What We Believe…

The Scrip­ture
God
Man
Jesus Christ
Sal­va­tion
Holy Spirit
Eter­nal Secu­rity
The Res­ur­rec­tion of the Dead
Bap­tism and the Lord’s Sup­per
The Church

The Scrip­ture

The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Tes­ta­ments.  It was uniquely, ver­bally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and was writ­ten with­out error in the orig­i­nal man­u­script.  It is the supreme and final author­ity in faith and life in every age.

II Tim­o­thy 3:16 [show] All Scrip­ture is breathed out by God and prof­itable for teach­ing, for reproof, for cor­rec­tion, and for train­ing in right­eous­ness, (ESV)

II Peter 1:20 – 21 [show] know­ing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scrip­ture comes from someone’s own inter­pre­ta­tion. For no prophecy was ever pro­duced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were car­ried along by the Holy Spirit. (ESV)

Mark 13:31 [show] Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (ESV)

John 8:31 – 32 [show] So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my dis­ci­ples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV)

John 20:31 [show] but these are writ­ten so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believ­ing you may have life in his name. (ESV)

Acts 20:32 [show] And now I com­mend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inher­i­tance among all those who are sanc­ti­fied. (ESV)

God

There is but one God, infi­nite in power, wis­dom, jus­tice, good­ness and love, the Cre­ator of the uni­verse, eter­nally exist­ing in three per­sons –Father, Son and Holy Spirit — each of whom pos­sesses all the attrib­utes of Deity and the char­ac­ter­is­tics of personality.

Luke 10:21 – 22 [show] In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid­den these things from the wise and under­stand­ing and revealed them to lit­tle chil­dren; yes, Father, for such was your gra­cious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any­one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (ESV)

Matthew 23:9 [show] And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. (ESV)

John 3:16 [show] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that who­ever believes in him should not per­ish but have eter­nal life. (ESV)

John 6:27 [show] Do not labor for the food that per­ishes, but for the food that endures to eter­nal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (ESV)

Romans 1:7 [show] To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Romans 1:19 – 20 [show] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invis­i­ble attrib­utes, namely, his eter­nal power and divine nature, have been clearly per­ceived, ever since the cre­ation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are with­out excuse. (ESV)

Eph­esians 4:5 – 6 [show] one Lord, one faith, one bap­tism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (ESV)

I Tim­o­thy 1:1 – 2 [show] Paul, an apos­tle of Christ Jesus by com­mand of God our Sav­ior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Tim­o­thy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)

I Peter 1:3 [show] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Accord­ing to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a liv­ing hope through the res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ from the dead, (ESV)

Rev­e­la­tion 1:6 [show] and made us a king­dom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and domin­ion for­ever and ever. Amen. (ESV)

Man

God cre­ated man in His own image, and man, as he was orig­i­nally cre­ated, was inno­cent before God.  But man chose to sin by dis­obey­ing God, and there­fore was alien­ated from his Cre­ator and came under divine con­dem­na­tion.  Thus all human beings are born with a cor­rupted nature and with­out spir­i­tual life, and are totally inca­pable of pleas­ing God in and of themselves.

Gen­e­sis 1:26 – 27 [show] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our like­ness. And let them have domin­ion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heav­ens and over the live­stock and over all the earth and over every creep­ing thing that creeps on the earth.“ So God cre­ated man in his own image, in the image of God he cre­ated him; male and female he cre­ated them.

Gen­e­sis 2:7 [show] then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nos­trils the breath of life, and the man became a liv­ing crea­ture. (ESV)

Gen­e­sis 3:3 – 4 [show] but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the gar­den, nei­ther shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the ser­pent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (ESV)

Isa­iah 53:6 [show] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniq­uity of us all.

Isa­iah 64:6 [show] We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our right­eous deeds are like a pol­luted gar­ment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniq­ui­ties, like the wind, take us away.

Romans 1:18 – 32 [show] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungod­li­ness and unright­eous­ness of men, who by their unright­eous­ness sup­press the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invis­i­ble attrib­utes, namely, his eter­nal power and divine nature, have been clearly per­ceived, ever since the cre­ation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are with­out excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their think­ing, and their fool­ish hearts were dark­ened. Claim­ing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immor­tal God for images resem­bling mor­tal man and birds and ani­mals and creep­ing things. There­fore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impu­rity, to the dis­hon­or­ing of their bod­ies among them­selves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and wor­shiped and served the crea­ture rather than the Cre­ator, who is blessed for­ever! Amen. For this rea­son God gave them up to dis­hon­or­able pas­sions. For their women exchanged nat­ural rela­tions for those that are con­trary to nature; and the men like­wise gave up nat­ural rela­tions with women and were con­sumed with pas­sion for one another, men com­mit­ting shame­less acts with men and receiv­ing in them­selves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowl­edge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all man­ner of unright­eous­ness, evil, cov­etous­ness, mal­ice. They are full of envy, mur­der, strife, deceit, mali­cious­ness. They are gos­sips, slan­der­ers, haters of God, inso­lent, haughty, boast­ful, inven­tors of evil, dis­obe­di­ent to par­ents, fool­ish, faith­less, heart­less, ruth­less. Though they know God’s decree that those who prac­tice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who prac­tice them. (ESV)

