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God is both self-existent and personal. There is only one God, who exists in three distinct co-equal, co-eternal, co-powerful, persons. Together we refer to these persons as God. Individually, the Bible addresses them as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God isn't one person, the Father, with Jesus a creation and the Holy Spirit as force. Nor is God a single person who took different roles in history. The Trinity isn't an office held by three separate Gods. The Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God.
The three Persons of the Godhead all eternally share the Divine Nature. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
God the Son, entered human history by being conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, died for the sins of humankind. Jesus bodily rose from the dead on the third day and after a short period of further public teaching of his followers he ascended into heaven. He is present in heaven now before the Father acting as our High Priest and Advocate. As he promised, He is coming again to complete his duties as the Jewish Messiah and King of the world.
Jesus is 100% God. Jesus is 100% human. He is everything that God is. All the attributes intrinsic to God are present in Jesus. He is completely human. All the attributes intrinsic to humanity are present in Him.
Jesus Christ is the only means of man's salvation and the sole mediator between God and man.
God created mankind in the image of God. As such, humankind is unique among God's creation. Initially we were also created innocent (but not righteous), morally perfect but yet spiritually incomplete.
Humans turned against God by abusing God's gift of freewill, and this resulted in spiritual death of all humans. Because Adam stood as representing everyone who came after him, all human beings sinned both in Adam, and with Adam (as if we were all there present). By virtue of being connected to Adam by lineage, all human beings also share the same spiritual damage Adam did to his relationship to God.
This means that humanity are sinners both by what we do and by who we are. Because the nature of sin is rebellion against God, humans live in a state of alienation (from indifference to to active hostility against God) and profound need that can only be satisfied by making things right with God. Without such reconciliation, this rebellion remains and grows. Since God cannot and will not allow rebellion to continue, all persons - without defense or excuse - stand under God's fair, just and proper judgment and condemnation against sin.
Reconciliation with God (salvation) is offered by God's grace alone and is received as a gift. Thus, cannot be earned by deeds or merit. (Because Salvation is a pure gift and cannot be earned by anything we do, salvation cannot be "lost" by anything we do.) Salvation is by God's grace through faith.
Salvation always starts with God and his grace toward his enemies. God the Father loved human beings so much that He sent God the Son as a substitute. Jesus voluntarily added the human nature to his own nature as God, lived a life of perfection by his own obedience to the Father.
Jesus is our Savior in that by the shedding of his blood and in his death, he fully satisfied the demands of God regarding the punishment for sin. His sacrifice consisted not in setting us an example by His death (like a martyr), but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner's place. Jesus, who did not deserve to, suffered and died and experienced the penalty of death and eternal hell in place of those who completely deserved it.
Everyone who trusts in Jesus, that his work on the cross is what saves from sin and the penalty of sin, are forgiven of their sins and justified in the eyes of God. All who trust Him as their Lord and Savior by faith are born again and become the children of God. All who recieve God's salvation are then indwelt by the Holy Spirit, placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit as a "down payment" for the future glory of resurrection.
Salvation is at its heart a matter between the individual and God. No one apart from God can flatly deny or grant salvation, or provide requirements thereof. (And God's already done so in Jesus.)
The Body of Christ is God's vehicle for accomplishing His purpose on earth at this time. The "universal Church" is made up of all individuals everywhere who are truly saved by the grace of God in the forgiveness of sin. The "visible Church" is made up of all those professing the title of "Christian," who may or may not be partakers in salvation. Mentions of "church" here refer to the universal Church unless specified.
The Church is made up of people made holy by God's salvation. As such, Christians are also rightly known as "saints" (holy ones). And because of the various sorts of work that Jesus did in his life and on the cross, anyone in the Church can pray to God directly, study the Bible for oneself and serve others directly. At the same time, Christians are also told to do the same things corporately and together with other Christians.
The purpose of the Church is two fold:
Heaven and Hell are real places where one consciously continues to exist after the death of the physical body. Heaven for those who have God's salvation. Hell for those who reject God's salvation. Simply put, Heaven is where God is, and is a place of activity, industry, service and creative civilization. Hell is where God is "absent," and is a place of boredom, tedium and torment.
Universal salvation, soul sleep and the annihilation of the wicked are not found with proper methods of reading and interpreting the Bible.
Because part of the future hope of the Believer is the resurrection of the body, Eternity exists as a place with definite physical reality. The Bible calls it the New Earth, and it will not be home to disembodied spirits, but will be just as physical as the current world is now. We are not given enough information in the Bible to say for sure if the current heaven has a physical reality to it or not.
Hell is the realm fashioned by God for the devil and his cohorts, when the time came for their judgment. Hell is not the headquarters of Evil, nor can anyone leave hell without God's say so. Demons do not torment the people in hell, and in fact at the final judgment they'll be incarcirated there with even more punishment than any human being.
The Bible doesn't make much of a distinction between the Lake of Fire and the current hell, only that at the final judgment, hell itself will be tossed into the Lake of Fire. They are both places of judgment and tormenting regret and frustration.
The Old and New Testaments, were inspired by God, inerrant in the originals and are the sole authority regarding faith and theology. Related to this, we believe that God has preserved His Word through reliable documents and translations through history.