There is a God, and He created the universe.

There is no need for faith and science to conflict, at least as portrayed in our culture. We are told in scripture that God's power and majesty, and evidence for his existence, is all around us in creation. By studying creation, we learn truth about God and his nature. Science is a way to understand creation by repeated observation and testing over centuries. We know that scientific discoveries lead toward testable truth about the world because we leverage its predictive power every day.

Scientists will tell you that scientific truth has limits. There could always be a better, more complete, more accurate understanding around the corner, and that is its pursuit. Because truth, by nature, is absolute and objective, if these progressively deeper understandings of the world appear to diverge from what’s in scripture, it would be logical to think we are misunderstanding scripture or we are misunderstanding the world. This is the real struggle between science and faith.

Another limit on science is that there are questions science will never be able to answer. Namely, any topic that falls outside of our universe or is not testable. Since it follows that whatever caused the universe cannot be in the universe, the creator of the universe is not subject to tests of science. But for all the things it can and does test, it leads us to progressively deeper truth about the universe.

Genesis has an account of creation. It is not a science text on the mechanics of the process. A time scale is assigned, but it is literal? Allegorical? Science has extremely strong evidence on what happened and how long it’s been since the birth of creation. Either it is leading us to progressively deeper truths as it is known to do, or God created the world in such a way as to deceive us by the evidence that progresses toward truth in every other way. Deception is not in his nature. This leads me to believe we should view the Genesis account as an allegory teaching us about God as the agent of creation and our nature and position with God each other, and the rest of creation - but not a literal account of the scientific events.

All that to say this: We believe God created the universe. We don’t know how, but we learn more about the aftermath every day through the tools he gave us in science.

The Bible is God's revelation to us.

We believe that the Bible, comprised of the 66 canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, was inspired to those who wrote it directly from God to tell the overarching story of God, who we are, how we relate to him, and the redemption we have through Jesus. The principles it instructs and the overall meaning it ascribes to life are all we need to know to live a life that pleases Him, and we believe it is the ultimate authority on the principles by which we should live and the nature of humans as beings. We believe that God guided the selection process for choosing the manuscripts that were included in the Biblical canon. Though other ancient documents may have value in various ways, they are not "the Word of God". We also believe that his revelation to us was complete with the apostles of the New Testament - he has given us what we need to know.

There is one God, a trinity.

This is one of the most difficult concepts in Christianity, but it is central. We believe there is one God that is beyond the time and space of our universe, manifested in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. They are distinct in person and role, yet also unified as God. God alone is worthy of prayer, worship, and praise according to the Bible - not saints, not Mary, not anyone else.

All people are condemned sinners, but God loves us.

From the moment Eve picked the apple in disobedience to God, the definition of "sin", and Adam followed suit (whether literally or metaphorically), condemnation was brought onto mankind. They had been warned, they disobeyed, the result is just. The nature of humanity changed and we are now born with the rebellious nature and require redemption (as soon as we are old enough to understand it) to escape eternal justice.

This need to be saved from the justice of our sin is not dependent on how good we think we’ve been, because that is not the benchmark. Everyone sins. Everyone. Even if they don’t realize it, or don’t define it that way, or don’t believe in it. It is not a “mean daddy torturing people because they didn’t pick him”. It’s a righteous judge enacting a just sentence on a transgression.  

And yet, God loves his creation in spite of ourselves. The Bible, in fact, from beginning to end, is the overarching story of the depth of that love for humanity.

Jesus Christ was God incarnate, the Son of God.

He was sent to live a perfect human life to prepare Him to be the perfect sacrifice, the substitute for us in taking the penalty for sin. He underwent every type of temptation to which we are subjected and triumphed over it. He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. He was an actual, historical person recorded in ancient histories beyond the biblical writings. He repeatedly claimed his own divinity. He did things that defy explanation. He willingly gave himself over to this sacrifice. He was a fully-realized human being with a divine nature.

Jesus was crucified and died in our place.

To win our redemption and take our penalty upon himself to spare us, He was executed by the Romans at the urging of the Jewish authorities - not for a crime, but because He was perceived as a threat to their positions. In His death, He bore all sin from all people and once and for all paid the penalty for us, so we could be released from our condemnation under the Law if we choose to acknowledge and accept his act on our behalf and repent of our sin.

Jesus was physically raised from the dead.

Three days after His death, He was raised from the dead and continued physically on earth another 40 days, appearing to a bunch of witnesses, after which time He ascended into heaven. In defeating death, He overcame the ultimate power over us, freeing us from bondage to this world.

Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is the same Messiah foretold by Jewish prophecy. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled all messianic prophecy from the Old Testament. One day He will return to earth to gather up those who believe in Him for eternal life in heaven.

We cannot get to heaven by any way except through Christ.

It is not within our power, or anyone else's, to overcome our condemnation. Only God can provide forgiveness for disobedience to Him, which He offers through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is why Christ came and died. He paid the just penalty for us after having committed no sin of his own, and that is the only way justice was satisfied. No one else (including a priest) can forgive or absolve us on God’s behalf. We cannot earn forgiveness by doing good things, keeping the ten commandments, confession alone, by the efforts of someone else, or anything else that we might dream up of our own volition. Only by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus.

The only way to heaven is by believing in and submitting to Christ.

There is one way, and one way only, for us to gain an eternal reward in heaven and escape judgement: believe Jesus is the Son of God and that he was crucified and rose physically from the grave, earnestly ask forgiveness for our sin and resolve to remove it from our lives (repent), and accept the gift of Christ's sacrifice as the atonement for it. It is then incumbent upon us to study scripture and apply how we should think, how we should live, how we should relate to others, and how we should represent Him in the world.