Our Beliefs

What We Believe

The Andover Christian Church upholds and affirms the following Statement of Faith:

There is only one true God, revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are fully inspired and without error and serve as God's only written Word.

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, and He is in every way our only Savior.

Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life, died on the cross as an atonement for all people, and rose bodily from the grave to a state of immortality.

Jesus commissioned His Apostles and His church to present the gospel plan of salvation to every individual of every nation.

The only terms of salvation that we may proclaim are those expressed in the New Testament: faith, repentance, confession of faith in Jesus Christ, and baptism by immersion in water for the remission of sins and for the promised presence of the Holy Spirit.

The basis of unity of all believers is a commitment to the authority of the New Testament.

Jesus will one day return in visible form to judge all people and then accordingly issue either eternal blessedness in heaven or eternal suffering in hell.

Affirmations

Here are some of our beliefs about a few important and current topics.

Andover Christian Church pursues Christian unity on the basis of a common affirmation of Biblical truth, affirms the liberty of individual believers and churches on non-essential points of doctrine, and adopts a spirit of love and posture of grace in all conversations. The following affirmations should be interpreted within the frameworks of our Statement of Faith and ongoing commitment to the values of the Restoration Movement.

Andover Christian Church affirms that Scripture is divinely inspired and inerrant in its original manuscripts and, therefore, the authoritative Word of God and the standard by which all theological claims, ecclesiastical practices, social trends, and lifestyle choices must be measured.

​Andover Christian Church affirms that God is the sovereign Creator of the universe, that Jesus Christ is His Son and God incarnate who died on the cross and was raised from the dead and who is our only Savior, and that the Holy Spirit is God indwelling and giving life to all believers and working in the world to empower the mission of God.

Andover Christian Church affirms that the beliefs and purposes of Jesus and the early Church should be foundational to the beliefs and purposes of the Church and of local congregations today.

Andover Christian Church affirms the autonomy of every local congregation in their faith and practice, including the calling and ordination of leaders.

Andover Christian Church affirms that Scripture describes that from creation, God’s intention for human sexual engagement is that it occurs solely within the marriage between one man and one woman.

​Andover Christian Church affirms that all human beings are made in God’s image and therefore upholds the inherent value and dignity of human life from conception to death, and, therefore, the inherent unity and equality of all people as individual bearers of God’s image. His image is reflected in people as He created them as people and also in respect to their God-given gender, namely “male” or “female.”