About Riverton 3rd Ward
-
At Riverton 3rd Ward, Riverton in Utah, there is Good News, There really is - Praise God! The Good News is that Christ saves sinners. God - being rich in mercy and compassion - chooses to make sinners alive through faith in His Son, Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-5) God does so by transferring the sins and guilt of believers to God's own account, in the person of Jesus Christ. And God simultaneously assigns to believers the Righteousness of that same Jesus. By virtue of this eternally profound two-way exchange, God has declared Himself willing to look upon sinners who possess faith in Jesus as if God were looking instead at the righteous obedience and selfless sacrificial death of His Son. (Isaiah 53: 5-6; 1 John 4:10)
We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being, one Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculous agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God's sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
About Pentecost: We believe that since the Day of Pentecost this worldwide body consists of local, autonomous congregations of baptized believers. This local assembly is bound by the faith and fellowship of the gospel and observes the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper as given by Christ.
About Separation of Church and State: We believe that each local church is self-governing, and must be free from interference by any external ecclesiastical or political authority; that every human being is ultimately responsible to God in matters of faith and life; and that each person is free to worship God according to the dictates of his/her conscience. We further believe that governments are established by God; that Christians, as good citizens, should be subject to governing authorities insofar as possible, recognizing our greater allegiance to God and His kingdom in matters wherein human authorities conflict with clear, biblical mandates.