WHAT WE BELIEVE (Summarized)
I.THE HOLY SCRIPTURES - We believe that the Bible is God's complete written revelation, and the sixty-six books of the Bible and cannot be added to or subtracted from. We believe that it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. GOD - We believe that there is but one living and true God, an infinite, all-knowing Spirit, perfect in all His attributes and subst
ance, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each equally deserving worship and obedience. MAN - We believe that man was directly and immediately created by God in His image and Likeness, and that man should worship and glorify God, enjoy God's fellowship, live his life in the will of God, and by this accomplish God's purpose for man. We believe that through Adam's disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, which is sin, man lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death, became subject to the wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt. We believe that the only provision for man to be reconciled with God is by the grace of God, seen through the atonement of Christ’s sacrifice. We believe that physical death involves a separation of soul and body with no loss of immaterial consciousness. We teach the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. SALVATION - We teach that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works. THE CHURCH - We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the Church, the Bride of Christ, of which Christ is the head. We believe in the autonomy of the local church with the right of self-government and freedom from the interference of any external hierarchy of individuals or organizations. We believe that God uses the church as His primary instrument to accomplish His purpose in the world. A complete, unabridged summary of what is taught as Biblical truth at Utica City Church is available upon Request
