The Scriptures
We believe that the sixty-six books of the Bible are verbally, equally, and fully inspired by God and are therefore without error in the original manuscripts. These Scriptures center on the Lord Jesus Christ and should be interpreted literally. They are our final rule of faith and practice.
Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:19-21
We also believe that the King James and New King James versions of the original manuscripts best communicate God's message to His Church. The Concord Community Church therefore will use the aforementioned versions of God's Word in all practices within our Congregation. This, however, does not preclude the use of other versions by those engaged in private study, research, and reference.
God the Father
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. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
Genesis 1:1; John 16:23-27; Galatians 4:4-6; Ephesians 1:3,17-23; Mt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 3:14.
The Person & Work of Jesus Christ
We believe that the eternal Son of God was born of a virgin, becoming and remaining a perfect man yet retaining His absolute deity, being at the same time very God and very man, and giving His life as a ransom for all. His death was substitutionary - the just for the unjust - and by His death He became the Savior of the lost. He arose bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven, and now never ceases to intercede for the saved.
Luke 1:30-35; John 1:14-18; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Pet. 3:8
The Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead who dwells in every believer and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body. He restrains evil in the world, convicts the world of sin, regenerates and seals all believers, bestows gifts for service, and empowers those who are yielded to Him.
John 16:7-15; 1 Cor. 6:19; 12:13
Angels, Satan, and Demons
We believe that God created spiritual beings known as angels. One sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan or the Devil, and many angels followed him in his moral fall. Satan is the originator of sin and, under the permission of God, led our first parents into transgression. In the end, he will be cast into the lake of fire. Many angels, however, kept their holy estate and are ministering spirits to those who are saved.
2 Cor. 11:14; 1 Tim. 3:6; Heb. 1:14
Man
We believe that in the beginning God created all things out of nothing. We believe Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation by Satan man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherited 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 man into his Holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 16:26; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:/0-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18, 29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19,21-22; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11.
Salvation
We believe that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; this redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and died in our place, and comes only through faith in Christ. All who are thus truly saved shall be kept saved forever and may be assured of their salvation.
John 3:5-8; 10:28; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph.2:8-10; 1 John 5:13
Sanctification
We believe that sanctification is a three-fold setting-apart unto God. By Salvation, it is positionally complete in Christ, progressively advanced through the Holy Spirit, and ultimately accomplished when the Christian sees the Lord. We are called with a holy calling to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit in such a manner as not to bring dishonor upon our Lord.
John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Thess. 5:23
The Church
We believe that all who are united to Christ are members of the Church. The New Testament teaches the establishment and continuation of the local Church to seek the salvation of all people, to edify believers, and to assemble for worship.
Matthew 16:16-18; 28:19; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Cor. 11:17-33; 12:12-27
The Family
We believe God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage framework for intimate sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and managing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of fertilization, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26-28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1-8; 127; 128; 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15- 20; 6:20-17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13-14; 24:3; 29:15,17; 31:10-31; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; 9:9; Malachi 2:14-16; Matthew 5:31-32; 18:2-5; 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 5:8,14; 2 Timothy 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 13:4; Peter 3:1-7
Baptism and the Lord's Supper
We believe Christian Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby all are invited to participate by faith in Christ through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorializing the death of the Redeemer, and the anticipation of His second coming.
Believers' baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper are the ordinances of the Church.
Matthew 3:13-17; 26:26-30; 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26; Luke 3:21-22; 22:19- 20; John 3:23;Acts 2:41-42; 8:35-39; 16:30-33; 20:7; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 21; 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.
Sanctity of Unborn Human Life
We believe that from the moment of fertilization, every human life must be recognized, respected, and protected as having the rights of a person and the sacred right to life. That right to life and physical integrity of every unborn human life is sacred - it is not a concession made by society or the state, but is instead inherent to the unborn human life by virtue of its creation in the image of God.
Because human life begins at the moment of fertilization, it is against our religious and moral conviction to formally or materially cooperate in the termination of unborn human life. We are strongly committed to the preservation and defense of unborn human life, which compels our religious, moral, and ethical duty to defend unborn human life from destruction, whether by surgical abortion or use of drugs, devices, or services that has the intent, design, effect, or risk of terminating unborn human life or preventing its implantation and growth post-fertilization.
Genesis 9:6; Jerimiah 1:5; Exodus 21:22-23; Psalm 139: 13-15; 2 Kings 8:12; Hosea 9:10-16.
Homosexuality, Transgenderism
We believe that any form of immorality is sinful and an abomination to God. Sexual immorality includes, but is not limited to adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, beastiality, incest, pornography, and attempts to changes one's biological sex or otherwise acting upon any disagreement with one's biological sex.
We also believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and repent from their sin; who seek His mercy and grace; and who humbly ask for His forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.
Our Congregation rejects any attempt to elevate those guilty of willful, immoral sin to any position in the Church body without repenting of those sins and demonstrating a true turning away from those lifestyles.
Matthew 15:18-20; Acts 3:19-21; Romans 1:26-27; Romans 10:9-10; Mark 12:28-31; Luke 6:31; Leviticus 20:10-17.
The Role of Women in the Church
We believe that if one accepts the Bible as inerrant, authoritative and "God-breathed", then he or she will know that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine and will refrain from discarding those portions he or she does not believe to be relevant or applicable to his or her own situation.
Therefore, we hold that men and women are absolutely equal in essence, dignity, and value and are complementary by divine design. Men and women, in the Church, are not interchangeable. We find that God, in His wisdom and providence, created two complementary sexes for our good and glory.
The Church must guard against accepting "Evangelical Feminism" while at the same time not suppressing the value of the ministry of women in our homes, organizations, and the public square. God intends for men and women to have different, yet complementary, roles and responsibilities in the church.
Apart from the role of Pastor/elder, we believe that both men and women are needed and necessary for the health and ministry of the Church. The indispensable help women were created to give can and should he exercised in all manner of roles in the Church except those reserved for qualified men.
1 Corinthians 14:33-36; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; 2:8-15; 3:2: 5:17; Titus 1:7, 9; 1 Peter 5:1-2; Ephesians 4:11-12; James 5-14.
Stewardship
We believe that God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual. All that we have and are, we owe to Him. Therefore, Christians are under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others.
Genesis 14:20; Leviticus 27:30-32; Deuteronomy 8:18; Malachi 3:8-12; 1 Matthew 6:1-4,19-21; 9:21; 23:23; 25:14-29; Luke 12:16; Romans 21,42; 16:1-13; Acts 2:44-47; 5:1-11; 17:24-25; 20:35; 6:6-22; 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2; 6:19-20; 12; 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 12:15; Philippians 4:10-19; 1 Peter 1:18-19
Last Things
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will rapture His church and return in person, with power and great glory, to reign for 1000 years. He will lift the curse on creation, restore Israel to her land, fulfill God's covenant promises, and bring the whole world to the knowledge of God. All people will experience a bodily resurrection, the unsaved to everlasting punishment and the saved to eternal life.
Matthew 25:46; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; Rev. 20:1-3, 2
