Articles of Faith

In its most basic form, a church is a group of people who gather together to learn about God and to share His love with others. That's what Jesus boiled it down to when he was asked what were the most important things to do in life:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37–39)

This is the heart of Trinity Church in Lansing, Michigan. Yet a church, like any organization, needs to be organized. Take some time and have a look inside at the documents that guide us.

Articles of Faith follow the PDF file attachment

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THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

We believe in the plenary and verbal inspiration of the whole Bible. Open Close

God has imparted His message to the minds and hearts of His appointed servants so that the very words of the original texts have been given to mankind by God Himself. This historical document is made a live reality by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. (Amos 3:17; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21)

GOD

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) Open Close

We believe in God, a Spirit and a Person, infinite, eternal, and immutable in being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; sovereign. (Deuteronomy 4:15-18; Deuteronomy 33:26, 27)

THE HOLY TRINITY

We believe that the essential nature of God is single and unique, Open Close

but yet is manifest in three persons -- God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit — and that these three are one God. They constitute the eternal Godhead. (Mark 12:29; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

GOD THE FATHER

The Eternal One whose Fatherly love is forever bestowed upon Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, and upon all true believers who are His children. (John 17; Ephesians 3:14-19)

GOD THE SON

The One who is equal in every divine distinction with God, the Father. Open Close

He is the Eternal Logos and only begotten Son, coexistent with the Father. Without any essential change in His divine Person, He became man in the "fullness of time" by the miracle of Virgin Birth, thus to continue forever as both true God and true Man, and one Person with two natures. This Second Person of the Triune God, Jesus of Nazareth and Messiah of Christ, has been manifested by His miraculous and supernatural birth, by His holy and supernatural life on earth, by His suffering and death according to the Scriptures, by His bodily resurrection from the dead, and by His miraculous and bodily ascent into heaven where He now intercedes for His own. (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 53:5,6; Matthew 1:23; Luke 24:5-8; 24:36-43; John 1:1, 14; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; Colossians 2:9; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 4:14; 1 John 2:1)

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

The One who is the Third Person of the Triune God, equal in every divine perfection with God, the Father and God, the Son, eternal. Open Close

He convinces the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, convicts and regenerates sinners who believe, and indwells, baptizes, seals, empowers, guides, teaches, and sanctifies all who become children of God through Christ. (Matthew 28:19; John 3:5; 14:26; 16:7-11; Romans 8:14, 16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 5:22, 23; Ephesians 4:30; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 1:2; John 15:26)

CREATION OF MAN

We believe that man was the direct creation of God, spirit, soul, and body; Open Close

that God created man in His likeness and divine image for fellowship and communion with Himself; that man was created without sin. (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7)

FALL OF MAN

We believe that Adam, the first man, disobeyed God's explicit command and thereby fell into sin through transgression; Open Close

that Adam, the natural head of the human race, thus became a sinful creature and the progenitor of a fallen race who are universally sinful in both nature and practice; that man, therefore, is totally depraved in the sense that his whole being is affected and cursed by sin so that he cannot, in this state, please God. He is unrighteous and lost. He is unrighteous in an absolute sense and can only accomplish relative good. He is guilty and condemned in his natural state and completely lost apart from God. (Genesis 3:1-24; 5:3; Romans 3:23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:3)

REDEMPTION

We believe that: Open Close

1. Man's redemption is accomplished only through the complete sufficient, vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for our sin, the Just for the unjust. (Romans 3:21-27; 1 Peter 2:24)

2. The Holy Spirit convicts and regenerates a man so that there is an immediate turning in faith to Christ Jesus for pardon and redemption. Salvation is the free gift of God to man, received only by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (John 6:63; Ephesians 2:8,9)

3. Man, justified by faith in Christ Jesus, is saved and has a new position of righteous and holy standing before God in which he is called a son of God by virtue of his having become a new creation in Christ Jesus through spiritual regeneration. (John 1:12; Romans 5:1, 8:14, 10:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:1,2)

4. Redeemed man, thus placed before God in Christ, is to walk in newness of life through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. (John 15:1-16; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:17–5:2)

5. At death, the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body whereupon soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. (Luke 16:19-26; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Colossians 1:5)

THE CHURCH

We believe that the true Church is made up of believers from all nations who are baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit. Open Close

This personal relationship to Christ according to the New Testament, along with the expressed intention of walking with Him, are the only conditions to be met for membership in the local church. (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23; Colossians 3:14,15)

FUTURE EVENTS

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will return personally and bodily to glorify His people and mete out rewards of His own. òmore Open Close

After this, He will bring eternal conscious judgment upon the wicked and upon Satan. (Acts 1:11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20; Revelation 20:11-15)