letter, work, or book as they are called is divinely inspired, the infallible Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts, and God’s complete, written revelation to humankind. The Bible is sufficient, necessary, and trustworthy for life, faith, conduct, and practice, and is the supreme and final authority in all matters to which it speaks. There is one true interpretation of Scripture, although there may be several applications. The meaning of each passage lies within the text and is that which the divinely-guided author willed to convey. Interpretation is attainable through a careful study method of historical, grammatical, and contextual understanding under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and within the community of Christ. The Holy Spirit illumines the text, enabling the reader to embrace the significance of what God has communicated, and to see the glory of Christ in the Word of God.
God created persons, male and female, in the image of God and free from sin. Against God’s direction, man chose to sin in the Garden and by his own choice all peoples have become sinners by nature at the instant of conception and are spiritually dead. Those that will repent of their own sins and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. In creation, God established marriage to be a lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Marriage so defined is the only permissible context for intimate sexual expression and is the foundation for human family. In the creation, God established human life as precious and must be protected from the moment of conception.
Salvation is the action of God in which He atones for the guilt of a sinner through Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection. Salvation is provided to a sinner by God’s free and sovereign gift of grace through the sinner’s act of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from any human merit, works, or even religious ritual. The consequence of salvation to a man, woman, or child are the acts of righteous living, good works, and proper social concern.
The Church is the spiritual body of which Christ is the head. Universally, it is located throughout the world, and locally, it is made up of individual churches. The true Church is composed of all persons who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. This body expresses itself in local assemblies whose members have been immersed by a credible confession of faith and have associated themselves for worship, for instruction, for evangelism, and for service. The local church administers the ordinances of believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. The local church is interdependent and participates in the mutual submission of believers to each other in Christ’s love. The local church is a self-governing body by function and must be free from interference by all ecclesiastical or political authority.
The task of the believer is to glorify God in their personal and public life with conduct that requires each to be blameless before the world. The Bible requires that each believer should be faithful stewards of their possessions and should seek to realize for themselves the full stature of maturity in Christ.
The Bible speaks of the second coming of Christ, of the bodily resurrection from the dead of every believer and unbeliever, of the eternal existence of all peoples, of the coming judgment God, and the consequence of those that are saved into Heaven and those that are lost into the eternal punishments of Hell.