Geneseo Methodist Core Beliefs

Bible

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God.

• That the 66 books of the Old and New Testament were inspired by the Spirit of God as originally written
• That the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct · 2 Timothy 3:16

God/Trinity

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Jesus Christ

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ

• Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation, Jesus was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Being fully God and fully man, He perfectly carried out the will of God, identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He provided salvation through His atoning death in our place and by His bodily resurrection. On the third day, He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He intercedes for all believers and dwells in them as their ever-present Lord. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the absolute and essential deity, and in the personality of the Holy Spirit

• The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, has come to glorify Christ, apply His saving work to our hearts, and seal us for the day of redemption. He convicts individuals of their sinfulness and of the righteousness of Christ, draws them to the Savior, and bears witness to their new birth. Indwelling each believer, He empowers, guides, teaches, fills, sanctifies, and produces the fruit of Christlikeness in all who yield to Him, to the glory of the Father. He leads each believer to glorify God by exalting Christ, equipping believers, and evangelizing sinners.

Man

We believe that Adam was divinely created in the image of God

• We believe that man is the special creation of God, made in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and to be steward over His creation. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. Through the temptation of Satan, Adam chose to disobey God and fell from his original innocence which brought sin and death to the human race and suffering to all creation. Therefore, everyone is born with a sinful nature, under the condemnation of their sin, and in need of being reconciled to God.

Sin

We believe that Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden and the result of that sin they were cast out of the garden as penalty for their sin.

• This was the just penalty for their sin. Not only was it a physical separation from God, but physical death entered the picture as well. And their physical death and separation were an outward display of their spiritual death and separation from God. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
” Romans 5:12

Salvation

We believe that salvation isa free gift of God.

• By His grace, that is to be received through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from our work. There is no salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ, a believer is justified and brought into a new relationship of peace with God.

The Church

We believe the true Church is comprised of all persons who, through saving faith in Jesus Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, are united together in the body of Christ.

• The Church finds her visible expression in local congregations where the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments (or ordinances) are administered in their integrity; where scriptural discipline is practiced, and where loving fellowship is maintained. For her perfecting, the Church awaits the return of her Lord.