THE EIGHT ESSENTIAL TRUTHS

GOD IS - Only one true and living God exists.  He is the Creator of the universe, eternally existing in three Persons - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - each equally deserving of humanity's worship and obedience.  He is infinite and perfect in all His attributes.
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deut. 6:4-5)

THE BIBLE IS GOD'S WORD - The Bible is God's written revelation to people, divinely given through human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  It is entirely true.  The Bible is totally sufficient and completely authoritative for matters of live and faith.  The goal of God's Word is the restoration of humanity into His image.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

PEOPLE ARE GOD'S TREASURE - God created people in His image for His glory.  They are the crowning work of His creation.  Yet every person has willfully disobeyed God - an act known as sin - thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for salvation.  All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin.  Only by grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Gen. 1:26)

JESUS IS GOD AND SAVIOR - Jesus is both fully God and fully human.  He is Christ, the Son of God.  Born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life and performed many miracles.  He died on the cross to provide people forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation.  Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and will return in power and glory.
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.  After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." (Heb. 1:3)

THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD AND EMPOWERER - The Holy Spirit is supernatural and sovereign, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ.  He lives within every Christian beginning at the moment of salvation and then empowers them for bold witness and effective service as they yield to Him.  The Holy Spirit convicts individuals of sin, uses God's Word to mature believers into Christ likeness, and secures them until Christ returns.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

SALVATION IS BY FAITH ALONE - All human beings are born with a sin nature, separated from God, and in need of a Savior.  That salvation comes only through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, as a person repents of sin and receives Christ's forgiveness and eternal life.  Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.  This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and not on the basis of human works.  All the redeemed are secure in Christ forever.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." (Eph. 2:8-9)

THE CHURCH IS GOD'S PLAN - The Holy Spirit immediately places all people who put their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body, the church, of which Christ is the head.  The primary expression of the Church on earth is in autonomous local congregation of baptized believers.  The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by taking the gospel to the entire world and by building its members in Christ likeness through the instruction of God's Word, fellowship, service, worship, and prayer.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common." (Acts 2:42-44)

THE FUTURE IS IN GOD'S HANDS - God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way.  At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth.  Both the saved and unsaved will be resurrected physically to be judged by Christ.  Those who have trusted Christ will receive their reward and dwell forever in heaven with the Lord.  Those who have refused Christ will spend eternity in hell, the place of everlasting punishment.  The certain return of Christ motivated believers to be faithful in their daily lives.
"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." (Heb. 9:27-28)