I.  God

• His Nature-We can understand the nature of God more readily if we remember that the final revelation of God is given to us in Christ Jesus.  If we are to know the kind of God we serve, we can find out by considering Christ.  He is the express image of the invisible God.  The dominant qualities of God are found in Christ. These qualities are expressed in three words.

1.  Holiness-This term expresses the transcendence of God and His separation from the world and all created things.  It is this quality of God that distinguishes Him from things finite and created.  This holy character of God as Isaiah sees it and as everyone who sees God in His holiness will know the element of severity.  We are immediately smitten with the sense of conviction and condemnation.  It calls forth from each of us a confession and repentance.
2. Righteousness-The meaning of the righteousness of God is the rectitude of His character.  God's character is upright-in Him there is no stain or sin.  This declares the purity of God's character.  He is free from everything that is evil.  Not only is He free from evil, but he is also opposed to all evil.  All His power is set against it.  God's righteousness condemns sin in man.  He calls all men to repentance.  It is not His will that any should perish.  His righteousness moves Him to redeem the sinner from his sin.  The reighteousness of God is active and moving toward the salvation of the world.
3. Love-The love of God is intelligent.  Love in its true sense is not mere sentiment of pleasure or good feeling toward things or persons.  Nor is it blind affection that clings to its object "through thick and thin" regardless of moral conditions.  Love as intelligence has in it the element of wisdon and Love sees and plans the best for its object.  The love of God is benevolent.  It is a principal of good will.  It wishes good for everyone.  This is not only wishing well but also doing well to others.  Love is active.  The love of God is self-giving.  God comes to a world in sin and darkness because of His great Love.  God's Love is also demanding.  It requires Love in return.  He is a jealous God which means that He wants the undivided affection of His people.  Love is not something accidental or incidental to God, but Love belongs to the very nature of God.  Every act of God is and act of Love.

II.  Christ

• Jesus as Man-Jesus uses the term "son of man".  If nothing else, this means that he is human and that he is one with mankind.  The new testament tells us how He was born as other men.  It tells how He lived as other men yet without sin.  He laid hold onto humanity and took our nature because it was man He came to save (Hebrews 2:14)  Luke tells us that He grew as other men in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.  There was mental development as He grew in wisdom.  There was physical develpment as He grew in stature.  There was spiritual development as He grew in favor or grace with God.  There was social development as He grew in favor with man.  He was like man in all ways except without sin.
• Jesus was Supernatural-(1)The Virgin Birth.  Matthew and Luke give the account of His birth.  He was born of Mary who became with child by the Holy Spirit of God which hovered over her. (2)Miracle.  I believe in the miracle of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.  His son Jesus is a worker of miracles.  If the accounts of the miracles were removed from the scriptures, the record would be so torn that we would have nothing reliable left. (3) The Resurrection.  This is the power of the Christian faith.  Jesus appeared to his disciples and to more than 500 at one time.  There is evidence to prove His resurrection.  Without this faith, we are without hope. (4) Jesus Glorified and Second Coming.  Jesus was glorified and then taken up into the heavens to sit on the right hand of the Father.  At the appointed time He will return to take His saints to be with Him forever and will judge the sinners.

III. The Holy Spirit

When we speak of the Spirit, we should realize that we are not dealing with an impersonal force or power, but with a person.  The Holy Spirit is a sensitive being especially sensitive to moral evil.  Sin grieves Him. Ephesians 4:30 represents the Divine Spirit as capable of grief and suffering.

The Holy Spirit produces personal holiness in us.  We grow in Christ's likeness and His character not by our own power, but by the Holy Spirit.  He is our guide and it is He who calls men to special tasks and guides them to the fulfillment of them. 

IV.  The Trinity

God the Father--God the Son--God the Holy Spirit:  These three are one.  The best example to me is the revelation that God gave to me one day while in a deep search for an answer to this question about the Trinity.  How can there be only one when you have three?  This was God's revelation to me.

"We may have a fire.  Fire consists or burning coals which are the source of the power it puts out.  This is God the Father in whom all things consist.  There is the glow which is the Son who is the Light of the World.  There is the heat which is the Holy Spirit.  They are one.  You can talk of them individually but they are all one and you cannot separate them.  This is the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity is an expression of the multiple nature of God.  It is a good way of saying that God cannot be tied to any one form or any one set of words.  He does exist as Father.  He does exist as Son and He does exist as the Holy Spirit.  God was and is in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.  God reveals Himself to man through the Holy Spirit.

V.  The Church

The Christian Church is a living organism in the world.  It is the bride of Christ who is the head and the church is the body.  The purpose of the church is to worship God and serve His purpose in the world by gathering as His people on a regular basis for education and sustenance.  Man needs to have the presence of God re-affirmed in his life through contact with other believers in worship and study.  The church must also be an active force in the world as it exercises its influence on man for God.  This has always been the role of the church in history.  The church must be concerned with the need for man to fulfill his responsibility in the covenant love relationship with God.  It has been truthfully said that God is the Father of no one who is not part of the church.

VI.  The Scriptures

We believe in the verbal, plenary doctrine of inspiration of all scriptures.  That they are inerrant and we are to take them literally.  It is to be interpreted by the Grammatical Historical Method of interpretation-There is only one interpretation but many applications.