The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the only verbally inspired Word of God and to be authoritative, inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed.
We believe that the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God “were moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of Scripture. This divine inspiration extends equally and fully to every portion in the original manuscripts.
We believe that all the Scriptures center around the Lord Jesus Christ in His Person and work in His first and second advent and, hence, that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read or understood until it leads to Him.
We believe the Bible to be the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions shall be tried. (Mark 12:26; Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16, 17:2-3, 18:28, 26:22-23, 28:23-27; Rom. 15:4; I Cor. 2:13, 10:11; II Tim. 3:14-17; II Pet. 1:19-21)
The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternal in being, identical in essence (not three separate Gods or modes of existence), equal in power and glory, and having the same divine attributes and perfections. (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 45:22, 48:16; Matt. 28:19; I Cor. 8:6; II Cor. 13:14; Phil 2:6; Rev. 4:11)
Creation
We believe that God, according to His sovereign will and for His own glory, brought forth in the beginning the whole visible and invisible universe, without any evolutionary process or without the use of pre-existent material, and thus gave it an existence, distinct from Him yet always dependent on Him and predestined by Him according to the counsel of His own will. (Gen. 1:1-2:25; Acts 17:24-25; Eph. 1:11; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:1-3)
We believe God created mankind as man and woman. This is part of God’s redemptive plan and essential to the prospering of mankind and obedience to God’s intent and design. God created the institution of marriage as the lifelong monogamous union of one man and one woman for his glory and as the general pattern for human flourishing. God gave mankind the gift of sex to be exercised only within the context of marriage as described above (Gen 2:18-25; Matt 19:4-6; Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:17-20).
The Personality of Satan
We believe in the existence of Satan as a personal being and a fallen angelic creature of God, who is the open and declared enemy of God and the adversary of those of the household of faith. (Job 1:6-12; Isa. 14:12-17; Matt. 4:2-11; II Cor. 4:3-5, 11:3, 11:14-15; I Pet. 5:8)
The Total Depravity of Man
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God; but that in Adam’s sin all mankind fell, inherited a sinful nature, became alienated from God, and is totally unable to regain his former position. (Gen. 1:26; 3:1-24; Rom. 3:23, 5:12, 8:7-8; Eph. 2:1-3)
The Person and Work of Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal God the Son, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men.
We believe that He accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice.
We believe that our redemption and salvation are guaranteed to us by His literal physical resurrection from the dead. (Isa. 53:4-12; John 1:1, 14, 18; 10:14-16, 26-30; Luke 1:35; Rom. 3:21-26, 4:25)
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is now in heaven, exalted to the right hand of God, where as His people’s High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of intercession and advocacy. (Heb. 1:3, 3:1, 7:23-25, 9:24, 12:2; I John 2:1-2)
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer, by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body, and as the Indwelling One is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service.
We believe that He never takes His departure from the Church nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy believers with Christ and not with themselves nor with their experiences.
We believe that His abode in the world in this special sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the Church. (John 14:16-17; 16:7-15; I Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:22; II Thess. 2:7)
We believe that in this age certain well-defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand them and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience. These ministries are the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will; the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness and judgment; the regeneration of all the elect; the indwelling of all who are saved, thereby sealing them unto the day of redemption; the baptizing into the one body of Christ all who are saved; and the filling for power and service. (John 3:6, 16:7-11; Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:30, 5:18; II Thess. 2:7; I John 2:20-27)
We believe that some gifts of the Holy Spirit were for signs to the nation of Israel and are, therefore, temporary. These were never common, nor were they a necessary sign of the baptism or of the filling of the Spirit. Our emphasis is to be on that which edifies the Church. (Isa. 28:11; Acts 4:8, 31; Rom. 8:23; I Cor. 12:13, 18:8, 14:21)
Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God by grace and is received by man only through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. (Jn. 1:12-13; Eph. 1:7, 2:8-9)
We believe that due to the universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation (however great), no attainments in morality (however high), no culture (however attractive), no baptism or other ordinance (however administered), can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but that a new nature imparted from above and a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word are absolutely essential to salvation; and that only those thus saved are sons of God.
We also believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying as our substitute, and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any ecclesiastical body that has ever existed since the days of the Apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood or to the merit of the finished work wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity. (Lev. 17:11; Isa. 64:6; Matt. 26:28; John 3:5, 18; Rom. 5:6-9; II Cor. 5:21; James 1:18; I Pet. 1:18-19, 23)
We believe that the new birth of the believer is a gift of God by the Holy Spirit and manifested through faith in Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing, and is no way in itself a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. (John 1:12-13; 3:16-17, 36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts 13:38-39; 16:31; Rom. 1:16-17; 3:22,26; 4:5: 5:1; 10:4; Gal. 3:22)
We believe that when salvation is wrought in an unregenerate person as illustrated and described in the New Testament, he immediately passes out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and from the old creation into the new, being justified from all things, accepted before the Father accordingly as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having his place and portion as linked to Him and one with Him forever. Though the saved one should grow in the realization of his blessings and know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ. (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:38-39; Rom. 5:1; I Cor. 3:21-23; Eph. 1-3; Col. 2:10; II Pet. 3:18; I John 4:17; 5:11-12)
Sanctification
We believe that sanctification, the setting apart unto God, is threefold:
The believer receives the imputed holiness of Christ when new life is bestowed upon him by the Holy Spirit at the time of the new birth. He is therefore counted as righteous and perfect in Christ. (I Cor. 1:30; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 10:10-14)
The believer is commanded to be holy in thought, speech, and life, and to grow in Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual believer to separate him from the world unto God and to manifest the image of Christ. (I Cor. 10:31; II Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:11-16; I Peter 3:18)
The believer is going to be made perfect in Christ when he shall see his Lord and be “like Him.” (I Cor. 15:42-49; Phil. 3:20-21; I John 3:2)
Preservation of the Saints
We believe the Scriptures teach that such as are truly regenerate, being born of the Holy Spirit, will not utterly fall away and finally perish, but will endure unto the end. All true believers, once saved, are kept secure by the power of God in Christ forever. (John 6:39, 8:31, 10:27-29; Rom. 8:35-39; Heb. 1:14, 13:5; I Pet. 1:5; I John 2:19, 27-28, 5:18; Jude 24-25)
The Church
We believe that the church, the Body and Bride of Christ, which began on the day of Pentecost, is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations. (I Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 1:20-23, 4:1-16; Col. 3:14-15)
The Second Coming of Christ
We believe in the personal imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His own, the Church, and after the great tribulation, His subsequent return to earth in power and in glory to set up His Messianic, millennial kingdom. (Zech. 12:9-10, 14:4-11; I Cor. 15:50-54; I Thess. 1:9-10, 4:13-18; Rev. 3:10, 19:11-20:6)
The Eternal State
We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the physical body at His coming for the Church, when soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory, but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-26, 23:43; II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; II Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15)
The Responsibility of Believers
We believe that every believer should seek to walk blamelessly before God and men in order to bring glory to His Lord while in the world through a humble obedience to the Word of God; to walk by the Spirit, not bringing reproach upon his Lord and Savior; and to be separated from those worldly pleasures and practices that are forbidden by God. (Rom. 12:1-2; II Cor. 6:14, 7:1; Gal. 5:16, 25)
We believe that it is the obligation of every believer to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the gospel to all the world. (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8)
We believe that it is the responsibility of every believer to remember the work of the Lord in prayer and to support it with his means as the Lord has prospered him. (I Cor. 16:2; II Cor. 8:1-9:15)
We believe that every believer has the privilege to be used by the Spirit of God so that the body of Christ might be edifying itself in love. (Eph. 4:11-16)