CHURCH OF THE HIGHLANDS CORE BELIEFS

BIBLE

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God.

That the 66 books of the Old and New Testament were inspired by the Spirit of God as originally written

That the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct · 2 Timothy 3:16

GOD

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

JESUS CHRIST

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ

In His eternal existence, with the Father in pre-incarnate glory

In His work of creation, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and bodily resurrection

In His triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return

THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe in the absolute and essential deity, and in the personality of the Holy Spirit

Who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgment

Who regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ

Who baptizes believers at conversion into the Body of Christ and bestows upon them His gifts sovereignly as He wills and fills those yielded to Him

MANKIND

We believe that Adam was divinely created in the image of God

That by the sin of disobedience he fell from that state

That all his posterity inherited spiritual depravity and defilement

That all men therefore are guilty before God and condemned to physical and spiritual death

That Adam and Eve (and consequently all born) were/are created as distinct from each as a natural male and natural female respectively with each having distict roles and identity as such. The posterity of such followed as naturally born male and naturally born female.

That God instituted marriage as a lifelong covenant between one naturally born man and one naturally born woman

That God is the creator of three distinct institutions of society; government, the home, and the church

That the local church is an autonomous institution

SALVATION

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign grace of God

That by the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a propitiatory death

That justification is by grace alone in faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ

That those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and ultimately perfected in the image of the Lord

That justification establishes an eternal relationship that can never be broken.