Calvary Church

We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the written revelation of God to humanity. God authored the scriptures by using and guiding approximately forty different writers so that the words written were exactly those God desired. The Scriptures while reflecting the various vocabularies and personalities of the human writers is fully and without error the Word of God. God inspired the human writers to such an extent that not only were their thoughts inspired, but the very words which they were led to write down. (II Tim. 3: 16, 17; II Peter 1: 20, 21; Matt. 5: 18; John 16: 12, 13).

We believe in One God who exists eternally in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are co-eternal and co-equal in all attributes with one another, who live in eternal life to life, heart to heart, person to person relationship. God is at the same time One God, and yet a God of relationship in His Three-Person Being. (Deuteronomy 6: 4; Matt 28: 19; II Cor. 13: 14; Luke 3: 21-22).

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became man without ceasing to be God. He was born into the world in order to reveal God and become the Savior and Redeemer of all sinful humanity. (John 1: 1-2; Hebrews 1: 1-4; We believe that Jesus by His death on the Cross bore the sins of all humanity and provided the way of forgiveness and acceptance with God for all who will choose to trust in Him. We believe Jesus rose from the dead thereby demonstrating His identity as God, and His successful defeat of the power of sin and death. We believe that Jesus has ascended to His exalted place at the Father's right hand from where He is Head of the church directing it in carrying His message of hope and salvation to the world. (Romans 3: 24; I peter 2: 24; Ephesians 1: 7). We believe Jesus will come again to establish God's Kingdom on the earth (I Thess. 4: 13 -18; I Cor. 15: 24 - 26, 51 - 57).

We believe humanity was created in the image of God, but when Adam chose to sin, sin entered into human nature and humanity became alienated from God. This alienation affected all relationships; with God, with others and within oneself, so that human being were set adrift from their original purpose. Sin brought evil, pain, disease, physical death and spiritual death into human experience and the entire creation was subjected to decay. Human beings have no power in themselves to remedy this separation from God (Genesis 2: 17; 3: 1 - 19; Romans 3: 22, 23; 5: 12; Eph. 2: 1-3).

We believe that salvation from sin and its damaging effects is the gift of God to human beings by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus offers forgiveness for sins to all who trust in His death for sins on the Cross. Salvation is God's process of restoration which begins the moment a person receives Jesus and continues to the Day of Resurrection when the restoration from all effects of sin is complete (Eph. 2: 8 - 10; John 1: 12; I Peter 1: 8, 9, 18,19; Phil. 1: 6).

We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity - co-eternal and co-equal to the Father and the Son. We believe the Holy Spirit enters to dwell within a person the moment faith is placed in Jesus (Romans 8: 9 - 11, 16; Gal. 4: 6). The indwelling Spirit initiates the process of cultivating the "fruit" of Christ-like character in the life of the disciple (Gal. 5: 22 - 23). This process which requires the cooperation of the disciple is called sanctification - the replacement of the old patterns of fallen living with the new patterns of God's own character (I Thess, 4: 3 - 8). We believe there is also an additional experience of empowerment for ministry available to all disciples referred to as being "filled" with the Spirit (Acts 2: 4, 9: 19), the "coming upon" of the Spirit (Acts 1: 8; 19: 6), the "gift" of the Spirit (Acts 8: 19; 20: 45; 11: 17), or the "baptism" with the Spirit (Acts 1: 4 - 5). We also believe that the Spirit has brought a variety of gifts for ministry that he has distributed among all believers. These gifts range from those given for the ministry work of the church ( Romans 12: 3 - 8) to other gifts of a miraculous nature (I Cor. 12: 4 - 11, 27 - 31).

We believe that the church is the world-wide family of God made up of all those who have received Jesus Christ as Savior. The church is unique of all organizations on earth in that it is a living organism indwelt by the very person of Jesus. The church expresses itself across the earth in local congregations which are called to the mission of sharing the message of Jesus and planting new congregations as others come to know Christ. The church is composed of all tribes, nations, races and languages who have become one by a common faith in Jesus, and is God's testimony to the world of the unity experienced in Jesus Christ (Acts 2: 42 - 47; Eph. 2: 19-22).

We believe water baptism is the command of Jesus to be entered into by all who receive Him as Savior as the primary means by which they publicly confess to being a disciple of Jesus. Jesus submitted to water baptism as a portrayal of His own coming death and resurrection. The disciple by submitting to water baptism portrays his or her identification with and participation in the benefits of Jesus death and resurrection, and the spiritual reality that takes place when one receives Jesus. Being lowered into the water portrays the death of the sin-controlled life, and being lifted up from the water portrays rising up into a new Christ-controlled life. The usual method of baptism in the New Testament was by immersion. (Matt. 3: 13-15; 28: 18-20; Romans 6: 3 - 10).

We believe communion is the command of Jesus given to the church as the primary means of keeping His death for sins on the Cross at the center of the church's focus. Communion is a portrayal of Jesus work on the Cross. The bread portrays His body that was given. The cup portrays His blood that was shed. The disciple's participation in receiving the bread and cup portrays his or her experience of the benefits of His death, and the deep unity all disciples share because of their common faith in Jesus (Luke 22: 15 - 20; I Cor 11: 23 - 26).

We believe that Jesus Christ will return to the earth to fulfill the scriptural prophecies and promises to restore the earth to its original righteousness and to establish God's glorious kingdom. We believe that a succession of future events is outlined prophetically in the scriptures including: the Return of Jesus to bring the church to heaven (I Thess. 4: 13-17); the rise and defeat of an apostate world ruler Anti-Christ (II Thess. 2: 1 - 12); the Kingdom rule of Jesus on the earth (Rev. 20: 1 - 6); the Day of Judgment (Rev. 20: 11 - 15); and the final restored state of a New Heaven and New Earth filled with righteousness (Rev. 21 & 22).