God continues his strong rebuke against the priests. We look at the Old Testament role of priests and ask if they still exist today.

We are called to worship God in Spirit and in truth. To remove either element in our worship is an offensive sin to our God.

God moves from speaking to the nation of Israel to the priests that have sinned against him. They have lowered God’s standard concerning the sacrificial system and God’s anger burns against them.

As we begin the book of Malachi, God has a strong rebuke for His people, but He begins with a stronger declaration, “I love you.”

We believe in the sanctity of human life, that God determines the boundaries of life and holds in His hands the two fragile ends of human experience. He is active in the conception of life and the conclusion of life, in birth and in death. This truth imparts extraordinary value to every life, independent of gender, race, socioeconomic position, age, or health status. Those who hold to biblical creation must attach great worth to human life and will stand in its defense.

We believe the sanctity of human life as established by God the Creator and believe that such sanctity extends to all people including the child not yet born, mentally and physically challenged, and those who are at the conclusion of their life here on earth. Life is a gift from God and should be afforded to Him.

All human life, including life developing in the womb, is created by God in His image and is, therefore, to be nurtured, supported, and protected. From the moment of conception, a child is a human being with all of the developing characteristics of human life, and this life is dependent on the mother for its continued development. Therefore, we believe that human life must be respected and protected from the moment of conception. Therefore the church calls for persons to practice the ethic of the New Testament as it bears upon human sexuality and to deal with the issue of abortion by placing it within the larger framework of biblical principles that provide guidance for moral decision making.

Metro Church also recognizes that many have been affected by the tragedy of abortion. Each local congregation and individual believer is urged to offer the message of forgiveness by God for each person who has experienced abortion. Our local congregations are to be communities of redemption and hope to all who suffer physical, emotional, and spiritual pain as a result of the willful termination of a pregnancy.

We believe that the term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture.

We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.

We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, prostitution, rape, or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.

We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with scripture nor the doctrines of the church.

We believe that Jesus commands us to go and share the good news of His love for humanity. Our daily lives are a mission to introduce and reconcile people to God. Everything we are as believers should come from the Love of God that transformed our lives. Everything we do as believers should center on the Great Commission fueled by His love in our transformed hearts.

We believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons.

We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowing of spiritual gifts. It is, however, the believer’s responsibility to attempt to develop their given spiritual gift(s). The baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion and is the placing of the believer into the Body of Christ. We also believe that particular spiritual gift(s) are neither essential, nor prove the presence of the Holy Spirit, nor are an indication of deep spiritual experience.

We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever.