Indian Hills Church | What We Believe

We believe, as did the majority of the early Christian church during its first four hundred years after Christ, that the essence of God's character is love. The demonstration of His love is that He has provided a plan of salvation and reconciliation for all humanity through the death on the cross of His son Jesus Christ. We believe that He will ultimately achieve His desire of reconciliation with all people.

In our journey, our understanding of God has and will continue to evolve, not because God ever changes, but because in this journey both as individuals and together as a church body we can only understand Him as he reveals Himself to each of us in the context of our lives.

We know that we are limited in our understanding of God and are aware of our individual shortcomings. Therefore, we cherish the liberty granted to us by God and honor the ability of each and every person to hear what God is speaking to him or her as an individual, affirming both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other in accordance with the Word of God.

There are a number of basic beliefs that we hold to as foundational. They are noted below.

God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is a loving, intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. He is infinite love, and from that love comes all of His characteristics including the resolve of His judgment, the justice of His total restoration, the jealous passion of his wounded love, mercy, holiness, righteousness and all other characteristics. God's love will never fail. He reveals Himself to us as father, son, and holy spirit. [1 Corinthians 13:8]
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God the Father
Out of His love, God as Father powerfully and carefully covers and protects His creation. He values all people as a loving parent values a child. The universe and all it contains is in the palm of His hand. All of human history is fitted together according to His purposes. He is passionate in his determined will to restore to fellowship all of the human race through His son, Jesus Christ. [1 Timothy 2:4]
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God the Son
Christ is the Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born as a man upon the earth of the virgin Mary and was named Jesus. Jesus was fully divine, and fully human. In His humanity, he completely identified with mankind in its sin and yet in His divinity was without sin. He took upon himself the sins of all men through His crucifixion and death upon the cross, providing for the redemption of all men from sin. He was raised from the dead and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. Upon the completion of His redemptive mission, He will return in power and glory to judge the world, returning all creation complete to God the Father so that God may be all in all. [1 Corinthians 15:28]
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God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He enables men to hear the voice of God. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin and draws all peopleto the Savior, effecting their regeneration. At the moment of salvation He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ and cultivates Christian character, comforting and renewing us. He bestows the spiritual gifts by which we serve God throughout our lives. The Holy Spirit will complete His redemptive work when all men come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ whereupon everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
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Humanity
Each person, individually, was created by God in God's own image. We are the crowning work of God's creation. In the beginning man was created without sin. Adam, the first man, sinned against God through mistrust and unbelief and brought sin into the human race. Through this transgression, Adam fell from his original innocence and became separated from God. His descendents inherit his nature inclined toward sin and remain separated from God as a result of that transgression. Paul, a New Testament writer referred to Christ as the second Adam. By this he meant that, just as Adam brought sin into the world to all people, Christ, in His ministry as the second Adam and through his one act of righteousness upon the cross, guarantees justification of all men and the reconciliation back to God. Only, but surely, by the grace of God through the work of Christ will God bring man again back into unbroken fellowship with God Himself. Just as in Adam all died, so in Christ every man will live. [Rom 5:18; 1 Cor 15:22]
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Salvation
God has provided the provision whereby He shall restore man to the perfect state of relationship with God that existed prior to the fall of man in Adam. It is offered to all and will be effectual someday in all men as they come to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His blood took upon himself the penalty for the sins of all men and sealed their eternal redemption, a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification thereby providing for the total reconciliation of man to a perfect and redeemed state. It is a primary mission of the church to encourage all people to participate in this glorious salvation during their lifetimes. [2 Cor. 6:2; 1 Tim 2:4; 1 Tim 4:10; 1 Tim 2:6]
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Biblical Scripture
The Scripture was recorded by men both before and shortly after the time of Christ. It is divinely inspired and serves as the record of God's revelation of Himself to humanity. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It was authored by God to reveal His plan for the salvation and reconciliation of all humanity to Himself. It is true and inerrant as interpreted through the person and work of Jesus Christ who Himself is the revealed Word of God.
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The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. This church is an autonomous body, operating under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation, members are equally positioned to hear God's Word. The local church body is but a small expression of the larger church. The church has been given the ministry of God. The church is the firstborn or first fruits of the family of God. They have died with Christ and accepted Him as Lord during their lifetime. As joint heirs with Christ the church will rule in mercy and ministry as priests with Christ to aid in bringing unredeemed humanity to its intended destiny of restoration. This unredeemed humanity would be those who have died without believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior. This anointed ministry of the church with Christ will be completed when all humanity will have come through the second death and accepted Christ as Lord. At that time the impartation of the life of Christ will be realized by all. After the destruction of principalities, powers and the last enemy which is death, then Christ will have completed the total reconciliation of all. Then He will Himself be made subject to the Father and God will be all in all. God is the Savior of all, first to those that believe. [Jam 1:18; Rev 14:4; Heb 12:23; Rom 8:17; 2 Tim 2:12; Mat 25:21; Rev 5:10; 1 Cor 6:2-3; Gal 2:20; 1 Pet 4:6; Rom 14:9; Rev 20:6; Col 1:20; 1 Cor 15:24-28; 1 Tim 4:10]
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is an act of identification symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of faith. Through partaking of the bread representing his broken body and the fruit of the vine that represents His spilled blood. Through this act, we celebrate His great love for us as expressed in His death upon the cross and accept afresh His loving work being accomplished in our lives.
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Christian Living
Christ came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He came to free us from the impossibly heavy weight of performing the law and the responsibility of achieving righteousness through our own will and human effort. The Christian life is the process of yielding to the gentle work of Christ, which brings rest and peace and joy to our lives. [Galatians 5:1; Romans 8:2; Philippians 2:13; Galations 3:3; John 15:10-11; Colossians 3:15; Matthew 11:28]
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Justice, God's Judgment, and Punishment
In the beginning, God's creation, including His relationship with man, the crowning work of His creation, was pure and sinless. Through the work of Satan, this creation was destroyed and effectively stolen from Him upon the fall of Adam. God will achieve His perfect justice only upon the return of His creation to its original state, a state where all things stolen from Him, including man have been totally restored.

