Beliefs

We believe the Bible is the Word of God and the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God.All the Bible’s original manuscripts were divinely inspired, having been written by individuals as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. The central theme of the Bible is to reveal God’s saving purposes in Jesus Christ. The Bible alone is the infallible rule of faith for the church. For a local church to stray from the Bible in faith or practice is to be disloyal to Jesus to whom the church belongs. (Psalm 19:7; Psalm 119:105-106; Matthew 4:4; Mark 13:31; John 8:31-32; John 17:17; Acts 20:32; Romans 10:16-17; Hebrews 4:12;2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)

We believe there is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. The bible reveals that the one God eternally exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and Holy Spirit. The triune God is self-existent and self-sufficient, perfect, and immutable in his steadfast love, infinite and all-knowing, purposeful, and all-powerful, sovereign, and worthy of our praise, loyalty, and love. (Genesis 1:1, 26; Exodus 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 32:3-4; Psalm 48:10; Isaiah 43:10-13; Malachi 3:6; John 1:1-3; Matthew 28:19; John 4:24; Romans 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:5-6)

We believe that God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God the Father is infinite, personal spirit who is good, righteous, and just. He is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. He is jealous for worship, opposed to idolatry, and wrathful in response to sin and rebellion. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men. (Exodus 3:14; Psalm 19:1; Luke 10:21-22; Matthew 23:9; John 1:12; 3:16, 36; 6:27; Romans 1:7; 1 Timothy 1:1-2; 2:5-6; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6)

We believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. As the only begotten Son of God, he is fully God and fully man. Therefore, he is the divinely appointed mediator between God and man. The Son of God took on flesh when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died as a substitutionary atoning sacrifice for our sins, and rose bodily from the dead on the third day. He ascended into heaven where he intercedes for his people as an eternal high priest and from where he will return bodily and visibly in all glory to judge the earth and establish his eternal kingdom. He is the head of the church, having purchased it with his own shed blood. All who claim allegiance to Christ are to obey his commands, imitate his life, and promote his gospel. (Matthew 1:18-25; 28:18-20; Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1; 13:15-16; 20:28-31; Acts 1:11; 20:28; Romans 3:21-26; 5:6-8; 6:9-10; 9:5; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:15-20; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 7:25; 9:28; 12:2; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 2:21-23)

We believe that God the Holy Spirit is fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration, he baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. The Spirit of God helps believers to fight the spiritual battle and gives his fruit to those who live in submission to him. He constitutes the church as God’s family and promotes its unity and maturity. He gives spiritual gifts to each believer, empowering them to serve the local church and promote the gospel. Providing endurance for all believers, he seals them for the final day of redemption. (John 3:5-8; 4:24; 14:16-17; 6:63; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4; Romans 8:9-11; 12:2; Galatians 5: 22-25; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:3-6, 11-16; 6:10-11; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; 1 Peter 4:10-11; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7)

We believe humanity as both male and female is the special creation of God, madein His image for His glory. Mankind was created that we might enjoy God and take delight in him and worship him. Man was created with a having material body and immaterial soul/spirit. Man was created with intelligence and will. Each person exists as a moral creature and is accountable before God. By their free choice human beings sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan humanity transgressed the command of God and fell from their original innocence whereby their posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring human beings into His holy fellowship and enable human beings to fulfill the creative purpose of God.  Man as the image of God promotes the dignity and sanctity of all human life, therefore every person possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5-7, 15-25; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18, 23; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; Ephesians 2:1-22; 5:21-6:3; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11; 1 Corinthians 7:8; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Matthew 19:12; Ephesians 4:12)

We believe that salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ who is both Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart brought about by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

 Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.

 Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

In following Protestant tradition, we believe that salvation comes by faith alone, in Christ alone, by God’s grace alone, according to the Holy Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. There is no mixture of faith and works in reference to salvation. Those God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. (Genesis 2:17; 3:19; Ecclesiastes. 2:11; John 1:12,13; 5:30; 8:12; Ephesians 2:4–10; Romans 3:23–24; Romans 8:28-39; 2 Corinthians 5:17–20; 1 John 3:2)

We believe a New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through mutual cooperation in the gospel. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

In witness, the Church makes known the good news of Christ throughout the local community and to the ends of the earth, calling the lost to repentance and faith. In discipleship, believers are brought into the body and equipped for service to Christ. In fellowship, redeemed people experience their union with Christ and one another. In service, the Church corporately cares for the needs of its own and others. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. (1 Timothy 3:1–12; Galatians 6:1–2; Matthew 18:15–17; 2 Corinthians 8–9; Philippians 4:10–19; Matthew 28:16–20; John 20:21–23)

We believe that water baptism is a sacrament, which means it is a means and sign of God’s grace, commanded by our Lord Jesus. Baptism is the immersion of a confessing believer immersed in water in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, signifying a believer’s death to sin and resurrection to new life in Christ. Water baptism serves as an act of obedience for the person who has believed by placing faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, a means and sign of God’s grace, commanded by our Lord Jesus. The Lord’s Supper is a congregational act of worship, instituted by Jesus Christ to take a portion of bread and receive the cup as symbols of the Lord’s sacrificial death for his people on the cross. The Lord’s Supper allows the local church to confess sin, seek purity, center itself upon the cross of Christ, and anticipate the Lord’s glorious return. The Lord’s Supper will be conducted according to Scriptural principles under the oversight of elders. (Matthew 4:16,17; 18:15-20; Mark 14:22-25; Acts 2:38; Romans 10:8-101 Corinthians 11:23-34).

We believe that every Christian is to directly relate to God and is responsible to God alone in all matters of faith. Yet, each Christian should live for the glory of God and the well-being of his or her fellow believer. Our conduct should be blameless before the world, and we should be faithful stewards with our time, talent, and treasure. Reflecting the heart of Christ, Christians are called to pursue mercy and justice for the poor, marginalized, and oppressed. And as Christians abide in Christ, their lives should increasingly bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 Every local church is to be independent and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. The institution of the Church and the State must be kept separate as having different functions, each fulfilling its God-ordained duties and being free from dictation or patronage of the other. We believe the local church can best promote the gospel of Jesus Christ by cooperating with like-minded churches in an organized structure. Cooperation is voluntary and may be terminated at any time. Christ Central Church will cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention in order to make disciples and fulfill the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 15:36,41; 16:5; Romans 12:1,2; 14:7-9, 12; Colossians 1:9,10; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 16:1; Galatians 1:1-3; 1Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 12:1,2; Revelation 1:4,10, 11).

We believe that God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. (Matthew 16:27; Mark 14:62; John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15)

Christ Central Church is a church under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are committed to contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). This document is not an exhaustive explanation of our beliefs, but it highlights and summarizes beliefs we deem as essential to membership of this local body and faithfulness to our Lord. Additionally, we affirm the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 in their totality.