The Christians that come together to form the church of Christ at Palm Springs Drive hold the Bible as the complete, perfect, and final communication from God to man today. All our beliefs and practices find their source and authority from the scriptures alone. Since we follow no creed, handbook, or tradition apart from the Bible, to understand who we are and what we believe, one must look to the Bible for enlightenment.
Here is a brief summary of some of the fundamental truths that God, through His scriptures, has revealed to man, and where they may be found in the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth (Gen1:1). As the final act of that creation, God created man and woman, (Gen 2:7, 18-24) whose purpose was to serve God and keep His commandments (Gen 2:15, Ecc 12:13). The first people, Adam and Eve failed to fulfill the commands of God when they disobeyed Him in eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3: 1-8). Because man sinned, God laid a curse upon the world and cast man from the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:14-18). Beginning with Adam and Eve, all the way to our present day, all people have sinned, severing their relationship with God (Rom 3: 23). God, foreseeing this, created a plan to restore Man to Himself (Eph1:3-7). He prepared the Old Testament to prepare mankind to understand and accept the message of the coming Messiah (Gal 3:24). To fulfill this plan, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Mat 16:16, John 6: 68-69) was born of a virgin, (Mat 1: 18-25) lived a perfect, sinless life, (Acts 10:38, 1 Peter 2:22) and died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins (Col 1:19-22).
With the price for our sins paid, God communicated His will to man through his inerrant Holy Scriptures (Heb 1: 1-2.) God calls on us to study His Bible and to believe in what it tells us about His will (Rom 10: 17). Once we understand that we are sinners and need His saving grace, we must make a commitment to not only remove sin from our lives (Prov 28:13, Acts 8:22), but also to transform ourselves into His image (1 Thess 1:9 / Rom 12:2). This is true repentance (Luke 13:3). Once the commitment is made, we are proud of our Lord and confess that He is our King to the world (Matt 10: 32-33). Finally, to contact that blood Jesus shed in His crucifixion we are baptized in water in order to obtain the remission of our sins (Acts 2: 37-39, Rom 6:3, Acts 22:16).
Upon obeying His command to be baptized, God adds us to the body of His Son, the kingdom which is called The Church of Christ (Acts 2: 41,47, Col 1:18, Rom 16:16). Members of that body, who live and work in the same area meet together to worship God together and strengthen one another. This is the local congregation (Acts 20:7, Acts 2: 41-47, Phil 1:2). The local congregation is led by a group of qualified men called elders, who guide and feed the local church, always adhering to the Bible for their guidance (1 Pet 5: 1-4). They are aided by deacons who assist them in carrying out needful tasks in the church (1 Tim 3).
One day, Jesus will return to judge all people according to their deeds against the standard of His Scriptures (John 12: 47-48, 2 Cor 5:10). Those who have not lived according to His words will be punished in an everlasting Hell, while those who have striven to live their lives in faith and according to the Bible, will be called home to heaven, to live forever with God (Matt 25:31-46, 1 Thess 4: 13-18).
Copyright 2007