Beliefs

We hold fast to the core doctrines of the historically orthodox Christian faith. We can’t know God exhaustively, but we can know Him accurately. We’re unified in the big stuff; don’t make small stuffinto big stuff, and make it a mission to clarify which is which through scripture.

1. The Bible

The Bible is God’s Word to all people and it describes God in all of His fullness. It was written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because it was inspired by God, the Bible is absolute truth without error and is completely relevant to our daily lives. We should believe in it, follow its teachings, place our trust in it and find hope within it. (1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:21)

2. The Trinity

There is one eternal God who is the Creator of all things. He exists in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He is totally loving and completely holy. Although each member of the Trinity serves different functions, they each possess equal power and authority. (Exodus 3:14; Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10, 11; Matthew. 28; John 8:58; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

3. Jesus Christ

Jesus is coequal with the Father and Holy Spirit. He is completely human but at the same time, completely God. He is the only plan for bringing people who are far from God back into a right relationship with God. Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. He arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven and will return again someday to earth to reign as King. (Matthew 1:20; Mark 16:19; John 1:1, 14; 3:16; 20:1-2; 1 Corinthians

15:3-5; Hebrews 2:17; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:8; 1 Peter 3:22)

4. The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is coequal with the Father and the Son of God. He is present in the world to make people aware of their need for Jesus Christ. In all He does, He glorifies Christ. The Holy Spirit provides Christians with power for living, understanding of spiritual truth and guidance in doing what is right. He comforts us, enables us to use spiritual gifts and makes us more like Christ as we allow Him to work. As Christians we seek to live under His control daily. (John 14:16-26; Romans 8:9, 26; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; Hebrews 10:29)

5. Sin and the Fall of Humanity

Man is made in the image of God and is the supreme object of His creation. Man was created to have fellowship with God but became separated in that relationship through sinful disobedience at the fall of mankind. As a result, man cannot attain a right relationship with God through his own effort. All of mankind are in union with Adam and are sinners by nature and by choice. Sin has separated us from God. (Genesis 1:26, 27; 2:17; 3:6; Romans 5:12-19)

6. Salvation and the Work of Christ

The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, provides the only way of salvation through the forgiveness of sin. Salvation is received through repentance toward God & faith in the death and resurrection of Christ as sufficient payment for their sin. Those who receive God’s offer of grace by faith are born again, justified, made new, adopted into the family of God, made heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit and receive eternal life to come. Salvation is a gift from God and it cannot be earned through our own efforts. (John 3:3; Acts 4:12; Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:10; 8:14-17; 10:9-10; Titus 3:5-6)

7. The Church

The church is a local community of believers unified through faith in Christ, who is the head of The Church. It is committed to the teachings of Christ, to obeying all of His commands and to bringing the gospel to the world. The Church works together in love and unity of Spirit, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ. We believe in the power and significance of the Church and the necessity of believers to meet regularly together for fellowship, prayer and the worship. (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Romans 5:1, 5; Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:11-17;

5:27; Revelation 2-3)

8. Christ’s Return and the Eternal Perfect State

We believe in the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the moment of his coming, which time is unknown, we will be caught up in the air, transformed in glory and brought back to the earth where Christ will sit in judgment, renew the earth and reign as King forever. We believe that God is creating a New Heavens and a New Earth where humans will dwell forever with God. The imminent coming of Christ should inspire us to Godly living and commitment to the mission of the Gospel (Isaiah 65:17; Matthew 24:30; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54; 1

Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 19:11-22:21)

9. Eternity

Man is an eternal spirit, created to exist forever. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is Heaven. Both Heaven and Hell are real places of eternal existence. (Matthew 25:46; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 19:20; 20:11-15; 21:8)

10. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

We believe in the continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the gifts is to equip the Church to carry out its mission until Christ returns, as well as to be a signaling of the life to come. Believers should seek God in prayer for the gifts of the Spirit to operate in their own lives and ministries and should not only agree to them in thought but practice them outwardly as the Spirit leads (Romans 1:11; 1 Corinthians 1:5, 7; 12:1, 31; 1 Corinthians 14:12; 2 Timothy 1:6-7;

Hebrews 6:5)

11. Marriage

We believe God has ordained marriage and defined it as a covenant relationship between one man, one woman and himself. Hence, we only recognize marriage between a biological man and a biological woman. As a result, the staff and faculty of The Rock Church will only participate in weddings of marriages between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4; Ephesians 5:25; 1 Peter 3:7)

12. Gender

We believe that from the beginning God created two separate and distinct biological sexes: male and female. We believe that scripture does not permit any difference between biological sex and gender identity or expression. Mankind has been created by God and any attempt to misconstrue the difference between male/female and/or biological sex/gender identity is an attempt to self-create and is a result of sin and the fall. We also acknowledge that there are rare instances where people are born with an indiscriminate biological sex. Yet, these cases do not involve an attempt to self-create nor deny the dignity of how they were born (Genesis 1:26-27; Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6-7; Psalm 139:14)

13. Race

We believe that God loves all races of human beings equally and without preference or favoritism. Racism, which is prejudice, discrimination or antagonism by an individual, community or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, is evil and is the result of sin. We believe that the authority for approaching racism is scripture and our approach to racism is rooted in the Bible. As a result, we reject Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other systems of thinking that insist on being the authority on racism and the resolution to it. (Mark 12:31; Acts 17:26; Romans 2:11; Revelation 7:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

14. Right to Life

We believe that all human life is valuable and sacred and human life and full person-hood begins at conception and continues until death. As stewards of life, we are given responsibility by God to protect the worth and dignity of human beings from the moment of conception until the moment of death. Therefore, we oppose taking innocent life in all forms, including abortion and euthanasia. (Genesis 1:26-27; Job 31:15; Psalm 22:10; Psalm 127:3-5; Psalm 139:13-16;

Jeremiah 1:5; Acts 17:25)

15. Religious Liberty

We believe that religious and civil liberty has a scriptural basis on the grounds that humans were created in the image of God and given certain inalienable rights.

One of these rights is freedom to worship. The state should not have any authority over religious practices and matters that would infringe on this right. Equally, the state exists to protect this right. Each church and every religion should seek religious freedom, not only as its own inherent right, but as the right of other churches and religions (Genesis 1:27; Joohn 8:36 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1).