The Holy Scriptures

We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the verbally inspired Word of God, 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 about 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 12:26-27; Luke 24:27,44-46; John 5:39; Acts 1:16; 17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; Romans 15:4; I Corinthians 2:12- 13; 10:11; II Timothy 3:14-17; II Peter 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, equal in power and glory, and having the same divine attributes and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:22; 48:16; Matthew 28:19; I Corinthians 8:6; II Corinthians 13:14; Philippians 2:6; Revelation 4:11).

Creation

We believe that God, according to His sovereign will and for His own glory, in the beginning, brought forth the whole visible and invisible universe, 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 (Genesis 1:1-2:25; Acts 17:24-25; Ephesians 1:11; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-3).

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; Isaiah 14:12-17; Matthew 4:2-11; II Corinthians 4:3-5; 11:3,14-15; I Peter 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, became sinful in nature, is alienated from God, and is totally unable to regain his former position (Genesis 1:26-31; 3:1-24; Matthew 12:34; Mark 10:18; Romans 3:9-23; 5:12-14; 8:7-8; Ephesians 2:1-3,12).

The Person and Work of Jesus 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 man. We believe that He accomplished the redemption of His people (“sheep,” “elect,” “chosen,” people of God) through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for them. We believe that the eternal redemption and salvation of all the people of God (“sheep,” “elect,” “chosen”) are guaranteed by the actual physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead (Isaiah 53:4-12; Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:30-35; John 1:1-18; 10:14-16, 26-30; Romans 3:21-26; 4:25).

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, and by His baptism unites all the Saints (“sheep,” “elect,” “chosen,” people of God) to Christ in one body, and that He 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 Corinthians 6:19; 12:12-13; Ephesians 2:19-22; II Thessalonians 2:5-7). 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 experiences. 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 of the saints (“sheep,” “elect,” “chosen,” people of God) for power and service (John 3:6; 16:7-11; Romans 8:9; I Corinthiansl2:13; Ephesians 4:30; 5:18; II Thessalonians 2:7). We believe that some gifts of the Holy Spirit were for signs 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 (Isaiah 28:11; Acts 4:8, 31; Romans 8:23; I Corinthians 12:13; 13:8; 14:21).

Salvation

We believe that salvation is the gift of God by grace and is received by an individual only through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 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 the regeneration of an individual from above and the impartation of new life by the Holy Spirit through the Word are absolutely essential for salvation; and only those thus saved are children of God. We also believe that redemption has been solely accomplished by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and a curse for the elect (His “sheep,” “elect,” “chosen people of God), dying as their 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 His finished work who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 26:28; John 3:5, 18; Romans 5:6-9; II Corinthians 5:21; James 1:18; I Peter 1:18-19, 21). We believe that the new birth of the sinner is a gift of God accomplished by the work of 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; Romans 1:16-17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 5:1; 10:4; Galatians 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 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 humble submission and obedience to the Word of God, he is in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ at the moment of his salvation (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:38-39; Romans 5:1; I Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 1- 3; Colossians 2:10; II Peter 3:18; I John 4:17; 5:11-12).

Sanctification

We believe that sanctification, the setting apart unto God, is threefold: 1. The believer receives that 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 Corinthians 10:31; II Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 4:11-16; I Peter 3:18). 2. The believer also becomes a new creature in Christ. Therefore, 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 sinful ways of the world unto God, and to ever increasingly manifest the image of Christ in him (I Corinthians 10:31; II Corinthiansl5:42- 49; Philippians 3:20-21; I John 3:2). 3. The believer will ultimately be made perfect in Christ when he shall see his Lord and be made like Him in glory (I Corinthians 15:42-49; Philippians 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; Romans 8:35-39; Hebrews 1:14; 13:5; I Peter 1:5; I John 2:19; 2:27-28; 5:18; Jude 24-25).

The Church

We believe that the church, which began on the day of Pentecost, the Body and Bride of Christ is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations (I Corinthians 12:12- 13; Ephesians 1:20-23; 4:1-16; Colossians 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 (Zechariah 12:9- 10; 14:13-18; I Corinthians 15:50-54; I Thessalonians 1:9-10; 4:13-18; Revelation 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; 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 are reunited and 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 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 20:11-15).

The Responsibility of Believers

We believe that every believer must seek to walk blamelessly before God and men in order to bring glory to his Lord while in the world through an humble obedience to the Word of God, that he should walk by the Spirit, not bringing reproach upon his Lord and Savior, and should be separated from those evil pleasures and practices that are condemned by the Lord (Romans 12:1-2; II Corinthians 6:14; 7:1; Galatians 5:16, 25). We believe that it is the responsibility of every believer to remember the work of the Lord in prayer and to support it with all good things as the Lord has prospered him (I Corinthians 16:2; II Corinthians 8:1-9, 15; 9:6, 7, 12). 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 (Ephesians 4:11-16).