Statement of Faith
Crosswinds Christian Center encourages people of all beliefs and persuasions to investigate what the Bible teaches. We consider a number of biblical doctrines to be central to our faith and vital to the integrity of all aspects of our ministry. We affirm significant historic creeds of the church such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed.
The Bible
The Bible is the inspired word of God. The 66 books which constitute the Bible are entirely reliable and truthful, and the Bible stands as the
central authority over our lives, our faith and the direction of the church. (2 Timothy 3:16; Matthew 5:18)
The Trinity
Three persons eternally share the Divine Nature. The Bible refers to these persons as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is both self-existent and personal. (John 14:10, 26; 15:26)
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, the Son, is fully God and fully human. Born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, died for the sins of humankind, was resurrected bodily on the third day, ascended into heaven and is coming again as King and Judge Jesus Christ is the only provision that God has given for people to be reconciled to Him. Jesus life on earth also serves as the model for the Christian life. (John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God. He indwells us at the moment we place our faith in Christ. He empowers us to live an effective Christian life by affirming our salvation, encouraging us and giving us the strength to live a life that is pleasing to God and personally fulfilling. The Holy Spirit also endows each believer with a unique spiritual ability to serve the church and the world.
(John 14:16; Ephesians 1:19-20; 1 Corinthians 12)
Salvation
Salvation is reconciliation with God through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. God offers us salvation by His grace alone and we receive it as a gift through personal faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. This right standing before God must be received and cannot be earned. God freely offers salvation to all people, and our salvation is secure. (Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 8:38,39; Ephesians 1:13; 2:4)
Humanity
Human beings are created in the image of God. As such, we are unique among all of Gods creation. Through the abuse of our God-given free will, we have turned against God and this has resulted in spiritual death for all humankind. Humanity lives in a state of alienation and profound need which can only be satisfied by reconciliation with God through Christ. Without this reconciliation, all people stand under Gods righteous judgment. Humanity, although fallen, maintains the image of God and is, therefore, still dignified and unique. God continues to love us and reach out to us, even though we are hostile to Him. Believers in Jesus Christ receive a new nature that becomes the foundation for a process of transformation. (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17)
The Church
The church is composed of all those throughout history who place saving faith in Jesus Christ. The church is not an institution, but a people. God wants all Christians to live out their spiritual lives in a corporate context. This context of Christian love relationships is a crucial feature of our witness for Christ as it reflects Gods character to the world. The church is Gods chosen instrument through which the message of salvation is spread to all people. This mission is the central purpose for the church. We are to carry the good news locally and worldwide and demonstrate the gospel by relevant social action. (John 13:34, 35; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26; Matthew 28:19)
Satan
Satan is the personal, spiritual adversary of God and Gods followers. Satan actively opposes the work of the church and the spiritual vitality of Christians. We therefore take seriously, but in a balanced way, the reality of personal, spiritual opposition. Satan is doomed to final defeat and judgment when Christ returns. (Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 20)
Second Coming
This age will conclude with the personal, bodily return of Christ. At that time, He will complete Gods plan to reestablish His just and righteous rule over all humanity. (Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 20)
The Afterlife
At the final judgment, God will assign all people their eternal destinieseither life or judgment. Those who have responded to Jesus Christ with saving faith will receive the eternal life they have already been promised (John 5:24), while others will live under eternal judgment. Therefore, because eternal issues are at stake, there is an urgency to communicate the gospel.
(Matthew 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)
We believe that these 5 truths are biblical and therefore true. We believe that they magnify God’s precious grace and give unspeakable joy to sinners who have despaired of saving themselves.
Total Depravity
Our sinful corruption is so deep and so strong as to make us slaves of sin and morally unable to overcome our own rebellion and blindness. This inability to save ourselves from ourselves is total. We are utterly dependent on God’s grace to overcome our rebellion, give us eyes to see, and effectively draw us to the Savior.
We were dead in our trespasses. (Ephesians 2:5)
The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7–8)
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Unconditional Election
God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace that was given through his Son Jesus before the world began. By this act, God chose, before the foundation of the world, those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in Jesus.
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).
As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48)
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. (Romans 9:15–16)
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. (1 Corinthians 1:27)
Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. (Romans 11:7; cf. 9:11–12; John 6:37)
My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me. (Isaiah 43:10)
Irresistible Grace
This means that the resistance that all human beings exert against God every day (Romans 3:10–12; Acts 7:51) is wonderfully overcome at the proper time by God’s saving grace for undeserving rebels whom he chooses freely to save.
Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:5)
No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. (John 6:65)
God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 2:25)
Limited Atonement
The atonement of Christ is sufficient for all humans and effective for those who trust him. The full, saving effectiveness of the atonement that Jesus accomplished is limited to those for whom that saving effect was prepared. The availability of the total sufficiency of the atonement is for all people. Whosoever will—whoever believes—will be covered by the blood of Christ. And there is a divine design in the death of Christ to accomplish the promises of the new covenant for the chosen bride of Christ. Thus Christ died for all, but not for all in the same way.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16; cf. Revelation 22:17).
This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:20)
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:25)
I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:15)
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. . . . And for their sake I consecrate myself [that is, prepare to die], that they also may be sanctified in truth. (John 17:9, 19)
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)
Perseverance of the Saints
We believe that all who are justified will win the fight of faith. They will persevere in faith and never surrender to the enemy of their souls. This perseverance is the promise of the new covenant, obtained by the blood of Christ, and worked in us by God himself, yet not so as to diminish, but only to empower and encourage, our vigilance; so that we may say in the end, I have fought the good fight, but it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:27–28)
I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Philippians 3:12)
Resting in Christ and reaching for the goal,