Core Beliefs at One Missoula Church
Absolute Truth Revealed
Absolute truth exists and it is knowable. God has revealed absolute truth in the 66 books that make up the Old and New Testaments. God inspired and empowered broken and flawed human beings to write His perfect and flawless testimony that make up the Old and New Testaments which make up the Bible. When God’s revelations were first received under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit, they were without any mixture of error in their original forms. The inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient Bible is our ultimate authority on who God is, who we are, what we are to believe, and what we are to do. (2 Peter 1:20–21; 2 Timothy 3:15–16; 1 Peter 1:23-25; Hebrews 4:12)
God
God has revealed absolute truth in the 66 books that make up the Old and New Testaments. God inspired and empowered broken and flawed human beings to write His perfect and flawless testimony that make up the Old and New Testaments which make up the Bible. When God’s revelations were first received under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit, they were without any mixture of error in their original forms. The inspired, inerrant, authoritative, sufficient Bible is our ultimate authority on who God is, who we are, what we are to believe, and what we are to do. (2 Peter 1:20–21; 2 Timothy 3:15–16; 1 Peter 1:23-25; Hebrews 4:12)
The Father
God the Father is great. He is holy, just, all powerful, all knowing, ever-present, unchanging, and completely worthy of our trust. God the Father is good. He is loving, compassionate, and faithful to His people and His promises. (Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 6:9; John 3:16, 14:1; Romans 3:3-4)
The Son
Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. On earth, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. He is the only man ever to have lived a sinless life. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed miracles, died on the cross for mankind and thus, atoned for our sins through the shedding of His blood. He rose from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures, ascended to the right hand of the Father, has all power and authority now, and will return again in power and glory to consummate His Kingdom. (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; Matthew 1:18, 23-25, Matthew 28:18; Luke 1:27-35; John 1:1,14, 14:6, 20:28; Acts 4:12; 1Timothy 3:16; Philippians 2:5-6; 1Timothy 2:5)
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is also God and as a divine person is sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer, and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of God’s just judgment. (John 14:15-18, 16:7-3; Acts 1:8)
The Holy Spirit is manifested through a variety of spiritual gifts to build and sanctify the church, demonstrate the validity of the resurrection, and confirm the power of the Gospel. The Bible lists of these gifts are not necessarily exhaustive, and the gifts may occur in various combinations. All believers are commanded to earnestly desire the manifestation of the gifts in their lives. These gifts always operate in harmony with the Scriptures and should never be used in violation of Biblical parameters. (Hebrews 2:4; Romans 1:11, 12 :4-8; Ephesians 4:16; 2 Timothy 1:5-16, 4:14; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, 14:1-40; 1 Peter 4:10)
The Holy Spirit is manifested through a variety of spiritual gifts to build and sanctify the church, demonstrate the validity of the resurrection, and confirm the power of the Gospel. The Bible lists of these gifts are not necessarily exhaustive, and the gifts may occur in various combinations. All believers are commanded to earnestly desire the manifestation of the gifts in their lives. These gifts always operate in harmony with the Scriptures and should never be used in violation of Biblical parameters. (Hebrews 2:4; Romans 1:11, 12 :4-8; Ephesians 4:16; 2 Timothy 1:5-16, 4:14; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31, 14:1-40; 1 Peter 4:10)
Man
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. As a result, man cannot attain a right relationship with God through his own effort and cannot save himself by his works. Every human personality, both male and female, is uniquely created, possesses dignity from the instant of conception, and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Genesis 1:26-30, 2:7, 18-23; Psalms 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5 Jeremiah 17:5; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18, 23; 5:6; 6:6; 7:14-25; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 15:19, 21-22; Ephesians 2; Colossians 1:21-22; 3:9-11)
Judgement
For any person to be saved from Holy God’s just wrath in the coming Judgment, he or she must possess a perfection which they cannot attain. However, we have hope because Jesus Christ lived a 100% sinless life and offers to give us His perfect righteousness while taking our sin and God’s wrath upon Himself. Because He is the only person to have ever lived a perfect life, He is the only way any person can be saved. Salvation is 100% God’s grace because we can never work hard enough to earn our way into God’s favor or do enough good things to make the bad things we’ve done disappear. We receive God’s grace by turning from our sin and giving our trusting allegiance to Jesus and Him alone by confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. (Matthew 5:20; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9-10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:16, 3:8; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 4:15, 7:26)
