Core Beliefs
"What We Believe"
Core Beliefs of Marine View Presbyterian Church
About God…
We believe God exists and that there is only one true God.1
We believe God is spirit and is eternal and unchanging.2
We believe God is triune in nature, that God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.3
We believe the Father is in control of the world, providing order and purpose to life, and working in love to bring wholeness to people and a world that are broken and separated from Him.4
We believe Jesus of Nazareth was the only Son of God, was fully God and fully human, the image of the invisible God.5
We believe the Holy Spirit is God’s presence and power for life today, enabling men and women to believe in God and equipping them for service to Him.6
We believe God is both beyond the created world and present and active throughout the universe.7
About People…
We believe God created human beings, both male and female, in His image, with dignity and purpose, to be in an intimate, personal relationship with Himself.8
We believe God loves each of us individually with a boundless and eternal love.9
We believe sin—that is self-centeredness and disobedience—infects and affects all of humanity.10
We believe our sin separates us from God, severing our relationship with Him, twisting and corrupting His image in us, and leaving us broken and lost.11
We believe all human being will individually be held accountable by God for their sin, and thus each of us stands in need of salvation.12
About Salvation…
We believe human beings, on their own, are wholly unable to save themselves, to reclaim God’s favor in relationship, and to heal their brokenness.13
We believe that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God reveals His love for lost and broken people by taking upon Himself the punishment for sin that each individual rightly deserves.14
We believe God comes to us in Jesus Christ to offer the free gift of salvation, to restore our severed relationship with God, and to make us whole.15
We believe God’s gift of salvation is received by faith alone, that is believing and trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save us from the penalty for our sin.16
We believe Jesus Christ is the only way for human beings to be saved, to have a restored relationship with God and to be made whole.17
About Church…
We believe the Church consists of all persons, together with their children, who profess faith in Christ as Lord and Savior and commit themselves to live in a fellowship under His rule.18
We believe Christ is the Head of the Church, His people gathering for worship and to carry on His ministry in the world.19
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God, witnessing to God’s self-revelation and uniquely authoritative in all matters of life and faith.20
We believe Baptism is the sign and seal of incorporation into Christ, symbolic of inclusion in God’s covenant with the Church, and received by both professing adults and children of believers.21
We believe the Lord’s Supper is the sign and seal of Christ’s real and sustaining presence for His followers, recalling His life, death, and resurrection, and anticipating His return.22
1Ps. 53:13; Dt. 6:4; Isa. 44:6
2Jn. 4:24; Ps. 90:2; 1 Ti. 1:17; Mal. 3:6
3Mt. 3:16-17; Jn. 15:26; 2 Cor. 13:13-14
4Eph. 1:3-10; Neh. 9:6; Rom. 8:28
5Jn. 1:1; 20:31; Php. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15; 2:9
6Jn. 14:26; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:7
7Ps. 95:3-5; 139:7-12
8Gen. 1:27; Ps. 8:4-8
9Jer. 31:3; Rom. 8:38-39; Eph. 3:17-19
10Rom. 3:10-12, 23; 1 Jn. 1:8; 3:4
11Eph. 4:18; Rom. 8:7-8
12Mt. 16:27; Jn. 5:28-29; 2 Cor. 5:10
13Isa. 43:11; 64:6; Rom. 3:20
14Isa. 53:5; Mk. 10:45; Jn. 3:16-18
15Jn. 6:38-40; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pe. 2:24-25; 1 Jn. 2:2
16Jn. 1:12; Rom. 10:9-10; Eph. 2:8-9
17Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12
181 Cor. 1:2; 12:12-13; Eph. 4:4-6
19Col. 1:18; Mt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8
20Ps. 119:9, 105; 2 Ti. 3:15-17; Heb. 4:12
21Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 2:12
221 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-26; Rev. 19:9
Our Core Beliefs
1. God loves you and wants to be in an intimate personal relationship with you.
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 NKJV)
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 NKJV)
2. Your sin-- that is your self-centeredness, brokenness, and rebellion--separates you from God and keeps you from experiencing the fullness of His love in a personal relationship.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2 NKJV)
...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 NKJV)
...having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; (Ephesians 4:18 NKJV)
3. Jesus Christ came to restore your relationship with God so that you might know His love and become whole.
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:38-40 NKJV)
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NKJV)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, (1 Peter 3:18 NKJV)
4. You must accept by faith what God had done for you in Christ to begin a personal relationship with God, to fully experience His love, and to become whole.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (John 1:12 NKJV)
...even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; (Romans 3:22 NKJV)
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16-17 NKJV)