We Believe

THE DOCTRINAL POSITION OF THIS CHURCH

THE SCRIPTURES

We believe that the Holy Bible as originally written was verbally inspired and the product of Spirit-controlled men, and therefore has truth without any admixture of error for its matter. 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.  (2 Timothy 3:13, 17; 2 Peter 1:19-21)

THE TRUE GOD

We believe there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of the heaven and the earth, inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possible honor, confidence, and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.   (Exodus 20:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11; 1 John 5:7)

JESUS CHRIST

We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary; Thus the human and the Divine were inseparably joined together in one person, and therefore He is true God and true man.We believe that He being very God, the “express image of His person,” of one substance and equal with Him, who also made the world and upholds and governs all things, took upon Himself man’s nature, yet without sin; that He lived a sinless life and gave Himself as a perfect substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of all men, and is the only mediator between God and man.   (Matthew 1:18-25; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:35; Galatians 4:4; John 10:30; 1 Peter 1:19-20; 1 Timothy 2:5; Acts 3:22; Colossians 1:16-18; John 1:14; Romans 8:3; Hebrews 1:3, 2:14-16)

We believe in His bodily resurrection.

(Matthew 28:6-7; Luke 24:2-6, 39; John 20:27; 1 Corinthians 15:4; Mark 16:6)

We believe in His ascension into heaven.

(Acts 1:9-11; Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 12:1)

We believe in His present High-Priestly ministry.

(Ephesians 1:20-23; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1; Hebrews 2:17, 4:14, 5:9-10, 8:6)

We believe in His return to earth in keeping with the prophecies toward Israel and His promises to the Church saints.

(Jeremiah 16:14-15; Ezekiel 28:25-26, 37:1-14; Daniel 2:31-45; Zechariah 14:1-8; John 14:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 9:28)

THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, with God the Father and God the Son of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s promise is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; that He bears witness to the Truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the New Birth; that He seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer.   (John 14:16-17; Matthew 28:19; Hebrews 9:14; John 14:16; Luke 1:35; Genesis 1:1-3; John 16:8-11; Acts 5:30-32; John 3:5-6; Ephesians 1:13-14; Mark 1:8; John 1:3; Acts 11:16; Luke 24:49; Romans 8:14, 16, 26, 27)

We believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and the gift of healing, were temporary. We believe that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit, and that ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness of death awaits the completion of our salvation in resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayers of believers for physical healing.  

THE DEVIL OR SATAN

We believe in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy god of this age, and the author of all powers of darkness, and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire.   (Matthew 4:1-3; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:10)

CREATION

We accept the Genesis account of creation in six twenty-four hour days and believe that man came by direct creation of God and not by evolution.    (Genesis 1-2; Colossians 1:16, 17; John 1:3)

 THE FALL OF MAN

We believe that man was created in innocence under the hand of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners, not only by constraint but of choice, and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.   (Genesis 3:1-6; Genesis 3:24; Romans 1:18, 32; 5:10-19)

SALVATION

We believe that the salvation of sinners is a gift and wholly of grace through the mediatorial office of the Son of God, who by the appointment of the Father freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example of His death as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust; Christ, the Lord, bearing our sin in His own body on the tree; that having risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in Heaven and, uniting in His wonderful person the most tender sympathies with divine perfection, He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Savior.   (Ephesians 2:8; Acts 15:11; Romans 3:24; John 3:16; Matthew 18:11; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 2:14; Isaiah 53:4-7; Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:10; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

GRACE

We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature in a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit, in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the gospel; that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.   (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 5:1; John 3:6-7; Acts 16:30, 33; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 2:13; John 3:8)

JUSTIFICATION

We believe that the great gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification: (a) that justification includes the pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life, on principles of righteousness; (b) that it is bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood, His righteousness is imputed to us.(Acts 3:39; Isaiah 53:11; Zechariah 13:1; Romans 8:1; Romans 5:9)

REPENTANCE

We believe that repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the result of changing one’s inner attitude toward sin, salvation and the Savior. It involves the turning from sin and turning to Christ in faith, and results in a changed life.   (Matthew 9:13; Luke 13:3; Luke 24:46-48; Acts 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17.)

SANCTIFICATION

We believe that sanctification is the process of being set apart or the state of being set apart for God and from the world. According to scriptures, sanctification may be viewed as (1) instantaneous, (2) progressive and (3) complete.

1. We were sanctified in Christ at salvation. (1 Corinthians 1:2; Hebrews 10:9, 10, 14)

2. We are being sanctified. (2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Peter 3:18; Ephesians 4:11-15)

3. We will be perfectly or completely sanctified when Christ returns. (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13; 5:23; 1 John 3:2)

SEPARATION

Personal – We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord; and that separation from all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices and associations is commanded of God.   (Romans 12:1-2, 1 John 2:15-17; Titus 2:12-14)

Ecclesiastical – We believe that in obedience to scripture

(2 Corinthians 6:14-16; 2 John 10, 11; Romans 16:17; 1 Timothy 6:3-5) that this church and its members will not be involved in any city-wide campaigns or ecumenical meeting or activity that associates with modernists, liberals, neo-evangelicals, charismatics, modern-day tongue movements, satanic groups, or third-wave groups or any other questionable group.

SECURITY

We believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the Father on the merits of Jesus Christ.   (Philippians 1:6; John 10:28-29; Romans 8:35-39; Jude 1)

LOCAL CHURCH

We believe that a local church is a congregation of born-again, immersed believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His Word, and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word; that its officers are Pastors and Deacons, whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures. We believe the true mission of the church is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations, and that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; that it is scriptural for churches of like faith to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the gospel; that each local church is the sole judge of the measure of its cooperation; that on all matters of membership, of policy, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final.   (Acts 2:41-42; 1 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:11; Acts 20:17-28; 1 Timothy 3:17; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23-24; Acts 15:13-18)

ORDINANCES OF BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER

We believe that believer’s baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is prerequisite to the privileges of a church relation. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He comes, and it should be preceded always by solemn self examination.   (Acts 8:26-39; John 3:23; Romans 6:3-5; Matthew 3:16; Colossians 2:12; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28)

CIVIL GOVERNMENT

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed, except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Lord of conscience and the coming Prince of the Kings of the earth.   (Romans 13:1-7; 2 Samuel 23:3; Exodus 21-22; Acts 23:3; Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:20; Acts 4:19-20; Daniel 13:17-18)

RAPTURE AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

We believe in the premillennial return of Christ, an event which can occur at any moment, and that at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in Christ shall be given glorified bodies without tasting death, and all shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before the seven years of the Tribulation.   (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-54; Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 3:10)   We believe that the Tribulation, which follows the Rapture of the Church, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power and great glory to sit upon the throne of David and to establish the millennial kingdom.   (Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 1:30-33; Isaiah 9:6-7; 11:1-9; Acts 2:29-30; Revelation 20:1-4,6)

THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse; and this distinction holds among men both in and after death, in the everlasting felicity of the saved and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost in the lake of fire.   (Malachi 3:18; Genesis 18:23; Romans 6:17-18; 1 John 5:19; Romans 7:6; 6:23; Proverbs 14:32; Luke 16:25; Matthew 25:34-41; John 8:21; Revelation 20:14-15)