Scripture

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and sufficient Word of God. They are God-breathed, wholly true in all they affirm, incapable of error in the original writings, and preserved by God’s providence. Scripture is not man’s word about God but God’s Word to man, revealing the whole counsel of God concerning His glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Thus, the Scriptures are perfect, complete, and fully sufficient, lacking nothing, and nothing is to be added to or taken from them. They are the final and supreme authority in all matters of faith and practice, binding the conscience because they are the very voice of God.

God

We believe in one living and true God, who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are equal in essence, power, and glory, yet distinct in their persons and operations. God is infinite in being and perfection, self-existent, immutable, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, all-sufficient, and sovereign over all things. He is most holy, most wise, most free, and most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His immutable will, for His glory alone.

God is perfect in justice, abundant in mercy, rich in grace, fearful in holiness, overflowing in steadfast love and truth, and terrible in wrath. He hates all sin, will by no means clear the guilty, and His righteous anger is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. At the same time, He delights to forgive through the atoning sacrifice of Christ. The cross is the fullest display of His holy character—where perfect love and perfect wrath meet in the death of His Son for sinners. To Him belongs all worship, obedience, and honor forever.

Jesus Christ

We believe in the eternal Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is of one essence with the Father, uncreated, and without beginning. Through Him all things were made, and apart from Him nothing came into being. In the fullness of time, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is truly God and truly man—two natures united in one Person without confusion, change, division, or separation. He lived in perfect obedience to the Father, fulfilled the Law, and offered Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin. By His substitutionary death on the cross, He bore the wrath of God in the place of His people, securing their redemption. He rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now reigns at the right hand of the Father, interceding for His own. He will return personally, visibly, and gloriously to judge the living and the dead and to consummate His kingdom.

On “Truly God and Truly Man”

At first glance, “truly” and “fully” may seem like synonyms. But in theological usage they guard different aspects of Christ’s person, and they arose out of centuries of debate in the early church.

The Historical Context

The 4th through 6th centuries were marked by serious errors regarding Christ’s person:

• Arianism denied His full deity, treating Him as a created being.
• Apollinarianism denied His full humanity, saying the divine Logos replaced His human mind.
• Nestorianism divided Christ into two persons, one divine and one human.
• Eutychianism/Monophysitism (fifth century) blurred Christ’s two natures into one mixed nature. The very word Monophysite shows the problem: from the Greek mono (one) and physis (nature). Instead of confessing that Christ is both God and man, they claimed that His divinity and humanity merged into a single fused nature—neither wholly God nor wholly man, but a hybrid. The church rightly rejected this as unbiblical, for a Christ who is not truly God and truly man cannot mediate between God and man.

In response, the Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) confessed that Christ is one Person in two natures—truly God and truly man—“without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”

Fully God and Fully Man

This language emphasizes completeness. Jesus did not possess part of deity or part of humanity—He was wholly God and wholly man. It guards against reducing Him to a partial being or mixture.

Truly God and Truly Man

This language emphasizes reality and essence. Jesus was not a man merely filled with deity, nor two complete beings merged. He was, in His very being, God the Son incarnate—actually God and actually man in one Person.

Why It Matters

Both terms are orthodox; together they express that Christ is truly (in essence) and fully (in totality) God and man. These careful words stand as the church’s response to centuries of heresy, reminding us that the mystery of the incarnation cannot be reduced or redefined.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, true and eternal God, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He is not an impersonal force, but the Lord and Giver of life, who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

It is the Spirit who effectually calls, regenerates, convicts of sin, grants repentance and faith, and unites believers to Christ. He indwells every true child of God, sealing them as His possession and guaranteeing their final redemption. By His power, the believer is sanctified through the Word, enabled to put sin to death, and equipped for faithful obedience.