What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of Central Wesleyan Church | Elwood, IN based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

There is one eternally existing God who has three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the creator of all that exists, both visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise.  God is perfect in love, power, holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom,  justice, and mercy. He is unchangeable and therefore is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

We believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments constitute
the Holy Scriptures. They are the inspired and infallibly written Word of God,
fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all human authority,
and have been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential
doctrine. We believe that they contain all things necessary to salvation; so that
whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man or woman that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.  

We believe that the two great commandments which require us to
love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves,
summarize the divine law as it is revealed in the Scriptures. They are the
perfect measure and norm of human duty, both for the ordering and directing of families and nations, and all other social bodies, and for individual acts, by
which we are required to acknowledge God as our only supreme ruler, and all
persons as created by Him, equal in all natural rights. Therefore all persons
should so order all their individual, social, and political acts as to give to God
entire and absolute obedience, and to assure to all the enjoyment of every
natural right, as well as to promote the fulfillment of each in the possession
and exercise of such rights.

We believe that through the disobedience of Adam and Eve sin
entered the world and all creation suffered its consequences. The effects of sin include disruption of the relationship between God and humanity, deterioration of the natural order of creation, and exploitation of persons by evil or misguided social systems. The whole of creation groans for redemption.

We believe that Christ’s offering of Himself, once and for all, through
His sufferings and meritorious death on the cross, provides the perfect redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world, both original and actual. There is no other ground of salvation from sin but that alone. This atonement is sufficient for every individual of Adam’s race.

We believe that the Christian church is the entire body of believers
in Jesus Christ, who is the founder and only head of the church. The church
includes both those believers who have gone to be with the Lord and those
who remain on the earth, having renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and having dedicated themselves to the work which Christ committed unto
His church until He comes. The church on earth is to preach the pure Word
of God, properly administer the sacraments according to Christ’s instructions,
and live in obedience to all that Christ commands. A local church is a body
of believers formally organized on gospel principles, meeting regularly for the
purposes of evangelism, nurture, fellowship, and worship.

We believe in the bodily resurrection from the dead of all people—of
the just unto the resurrection of life, and of the unjust unto the resurrection of
damnation. The resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection which will occur at Christ’s second coming. The raised body will be a spiritual body, but the person will be whole and identifiable.