I believe in God the Father, His only Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit -- One God in three persons.

GOD

God is the eternal sovereign being of all creation. God has neither beginning nor end. God is indescribable, yet people try desperately to grasp the infinite magnitude that is the Holy One. God's essence is the definition of holiness, love, power, knowledge, strength, compassion, justice, grace, perfection, mercy, forgiveness, honor, integrity, and every good thing that can be named -- and every good thing that cannot be described. God is good.

JESUS

Since God cannot be comprehended by humanity, without his intervention, we would be doomed to live in ignorance of the ultimate sovereign. Yet, thankfully God intervened. He spoke his holy Word into existence and "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."1 "Wherefore, God hath also highly exalted him, [The Word] and given him a name which is above every other name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."2
Jesus is the active living agent of the Sovereign God who took on human flesh and revealed God to humanity. He is fully God and fully human. During his life on earth, he lived without sin. Because he was blameless, when he was betrayed by humanity and crucified on a Roman cross, God counted his undeserved death as a sacrificial offering that could eradicate the sins of all people who would believe in faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus completed a substitutionary atonement for the sins of all humanity. Through his death, forgiveness is given to all who "shall call upon the name of the Lord."3
Yet death was not the end for Jesus, nor is it the end for those of us who believe in him. God, through his mighty power, called his Son from the dead. Jesus was resurrected by the sovereign will of God. Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, those who believe in him will also live eternally. This eternal life is spiritual and physical in nature. Immediately after we die, believers' souls are present with the Lord. However, our salvation also will be physical in nature when God, through Christ, redeems our bodies from death and raises us up to live forever with incorruptible bodies.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the ultimate revelation of God.

HOLY SPIRIT

Until the time when Jesus returns to fulfill our hope, he has given us the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit accompanies believers throughout eternity (which exists now). The Holy Spirit guides, consoles, instructs, convicts, intercedes, empowers, emboldens, moves, strengthens, and equips us for life in God. When we commune with the Holy Spirit, we commune with God, for "God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."4

The Holy Spirit directs us to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the ultimate revelation of God.

THE BIBLE

The Bible is God's holy Word recorded through the agency of the Holy Spirit who revealed the concepts to humanity and then "holy men of God spoke [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost."5 The Bible has as its object the incarnation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (who is the ultimate revelation of God) and it leads us perfectly to faith in him. The Bible is perfectly dependable for all faith in God since "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."6

THE CHURCH

The church is the collection of all people who have believed in Jesus Christ throughout all of the ages. They are moved by God to faith in Jesus and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the Day of Redemption.7 As such, this group has an intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are adopted as children of God. We are considered the Bride of Christ. We are the redeemed of the Lord.

As recipients of this grace, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is called and empowered, by the Holy Spirit, to live a holy life unto the glory of God.

PRAYER

Prayer is the act of spiritual, mental, and physical meditation used by the Christian to communicate with God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In our prayers, Jesus intercedes for us with God and the Holy Spirit directs our spirits to pray as we ought. Prayer is not so much an individual activity as it is a state of being. While prayer takes a variety of forms and accomplishes many goals, it is at its very essence, communication with God.


1. John 1:14
2. Philippians 2:9-11
3. Romans 10:13
4. John 4:24
5. 1 Peter 1:21
6. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
7. Ephesians 4:30