Eternity + Jefferson City, Missouri

First - We are Christians which distinguishes us from other world religions and cults. Therefore we adhere to both the Apostles and Nicene creeds.

Second - We are Evangelicals and are in agreement with the doctrinal statement of the National Association of Evangelicals.

- We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.
- We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
- We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.
- We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
- We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Third - We are Missional.

- We believe we must be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine (Jude 3)
- We believe that we must be faithful to minister in ways that will be effective in Jefferson City (1 Corinthians 9: 19-23)
- We believe that our mission is to train and equip people at Eternity to be effective missionaries in our community.

Fourth - We believe in the sovereignty of God in all things.

- We believe that God created the heavens, the earth.
- We believe that God created man and woman in a state of sinless perfection with particular dignity as His image bearers on the earth.
- We believe that our first parents sinned against God and that everyone since is a sinner by nature and choice. Sin has totally affected all of creation including marring human image and likeness so that all of our being is stained by sin (e.g. reasoning, desires, and emotions).
- We believe that because all people have sinned and separated themselves from the Holy God that he is obligated to save no one from the just deserved punishments of hell.
- We believe God has absolute sovereignty over who will be saved.
- We believe that salvation was and is accomplished by the sinless life, substitutionary atoning death, and literal physical resurrection of Jesus Christ in place of His people for their sins.
- We believe that salvation, by God’s grace alone, shows forth in the ongoing repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ that leads to good works.
- We believe that God’s saving grace is ultimately irresistible and that God does soften even the hardest heart and save the worst of sinners according to His will.
- We believe that the gospel should be passionately and urgently proclaimed to all people so that all who believe may be saved through the preaching of God’s Word by the power of God’s Spirit.
- We believe that true Christians born again of God’s Spirit will be kept by God throughout their life, as evidenced by personal transformation that includes an ever-growing love of God the Father through God the Son by God the Spirit, love of brothers and sisters in the church, and love of lost neighbors in the culture.
- We believe that God is Lord over all of life and that there is nothing in life that is to be separated from God.
- We believe that the worship of God is the end for which people were created and that abiding joy is only to be found by delighting in God through all of life, including hardship and death which is gain.

Fifth - We will practice:

- Believer’s Baptism - We believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord by which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in His death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.

- The Lord’s Supper - We believe that the Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord in which gathered believers eat bread, signifying Christ’s body given for His people, and drink the cup of the Lord, signifying the New Covenant in Christ’s blood. We do this in remembrance of the Lord, and thus proclaim His death until He comes. Those who eat and drink in a worthy manner partake of Christ’s body and blood, not physically, but spiritually, in that, by faith, they are nourished with the benefits He obtained through His death, and thus grow in grace.

Finally - We are NOT:

- We are not liberals who embrace culture without discernment and compromise the distinctives of the gospel.
- We are not fundamentalists who retreat from cultural involvement and transformation.
- We are not consumed with eschatological debates and believe that divisive and dogmatic certainty surrounding particular details of Jesus Second Coming are unprofitable speculation, because the timing and exact details of His return are unclear to us.
- We are not egalitarians and do believe that men should head their homes and male elders should lead their churches with masculine love like Jesus.
- We are not Open Theists and believe in the sovereignty and foreknowledge of God in all things.
- We are not religious relativists and do believe that there is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus alone.
- We are not moralists seeking to help people live good lives, but instead evangelists laboring that people would become new creations in Christ.
- We are not relativists and do gladly embrace Scripture as our highest authority above such things as culture, experience, philosophy, and other forms of revelation.
- We are not Universalists and do believe that many people will spend eternity in the torments of hell as the Bible teaches.
- We are not rationalists and do believe that not everything can be known but that God calls us to live by faith with mystery and partial knowledge regarding many things.
- We are not evangelical feminists and do believe that God reveals Himself as a Father and is to be honored by the names He reveals to us without apology.
- We are not embarrassed by the bloody death of Jesus and do believe He died as a substitute for the sins of His people in selfless love.
- We are not polemicists who believe that it is our task to combat every false teaching but are passionate about preserving the integrity of the gospel of Jesus.