What We Believe

While the North Texas ISM Network has as its core value unity within diversity through Christ, the following statements represent the basics of historic, biblical Christianity upon which the members of the North Texas ISM Network base our fellowship and ministry together. Though we may differ on many other points of doctrine, we stand firmly together in these:

• There is only one true God. He exists eternally as three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-equal in all divine attributes.

• Jesus Christ is God's Only-begotten Son, eternal, uncreated, fully divine and fully human. He was born into this world through a virgin, lived a sinless life, paid the penalty for sin by dying on a cross, conquered death and the devil by rising from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will come again to receive His people and judge the world.

• The Bible, in the original autographs, is the only infallible, authoritative word from God to mankind. Though God has provided general revelation through many means, the Bible is a uniquely special revelation through which we may come to know God and His ways. It is completely sufficient to communicate the essence and character of God, the spiritual state of mankind, the way of salvation, and everything necessary for godly living.

• All people, apart from salvation, are sinners in the sight of God and therefore under His righteous condemnation.

• God seeks a personal love relationship with individuals through Jesus Christ His Son. Such a relationship may be embarked upon only by experiencing God's salvation from the power and penalty of human sin (i.e. sin's enslaving power and the eternal penalty of divine condemnation). This salvation is by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Such faith means believing in Jesus as God, Savior, and Lord and trusting in His substitutionary death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.

• In the coming judgment, when all people experience bodily resurrection, those who have died apart from Christ will enter into eternal punishment in Hell, while those who have died in Christ will enter into eternal bliss in the presence of God.

• There is one body of Christ on earth of which all true Christians are members, and this one body is manifested throughout the earth in local churches. A local church is that ongoing gathering of believers into a committed and accountable body of people operating as a family and practicing the biblical ordinances under spiritual leadership to fulfill the directives of God as communicated in the Scriptures.

• Christians are commanded to love God with all that we are, love our neighbor as ourselves, and love each other as Jesus loved us. These commands involve, among other things, growth in godliness, devotion, and obedience; serving unbelievers and explaining the gospel; and pursuing humble sacrificial unity with fellow believers