Few are those that will be restored to God by believing in Jesus during their lifetimes. They come through the baptism of the refining fire of God's judgment, his remedial pruning and corrective discipline before they die. These people are called the church and will be a part of the first resurrection with Christ. The purifying fire of God at work in the church is not literal but spiritual. Accordingly, the purifying fires of God at work in the remainder of humanity after they die are spiritual as well. The rest of humanity will come through this process of refining until the consuming fire of God's love has reached its purpose in their lives and has removed everything that is not of God. This fire will consume the dross of all evil and leave all men humble, repentant, and finding their place in the divine order of God (para. Talbot, The Inescapable Love of God). For everyone will return to God but in their own order. When these ages of time have been completed all will finally believe and worship Jesus as their Lord and Savior. God's justice will have been achieved, when every creature, in heaven and upon the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them will sing "To Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever." [Matthew 7:14; Romans 6:3; Matthew 3:11; John 15:3; Hebrews 12:7-11; Hebrews 12:29; Malachi 3:2-3; 1 Corinthians 15:23;Jude 7-Ezekiel 16:53-55; Matthew 8:12; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15; Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:14; Revelation 21:8; Philippians 2:10; Isaiah 45:22-23; Revelation 5:13; Romans 14:11]
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Last Things
God, when the times have reached their fulfillment, will bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; Christ will judge all men in righteousness delivering them blameless to God the Father with whom they will dwell forever; Christ will reign until the very last enemy, which is death itself, is defeated and subject to Him, whereupon the redemptive mission of His reign will be complete and all will be delivered back to God the Father. Satan had stolen all of humanity and creation from God. Now the justice of God has finally been completed for He has reconciled and restored all things back to Himself. [Ephesians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:28; John 10:10; Colossians 1:20; Acts 3:21]
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Famous Quotes Concerning The Reconciliation of All Things
"And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross."
[Colossians 1:19-20]

"Punishment is for the sake of amendment and atonement. God is bound by his love to punish sin in order to deliver his creature; he is bound by his justice to destroy sin in his creation. Love is justice-"
George McDonald, "Sermon: Justice"

