Statement of Faith
We at the Crossroads church of Christ believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God eternal, who created the universe and everything in it. From the beginning of time, both Father and Son knew that man would sin and fall from God’s favor and drew up a plan to redeem mankind. Jesus would leave his father in heaven, take on human form, live a sinless life, be arrested based on fabricated accusations, handed over to Roman authorities, and, ultimately, be put to death on the cross. As had been prophesied for centuries, the Messiah would be placed in a tomb for three days, and on that third day would arise from the grave. As the sinless sacrifice, he took the sins of all mankind, both those who lived before him and those afterward, with him to the cross. Those sins were put to death on the cross with his physical body and went with him to the tomb. He left them behind when he arose from the grave on the third day – once again the sinless son of God.
We believe that forgiveness of sins is a free gift from God, offered to everyone. However, in order to accept this free gift, Romans 6 says that every believer must participate in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. This is done by being baptized through immersion in water, where, upon rising from this watery grave, we leave our sins and past life behind. We arise a spiritually cleansed person committed to living our life in our Lord’s service.
Although we will err as we live our lives on earth, we believe God’s grace continues to be extended to us and our sins are continuously cleansed if we continue to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). God created the church, his family of believers, to encourage each other in our walks in life – to avoid sin, to do good to others, and to proclaim the good news of the plan of salvation. As God’s followers, we get together regularly to fulfill these church family responsibilities, as well as to honor, praise, and thank God and Jesus for their love for us.
The early church spent much time together, as well, in this effort to encourage each other and to see to the needs of one another. They also partook of what we describe as the Lord’s Supper during these times. Jesus, on the night he was to be taken into custody shared a final meal with his twelve closest disciples. As they ate, he took a piece of unleavened bread and a cup of juice – the fruit of the vine – blessed them and proclaimed them to be representative of his body and blood. As often as they partook of it, they were to remember his death, burial, and resurrection. We partake of this same memorial feast when we gather together each Sunday in a complete church family gathering.
During this weekly assembly, we sing songs of praise to God and encouragement to one another. This was typical in the early church. We spend time reading from his word, the Bible, speaking to him prayer, and sharing a message designed to help us live more like Jesus in the coming week.
We consider God to be the supreme authority in our lives. He is the same now as he was at creation, and he will continue to be the same until the end of time. His decrees, laws, values, and principals are unchanging. At creation, he saved his greatest act for the end – the creation of man. Genesis 1 and 2 say God created both male and female in his image and he breathed the breath of life into them. Because God gave us the breath of life, we believe only he has the authority to take it from man. We also believe that in making both males and females, he designed each to play specific and different roles in his creation.
Although God is longsuffering and patiently waits for all to obey the gospel by yielding their lives to him, there will come a time when he will end this world as we know it. Fire will engulf the earth, thus ending human life. Then, the judgement will follow. Those faithful to God will inherit eternal life with him. Those who turned away from him, or who never accepted the free gift of salvation through baptism, will be destined to spend eternity in hell with Satan and his angels.