We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His glory.
We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.
We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled, and renewed.
We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.
We believe that God, from all eternity, to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love Him, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass. We believe that God upholds and governs all things in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself, yet in such a way that He never sins, nor ever condemns a person unjustly; but that His ordaining and governing all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image. We believe that God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace that was given through his Son Christ Jesus before the world began. By this act God chose, before the foundation of the world, those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in his Son Christ Jesus. We believe that God’s sovereignty and the proclamation of the gospel of salvation through the finished work of Christ are in no way contradictory, and sharing of the gospel to all people is a duty of all believers.
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him, they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of believers today, and that sign miracles and speaking in tongues in the beginning days of the church were to point to and authenticate the apostles as revealers of divine truth and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers. Although we do not control personal, individual interactions with the Lord, the expression of prophecy, tongues, and other sign gifts, as seen in the current charismatic movement, are not to be overtly expressed at meetings that are under the organization and authority of Liberty Community Church. Furthermore, members of Liberty Community Church are not to propagate the teachings and emphases of these sign gifts.
We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.
We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor, and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.
We believe that the primary role of the church is to worship God through the preaching and teaching of His Word, observing the ordinances, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost. We deny that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church. Though believers can and should utilize all lawful means that God has providentially established to have some effect on the laws of a society, we deny that these activities constitute a central part of the church’s mission given to her by Jesus Christ.
We do not believe that political means can establish the kingdom of God, but we do believe that God has appointed governing authorities to do good and that, for citizens in Christ’s kingdom, His reign transcends all other citizenships and partisan ideologies and transforms how we live in the world. We deny, however, that laws or regulations possess any inherent power to change sinful hearts.
Christians should be good citizens who may freely advocate for God-honoring public policies.
We believe in the personal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service, and energetic mission.
We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.
We believe that marriage is the exclusive, covenantal union of one man and one woman, which union was designed by God. Genesis 2:24 states, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Jesus Christ affirmed this in Matthew 19:4-6: “And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’” We will faithfully follow this scriptural definition of marriage in the teachings and practices of this church, and therefore, this church will not officiate, solemnize, perform, or host a marriage or marriage-like ceremony involving anything other than the union of one man with one woman as instituted by God.
We believe God made all people from one man and that “race” is not a biblical category. We deny that Christians should segregate themselves into racial groups or regard racial identity above, or even equal to, their identity in Christ. We deny that any divisions between people groups (from an unstated attitude of superiority to an overt spirit of resentment) have any legitimate place in the church. We believe that racism is a sin rooted in pride and malice that must be condemned and renounced by all who would honor the image of God in all people. We deny that treating people with sinful partiality or prejudice is consistent with biblical Christianity. We deny that the Bible can be legitimately used to foster or justify partiality, prejudice, or contempt toward other ethnicities.
We do not believe that a person’s biological sex should be separated from their self-perception as a man or a woman nor that the body should be altered when it does not conform to that self-perception. We believe that God created mankind male and female and that this divinely determined distinction is good, proper, and to be celebrated. We deny that human sexuality is a socially constructed concept. We also deny that one’s sex can be fluid, or that “gay Christian” is a legitimate biblical category. Such identities cannot honor the image-bearing character of human sexuality as created by God.
