| DOCTRINAL STATEMENT |
| 1. We believe in the Holy Scripture, accepting fully the writings of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God, verbally Iinspired in all parts and, therefore wholly without error as originally given of God, altogether sufficient in themselves as our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice. (II Peter 1:21, II Timothy 3:16-17). 2. We believe in the One Triune God who is personal, spirit, and sovereign; perfect, infinite and eternal in His being, holiness and love, wisdom and power; absolutely separate and above the world as it’s Creator, yet everywhere present in the world as the upholder of all things; self-existent and self-revealing in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each having a distinct ministry in God’s relation to His creation and people. (Genesis 1:1, John 10:30, Matthew 28:19, Acts 5:3-4). 3. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the second person of the One Triune God, the Eternal Word and Only Begotten Son; that without any change in His divine Person, He became man by miracle of the Virgin Birth, thus to continue forever as both true God and true Man, one person with two natures; that as man He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin; that as the perfect Lamb of God He gave Himself in death upon the cross, becoming there the sin of the world, and suffering its full penalty of divine wrath in our stead; that He arose bodily from the grave and was glorified; that as our great High Priest He ascended into Heaven, there to appear before the face of God as our Advocate and Intercessor. (Isaiah 7:13, Matthew 1:18-25, Colossians 2:9, I Corinthians 15:1-4 and 20-25, Acts 1:19-11, Hebrew 7:25). 4. We believe in the Holy Spirit Who is the third person of the Trinity and the divine Agent in nature, revelation and redemption; that He convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment; that at salvation He regenerates, indwells, seals and anoints all who become children of God through Christ; that He further empowers, guides, teaches, sanctifies and fills believers who daily surrender to Him. (John 3:8, 14:16, 16:7-15, Acts 5:1-4, Ephesians 4:30, 5:18). 5. We believe all men are by nature and choice sinful and lost; that man was the direct creation of God, made in His image and likeness; that by personal disobedience to the revealed will of God, Adam became a sinful creation, that father of a fallen race which is universally sinful in both nature and practice, thus alienated from God, under the righteous judgment and wrath of God, and has within himself no possible means of salvation. (Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:1-24, Ecclesiastes 7:20, John 3:18-19, Romans 1:20, Romans 3:9-23, Romans 5:12, Galatians 3:22, Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). 6. We believe in salvation by grace through faith and that salvation is the free gift of God, neither merited nor secured in part or in whole by virtue of the work of man, but received only by personal repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom all true believers have as a present possession the gift of eternal life, a perfect righteousness, son-ship in the family of God, deliverance and security from all condemnation, every spiritual resource needed for life and godliness, and the divine guarantee that they shall never perish; that apart from Christ there is no possible salvation. (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 6:23, Titus 3:5, Acts 3:19, John 3:36, I Corinthians 6:11, I John 3:1-2, John 3:18, Philippians 4:13, John 3:16). 7. We believe in righteous living and godly works, not as a means of salvation in any sense, but as its proper evidence and fruit; therefore, as Christians we should obey the Work of our Lord, seek the things which are above, walking as He walked, accept as our solemn responsibility the duty and privilege of bearing the gospel to a lost world; remembering that a victorious and fruitful Christian life is possible only for those who in gratitude for the infinite and underserved mercies of God have presented themselves wholly to God. (Matthew 7:20, John 14:15, Ephesians 5:8, Romans 12:1-2). 8. We believe in the existence of Satan who originally was created a holy and perfect being, but through pride and wicked ambition rebelled against God, thus becoming utterly depraved in character, the great adversary of God and His people, leader of all other evil angels, the deceiver and god of this present world; that his powers are vast but strictly limited by the permissive will of God Who overrules all his wicked devices for good; that he was defeated and judged at the cross making his final doom certain; that we are able to resist and overcome him only in the armor of God, by the blood of the Lamb, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 14:12-17, Genesis 3:1-7, II Corinthians 4:3-4, Ephesians 6:11-20, Ezekiel 28:11-19, Revelation 20:1-10). 9. We believe, concerning future events, that at death the spirit and soul of the believer pass instantly into the presence of Christ and remain in conscious joy until the resurrection of the body when Christ comes for His own at the time commonly referred to as the Rapture. The blessed hope of the New Testament believer is the imminent, personal, pretribulational and premillenial appearance of Christ to bring to Himself the Church, His bride. His righteous judgments will then be pored out upon an unbelieving world during Tribulation (The seventieth week of Daniel), the last half of which is the Great Tribulation. The climax of this era will be the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth to introduce the Davidic Kingdom. Israel will then be saved and restored as a nation, Satan will be bound and the curse will be lifted from physical creation. following the Millennium, the Great White Throne Judgment will occur, at which time the bodies and souls of the wicked shall be reunited and cast into the Lake of Fire. (II Corinthians 5:8, I Corinthians 1`5:51-57, Titus 2:13, I Thessalonians 1:10, 4:14-17, 5:9, Matthew 24:21, Revelation 19:11-16, Romans 11:26-27, Revelation 20:2-3, 20:11-15). 