What
We Believe
1. The Bible
is the Word of God written without error and is our absolute
guide for doctrinal teaching and godly living.
2. We worship
and serve the One True God who revealed Himself in the Bible
as three persons sharing one indivisible essence in the mystery
of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit.
3. Jesus
Christ is the unique person having two natures -- the perfection
of both God and Man. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born
of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life but suffered and died
in the place of sinful man, was buried and resurrected, ascended
bodily into Heaven, and is preparing to return bodily to earth
a second time.
4. The Holy
Spirit is God who is actively at work in the world. He dwells
permanently in every Christian, helps us to pray, equips and
empowers us to serve God, strengthens and molds us to be more
like Christ, and protects us to guarantee our eternal life.
5. Angels
are the innumerable and unseen creatures who serve the causes
of God and His people. Satan and demons are fallen and doomed
angels who, with the help of other evil spirits, promote wickedness
and oppose God's purposes.
6. Man is
God's creature who bears His image and was originally sinless
but through the first man Adam, all mankind sinned, became separated
from God, and totally unable to gain God's favor of forgiveness
and eternal life by self-effort.
7. Salvation
is God's act of forgiving sins, reconciling people to Himself,
and giving eternal life to those who believe in Jesus. Salvation
is not a reward for good works but a free gift of God received
by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
8. The Church
is the universal Body of Christ consisting of all born again
Christians made one by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To
join a local church like GCF, a person must have undergone baptism
by immersion, agree with the covenant of membership, partake
of the symbols of Christ in Communion, and pledge to help fulfill
the church's mission to make disciples of all nations.
9. Jesus
Christ will come again to reign on earth and to reward God's
people with life with Him forever in the new Heaven and Earth
and to judge unbelievers with eternal separation from God and
suffering in Hell.
10. Christians
have a duty to honor and pray for those in government authority,
to pay taxes, and to help promote the general welfare of society.
11.God instituted
marriage and the family as the basis elements on which society
is built.
Marriage
is the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of others
so that the husband and the wife can share love and intimacy
for personal fulfillment and for the establishment of families.