Romans 3:10 – 23 [show] as it is writ­ten: “None is right­eous, no, not one; no one under­stands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worth­less; no one does good, not even one.“ “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.“ “The venom of asps is under their lips.“ “Their mouth is full of curses and bit­ter­ness.“ “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and mis­ery, and the way of peace they have not known.“ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.“ Now we know that what­ever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held account­able to God. For by works of the law no human being will be jus­ti­fied in his sight, since through the law comes knowl­edge of sin. But now the right­eous­ness of God has been man­i­fested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear wit­ness to it– the right­eous­ness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no dis­tinc­tion: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (ESV)

Eph­esians 2:1 – 3 [show] And you were dead in the tres­passes and sins in which you once walked, fol­low­ing the course of this world, fol­low­ing the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of dis­obe­di­ence– among whom we all once lived in the pas­sions of our flesh, car­ry­ing out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature chil­dren of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (ESV)

Jesus Christ

God the Father, by His own choice and out of love for sin­ful men and women, sent Jesus Christ into the world to rec­on­cile sin­ners to Him­self.  Jesus Christ was con­ceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a vir­gin.  He is God in the flesh, both true God and true man.

Jesus Christ lived a sin­less life and vol­un­tar­ily suf­fered and died as our sub­sti­tute to pay the penalty for our sins, thus sat­is­fy­ing God’s jus­tice and accom­plish­ing sal­va­tion for all who trust in Him alone. He arose from the dead in the same body, though glo­ri­fied, in which He lived and died.  He bod­ily ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only medi­a­tor between God and man, makes inter­ces­sion for His own.  He will return to earth — per­son­ally, vis­i­bly and bod­ily — to judge all men and estab­lish His Kingdom.

Matthew 1:18 – 25 [show] Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her hus­band Joseph, being a just man and unwill­ing to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her qui­etly. But as he con­sid­ered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, say­ing, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is con­ceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his peo­ple from their sins.” All this took place to ful­fill what the Lord had spo­ken by the prophet: “Behold, the vir­gin shall con­ceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel“ (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord com­manded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (ESV)

Luke 1:26 – 38 [show] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a vir­gin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greet­ings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly trou­bled at the say­ing, and tried to dis­cern what sort of greet­ing this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will con­ceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for­ever, and of his king­dom there will be no end.“ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a vir­gin?“ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will over­shadow you; there­fore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God. And behold, your rel­a­tive Eliz­a­beth in her old age has also con­ceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called bar­ren. For noth­ing will be impos­si­ble with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the ser­vant of the Lord; let it be to me accord­ing to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (ESV)

John 1:1 [show] In the begin­ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (ESV)

John 20:28 [show] Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (ESV)

Romans 9:5 [show] To them belong the patri­archs, and from their race, accord­ing to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed for­ever. Amen. (ESV)

II Corinthi­ans 5:21 [show] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the right­eous­ness of God. (ESV)

I Peter 2:21 – 23 [show] For to this you have been called, because Christ also suf­fered for you, leav­ing you an exam­ple, so that you might fol­low in his steps. He com­mit­ted no sin, nei­ther was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suf­fered, he did not threaten, but con­tin­ued entrust­ing him­self to him who judges justly. (ESV)

John 20:30 – 31 [show] Now Jesus did many other signs in the pres­ence of the dis­ci­ples, which are not writ­ten in this book; but these are writ­ten so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believ­ing you may have life in his name. (ESV)

Matthew 20:28 [show] even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ran­som for many.” (ESV)

Eph­esians 1:4 [show] even as he chose us in him before the foun­da­tion of the world, that we should be holy and blame­less before him. In love (ESV)

Acts 1:11 [show] and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand look­ing into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (ESV)

Romans 5:6 – 8 [show] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a right­eous per­son – though per­haps for a good per­son one would dare even to die– but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sin­ners, Christ died for us. (ESV)

Romans 6:9 – 10 [show] We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has domin­ion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. (ESV)

Hebrews 7:25 [show] Con­se­quently, he is able to save to the utter­most those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make inter­ces­sion for them. (ESV)

Hebrews 9:28 [show] so Christ, hav­ing been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a sec­ond time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly wait­ing for him. (ESV)

I Tim­o­thy 3:16 [show] Great indeed, we con­fess, is the mys­tery of god­li­ness: He was man­i­fested in the flesh, vin­di­cated by the Spirit, seen by angels, pro­claimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Sal­va­tion

Men and women are freed from the penalty for their sins, not as a result, in whole or in part, of their own works, good­ness or reli­gious cer­e­mony, but by the unde­served favor of God alone. God declares right­eous all who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation.

