Statement of Faith
I. The Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be verbally and plenarily inspired, and as originally written, was the product of Spirit controlled men, and therefore, is infallible and inerrant in all matters of which it speaks. We further believe in the divine preservation of the Scriptures so that we have the completed Word of God today, and it is our supreme and only standard by which all human conduct, creed, and opinions shall be tried.
II. The True God
A. God the Father – The Trinity.
We believe there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite, eternal, perfect, and self-existing Spirit, the Maker and Sovereign 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 co-equal and co-eternal, but yet distinct, persons, all three being the same essence, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.B. God the Son
We believe in the absolute deity of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; being divine as no other man can be, He is God of every god, existing from all eternity; that He never ceased to be God for one instant when He became the God-Man, miraculously begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin Mary.C. God 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 essence and nature; that His ministry to the unbelieving world is convicting of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth and is the agent in regeneration; and that He seals, enables, guides, teaches, fills, indwells, sanctifies, and helps the believer. We reject the present day speaking in tongues and the teaching that it is a sign of the filling, indwelling, and/or baptizing if the Holy Spirit.III. Satan
We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, the Devil; that he is the unholy god of this age, and the author of all the powers of darkness and sin, and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the Lake of Fire.
IV. Creation
We believe the Genesis account of creation and that this account is neither allegory, nor myth, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God without any evolutionary process; that man was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms of life; and that all men descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire race.
V. The Fall of Man
We believe that man, in the person of Adam, was created in innocence, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state, in consequence of which all men are born in sin, totally depraved, and are sinners by nature and by conduct, and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse before God.
VI. Redemption From Sin
We believe that the only escape from the condemnation of sin is through the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, when He voluntarily took upon Him a human body and nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death and shed blood He fully satisfied the just demands of a holy and righteous God regarding the sin of man; that His sacrifice was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinners place, the just dying for the unjust; that the blessings of this salvation are given on the grounds of grace to all who repent and believe in Jesus as their personal Lord and savior; and that it is the immediate duty of all to accept this offer of grace and mercy.
VII. Justification By Faith
We believe that Justification is that judicial act of God whereby He declares the believer righteous upon the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ; that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the redeemer’s shed blood.
VIII. Salvation By Grace
We believe that faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only condition of salvation from sin and that this salvation is wholly by the grace of God; that no works, however good, make salvation more secure; that all who believe in Christ as their Savior are born again from above, made new creations in Christ, and are eternally secure in Christ and kept by God’s power. We believe that repentance is an integral part of saving faith and one who is born of God will evidence this by a separated life of holiness to the Lord.
IX. The Church
We believe that the local church is a divine institution established by Jesus Christ and is God’s primary tool for all ministries today; that the church was unknown to the Old Testament saints and is not revealed in the Old Testament, but began with New Testament saints on the day of Pentecost and will be consummated at the coming of Christ in the rapture.
We believe a local church is an organized congregation of immersed believers, associated by covenant and confession of faith for the purpose of work, worship, observance of the two ordinances, fellowship, edification, and the world-wide proclamation of the gospel; that its officers are pastors (The words pastor, bishop, and elder all refer to the same office.) and deacons; that it has the absolute right of self-government directed by the Holy Spirit, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals; that it is answerable only to Christ, its one and only Superintendent, that in all matters of membership, policy, government, discipline, and benevolence, the will of the membership is final.
We also believe in the aspect of the Church commonly referred to as an organism, the Body of Christ, made up of all true believers from Pentecost to the rapture.
X. The Ordinances
We believe that there are two church ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; that baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is to be performed under the authority of the local church; and that it is prerequisite to the privilege of church membership.
We believe that the Lord’s Super is the commemoration of our Lord’s death until He comes and our continual fellowship with Him and should be preceded by solemn self-examination; and that the Biblical order of the ordinances is baptism first and then the Lord’s Supper.
XI. Priesthood of the Believer
We believe in the priesthood of all believers; that all believers have immediate and direct access into Godâs presence by the blood of Christ our Great High Priest and only mediator; and that we need no human agency to intercede for us before God.
XII. Resurrection
We believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ (the first fruits) as well as that of all men; the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.
We believe that those who are dead in Christ will be raised at the coming of Christ for His church and be caught up with transformed living saints to meet the Lord in the air; and that the wicked dead will be raised at the close of the Millennial Kingdom to be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment and to receive their final doom.XIII. The Return of Christ
We believe in the bodily, personal, imminent, pretribulational, and pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ to catch away His saints âto meet the Lord in the air.â
We believe He will come with His saints at the close of the seven year tribulation to judge the nations and to set up His millennial kingdom on earth.
XIV. Separation
We believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate ourselves unto God from worldliness and all forms of apostasy, and from the ecumenical movement, the charismatic movement, neo-evangelicalism, and neo-orthodoxy.
XV. Civil Government
We believe civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed except in those things opposed to the revealed will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the coming King of Kings. We believe in the separation of church and state.