2. Trinity

We believe that there is only One true and living God, an infinite, all-knowing Spirit, perfect and flawless in all of His attributes; One in essence, eternally existing in three Persons – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each are equally deserving of our worship and obedience [Deut 6:4; 1 Cor 8:4; Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14].

a. God the Father

We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, as the Creator, is the Father of all men [Eph 4:6], but is the spiritual Father of believers only [Rom 8:14; 2 Cor 6:18]. It is God the Father who chose from eternity past to send His Son to be a sacrifice for sins [Acts 2:23; 1 Pet 1:20].

b. God the Son

We believe that Jesus Christ is God, the second Person of the Trinity, who became a Man, born of a virgin and lived a sinless life [Matt 1:22; John 14:9; Heb 1:3; Phil 2:5-8; 1 Pet 2:22]. We believe in all of His miracles and in His willing, sacrificial and substitutionary death on the cross [Isa 53:4; John 10:15; Rom 5:8; 1 Pet 2:24]. We believe that He physically rose from the dead on the third day as the guarantee of our justification [Rom 1:4; 1 Cor 15:16-20], ascended to the right hand of the Father and is currently mediating as the Advocate and High Priest for His people [Acts 1:9; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1 John 2:1].

c. God the Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is God, the third Person of the Trinity, who convicts the world of sin [John 16:8], draws the sinner to Christ and baptizes the repentant sinner into the body of Christ at the time of conversion [2 Thess 2:13; 1 Cor 12:13]. We believe in the Spirit-filled life and that the Holy Spirit indwells, sanctifies, instructs, comforts, guides, empowers and seals all believers until the day of redemption [John 14:16, 26; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 1:22; 1 John 2:20]. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to every believer [1 Cor 12:18; 1 Pet 4:10]. These gifts are solely meant for the purposes of glorifying Christ [John 16:14], building up of the Church [1 Cor 14:12] and are to be exercised for the profit of all [1 Cor 12:7].

3. Angels

We believe that angels are created beings and hence are not to be worshiped [Matt 4:10; Col 2:18; Rev 19:10]. We believe that Satan is a created angel, originally created holy, but became evil by rebelling against God with several other angels and thereby incurred God’s judgment [Isa 14:12–17; Ezek 28:11–19]. We also believe that Satan, the unholy god of this age [2 Cor 4:4] who is presently deceiving people with his demons [2 Cor 11:13–15], has been defeated through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and in future will be eternally punished in the lake of fire along with his demons [Col 2:13–15; 1 John 3:8; Rom 16:20; Matt 25:41; Rev 20:7–10].

4. Creation

We believe the creation details as given in Genesis and also that man was a direct creation of God and not a product of evolution [Gen 1–2; John 1:3; Acts 17:24–26; Col 1:16–17; Heb 11:3].

5. Fall of Man

We believe that man was created in the image of God, holy and free of sin with intelligence and moral responsibility; that he willfully sinned, lost his innocence and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death which is separation from God [Gen 1:26–27; 3:6, 24]. We also believe that since that time, all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and when they reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word and actions [Eph 2:1–3; Rom 3:10–19, 5:12].

6. Salvation

We believe that the salvation of man is completely by God’s grace and is solely based on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We also believe that salvation is in no way contributed to nor accomplished by any merit or work of the individual [Eph 1:7; 2:8-10; Tit 3:5; 1 Pet 1:18-19]. We believe that salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the word of God [1 Pet 1:2; 22-23]. This occurs when the repentant sinner enabled by the Holy Spirit sees himself as a sinner who has offended a holy and a just God, desires to turn from his sins and by faith alone bows his knee to Jesus Christ and commits his entire life to Jesus Christ alone who now becomes his personal Lord and Savior [Acts 3:19; 11:18; Rom 10:9-10; Phil 2:10-11]. He then becomes a new person or is born-again [John 3:3; 2 Cor 5:17]. The converted or born-again person naturally bears fruit in keeping with the new-birth [Matt 3:8; 7:17-23; Eph 2:10].

