What We Believe

We believe the Bible is God’s Word. It is accurate, authoritative, and applicable to our everyday lives. It includes everything we need for salvation.

We believe in 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.

The Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man and is the only one who can reconcile us to God. He was born of a virgin, led a sinless life, and taught us the way to live while living himself a miraculous life and ministry. He died for us, serving as the sacrifice that we couldn’t be, and rose from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and helps us respond to the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. Holy Spirit empowers Christians for service through the many spiritual gifts available to all believers.

We celebrate Holy Communion to remember that Jesus lived a sinless and exemplary life, died on the cross in our place, and rose again to prove His victory and empower us for life. He now sits at the right hand of Father God in Heaven.

We believe that water baptism is God’s way of sealing us with His Holy Spirit and initiating us into the family of God. Baptism is appropriate for infants, children or adults, and is conducted only once as the action of baptism – the sealing with the Holy Spirit – is done by God. And since God is wholly perfect, there is no need to be rebaptized at a time later in life.

We believe sin has separated each of us from God and His purpose for our lives. In order to receive forgiveness we must turn away of our sins, believe in Jesus Christ, and submit to His will for our lives. God wants to heal and transform us so that we can live healthy, abundant, and powerful lives, and in order to be effective witnesses, we need to be baptized in water, set our mind on Him and His purpose, and, so we can live into everything He has planned for us, we should seek to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

We believe God has individually equipped us and corporately gathered us as His living body so that we can successfully achieve His purpose for our lives, which is to worship God, strengthen the Church, and share the Gospel with the community in which we live and the world.

We believe that our good works are a sign of the fruit of the Christian life, but works do not remove our sins or provide salvation. Only by confessing our sins, believing in Christ, and turning away from our sins can forgiveness be received.

We believe the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again as He promised and will rule and reign on this earth. History will conclude as the wicked are judged and the righteous enter a new heaven and a new earth.

We believe marriage as described in Scripture is between one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, until death. God created sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman within the marriage covenant; therefore, there should be celibacy in singleness. We do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incongruent with Scripture; however, we affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We affirm that all persons are individuals of sacred worth, created in the image of God, and all individuals are welcome to attend and worship with the community of Paradise Church. We teach and expect families and individuals not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be rejected and are not in accord with Scripture.

"Sharing the Gospel with all, sharing our lives with each other."