Statement of Faith

  1. The Holy Scriptures

    We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible and God-breathed, and therefore are the final authority in all maters of doctrine, duty, and decisions as individuals and as a New Testament Church. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the complete and divine revelation of God to Man. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning. We believe the Kings James Version of the Bible is the accurate, God-directed version for English speaking people and shall be the official translation used and endorsed by the Church. (II Tim. 3:15-17; I Thes. 2:13; II Peter 1:20-21; Ps. 119:89)

  2. Dispensationalism

    We believe that the Scriptures interpreted in their natural, literal sense reveal divinely determined dispensations or rules of life, which define man’s responsibilities in successive ages. These dispensations are not ways of salvation, but rather are divinely ordered stewardships by which God has directed and directs man according to His purpose. Three of these dispensations–the age of law, the age of the Church, and the age of the kingdom–are the subjects of detailed revelation in the Scripture. (Gen. 1:28; I Cor. 9:17; II Cor. 3:9-18; Gal. 3:13-25; Eph. 1:10, 3:2-10; Col. 1:24, 25, 27; Rev. 20:2-6)

  3. The Godhead

    We believe in one Triune God, Who is loving, just, merciful, holy, unchanging, and eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections, and executing distinct but complementary offices in the work of redemption. (Deut. 6:4; Matt. 3:14-17; Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:14; John 14:10, 26; Col. 2:9)

  4. The Person and Work of Christ

    We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men. (Isa. 7:14; Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 2, 14; II Cor. 5:19-21; Gal. 4:4, 5; Phil. 2:5-8)

  5. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

    a. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and, that He is the Supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption. (John 16:8-11; Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 3:6; Eph. 1:13-14)

    b. We believe that He is the Divine Teacher who assists believers to understand and appropriate the Scriptures and that it is the privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit. (Eph. 1:17-18; 5:18; I John 2:20, 27)

    c. We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowal of spiritual gifts to every believer. God uniquely calls, equips, and uses evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip believers in the assembly in order that they might do the work of the ministry. We believe the Holy Spirit is the person of God that distributes the spiritual gifts to all believers as He chooses. (Rom. 12:3-8; I Cor. 12:4-11, 28; Eph. 4:7-12)

    d. We believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and the gift of healing, as demonstrated in Acts 3:1-8, were temporary. We do not accept the teaching that any of the sign gifts are to be sought as evidence of salvation or the Holy Spirit’s fullness (control). We believe that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit. We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience that takes place at the time of salvation and is not separate from salvation but is separate from subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit. We believe that ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayers of believers for physical healing. (I Cor. 1:22, 13:8, 14:21-22; James 5:14-15)

     

  6. The Total Depravity of Man

    We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and, that man is totally depraved, and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. (Gen. 1:26-27, 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:22-23, 5:12, 6:23; Eph. 2:1-3, 4:17-19)

     

  7. Salvation

    We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. We believe that being saved is the most important experience in every individual’s life. (John 1:12; Eph. 1:7, 2:8; I Peter 1:18-19)

     

  8. The Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers

    a. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever. (John 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1, 38-39; I Cor. 1:4-8; I Peter 1:4-5)

    b. We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh. (Rom. 13:13-14; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-15)

     

  9. The Church

    a. We believe that the local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, is solely made up of born-again persons. (I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22-23, 5:25-27)

    b. We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. (Acts 14:17, 20:17, 28:32; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

    c. We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control. (Acts 13:1-4, 15:19-31, 20:28; Rom. 16:1, 4; I Cor. 3:9, 16, 5:4-7, 13; I Peter 5:1-4)

    d. We recognize water baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper as the Scriptural ordinances of obedience for the Church in this age. We believe that baptism does not save, but it is an act of obedience to the command of Christ and a testimony to the world of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the creation, by new birth, of a new spiritual person. We believe that baptism identifies one with Jesus Christ and the people of God. We further believe that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolical ordinance that pictures Christ’s body broken for our sins and His blood shed for our redemption. We believe it is symbolic and not a part of salvation. (Rom. 6:1-5; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42, 18:18; I Cor. 11:23-26)

     

  10. Separation

    We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord; and the separation from all religious apostasy, worldly and sinful pleasures , practices and associations is commanded of God. We believe that the prophetic scriptures predict a great apostasy, which will culminate in an anti-biblical one-world church. Therefore, we are unalterably opposed to the present ecumenical movement, which is building such a church and is fostered by both the World Council of Churches–including Eastern Orthodoxy–and the Vatican. We believe that the Word of God forbids us to have spiritual fellowship with unbelievers, and to participate in organizations that permit the presence of modernism and modernist, such as the National Council of Churches of Christ, The World Council of Churches, the Baptist World Alliance, and other such groups that tolerate liberal theology. (Rom. 12:1-2, 14:13; II Cor. 6:7-14; II Tim. 3:1-5; I John 2:15-17; II John 9-11)

     

  11. The Second Advent of Christ

    We believe in that “blessed hope,” the personal, imminent return of Christ Who will rapture His Church prior to the seven-year tribulation period. At the end of the Tribulation Christ will personally and visibly return, with His saints, to establish His earthly Messianic Kingdom, which was promised to the Nation of Israel. (Psalms 89:3-4; Dan. 2:31-45; Zech. 14:4-11; I Thess. 1:10, 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Rev. 3:10, 19:11-16, 20:1-6)

     

  12. The Eternal State

    a. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28-29, 11:25-26; Rev. 20:5-6, 12-13)

    b. We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord. (Luke 23:43; II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23, 3:21; I Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 20:4-6)

    c. We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment 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 and torment. (Matt. 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; II Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15)

     

  13. The Personality of Satan

    We believe that Satan is a person, created as a Cherub, and that he is the author of sin and the cause of the Fall of Man; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire. (Job 1:6-7; Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:13-17; Matt. 4:2-11, 25:41; Rev. 20:10)

     

  14. Creation

    We believe that God created the universe in six literal, twenty-four hour periods. We reject evolution, the Gap Theory, the Day-Age Theory, and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin. (Gen. 1-2; Ex. 20:11)

     

  15. Civil Government

    We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions: 1) the home; 2) the Church; and 3) the state. Every person is subject to these authorities, but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by His Word. God has given each institution specific Biblical responsibilities and balanced those responsibilites with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other. The home, the Church, and the state are equal and sovereign in their respective Biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God. (Rom. 13:1-7; Eph. 5:22-24; Heb. 13:17; I Peter 2:13-14)

     

  16. Missions

    We believe that God has given the Church a Great Commission to proclaim the Gospel to all nations so that multitudes from every nation, tribe, ethnic group, and language group might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ we must use all available means to spread the Gospel in our own neighborhood, city, state, and nation and go to the foreign nations of the world and not wait for them to come to us. (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; II Cor. 5:20)

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