Inspiration of the Scripture

The scripture is the Word of God expressed in man’s written languages.  It is inspired by God and written down by a human author.  All scripture is God inspired but takes on the flavor of the author’s personality and observations (2 Peter 1:21; 1 Thess 2:13).  The scripture (and only the scripture) is appropriate for the use of establishing doctrine (Tim 3:16).

Person of God

God is one God (Duet 6:4) who exists and has made Himself known to us as three Persons.  These Persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19).  They are in perfect unity with one another (Isa 48:16; John 17:11).

Man, his fall and his redemption

Man, comprising of both male and female, was created of the same body by God to be in His likeness (Gen 1:26).  We are like Him in many ways including the following: we are three part beings, Adam and Eve were without sin, and were created to live eternally from the time of creation onward (Gen 3:22).  God put before man a test of obedience and of choosing to love God above himself.  For Adam and Eve that test was not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17).  Upon eating that fruit and therefore failing the test of obedience a curse of death was brought on all of the creation.  For man it meant that he immediately became dead spiritually and thereby losing his communion and unity to God (Gen 3:8), and also then man would eventually experience death in is body (Gen 3:19).  When God dealt with Adam and Eve He revealed His plan to redeem man from his fallen nature (Gen 3:15).  That plan was that a man without a sin nature would be born of God, and that innocent One would be judged for our sin nature and commission of sin.  The man who was that innocent One was Jesus Christ, who was put to death by the hands of man by God’s will.  Therefore just as death came to all men through one man, life would be freely available and given to all men who ask for it comes through one Man (Rom 5:15).
 

Salvation and obtaining it

Salvation is the free gift of God available to everyone through faith (Eph 2:8).  We realize salvation through these things: 1) believing that Jesus is the Son of God, 2) that He died on the cross and was resurrected three days later, 3) and with our mouths we must confess that He is our Lord (Rom 10:9,10).  Salvation is only available through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).