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The Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God (Matt. 5:18; 2 Tim. 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 Peter 1:20-21).
We believe that the Scriptures, interpreted in their normal, literal sense, reveal divinely distinguishable economies in the outworking of God's purposes. These dispensations are not ways of salvation, but rather divinely ordered stewardships by which God directs man according to His purposes. Three of these--the age of law, the age of the church, and the age of the millennial kingdom--are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture (Gen. 12:1-3; John 1:17; 2 Cor. 2:9-17; Gal. 3:13-25; Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:24-25; Heb. 7:19; Rev. 20:2-6).
The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God (Deut. 6:4), Creator of all (Col. 1:16), eternally existing in three distinct persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14), yet one in being, essence, power, and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (John 10:30).
The Person and Work of Christ
We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is very God, the express image of the Father, who, without ceasing to be God, became man in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (Matt. 1:21; John 1:18; Col. 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 (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23); that He is truly God and truly man; that He lived a perfect, sinless life; that all His teachings and utterances are true. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice (Isa. 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 (Rom. 5:9); and that it is attested by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matt. 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 (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25).
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe in the deity (Acts 5:3-4) and the personality of the Holy Spirit.
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 (Rom. 8:9). He is the agent by whom Christ baptizes all believers into His body (1 Cor. 12:12-14). He is the seal by whom the Father seals believers unto the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14). He is the Divine Teacher who illumines believers' hearts and minds as they study the Holy Scriptures (Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 2:9-12).
We believe it is the duty and privilege of all the saved to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. This filling is commanded (Eph. 5:18). Conditions for being filled are yieldedness to the Spirit's control and a dependent life (Gal. 5:16). The results of filling are victory over sin, Christlike character, worship, submissiveness, and service (Gal. 5:22-23).
We believe that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to each member of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:11). The Son of God sovereignly assigns the place of the ministry of the gifts in the body, and the Father provides the energy in the outworking of the gifts (1 Cor. 12:4-6). Each believer is to exercise his spiritual gift(s) for the common good to the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:7-12).
We believe that the gift of speaking in tongues, which was a sign to the nation of Israel, and the other sign gifts gradually ceased as the New Testament was completed and its authority was established (1 Cor. 13:8; 14:21-22; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:4).
Angels, Good and Evil
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 messengers (Neh. 9:6; Ps. 148:2; Heb. 1:14).
We believe in the personality of Satan. He is a fallen angel who led a great company of angels into rebellion against God (Isa. 14:12-17; Ezek. 28:12-15). He is the great enemy of God and man, and his angels are his agents in the prosecution of his unholy purposes. He shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10).
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 (Gen. 1:26-27).
Sin
We believe that the human race sinned in Adam (Rom. 5:12), that sin is universal in man (Rom. 3:23), and that it is exceedingly heinous to God. We believe that man inherited a sinful nature, that he became alienated from God, that he became totally depraved, and that of himself, he is utterly unable to remedy his lost estate (Eph. 2:1-5, 12). We believe that all men are guilty and in a lost condition apart from Christ.
Salvation
We believe that salvation is a gift of God's grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Eph. 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" (Rom. 5:8-9) and "bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24).
We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1, 38-39; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24).
We believe that it is the privilege of all who are born again to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God's Word (Rom. 8:16; 1 John 5:13). We also believe that Christian liberty should never serve as an occasion to the flesh (Gal. 5:13).
We believe that the Scriptures disclose several aspects of sanctification. In addition to God's work of bringing a sinner to Christ, the sinner is set apart to God. This is positional sanctification and refers to his standing. He then undergoes a process whereby the Holy Spirit quickens his affections, desires, and attitudes, enabling him to respond in faith to live a life of victory over sin. This is progressive sanctification and refers to his state (2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 4:20-32; 5:25-27; Col. 3:10). Some day his standing and his state will be brought into perfect accord. This is prospective, or ultimate, sanctification (1 Thess. 5:23; 1 John 3:2).
The Church
We believe that the Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, began at Pentecost and is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age (1 Cor. 12:12-14; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:25-27).
We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 20:17; 1 Tim. 3:1-13).
We believe in the autonomy of the local church, free of any external authority or control (Acts 13:1-4; 1 Cor. 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1-4).
We believe in the ordinances of believer's water baptism by immersion as a testimony and the Lord's Supper as a remembrance in this age of Christ's death for the Church (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:8; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
We believe that the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord, and that separation from religious apostasy, sinful pleasures, practices, and associations is commanded by God (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 1 John 2:15-17; 2 John 9-11).
We believe in the Great Commission as the primary mission of the Church. It is the obligation of the saved to witness, by word and life, to the truths of Holy Scripture. The gospel of the grace of God is to be preached to all the world (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:19-20). Converts are to be taught to obey the Lord and to testify concerning their faith in Christ as Savior in water baptism and to honor Christ by holy living and observance of the Lord's Supper (Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor. 11:23-29).
Things to Come
We believe in that "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent, pretribulational, and premillennial coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints and receive His Church unto Himself (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
We believe in the subsequent, visible return of Christ to the earth with His saints to establish His promised millennial kingdom (Zech. 14:4-11; 1 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 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 (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28-29; 11:25?26; Rev. 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 in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; 3:21; 1 Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 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 (Matt. 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15).
