STATEMENT OF FAITH
1. The Bible
We believe the Bible (i.e., the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments) is the Word of God, comprises the totality of Holy Scripture, is inspired and authoritative in the original text, remains inerrant and infallible in all its substance, and is sufficient for salvation and sanctification. Therefore, it is the supreme, final, and authoritative standard for Christian faith, practice, theology, and life. We seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can be applied to an individual’s life, leading that person to greater maturity in Christ. (I Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; John 17:17; Romans 15:4)
2. The Trinity
We believe that there is One God, eternally existent and manifested in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. God the Father
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and life. We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully with the affairs of men, that He hears and answers our prayers; and that He saves from eternal damnation all men who come to Him through faith (John 4:24; 3:16-17).
4. God the Son – Jesus Christ
We believe in the deity and humanity of Jesus, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His death and resurrection, the atonement of our sins by His sacrificial death on the cross, His ascension to Heaven, and that He will one day come again in all His glory (Isaiah 7:14; John 1:14; 8:58; Acts 1:9-11; I Corinthians 15:3-6; II Corinthians 5:21; I John 1:7; II Thessalonians 4:13-17; Hebrews 7:25).
The Lord Jesus, before His incarnation, existed in the form of God and His own choice laid aside His divine glory and took upon Himself the form of a servant and was made the likeness of men. In His pre-existent state He was with God and was God. He is a divine person possessed of all the attributes of Deity, and should be worshipped as God by all creation. “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body.” All the words that He spoke during His earthly life were the words of God. There is absolutely no error of a kind in them, and by the words of Jesus Christ the words of all other teachers must be tested.
5. God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Holy Trinity. That He is God. That He is here to help us worship, pray, and learn of Jesus (John 16:8-11; 16:13-15; Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 1: 13-14). After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the Gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today.
We believe that within the proper context of the Bible, we can be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit to help us be witnesses for Christ and to do the work of God for His glory.
6. Man
We believe that all people are by nature separated from God and are responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that all men are sinners by nature and by choice, and are, therefore, under condemnation. We believe that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, are born again of the Holy Spirit, and thereby become the children of God eternally, and are no longer under condemnation. Because we are all sinners, we believe that we must confess our sins to God so that we could be forgiven and cleansed. (Matthew 6:12; John 1:12; 3:3; 3:16-17; Acts 20:21; Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:8-10).
7. Salvation
We believe that there is only one way to be saved, and that is to confess and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works “lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). When a person truly repents of sin and honestly and sincerely accepts Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord. We also believe in the eternal security of the saints (Ephesians 2:8-9).
8. The Church
A. Introduction
We believe in the universal Church, a living spiritual body, of which Christ is the head and of which all regenerated people (believers) are members. We believe that a local Church is a group of these believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, work, and fellowship. These local Churches are committed for Worship, instruction of God’s Word, prayer, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and that God has laid upon these Churches the task of persuading a lost world to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and enthrone Him as Lord and Master. We believe that all human betterment and social improvements are inevitable products of such a gospel (Ephesians 5:22-32; Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:38-41).
B. Baptism
We believe that Christian baptism consists of the complete immersion of the believer in water, “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This act of baptism is a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried, buried, and risen Savior, and it symbolizes our death to sin and our resurrection to a new life in Christ (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12).
C. Lord’s Supper
We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial service, setting forth in a sacred and symbolic manner, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf, and our union with Him in the body of Christ. We believe the emblems used are not literally the body and blood of Christ, nor do they contain His flesh and blood, but are sacred symbols. This service is for believers only and to partake only has value if it is unified with the faith and repentance of the communicant (1 Corinthians 11:17-34).
9. Christian Conduct
We believe that a Christian should live for Christ by knowing and living His Word; that this conduct should be blameless before the Word; that he should be a faithful steward of his possession; that he should live a consistent Christian life, and that he should seek to realize for himself and others the full stature of maturity in Christ.
10. Religious Liberty
We believe that each believer has direct access to God, and therefore, is ultimately accountable to God in all matters of faith and practice. We believe that each Church must be independent, autonomous, and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority; accountable only to God with respect to the practice of our faith (Romans 13:1-7).
11. Eschatology (end time events)
We await the pretribulational rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ which will be physical, personal, visible, and premillennial. This motivates us to evangelism, holy living, heart-felt worship, committed service, diligent study of God’s Word, and regular fellowship. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust; the final judgment; the everlasting blessedness of the saved; and the endless suffering of the lost (John 5: 28-29; Revelation 20:11-15).
12. We Reject:
(a) The belief that true Christians can be demon possessed and are helpless against the craft and wiles of the Devil;
(b) Any philosophy or theology which denies that human freewill can be exercised in the receiving of Christ’s free gift of salvation; specifically, we reject the belief that Jesus’ atonement was limited in its extent, instead, we believe that He died for all unrighteous people and that any perceived limitation rests in one’s free rejection of Christ’s finished work of atonement, and we reject the assertion that God’s wooing grace cannot be resisted or that He has elected some people to go to hell; instead we believe that anyone who wills to come to Christ may do so freely as a result of the Holy Spirit’s conviction and wooing persuasion of the heart. We are neither Five-Point Calvinists, nor are we Arminians. We adhere firmly to the clear biblical teaching of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We avoid any theological systems of belief that go beyond the written Word and thereby divide the body of Christ.
(c) “Positive Confession,” (e.g., the Faith Movement, that views faith as a force that can create one’s own reality or that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles according to man’s will and faith);
(d) Human prophecy that supersedes or is contrary to Scripture;
(e) Any introduction of psychology and philosophy which is contrary to Scripture and is in substance “according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” into biblical teaching;
(f) “Open Theism” or “Freewill Theism” which reduces God’s timeless, unchanging, dynamic nature, and exhaustive foreknowledge of future free decisions, to creaturely modes of being and operation;
(g) The overemphasis of spiritual gifts, experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of biblical teaching.