The Scriptures

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God (Matt 5:18; 2 Tim 3:16-17). We hold the Bible to be inerrant. In the original writings, the Word of God is infallible, God-breathed, and the complete and final authority for faith and practice (2 Pet 1:20-21). We believe the Scriptures must be interpreted in a normal, literal and grammatical sense.

 

The Godhead

We believe in one Triune God, Creator of all (Gen 1:2, Col 1:16), eternally existing in three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14), yet one in being, essence, power, and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (John 10:30).

 

The Person and Work of Christ

We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is very God, the express image of the Father, who, without ceasing to be God, became man in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man ( John 1:18; Col 1:15). We believe that God the Son became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ; that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary; that He is truly God and truly man; that He lived a perfect, sinless life; that all His teachings and utterances are true (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice (Isa 53:5-6). We hold that His death is effectual for all who believe (John 1:12; Acts 16:31); that our justification is grounded in the shedding of His blood (Rom 5:9; Eph 1:7); and that it is attested by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matt 28:6; 1 Pet 1:3). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven in His glorified body (Acts 1:9-10) and is now seated at the right hand of God as our High Priest and Advocate (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25).

 

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

We believe in the deity (Acts 5:3-4) and the personality of the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). He regenerates sinners (Titus 3:5) and indwells believers (Rom 8:9). He is the agent by whom Christbaptizes all believers into His body (1 Cor 12:12-14). We believe that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to each member of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:11). The Son of God sovereignly assigns the place of the ministry of the gifts in the body, and the Father provides the energy in the outworking of the gifts (1 Cor 12:4-6). Each believer is to exercise his spiritual gift(s) for the common good to the building up of the body of Christ (Eph 4:11-16). We believe that the gift of speaking in tongues, which was a sign to the nation of Israel, and the other sign gifts gradually ceased as the New Testament was completed and its authority was established (1 Cor 13:8; 14:21-22; 2 Cor 12:12; Heb 2:4). We believe that God can still heal, if He chooses, but believers cannot expect to be healed or delivered from every ailment.

 

Angels, Good and Evil

We believe in the reality and personality of angels. We believe that God created an innumerable company of these sinless, spiritual beings who were to be His messengers (Neh 9:6; Ps 148:2; Matt 24:31; Luke 1:19; Heb 1:14). We believe in the personality of Satan. He is a fallen angel who led a great company of angels into rebellion against God (Isa 14:12-17; Ezek 28:12-15). He is the great enemy of God and man, and his angels are his agents in the prosecution of his unholy purposes. He shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10).

 

Man

We believe that man came into being by direct creation of God and that man is made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27; 2:7).

 

Sin

We believe that the human race sinned in Adam (Rom 5:12), that sin is universal in man (Rom 3:23). We believe that man inherited a sinful nature (Ps 51:5), that he became alienated from God (Col 1:21), that he became totally depraved, and that of himself, he is utterly unable to remedy his lost estate (Eph 2:1-5, 12). We believe that all men are guilty and in a lost condition apart from Christ (Rom 2:1; 3:10-18).

 

Salvation

We believe that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Eph 2:8-9). Christ shed His blood to accomplish justification through faith, propitiation to God, redemption from sin, and reconciliation of man. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom 8:1, 38-39; 1 Pet 1:5; Jude 24). We believe that it is the privilege of all who are born again to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word (Rom 8:16; 1 John 5:13). We believe that the Scriptures disclose several aspects of sanctification. In addition to God’s work of bringing a sinner to Christ, he is set apart to God. This is positional sanctification and refers to his standing. He then undergoes a process whereby the Holy Spirit quickens his affections, desires, and attitudes, enabling him to respond in faith to live a life of victory over sin. This is progressive sanctification and refers to his state (2 Cor 3:18; 7:1; Gal 5:16-25; Eph 4:22-29; 5:25-27; Col 3:10). Someday his standing and his state will be brought into perfect accord. This is prospective, or ultimate sanctification (1 Thess 5:23; 1 John 3:2).

 

The Church

We believe that the Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, began at Pentecost and is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age (Acts 2:1-42; 11:15; 1 Cor 12:12-14; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 1:22-23; 5:25-27). We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 20:17; 1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11). We believe in the autonomy of the local church, free of any external authority or control (Acts 13:1-4; 15:19-31; 28:28; Rom 16:1, 4; 1 Cor 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 1 Pet 5:1-4). We believe in the ordinances of believer’s water baptism by immersion as a testimony and the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance in this age of Christ’s death for the Church (Matt 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:8; 1 Cor 11:23-26). We believe in the Great Commission as the primary mission of the Church. It is the obligation of the saved to witness, by word and life, to the truths of Holy Scripture. The gospel of the grace of God is to be preached to the entire world (Matt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 5:19-20). Converts are to be taught to obey the Lord and to testify concerning their faith in Christ as Savior in water baptism and to honor Christ by holy living and observance of the Lord’s Supper (Matt 28:19-20; 1 Cor 11:23-29).

 

Things to Come

We believe in that “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent (Matt 24:42, 44; 1 Cor 15:51-52; Phil 3:20; 4:5), pre-tribulational, and pre-millennial (Rev 19:11-20:10) coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints and receive His Church unto Himself (1 Thess 4:13-18). We believe in the subsequent, visible return of Christ to the earth (Matt 24:29-31), with His saints, to establish His promised millennial kingdom (Zech 14:4-11; 1 Thess 1:10; Rev 3:10; 19:11-16; 20:1-6). We believe in the physical resurrection of all men, the saints to everlasting joy and bliss, the wicked to conscious and eternal torment (Matt 25:46; John 5:28-29; 11:25-26; Rev 20:5-6, 12-13). We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious misery until the second resurrection when, with soul and body reunited, they shall appear at the Great White Throne judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment (Matt 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thess 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev 20:11-15).

 

Marriage

We uphold the sanctity of marriage as a God-ordained, special union between a man and a woman, where sexual relations are both honored and affirmed by God (Gen 1:27-28, 2:24-25). The Bible teaches that all sexual unions outside of marriage, as thus defined, are sinful (Heb 13:4). When dealing with sexual sins, we have no alternative but to follow the teachings of Scripture, as we understand them, and consistently apply those teachings to both heterosexual and homosexual situations (Prov 6:29; Eph 4:17-24).

 

Family Relationships

We believe that men and women are spiritually equal in position before God, but that God has ordained distinct and separate spiritual functions for men and for women in the home and in the church. The husband is to be the leader of the home and is to lay down his life for his wife and for his family in the same way that Christ laid down His life for the Church. Men are to be leaders (pastors and deacons) of the church; therefore, only men are eligible for licensure and ordination by the church (Gal 3:28; Col 3:18-19; 1 Tim 2:8-15; 1 Tim 3:1-13; Eph 5:22-30).