Section 1: The Bible
We believe the Holy Scriptures of
the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally
and plenarily inspired Word of God (Matthew
5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). We hold the Bible to
be inerrant in the original writings,
infallible, God-breathed, and the complete and
final authority for faith and practice (2
Timothy 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit was the divine
author of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21). While still
using the individual personalities of the human
authors, the Spirit superintended them to insure
that they wrote precisely what He wanted
written, without error or omission.
Section 2: God
We believe in one Triune God, who
is Creator of all (Deuteronomy 6:4; Colossians 1:16), eternally existing in three
distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
(2 Corinthians 13:14), yet one in being,
essence, power and glory, having the same
attributes and perfections (John 10:30). God is
our creator (Genesis 1:1), is eternal (Psalm
90:2), infinite (1 Timothy 1:17), sovereign
(Psalm 93:1) and unsearchable (Romans 11:33-34).
God is omniscient (Psalm 139:1-6), omnipresent
(Psalm 139:7-13), omnipotent (Revelation 19:6),
and unchanging (Malachi 3:6). God is holy
(Isaiah 6:3), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and
righteous (Exodus 9:27). God is love (1 John
4:8), gracious (Ephesians 2:8), merciful (1
Peter 1:3), and good (Romans 8:28).
Section 3: Jesus Christ
We believe in the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is fully God, the
expressed image of the Father, who, without
ceasing to be God, became man in order that He
might reveal God and redeem sinful man (Matthew
1:21; John 1:18; Colossians 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 are true (Isaiah
14; Matthew 1:23). We believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind
(1 John 2:2) as a representative, vicarious,
substitutionary sacrifice (Isaiah 53:5-6). We
hold that His death is efficacious for all who
believe (John 1:12; Acts 16:31); that our
justification is grounded in the shedding of His
blood (Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:17); and that it
is attested by His literal, physical
resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:6; 1
Peter 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
(Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).
Section 4: The Holy Spirit
We believe in the deity and
personality of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4). 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 (Romans 8:9). He is the agent
by whom Christ baptizes all believers into His
body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). He is the seal by
whom the Father seals believers unto the day of
redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14). He is the Divine
Teacher who illumines believers’ hearts and
minds as they study the Word of God (1
Corinthians 2:9-12).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is ultimately
sovereign in the distribution of spiritual gifts
(1 Corinthians 12:11). We believe that speaking
in tongues and the working of sign miracles
gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures
were completed, their authority upheld, and the
early church firmly established (1 Corinthians
12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 2:20;
4:7-12).
Section 5: Angels and Demons
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 servants and
messengers (Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 148:2; Hebrews
1:14).
We believe in the existence and
personality of Satan and demons. Satan is a
fallen angel who led a great company of angels
into rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-15). He is the great
enemy of God and man, and the demons are his
agents in his unholy purposes. He and his demons
shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire
(Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).
Section 6: 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 (Genesis
1:26-27). We believe that the human race sinned
in Adam (Romans 5:12), that sin is universal in
man (Romans 3:23), and that it is exceedingly
offensive to God.
We believe that
all mankind, because of Adam's fall, has
inherited a sinful nature. Humanity is utterly unable to remedy its lost
estate (Eph 2:1-5,12). We believe that all men are guilty and in a lost
condition apart from Christ (Romans 2:1).
Section 7: Salvation
We believe that salvation is a
gift of God’s grace through faith in the
finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross
(Ephesians 2:8-9). Christ shed His blood to
accomplish justification through faith,
propitiation to God, redemption from sin, and
reconciliation of man. Christ died for us
(Romans 5:8-9) and bore our sins in His own body
(1 Peter 2:24).
We believe that all those who
have truly placed their faith in Christ are
eternally secure in their salvation, kept by
God’s power, secure and sealed in Christ forever
(John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39;
Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24).
Section 8: The Church
We believe that the Church, which
is the Body and Bride of Christ, is a spiritual
organism made up of all born-again believers of
the present age (1 Corinthians 12:12-14; 2
Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27).
We believe in the ordinances of believer’s water
baptism by immersion as a testimony and the
Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of Christ’s death
and shed blood (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42;
18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). We believe in the
priesthood of all believers (1 Corinthians 1:1;
Revelation 1:6). We believe that the saved
should live in such a manner as not to bring
reproach upon their Lord and Savior, and that
separation from sinful pleasures, practices, and
associations is commanded by God (Romans 12:1-2;
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 John
2:15-17). We believe in the Great Commission as
the primary mission of the Church. It is the
obligation of believers to witness, by word and
life, to the truths of God’s Word. The gospel of
the grace of God is to be preached to all the
world (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians
5:19-20). New believers are to be taught to obey
the Lord and to testify concerning their faith
in Christ as Savior and to honor Him by holy
living.
Section 9: Things to Come
We believe in the blessed hope
(Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent,
pretribulational, and premillennial coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints (1
Thessalonians 4:13-18). We believe in the
subsequent, visible return of Christ to the
earth with His saints to establish His promised
millennial kingdom (Zechariah 14:4-11; 1
Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10; 19:11-16;
20:1-6). We believe in the physical resurrection
of all men – the saints to everlasting joy and
bliss, and the wicked to conscious and eternal
torment (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28-29; Revelation
20:5-6, 12-13). We believe that the souls of the
redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and
present with the Lord, where they await the
first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body
are reunited to be glorified forever with the
Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians
1:23; 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation
20:4-6). 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
(Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26;
2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 20:11-15).
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