Beliefs
To make it very clear: We believe that the beginning and the end of our beliefs is Jesus. He is the epicenter of all of our beliefs, worship, and ministry.
JESUS CHRIST: The Bible declares that Jesus was/is God the Son who in His incarnation (birth into human history as fully God and fully man) provided for us the clearest and most important revelation of God that has ever been or ever will be and can alone forgive our sins and grant us salvation.
The question of Jesus is of vital importance because while many people believe such things as Jesus lived, was a good teacher, or a very spiritual man, there remains many erroneous perspectives of Him that deny that He is God. The Apostle Paul spoke of this propensity to reduce the majesty of the real Jesus in favor of a diluted and diminished Jesus that in the end is no longer truly Jesus at all. In 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 Paul writes, “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”
Jesus was a great preacher whose words, such as the Sermon on the Mount, still seize human imagination two thousand years later.
Jesus was a healer who worked great miracles, healing the sick, bringing sight to the blind, making the lame to walk again, and even raising the dead.
Jesus was a troublemaker whose criticisms of the powerful and wealthy were matched by his compassion for the weak, vulnerable, and outcasts of society.
He was crucified on a Roman cross as a danger to the Empire as “King of the Jews.” This was no accident, because . . .
Jesus was sent by God to die on purpose as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world by taking upon himself the divine curse of God’s wrath.
He is the one whom God raised from the dead after three days in the grave, and who now rules heaven and earth and is present with his people through his Spirit.
He is the one who will one day return, to bring both judgment and mercy.
He is the Christ, the Jewish Messiah: the one to whom dozens of prophecies in the Old Testament point, the fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Israel.
He is the divine Son of God. The one and only “God-Man.”
This man, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, died for your sins and ours, in order that we might be saved from sin and judgment by believing in him. By his sacrifice, Jesus brings us, by God’s design, into a supremely satisfying joy in God that is beyond anything we can imagine. That’s good news. It’s called the gospel.
There’s even more to this good news. Experiencing pleasure in Jesus Christ is one of the most important things that we can do. Why? Because by taking delight in Jesus, visibly and publicly, we help to show how beautiful and valuable He is. So God’s aim for His Son to be honored and our aim to be happy find fulfillment in the same act – our joy in Jesus. He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
It is almost too good to be true that the universal desire to be happy is God-given and good. The problem is, as C. S. Lewis said, “we settle for mudpies in the slum because we cannot imagine what a holiday at the sea is like”. Jesus is the holiday at the sea. We exist to help people make that discovery.
We hope you will see Jesus Christ as the door to your ultimate joy, and that you will open that door and step inside.
(Adapted from The Axis Church)
THE SCRIPTURES: We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally inspired word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18; John 16:12-13).
THE TRINITY: We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—co-eternal in being, co-eternal in nature, co-equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST: We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (John 1:1–2, 14; Luke 1:35). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Romans 3:24; 1 Peter 2:24; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:3–5). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry as Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Acts 1:9-10; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 9:24; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1–2). We believe Jesus is coming again to judge the living and the dead
(1 Peter 4:5; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1).
THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; He is the Supernatural Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling, sealing, and empowering them unto the day of redemption (John 16:8–11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 1 Corinthians 12:12–14; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18).
THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN: We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that through Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; man is totally depraved and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 3:22-23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:1–3, 12).
SALVATION: We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 2:8–10; John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18–19).
ETERNAL SECURITY AND ASSURANCE OF BELIEVERS: We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever (John 6:37–40; 10:27–30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; 1 Corinthians 1:4–8; 1 Peter 1:5). We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh (Romans 13:13-14; Galatians 5:13; Titus 2:11–15).
THE MINISTRY AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS: We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowing of spiritual gifts. It is, however, the believer’s responsibility to attempt to develop their sovereignly given spiritual gift(s). The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion and is the placing of the believer into the Body of Christ. We also believe that particular spiritual gift(s) are neither essential, nor prove the presence of the Holy Spirit, nor are an indication of deep spiritual experience (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11, 13; Ephesians 4:7–8). We believe that God does hear and answer the prayer of faith, in accordance with His own will, for the sick and afflicted (John 15:7; 1 John 5:14-15). We believe that it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to minister according to the gift(s) and grace of God that is given to him (Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Peter 4:10–11).
THE CHURCH: We believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons (Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25–27; 1 Corinthians 12:12–14; 2 Corinthians 11:2). We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 18:22; 20:17; 1 Timothy 3:1–3; Titus 1:5–11). We believe in the autonomy of the local churches, free of any external authority and control (Acts 13:1–4; 15:19–31; 20:28; Romans 16:1, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16; 1 Corinthians 5:4–7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1–4). We recognize believer’s baptism and the Lord’s supper as scriptural means of testimony for the church (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; Acts 18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26).
(Adapted from The Baptist Faith and Message 2000)