10. We believe in a literal heaven and a literal Hell, and that the spirit and soul of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hades where they are kept under punishment until the final Day of Judgment. (Luke 16:19-31, II Peter 2:9). 11. We believe that a New Testament church is a voluntary and independent autonomous group of baptized believers who are a body with Christ at it’s head, joining together for worship, service, fellowship, discipline, prayer, teaching, testimony, observance of the ordinances and the spread of the Gospel into all the world; that it is a pure democracy which organically can join nothing, and that it has the power and right within itself to confess its own faith in accordance with the New Testament; that each congregation recognizes its own democratic self-containing government as its highest authority for carrying out the will of the Lord Jesus Chirst. (I Timothy 3:15, I Corinthians 12:12-27, Revelation 2:3, Colossians 1:18, 24, 3:15-16, Acts 20:17, I Timothy 3:1-16, Titus 1:5-11, I Corinthians 3:10-17, 5:1-5, 11:2). 12. We believe that the local church is the center of God’s redemptive program for this age, and that every Christian is bound by Scripture to give his unhindered cooperation to the program of his local church; that is the responsibility of all believers to remember the work of the local church and its extension ministries in prayer, to support it with their tithes and offerings as the Lord prospers them, to participate in all the regular services of the church as the Lord enables, and to voluntarily submit to the watchcare and discipline of the local church. (I Corinthians 16:2, Hebrews 10:19-25, 13:17, I Timothy 3:15). 13. We believe that the ordinances of the church are two, namely baptism and the Lord’s Supper; that baptism is the immersion in water, one time backwards, of a believer in Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to show forth by solemn and beautiful symbolism the believer’s identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and that it is a Scriptural prerequisite to church membership; that the Lord’s Supper is the partaking of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, as symbols and commemoration of ordinance to be participated in only by those who have united with a New Testament local church after having first been Spiritually baptized and after given verbal testimony as to salvation, and having performed a careful self-examination. (Matthew 28:19, Acts 8:36, Romans 6:3-5, I Peter 3:21, Acts 2:38-41, I Corinthians 11:23-32). 14. We believe that the officers of a New Testament church are two in number; that those officers are pastor, otherwise called elders or bishops, and deacons: that one pastor shall be the overseer, president, and undershepherd of the flock and that the assistant pastors are his assistants in the spiritual realm; that the deacons are spiritual helpers in the matter of mundane affairs of the local church. (I Timothy 3:1-13, Acts 6:1-7, 20:17,28). 15. We believe that all the saved are to live morally separated lives. The Ten Commandments are God’s perfect standard for a perfect man. We are commanded to perfect holiness (II Corinthians 7:1) in the fear of God. The believer is to never suffer as an evil doer. (I Peter 4:15) but is commanded to be clean in body and mind (II Corinthians 10:5). 16. We believe that all the saved are live personally separated lives. Romans 14 explains that there are going to be areas where the believers are going to disagree in matters which they call sin. The stronger brother will be able to do things that the weaker cannot. The weaker will do things that the stronger will not. In matters of eating, holy days, etc… every man should be fully persuaded in his own mind. (Romans 14:5, I Corinthians 8:9, 10:23,31). 17. We believe that all the saved are to live ecclesiastically separated lives. While recognizing the unity of all true believers, it is also evident that unbelief and error in many organized fellowships have developed to the point where recognized and Biblically indisputable apostasy exists. We therefore disavow the position of the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, the National Association of Evangelicals and any other national, state, or local association, fellowship, or ministerium that would be in sympathy with them. We also disavow the position of and stand in opposition to the ecumenical movement, neo-orthodoxy, new-evangelistic program involving churches not of like precious faith. (II Corinthians 6:14-18, Ephesians 5:11-12, Luke 12:51, II Thessalonians 3:6, 13-15). 18. We believe that the healing and tongues movements of today are unscriptural and contrary to sound doctrine and that those who believe in, or practice, these are in error. (I Corinthians 13:8-11, 14:33,40). 19. We believe that some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as tongues, the prophesying of future events, and miraculous healings were temporary. We believe that speaking in tongues was never a common or necessary sign indicating one had been baptized by, or filled with, the Holy Spirit. We believe that while God’s long-term desire for all men is that they be permanently delivered from sickness, it may occasionally be God’s short-term desire to employ sickness as a means of chastisement. (Acts 4:8, 31, Romans 8:23, I Corinthians 13:8-11, 1:27-30). 20. We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society and that rulers are to be prayed for and conscientiously honored and including the bearing of arms for the defense of the country, except in matters opposed to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ as stated in Scripture either directly or in principle. (Exodus 18:21-22, II Samuel 23:3, Psalm 72:11, Daniel 3:17-18 Matthew 10:20, 22:21, 23:10, Acts 5:19, Romans 13:1-14, Philippians 2:10-11, Titus 3:1, I Peter 2:13). BACK |