We believe that The Word of God is absolute, and its interpretation involves literal, historical, and grammatical study.God became a human being, through the Person of Jesus Christ, who had a human body, a soul, and a spirit.In God's perfect plan, Jesus Christ is the creator of all things, gives grace and mercy, raises the dead, and is the judge of all. He also defeated Satan and conquered death's power over believers. The resurrection of Christ's body validated all of Christ's claims and work, and guaranteed the future resurrection of all men. Our Lord ascended into heaven forty days after His resurrection and began His present headship ministry over the church, His body. He is our Great High Priest. Jesus Christ is preparing a place for His people, the Holy Spirit is bringing the church together and meeting needs, and the Holy Spirit will come for His church and pour out His wrath on unrighteous mankind. The Holy Spirit regenerates, indwells, gifts, and enables every believer. The Spirit-filled believer experiences assurance, power, liberation, guidance, and anointing for life and service. God created man in His image and he has personality, reasoning and relational capacity, moral awareness, and governing capabilities. Through sin, his holy nature was marred and he was expelled from the Garden of Eden, pain and suffering, physical and spiritual death, and separation from the presence of God. Man's sin affected the entire human race and the plant and animal kingdoms. When a believer sins, he loses his fellowship with God and becomes ineffective in worship and service, and may also lose his reward. Repentance involves acknowledging personal sin, confessing your sin, and turning to God. Man's basic nature is so fallen that he cannot repent by himself but must accept God's enablement with sincerity of heart. Repentance and faith go together, and faith is taking God at His Word. The Christian begins his new life in Christ through faith and continues to mature and serve through faith. Regeneration is a new spiritual birth that imparts God's divine nature to the believer, who then possesses two natures - one divine, one fallen. This new divine nature enables a positive response to God, and is essential for entrance into God's kingdom. Justification involves a change in the believer's state or nature, and occurs through faith in Jesus Christ by God's free grace. Sanctification involves the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It takes place as the believer walks in obedience to God's Word. Redemption refers to the purchase or deliverance of a person from sin, death, and the wrath of God. The price paid was the "precious blood of Christ". Walking in Christ means yielding to the Holy Spirit, who produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Walking in the flesh, the world, and the influence of the Devil are contrary to walking in the Spirit. Prayer is communion with God. It is essential for maturing in Christ-likeness and for victory, development, and blessing. The Bible clearly teaches that angels exist, are personal, spiritual beings with intelligence, feelings, and volition, and are organized by God. Some angels fell sinning, and are chained awaiting judgment, while others are associated with Satan and his movement, and oppose God, His purposes, and His people. The Devil is a fallen angelic being who is opposed to God, believers, and all that is true and righteous. He is the leader of the kingdom of Spiritual and moral darkness and is destined to be thrown into the Lake of Fire forever and ever. The Holy Spirit enables believers to have victory over Satan by abiding in Christ, not giving the Devil an opportunity, and resisting his schemes. The church universal is composed of all believers, but there are many local expressions of the church for practical worship, fellowship, edification, and outreach. The church's major purpose is to worship and glorify God by maturing in Christ-likeness and ministering to others in service and outreach. Godly leadership is essential. Our Lord gave many instructions for individual believers, and two instructions (ordinances) we will practice as a body of believers are: the Lord's Supper and Baptism. These ordinances will be observed at the discretion of the Senior Pastor and the Leadership Team. When Christ returns in the air, the dead in Christ will rise first, then living believers will be transformed, and they will forever be with the Lord. Non-believers will experience the Tribulation period here on earth. Christ will return to the earth to reign for a thousand years and establish perfect justice, universal knowledge of God, peace, and prosperity. There are two major judgments coming: The Judgment Seat of Christ for believers concerning rewards, and The Great White Throne Judgment for unbelievers concerning punishment in the eternal Lake of Fire. We believe that only one man and one woman can be married and that homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God's gift of sex. Christians are prohibited from bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or the church, but may seek compensation for injuries from another Christian's insurance company. Christians are to be sober minded at all times and filled with the Holy Spirit. They are to abstain from all recreational intoxicants including beverage alcohol and recreational drug use.