SECTION 1 - THE SCRIPTURES

We believe that the Holy Bible, as originally written, was verbally and plenarily inspired and the product of Spirit-controlled men, and therefore is truth without any mixing of error for its entire matter. We believe the Bible to be the center of true Christian unity and the supreme standard by which all human conduct creeds and opinions shall be tried.

 

SECTION 2 - THE TRUE GOD

We believe there is only one living and true God, and infinite sovereign Spirit, the maker and supreme ruler of heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

 

SECTION 3 - THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son, and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world, he restrains the evil one until God's purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth; that He seals, endures, girds, teaches, witnesses, and sanctifies.

We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the power to be witnesses, for the equipping of believers with Spiritual Gifts for edification of the church, and for the power to destroy the works of the devil.

 

SECTION 4 - THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

We believe in:

  1. His eternal existence as God.
  2. His incarnation by means of the Virgin Birth.
  3. His death on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for sin.
  4. His literal bodily resurrection from the dead.
  5. His present ministry of intercession in heaven.
  6. His personal return to earth.

 

SECTION 5 - THE DEVIL OR SATAN

We believe in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy ruler of this age and all the powers of darkness, and destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the Lake of Fire prepared for him and all the fallen angels.

 

SECTION 6 - CREATION

We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical, account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God without any evolutionary process: that man - spirit, soul, and body - was created by the direct work of God, and not from previously existing forms of life, and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race.

 

SECTION 7 - THE FALL OF MAN

We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of the Maker; but by voluntary transgression Adam fell from his sinless and happy state, and all men sinned in him, in consequence of which all men are totally depraved, are partakers of Adam's fallen nature, and are sinners by nature and by conduct; and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.

 

SECTION 8 - THE VIRGIN BIRTH

We believe that Jesus was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner, born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man ever born, or can ever be born of a woman, and that He is both the Son of God and God the Son.

 

SECTION 9 - THE ATONEMENT FOR SIN

We believe that the salvation of sinners is divinely initiated and wholly of grace through the mediatory offices of the Son of God who, by the appointment of the Father, freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner's place, the just dying for the unjust; Christ, the Lord, bearing our sin in His own body on the tree.

 

SECTION 10 - RESURRECTION AND PRIESTHOOD

We believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, His ascension into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest.

 

SECTION 11 - GRACE IN THE NEW CREATION

We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and sin is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God; that the new creation is brought about by our sovereign God in a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the gospel; that its proper evidence appears - the holy fruits of repentance, faith, and the newness of life.

 

SECTION 12 - JUSTIFICATION

We believe that justification is the judicial act of God whereby He declares us to be righteous through faith in Christ Jesus; that justification includes the pardon of sin and the imputation of God's righteousness; that it is bestowed, not in any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer's blood.

 

SECTION 13 - REPENTANCE

We believe that repentance is a change of mind and purpose toward God prompted by the Holy Spirit; that it is characterized by godly sorrow for sins offensive to God and ruinous to the soul; and that true repentance is inseparably related to true faith.

 

SECTION 14 - FAITH AND SALVATION

We believe that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for His atoning blood is the only condition of salvation.

 

SECTION 15 - SANCTIFICATION

We believe that sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God accomplished in a three-fold manner; first, an eternal act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, establishing the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Savior; second, a continuing process in the saint as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to the life; third, the final accomplishment of this process at the Lord's return.

 

SECTION 16 - ADOPTION

We believe that adoption is the gracious act whereby the Father, for the sake of Christ, places new believers into the honored position of mature sons in contrast with regeneration, whereby the believer receives the nature of God and becomes a child of God. The full benefit of the position accorded by adoption as the sons of God await the glorification of the believer at the coming of the Lord.

 

SECTION 17 - THE SECURITY OF THE SAINTS

We believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the Father for Jesus Christ. This keeping includes the chastening of sons with regard to continuing sins, to the extent of bringing the believer home before sin's hardening of the heart reaches the point of damning apostasy. This in contrast with the unbeliever who though in personal, philosophical agreement and understanding of the Gospel opposes the personal submission to the Holy Spirit, and turns away from believing with his heart and confessing with his mouth the atoning work of Jesus Christ in his own life.

 

SECTION 18 - THE CHURCH

We believe in the unity of all true believers - the church which is the Body of Christ, which was established on the Day of Pentecost, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to the Church by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that this church is manifested through the local church, which is a congregation of immersed believers associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word.

We believe the true mission of the church is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations. That the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; and that on all matters of membership, of polity, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, belong to the local church.

 

SECTION 19 - BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER

We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of the believer in water, under the authority of the local church, to show forth a solemn and beautiful emblem, our faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, through whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord's Supper is always by solemn self-examination. We believe that the Biblical order of the ordinances is Baptism and Lord's Supper, and that participants should be immersed believers.

 

SECTION 20 - CIVIL GOVERNMENT

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the coming King of kings.

 

SECTION 21 - ISRAEL

We believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God's eternal covenant people; that she is now dispersed because of her disobedience and rejection of Christ, and that she will be gathered in the Holy Land and, after the completion of the Church, will be saved as a nation at the second advent of Christ Jesus.

 

SECTION 22 - THE RAPTURE AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

We believe in the imminent, pre-millennial return of Christ for His Church, and at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in Christ shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We believe that the great tribulation, which follows the rapture of the Church, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power and great glory, to sit upon the throne of David, and to establish the millennial reign.

 

SECTION 23 - MISSIONS

We believe the Bible teaches that all men are lost and bound for eternal punishment, and because one cannot believe in Him of whom they have not heard, that we are given the responsibility of giving them the Gospel. Jesus left us the command that we should all be witnesses for Him, and should take the Good News of the Gospel to every place where men are to be found. We believe that to carry out this command we must witness personally and support anointed missionaries to other nations.