What We Believe

McClure UMC Core Beliefs

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

That the Bible contains everything we need for faith and practice.
That all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, (2nd Timothy 3:16 NRSV)

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth:

God is holy, righteous, sovereign, eternal.
God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all seeing) and omnipresent (in all places simultaneously).
God exists in three equal Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (The Holy Trinity).

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

In His eternal existence, with the Father in pre-incarnate glory.
In His work of creation, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and bodily resurrection.
In His triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return.

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

Who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgment
Who regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ
Who baptizes believers at conversion into the Body of Christ, bestows upon them His gifts sovereignly as He wills, and helps all believers to become more like Jesus Christ.

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

That by the sin of disobedience he fell from that state
That all people descended from Adam and inherited sin and spiritual depravity
That all people therefore are guilty before God and condemned because of their sin to physical and spiritual death

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign grace of God:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17 NIV). This is known as the Gospel or "Good News.
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 NIV)
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ." (Romans 3:23-24 NIV)
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23 NIV)
"That if you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved [i.e. forgiven of sin]. For it is with your heart you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10 NIV)
That "If we confess our sins, he [Jesus] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1st John 1:9 NIV)