Gen­e­sis 1:26 [show] Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our like­ness. And let them have domin­ion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heav­ens and over the live­stock and over all the earth and over every creep­ing thing that creeps on the earth.” (ESV)

Gen­e­sis 2:17 [show] but of the tree of the knowl­edge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (ESV)

Gen­e­sis 3:19 [show] By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.“

Gen­e­sis 5:2 [show] Male and female he cre­ated them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were cre­ated. (ESV)

Eccle­si­astes 2:11 [show] Then I con­sid­ered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was van­ity and a striv­ing after wind, and there was noth­ing to be gained under the sun. (ESV)

John 3:14 [show] And as Moses lifted up the ser­pent in the wilder­ness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (ESV)

John 5:24 [show] Truly, truly, I say to you, who­ever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eter­nal life. He does not come into judg­ment, but has passed from death to life. (ESV)

John 5:30 [show] “I can do noth­ing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judg­ment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. (ESV)

John 7:13 [show] Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. (ESV)

John 8:12 [show] Again Jesus spoke to them, say­ing, “I am the light of the world. Who­ever fol­lows me will not walk in dark­ness, but will have the light of life.” (ESV)

John 10:26 [show] but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. (ESV)

Romans 9:22 [show] What if God, desir­ing to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience ves­sels of wrath pre­pared for destruc­tion, (ESV)

II Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:9 [show] They will suf­fer the pun­ish­ment of eter­nal destruc­tion, away from the pres­ence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, (ESV)

Rev­e­la­tion 19:3 [show] Once more they cried out, “Hal­lelu­jah! The smoke from her goes up for­ever and ever.“

Rev­e­la­tion 19:20 [show] And the beast was cap­tured, and with it the false prophet who in its pres­ence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who wor­shiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sul­fur. (ESV)

Rev­e­la­tion 20:10 – 15 [show] and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sul­fur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tor­mented day and night for­ever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his pres­ence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, stand­ing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was writ­ten in the books, accord­ing to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, accord­ing to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the sec­ond death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found writ­ten in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (ESV)

Rev­e­la­tion 21:18 [show] The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. (ESV)

Psalm 51:7 [show] Purge me with hys­sop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Jere­miah 17:9 [show] The heart is deceit­ful above all things, and des­per­ately sick; who can under­stand it?

James 1:14 [show] But each per­son is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (ESV)

Romans 3:19 [show] Now we know that what­ever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held account­able to God. (ESV)

Romans 5:19 [show] For as by the one man’s dis­obe­di­ence the many were made sin­ners, so by the one man’s obe­di­ence the many will be made right­eous. (ESV)

Proverbs 28:13 [show] Who­ever con­ceals his trans­gres­sions will not pros­per, but he who con­fesses and for­sakes them will obtain mercy.

I John 1:9 [show] If we con­fess our sins, he is faith­ful and just to for­give us our sins and to cleanse us from all unright­eous­ness. (ESV)

John 3:16 [show] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that who­ever believes in him should not per­ish but have eter­nal life. (ESV)

John 1:13 [show] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (ESV)

II Corinthi­ans 5:17 [show] There­fore, if any­one is in Christ, he is a new cre­ation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

Romans 8:1 [show] There is there­fore now no con­dem­na­tion for those who are in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glo­rify Christ, to con­vict men and women of their sins, and to impart new life to all who place their faith in Christ.  He indwells believ­ers from the moment of spir­i­tual birth, seals them until the day of redemp­tion and empow­ers them to live a life pleas­ing to God.