We believe that salvation is a free offer made to all mankind and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth except his own rejection of the gospel [Matt 11:28; John 3:16, 6:37; Rom 1:18-20].

We also believe that since salvation is completely the work of the Lord, those who are saved are eternally kept by God’s power [1 Pet 1:5], secure in Christ forever [John 6:40; 10:28-29; Rom 8:1; 31-39] and will also persevere in the faith till the very end [Heb 10:39; 2 Tim 2:19; 1 John 2:19]. This assurance of salvation does not give a license to the Christian to lead a sinful life, but on the contrary enables the Christian to pursue a life of holiness with an attitude of love and gratitude to His Lord [Rom 6:1-22; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Pet 1:14-16] as he stays away from all kinds of sinful practices and associations [2 Cor 6:14–7:1; 2 Tim 3:1–5].

7. Church

We believe that Jesus Christ established His church [Matt 16:18], which is made up of all that have truly placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church, also called as the body and bride of Christ, has Christ only as its Head and obeys His word as found in the Bible. We believe the Scriptures clearly teach the establishment of local churches [Acts 14:23; 20:28; Phil 1:1] and that each believer should be actively involved in such a fellowship [Eph 4:12; Heb 10:25].

We believe that the teachings and functioning of the local Church is to be free from any external human authority or control and is led by elders (men, also known as pastors, bishops, overseers) that are assisted by deacons who fit the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:5-9 and 1 Peter 5:1-3. We also believe that it is biblical for like-minded churches to work together for the expansion of God’s kingdom.

We believe that the purpose of the Church is to; (a) Worship God through Christ [Eph 3:21]; (b) Preach and teach the whole counsel of God [Matt 28:20; Luke 24:46–48; Acts 20:27]; (c) Communicate the gospel to the entire world [Matt 28:19; Acts 1:8]; (d) Build up one another [Eph 4:13-16; Heb 10:24-25]; (e) Practice the ordinances of water baptism of new disciples by immersion [Matt 28:19; Acts 8:38] which is the outward sign of the inward new-birth [Rom 6:3-5] and partake in the Lord’s supper (after serious self examination) as a continual reminder of Christ’s death and His imminent return [Luke 22:19–20; 1 Cor 11:23-32].

8. Government

We believe that God establishes the local government and that we are to honor, pray for and submit to them except in those things opposed to the will of God as stated in Scriptures [Acts 4:19, 5:29; Rom 13:1-7; 1 Tim 2:2; 1 Pet 2:13-17].

9. Second Coming

We believe in the physical bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ as occurring in two phases; the first phase of His return, which can occur at any moment, is for taking His church to heaven [John 14:1–3; 1 Cor 15:51–53; 1 Thess 4:13–18]. After this event, there will be a period called the Tribulation when God will pour out His judgment on the earth. The second phase of His return will occur following this period of Tribulation when Christ will physically come to earth with all His saints to destroy all unbelievers and establish His kingdom on the earth for a thousand years [1 Cor 6:2; 2 Tim 2:12; Rev 20:4–6].

We believe that at the end of the thousand years, Satan and his demons will be cast into the eternal lake of fire called hell; that all who have not believed in Christ will stand before Him in judgment, called the Great White Throne Judgment, and as a result of their unforgiven sins will be committed forever to hell, which is a real and conscious place of torment and punishment [Rev 20:7–15; John 5:22; 28–29; Matt 25:41; 2 Thess 1:9]. We believe that after this judgment, the entire universe including earth will be destroyed by fire [2 Peter 3:10] and will be replaced with a new earth completely free of any sin or curse and a new heavenly city that will be a part of this earth [Rev 21–22]. We also believe that only those that have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation will live forever in this new heaven and new earth under the protection and care of the One God eternally existing in three Persons.