"I believe that justice and mercy are simply one and the same thing; without justice to the full there can be no mercy, and without mercy to the full there can be no justice."
George McDonald, "Sermon: Justice"

"It is not that the fire will burn us if we do not worship thus; but that the fire will burn us until we worship thus; yea, will go on burning within us after all that is foreign to it has yielded to its force, no longer with pain and consuming, but as the highest consciousness of life, the presence of God."
George McDonald, "Sermon: The Consuming Fire"

"We cannot conceive of a Creator who knows the end from the beginning, one who is Love, who has infinite wisdom, and infinite power, giving to any being life, life which is never to end, but to continue in suffering to all eternity. The Bible does not teach it anywhere in the original languages. God's punishments are remedial and take place within the span of the ages during which he is accomplishing the making of man in His image and likeness. Punishment will last no longer than is necessary to bring man to hate his sin and be reconciled to his Saviour."
G. Campbell Morgan Pastor, "Sermon: The cross and the ages to come" , Westminster Chapel, London

"When a baser metal is mixed with gold, refiners restore the more precious metal to its natural brightness by consuming the alien and worthless substance with fire…In the same way, when death, corruption, darkness, and other offshoots of vice have attached themselves to the author of evil, contact with the divine power acts like fire and effects the disappearance of what is contrary to nature. In this way the nature is purified and benefited, even though the process of separation is a painful one."
St. Gregory of Nyssa "De anima et resurrectione", 375

"The only victory love can enjoy is the day when its offer of love is answered by the return of love. The only possible final triumph is a universe loved by God and in love with God."
William Barclay

"God will have all men to be saved. This truth is a supernatural mystery. It can only be understood by a spiritual mind through the teaching of the Holy Spirit."
Andrew Murray, "God's Will: Our Dwelling Place", Salvation of All, Chapter 23.

"Under the instruction of those great teachers many other theologians believed in universal salvation; and indeed the whole Eastern Church until after 500 A.D. was inclined to it."
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (vol. 12, p. 96)

"If I were Christ, nothing couild satisfy me but that every human being should in the end be saved, and therefore I am sure that nothing less will satisfy Him."
Hannah Whitehall Smith, 1870

"Clarence Jordan, in a sermon on the parable of the woman seeking the lost coin (Luke 15:8), asks, 'What does she do? She gets a broom. She sweeps and sweeps and sweeps. She lights a lamp and sweeps until what? Until she wore the broom out? No. Until the lamp went out? No. Until her husband came home and said, 'Hey, get my supper, what are you doing with that broom?' No. How long did she sweep? Until she found it. How long was that? As long as necessary.'"
Clarence Jordan, Author: "The Cottonpatch Gospel", "The Substance of Faith (New York: Association Press, 1972), 148.

If we really believe in one God and in the Jesus Christ, in what He was and what He did, truly shows us what God's character and His attitude toward men are like, then it is very difficult to think ourselves out of a belief that somehow His love will find a way of bringing all men into unity with Him.
C.H. Dodd

-- on the subject of hell as everlasting punishment for our sins: "I find that most people accept or even assume this view as being the orthodox view of the church, being largely unaware that this view has been questioned and rejected by many devout Christian interpreters of the faith."
R.Kirby Godsey, President, Mercer University "When we talk about God, let's be honest"

"He saves all, but converting some by punishment, and others who follow by their own will-that every knee may bend to Him, of things in heaven and earth and under the earth."
St. Clemens of Alexandria

"In our English translation the word "hell" seems to speak what is neither warrantable by Scripture or reason."
Dr. J.B. Lightfoot, prominent theologian and bible commentator

Of John 12:32 in the "Speaker's Commentary": "(tap anta) all men: The phrase must not be limited in any way. It connot mean merely 'Gentiles as well as Jews,' or 'the elect,' or 'all who believe.' We must receive it as it stands (Rom. 5:18;8:32; 2 Cor. 5:15; Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9; 1 John 2:2). The remarkable reading 'all things' (omnia) points to a still wider application of Redemption (Col. 1:20)."
Dr. Brooke Foss Westcott
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