Statement of Faith
- We believe in one, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, all-righteous God, Creator of all things, who eternally exists in three co-equal persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- We believe the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, to be the revealed and fully inspired Word of God and the final authority in matters of faith and life.
- We believe that God created humans, male and female, in his own image, but that they willfully disobeyed God, spiritually separating themselves from God. Ever since, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice and are completely unable to reconcile themselves to God and are rightfully under God’s judgment and wrath.
- We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, one person with two natures, fully God and fully man, the Son of God, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life and was crucified as our representative and substitute. His death was the one all-sufficient sacrifice for human sin. On the third day, Jesus rose bodily from the dead. He ascended to heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father until he returns bodily and visibly to earth.
- We believe that salvation is God’s gracious gift to humans through Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross for our sin. Salvation can in no way be earned through human effort. Those who repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus Christ are forgiven and saved by the Holy Spirit.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit is fully God coming forth from the Father and Son to convict humans of sin, righteousness and judgment, to regenerate, sanctify and baptize those who repent and trust in Jesus Christ, and to indwell, guide and empower Christians for Christ-like living and service.
- We believe the Church is the spiritual body of Christ comprised of all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ united by the Holy Spirit and under the headship of Jesus Christ. The Somerset Congregational Church is a local autonomous church free of any human external authority or control be it religious or secular.
- We believe that the purposes of the church mirror those of the individual Christian: to worship God, to grow to spiritual maturity, to grow in love for one another, to share the gospel, and to bless our communities and world. Jesus has given the Church two ordinances, baptism and communion, not as a means of salvation, but to visibly express the gospel and to confirm and nourish Christians.
- We believe in the future bodily return of Jesus to earth and the resurrection of all humans for God’s final judgement with those who have placed faith in Jesus Christ receiving eternal joy with God in his kingdom and those who have not, receiving eternal separation from God.