About Columbus Avenue Church of Christ
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The Columbus Avenue church is a family of believers who have been born again of the water and the blood of Jesus Christ. We are not a part of any denomination. We seek to be a people of God as Christians were in the first century; a body of believers bound to each other by our faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. Denominations are of relatively recent origin. Division such as we see among the various religious bodies was condemned in the Bible. (See 1 Corinthians 1-4.) Unity can be achieved only when all believers return to the faith and practice found in God's Word.
We believe that Jesus is God's Son, whom God sent into this world to redeem us from our own sinfulness. The gospel is the good news of Jesus' ministry, His death, and His resurrection. It is the gospel, the good news of salvation, which enables one to be saved from their sins. While salvation is a free gift of God, a direct result of God's marvelous grace, one must receive the gift in order to share in its benefits. The book of Acts is the record of what happened when people turned to God through the gospel.
When one turns to God through faith in Jesus, the Bible records that they repented (turned away from their sinful ways and turned to God). Jesus said if we do not repent, we will perish. (Luke 13:1-5) Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus included instruction about repentance. (See Acts 2:38.)
Those who believed and repented were instructed to be baptized, that is, immersed, into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. (Acts 2:38; 22:16) When the New Testament was written, the only baptism involving water was an immersion. The practices of sprinkling or pouring water on one as "baptism" did not originate for many years and had their origin with people rather than from God's word. When one is thus baptized, immersed into Christ, God adds them to His people. (Acts 2:41,47)
