What we believe

We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in his virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teachings. We believe in his substitutionary atoning death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for his people and personal, visible return to earth.

As part of God's universal church, we seek to help people know and obey Jesus Christ, the living Son of God, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Salvation is God's deliverance of people from his wrath through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of mankind has rebelled against God and is condemned to eternal death and separation from him. Jesus, God's Son, was sent to die in the place of condemned sinners to make it possible for them to be brought back into a right relationship with their Creator. Through faith in Jesus, who was raised from the dead, people can experience God's forgiveness and have hope of eternal life with him.

We believe that God's grace does not come to us as the result of human effort or worthiness, but is the provision of God's mercy and love freely given to those who will believe in his Son. Grace gives to us what we do not deserve nor can earn by our performance. Believers in Jesus Christ stand in the grace of God, and by it they have hope. For those in Christ, grace abounds far beyond sin and its consequences, to the end that condemned sinners are now able to have eternal life through Jesus Christ.

We believe that all people are sinners by nature and by choice — therefore, under God's condemnation. We are unable by human performance to earn, deserve, or merit salvation. The wages of sin is death, and apart from God's grace no one can be saved. None are righteous before God, and apart from the conviction and regeneration of the Holy Spirit, none can be saved. Mankind is clearly fallen and lost in sin.

We believe that Jesus Christ died as a substitute for and a satisfaction of God's righteous judgment against sin “for the whole world.” God redeems and forgives all who will believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as their only hope of salvation from sin, death, and hell. Eternal life is a gift of God, and whoever believes in Jesus Christ will not perish, but will have eternal life. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ was sufficient to save the entire human race, but becomes effective only in those who believe.

The Bible affirms the doctrine of predestination — that God chose believers before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight, and in love predestined them to be adopted as his children. We believe that God offers salvation to all who will call on his name, and that God calls to himself those who will believe in his Son.

The Bible also teaches that there is a universal command to repent given to all people, that human beings make choices for which we are responsible, and that those choices have eternal consequences. God clearly does choose, but man must also accept God's invitation to salvation. There is a mystery here, and any attempt to demonstrate that the Bible teaches only one side of it must be rejected. To all who have believed we say clearly: do not boast, for even your faith is by the grace of God. We cannot save ourselves; only God saves, and God alone receives glory for our salvation.

We believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, and that there is no condemnation to those who are in him. Jesus promised, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” We have this assurance: he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit has sealed us for the day of redemption.

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth — without any mixture of error — for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

It reveals the principles by which God judges us; therefore it is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation.

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being — the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe, infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To him we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. Together they execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.

God as Father reigns with providential care over his universe, his creatures, and the flow of human history according to the purposes of his grace. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and he is fatherly in his attitude toward all people.

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In his incarnation as Jesus Christ he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon himself human nature yet without sin. He honored the divine law by his personal obedience, and in his substitutionary death on the cross he made provision for the redemption of men from sin.

He was raised from the dead with a glorified body, ascended into heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where he is the one Mediator — fully God, fully man — in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate his redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin and to regenerate, sanctify and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in every believer and is an abiding helper, teacher and guide. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures, and through illumination he enables people to understand truth.

He exalts Christ. He calls people to the Savior and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration he baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through his church. He seals the believer for the day of final redemption, and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

We believe in the universal church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages — believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. We believe in the local church, consisting of a company of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, maturing in wisdom and character, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by his Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Each congregation and each member is accountable to Jesus Christ and his will as revealed in Scripture. The scriptural officers of a local church are elders and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of elder is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

We do not regard tithing as a command, but we do see it as a valuable teaching tool and guiding principle for God's people. God used it to teach his people that the first, best, and everything else belongs to him, and that an appropriate way of worshipping him with sincere thankfulness was to give back a portion of what he had first given.

As Christ followers, we must view all of our money as his and seek to use it for his purposes. So we do not command, but strongly encourage people to give at least a tithe — and indeed for most, to give more. Every instance of giving a percentage reported in the New Testament goes beyond ten percent. Moved by the sacrifice of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of eternal life, it is right and natural for Christians to give generously.

The most important question regarding our money will not be, “Did you tithe?” but rather, “Did you love me with all of your heart, and did you love your neighbor as yourself?” These commands guide us in all things, including how we steward what God has given.

The Bible teaches that God created two complementary sexes of humans, male and female, to bear his image together. As outlined in Scripture, we believe that men and women are absolutely equal in essence, dignity and value and are complementary by divine design.

God desires us to embrace our genders as a gift and to have different yet complementary roles and responsibilities in the church and home. This view — equal in worth, yet different in roles — is called complementarianism, and it is the view we hold as best fitting the teaching of Scripture. We long to model it not only in our homes, but in every area of church life at Salt.

We affirm that both men and women are needed and necessary for the health and ministry of the church, and that godly men and women should be visible partners in the corporate life of the church, using their diverse gifts for the good of the body. We deny that either gender has been given greater dignity in the home, the church, or the kingdom of God, and we strongly denounce any distorted view of Scripture that contributes to marginalization, subjugation, intimidation, neglect, or any form of abuse.