John 14:16 – 17 & 26 [show] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for­ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world can­not receive, because it nei­ther sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (ESV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remem­brance all that I have said to you. (ESV)

John 15:26 – 27 [show] “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who pro­ceeds from the Father, he will bear wit­ness about me. And you also will bear wit­ness, because you have been with me from the begin­ning. (ESV)

John 16:9 – 14 [show] con­cern­ing sin, because they do not believe in me; con­cern­ing right­eous­ness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; con­cern­ing judg­ment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many things to say to you, but you can­not bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own author­ity, but what­ever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glo­rify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (ESV)

Romans 8:9 [show] You, how­ever, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any­one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (ESV)
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I Corinthi­ans 3:16 [show] Do you not know that you are God’s tem­ple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (ESV)

I Corinthi­ans 6:19 [show] Or do you not know that your body is a tem­ple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, (ESV)

Gala­tians 5:22 – 26 [show] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind­ness, good­ness, faith­ful­ness, gen­tle­ness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have cru­ci­fied the flesh with its pas­sions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become con­ceited, pro­vok­ing one another, envy­ing one another. (ESV)

Eter­nal Secu­rity

All who are born again of the Spirit receive eter­nal life that is fully secured from the very moment they put their faith in Christ.  This secu­rity is not based upon any kind of human merit, but upon the fact of God’s elec­tion, upon Christ’s com­plete pay­ment for sins and upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who is the deposit guar­an­tee­ing our inheritance.

John 5:24 [show] Truly, truly, I say to you, who­ever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eter­nal life. He does not come into judg­ment, but has passed from death to life. (ESV)

John 10:29 [show] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (ESV)

I John 5:13 [show] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eter­nal life. (ESV)

The Res­ur­rec­tion of the Dead

At phys­i­cal death, the believer enters imme­di­ately into eter­nal, con­scious fel­low­ship with the Lord and awaits the res­ur­rec­tion of his or her own body to ever­last­ing glory and bless­ing. At phys­i­cal death, the unbe­liever enters imme­di­ately into eter­nal, con­scious sep­a­ra­tion from the Lord and awaits the res­ur­rec­tion of his or her body to ever­last­ing suf­fer­ing, judg­ment and condemnation.

Matthew 16:27 [show] For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each per­son accord­ing to what he has done. (ESV)

Mark 14:62 [show] And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and com­ing with the clouds of heaven.” (ESV)

John 14:3 [show] And if I go and pre­pare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (ESV)

Acts 1:11 [show] and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand look­ing into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (ESV)

Philip­pi­ans 3:20 [show] But our cit­i­zen­ship is in heaven, and from it we await a Sav­ior, the Lord Jesus Christ, (ESV)

I Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:15 [show] For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the com­ing of the Lord, will not pre­cede those who have fallen asleep. (ESV)

II Tim­o­thy 4:1 [show] I charge you in the pres­ence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the liv­ing and the dead, and by his appear­ing and his king­dom: (ESV)

Titus 2:13 [show] wait­ing for our blessed hope, the appear­ing of the glory of our great God and Sav­ior Jesus Christ, (ESV)

I Corinthi­ans 4:5 [show] There­fore do not pro­nounce judg­ment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hid­den in dark­ness and will dis­close the pur­poses of the heart. Then each one will receive his com­men­da­tion from God. (ESV)

I Corinthi­ans 15 [show] Now I would remind you, broth­ers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I deliv­ered to you as of first impor­tance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accor­dance with the Scrip­tures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accor­dance with the Scrip­tures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hun­dred broth­ers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apos­tles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apos­tles, unwor­thy to be called an apos­tle, because I per­se­cuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the con­trary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is pro­claimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no res­ur­rec­tion of the dead? But if there is no res­ur­rec­tion of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preach­ing is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be mis­rep­re­sent­ing God, because we tes­ti­fied about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have per­ished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all peo­ple most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first­fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the res­ur­rec­tion of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first­fruits, then at his com­ing those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he deliv­ers the king­dom to God the Father after destroy­ing every rule and every author­ity and power. For he must reign until he has put all his ene­mies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in sub­jec­tion under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in sub­jec­tion,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in sub­jec­tion under him. When all things are sub­jected to him, then the Son him­self will also be sub­jected to him who put all things in sub­jec­tion under him, that God may be all in all. Oth­er­wise, what do peo­ple mean by being bap­tized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are peo­ple bap­tized on their behalf? Why are we in dan­ger every hour? I protest, broth­ers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speak­ing, I fought with beasts at Eph­esus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomor­row we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad com­pany ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stu­por, as is right, and do not go on sin­ning. For some have no knowl­edge of God. I say this to your shame. But some­one will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You fool­ish per­son! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare ker­nel, per­haps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has cho­sen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for ani­mals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heav­enly bod­ies and earthly bod­ies, but the glory of the heav­enly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star dif­fers from star in glory. So is it with the res­ur­rec­tion of the dead. What is sown is per­ish­able; what is raised is imper­ish­able. It is sown in dis­honor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weak­ness; it is raised in power. It is sown a nat­ural body; it is raised a spir­i­tual body. If there is a nat­ural body, there is also a spir­i­tual body. Thus it is writ­ten, “The first man Adam became a liv­ing being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spir­i­tual that is first but the nat­ural, and then the spir­i­tual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the sec­ond man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, broth­ers: flesh and blood can­not inherit the king­dom of God, nor does the per­ish­able inherit the imper­ish­able. Behold! I tell you a mys­tery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twin­kling of an eye, at the last trum­pet. For the trum­pet will sound, and the dead will be raised imper­ish­able, and we shall be changed. For this per­ish­able body must put on the imper­ish­able, and this mor­tal body must put on immor­tal­ity. When the per­ish­able puts on the imper­ish­able, and the mor­tal puts on immor­tal­ity, then shall come to pass the say­ing that is writ­ten: “Death is swal­lowed up in vic­tory.“ “O death, where is your vic­tory? O death, where is your sting?“ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the vic­tory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There­fore, my beloved broth­ers, be stead­fast, immov­able, always abound­ing in the work of the Lord, know­ing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (ESV)

II Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 1:7 – 10 [show] and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flam­ing fire, inflict­ing vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suf­fer the pun­ish­ment of eter­nal destruc­tion, away from the pres­ence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glo­ri­fied in his saints, and to be mar­veled at among all who have believed, because our tes­ti­mony to you was believed. (ESV)

Rev­e­la­tion 20:4 – 6 & 11 – 15 [show] Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the author­ity to judge was com­mit­ted. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the tes­ti­mony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not wor­shiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their fore­heads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thou­sand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thou­sand years were ended. This is the first res­ur­rec­tion. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first res­ur­rec­tion! Over such the sec­ond death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thou­sand years. (ESV) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his pres­ence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, stand­ing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was writ­ten in the books, accord­ing to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, accord­ing to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the sec­ond death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found writ­ten in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (ESV)

Bap­tism and the Lord’s Supper

Jesus Christ instructed those who believe in Him to be bap­tized in water as a sym­bol of their new birth in Christ. Bap­tism would be by immer­sion and is only for those who have per­son­ally believed in Christ.  The Lord also insti­tuted the Lord’s Sup­per as a remem­brance of His suf­fer­ing, death and res­ur­rec­tion.  Nei­ther bap­tism nor the Lord’s Sup­per have any merit in help­ing a per­son obtain eter­nal life.

Matthew 28:18 – 20 [show] And Jesus came and said to them, “All author­ity in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go there­fore and make dis­ci­ples of all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach­ing them to observe all that I have com­manded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Romans 6:3 – 5 [show] Do you not know that all of us who have been bap­tized into Christ Jesus were bap­tized into his death? We were buried there­fore with him by bap­tism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in new­ness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall cer­tainly be united with him in a res­ur­rec­tion like his. (ESV)

I Corinthi­ans 11:23 – 26 [show] For I received from the Lord what I also deliv­ered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remem­brance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after sup­per, say­ing, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remem­brance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you pro­claim the Lord’s death until he comes. (ESV)

The Church

All true believ­ers make up the church world­wide and should assem­ble together in local churches for wor­ship, prayer, fel­low­ship and teach­ing, to become con­formed to the image of Christ and to become equipped to carry out the “Great Com­mis­sion” that Christ gave His fol­low­ers in Matthew 28:19 – 20 [show] Go there­fore and make dis­ci­ples of all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teach­ing them to observe all that I have com­manded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)
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Eph­esians 2:19 – 22 [show] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fel­low cit­i­zens with the saints and mem­bers of the house­hold of God, built on the foun­da­tion of the apos­tles and prophets, Christ Jesus him­self being the cor­ner­stone, in whom the whole struc­ture, being joined together, grows into a holy tem­ple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (ESV)

Acts 1:8 [show] But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my wit­nesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (ESV)

Eph­esians 5:19 – 21 [show] address­ing one another in psalms and hymns and spir­i­tual songs, singing and mak­ing melody to the Lord with your heart, giv­ing thanks always and for every­thing to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, sub­mit­ting to one another out of rev­er­ence for Christ. (ESV)

Acts 2:42 [show] And they devoted them­selves to the apos­tles’ teach­ing and the fel­low­ship, to the break­ing of bread and the prayers. (ESV)

Hebrews 10:23 – 25 [show] Let us hold fast the con­fes­sion of our hope with­out waver­ing, for he who promised is faith­ful. And let us con­sider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglect­ing to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encour­ag­ing one another, and all the more as you see the Day draw­ing near. (ESV)