What We Believe at Lighthouse

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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.

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, 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 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 to live and  serve Jesus Christ.

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 in the personal, bodily and  premillennial 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 by 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.