We believe and teach . . . 

  • God created our world and the entire universe in six normal, 24 hours days by the power of his almighty Word. 

  • God created human beings as the crown of his creation, and determined how we should live. “Love the Lord your God with all your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27). 

  • God demands that we give him perfect obedience in all that we think, do, and say. “Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)

  • There is only one true God, who has made himself known as the triune God, one God in three persons. This fact about the person of God is beyond all human understanding. “Hear, O , the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)

  • We have all completely failed to be and do what God requires of us, and he has every right to punish us now and forever for our sin and rebellion against him. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23a) “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6)

  • It is impossible for people to make up for their sins or to gain God’s favor by their “good” lives or their own “good” works. God has made it clear that no one will be forgiven or get to heaven based on one’s own accomplishments. “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law.’” (Galatians 3:10) “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his [God’s] sight by observing the law.” (Romans 3:20)

  • God is love, and in his mercy he does not desire to condemn or punish sinners, but instead wants to save them from the curse of their sin. For that reason he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to save us - not by telling us what to do – but by actually doing it for us as our personal substitute. He perfectly kept God’s law for us in our place. He took our sin upon himself and paid its penalty of death for us by his death on the cross. He is our Savior. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) “Christ dies for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

  • Jesus Christ is both true God and true man in one person – fully God and fully human. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1, 14)

  • When Jesus died on the cross he paid for the sins of all people. “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)

  • Jesus physically rose from the dead on the third day. Death and the grave had no power over him. This fact assures us that he is the true Son of God and that his payment for our sin was complete. We are forgiven. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:25)

  • Our forgiveness and eternal salvation are not something we earn or deserve. God gives it to us purely because he loves us, because of his grace. This free gift is our through faith in Jesus as our Savior. “For it by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8, 9)

  • Saving faith or trust in Jesus Christ is not something we can create or choose for ourselves. It too is a gift of God.   God the Holy Spirit works miraculously in our hearts to bring us to faith in Jesus. “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

  • The Holy Spirit uses the good news of Jesus (the gospel) to bring us to saving faith in Jesus. The gospel comes to us in verbal form (the Bible) and in tangible form (the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion) to create and strengthen saving trust in Christ. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5) “Take eat; this is my body . . . Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26, 28)

  • Out of love and thanks to God for his salvation, and to give him honor, glory, and praise, we want to gather for regular worship and lead God-pleasing lives according to his holy Word. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of god’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” (Romans 12:1)

  • All these truths are clearly set forth for us in the Bible, which is God’s own Word to us. God gave his Word to human writers through the miracle of verbal inspiration, in which he gave the writers the exact words to write. Because the Bible is God’s inspired Word, it has no mistakes or errors in it, and is true in everything that it says. “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Peter 1:21)”Your word is truth.”