Salvation
There will be a physical bodily resurrection of every soul that has ever lived. The faithful disciple who has genuinely received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be resurrected into eternal life. Those who reject Jesus will be resurrected into judgment. The future of the genuine believer is everlasting joy and bliss in the New Heavens and New Earth. The future of the unrepentant and unbelieving soul is final eternal punishment which is the second death. (Matthew 25:46; Luke 19:14-27; John 5:28–29; 1 Corinthians 15:20–23; Revelation 21:1–4; Revelation 21:8)
The Church
The Church is a group of people and not a building. That group consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations. A local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. (Ephesians 1:22–23; Matthew 28:18–20; Acts 2:41–47)
Baptism
Being baptized is a commandment God gives to every person who has personally freely and willfully chosen to turn from his or her sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ. All who repent and believe on Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized. Going down under and then coming up out of the water proclaims to the world our identification with Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. It also declares our own spiritual dying to self, sin and rebellion, and resurrection into the life God has for us here and now. Lastly, it declares our belief in the future bodily resurrection from the grave. (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38, 10:47-48, 22:16; Romans 6:1-7; 1 Peter 3:21)
The Lord's Supper
The Lord’s Supper is a memorial consisting of eating bread and drinking the fruit of the vine. The bread represents Jesus’ body being broken and punished for our sins while the cup represents His blood washing us clean and taking away our sin. It is a declaration of unity with individuals in the body of Christ. It symbolizes the spiritual nourishment and refreshment that Christ is giving to our souls. Receiving the bread and cup declares his sacrifice and his second coming. (Luke 22:15-20; John 6:48-58; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32)
Men, Women, and Marriage
God made only two distinct genders: male and female. Although they have some different roles in God’s economy, both men and women are equal image-bearers of God with equal worth, equal need for salvation through Christ, and equal standing in the family of God as adopted sons and daughters after receiving Christ. Should a man or woman choose to marry, the only valid form of marriage sanctioned by the completed revelation in Scripture is one biological male to one biological female. Through the covenant of marriage, the two become one physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This illustrates how the church is to function with Christ as the head and believers serving as parts of the body. Marriage sanctioned by God joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. God in His divine wisdom created marriage as the covenanted, conjugal union of one man and one woman. Sexual intimacy is a gift from God and has its proper place only within the context of marriage. (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:22-24; Matthew 19:4-6, John 1:12; 1 Corinthians 7:1-5; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 5:21-33; Hebrews 13:4)
Love
Love is doing God’s best for another regardless of the cost to self. Because sin destroys individuals, families, communities, businesses, teams, cities, cultures, countries, governments, and every other human institution, it is unloving to contradict, alter, or silence God’s warnings and instruction about sin. He lovingly and graciously reveals knowledge of sin that will destroy us and those around us. Love requires that we plainly and completely articulate God's solutions to the lethal sin crisis plaguing our world. By definition, love can never celebrate something that will destroy another person no matter how much the other person craves that thing. In our dying culture disfigured by the strange belief that sin is better than life, loving our neighbors as ourselves demands that we gently, humbly, and competently speak God’s whole truth regardless of the backlash, slander, misunderstanding, hatred, and persecution we will face from the very people God is seeking to save. Love requires Christians to humbly understand that they are servants first to God and second to our neighbors and enemies. Love understands that humility before God will be misinterpreted as arrogance before men but chooses to act based on how Jesus Christ has treated us. (Matthew 22: 36-40; Luke 6:27-36; John 15:13, 18-25; 1 John 3:16-18, 4:7-12; Ezekiel 3:16-21)
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