DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

I. The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures in the original autographs, to be God’s inspired Word, inerrant, infallible, authoritative and sufficient in all matters upon which it touches. The Scriptures are solely and inclusively the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21; Matt 5:18; John 16:13; Heb 4:12).

II. The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternal in being, equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes (Deut 6:4; Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14).

III. The Person and Work of the Father
We believe the Father is the planner of creation and redemption, that His plan for the human race is one of grace and that He works all things in accordance with His will (1 Cor 8:6; 12:6; Eph 1:11).

IV. The Person and Work of Jesus Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man; that He accomplished redemption for all mankind through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice; that eternal life is guaranteed to Believers by His literal physical resurrection from the dead; that He is now in heaven, exalted and seated at the right hand of the Father, where, as the High Priest for His people, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor and Advocate (John 1:1-2,14; Luke 1:35; Rom 3:24-25; 1 Pet 1:3-5; Heb 9:24; 7:25; Rom 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2).

V. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity who ministers to mankind in these ways:

A. He convicts mankind of the sins of unbelief and unrighteousness, warning of judgment (John 16:8-11).

B. At the moment of salvation, He permanently regenerates new Believers, baptizes them into the body of Christ and indwells and seals them unto the day of redemption (John 3:3-7; 1 Cor 6:19; Eph 1:13; 1 Cor 12:13).

C. He leads into Truth (John 16:13).

D. He fills the Believer except when He is grieved (Eph 4:30) or quenched (1 Thes 5:19) by sin, which is a failure to “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). Breach of fellowship with the Holy Spirit is restored by confession of sin (1 John 1:9; 1
Cor 11:31), resulting in fruit (Gal 5:22-23) which becomes more apparent as the believer grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18).

E. Spiritual gifts are bestowed by the Holy Spirit on every believer at the moment of salvation (Rom 12:6-8; 1 Cor 12:7-11, 28-30; Eph 4:11). These spiritual gifts are the means by which every Christian fulfills their full-time ministry in the Christian way of life. While God can and does supernaturally intervene in the affairs of mankind, the “temporary” gifts of Apostleship, healing, miracles, speaking in other languages and interpreting them, prophecy and discerning of spirits, wisdom, faith and knowledge are no longer operational (1 Cor 13:8-13).

VI. Creation
We believe the literal Genesis account of Creation in which God created the universe out of nothing by His spoken word (Gen 1:1 ff; Psa 33:6-9).

VII. Satan
We believe that Satan is a real created being, the fallen angel, Lucifer, who is the open and declared enemy of God and man until his final and ultimate demise in the lake of fire forever (Matt 4:2-11; Job 1:6-7; Isa 14:12-17; Ezek 28:14-18; Rev 20:10).

VIII. The Total Depravity of Man
We believe that man was created in the immaterial image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature and became alienated from God. Man is not capable of redeeming himself (Gen 1:2-27; Rom 3:22-23; Rom 5:12; Eph 2:12).

IX. Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to men by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for the forgiveness of our sins (1 Pet 1:18-19; Eph 2:8-10; John 1:12; Eph 1:7). God does not overrule man’s free will in accepting or rejecting His provision of salvation (2 Pet 3:9; John 3:16, 18). Man appropriates this salvation on the simple basis of belief in Christ’s literal death for sins, His burial and literal, bodily resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:1-4; Acts 16:31, 4:12; John 20:31; 1 John 5:11-12).

X. The Eternal Security of Believers
We believe that all believers are kept secure forever, meaning that salvation cannot be lost or taken away (Rom 8:1, 35-39; John 10:27-30; 1 Cor 1:4-9; 1 Pet 1:3-5; Jude 24; 1 John 5:11-13).

XI. The Church Universal
We believe that the Church, which is the body of Jesus Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again believers from the Day of Pentecost until the Rapture,
distinct from Israel and irrespective of affiliation with Christian or ecclesiastical organizations (Eph 1:22-23; Eph 5:25-27; Col 1:18; 1 Cor 12:12-14).

XII. The Church: Visible, Local, Autonomous
We believe that the body of Christ is visibly functional through self-governing organizations called local churches. The establishment and continuance of self-governing local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 20:17, 28-32; 1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11; 1 Cor 1:1-2; Phil 1:1).

XIII. Church Ordinances

A. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration and proclamation of Christ’s death until He comes, and that it is to be celebrated regularly in anticipation of His return (1 Cor 11:23-26). We also believe that whereas the elements of communion are only representative of Christ’s flesh and blood, the Lord’s Supper is nevertheless an actual Communion with the risen Christ who is present in a unique way, fellowshipping with His people (1 Cor 10:16).

B. We believe water baptism by immersion to be the solemn and beautiful testimony of the Christian showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, and his union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to new life (Rom 6:4-6); that it is also a sign of fellowship and identification with the visible body of Christ (Acts 2:41-42; Mark 1:9-11; Acts 2:38, 41; 8:38).

XIV. The Blessed Hope
We believe that the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord Jesus in the air to receive to Himself the dead in Christ and believers who are alive at His coming, otherwise known as the Rapture of the Church (1 Cor 15:51-57; 1 Thes 1:9-10; 1 Thes 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14).

XV. The Tribulation
We believe that the Rapture of the Church will be followed by the fulfillment of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, known as the Tribulation, the latter half of which is the Great Tribulation (Dan 9:27; Jer 30:7; Matt 24:15-21; Rev 16:1-19, 21).

XVI. The Second Coming of Christ
We believe that the Great Tribulation will be climaxed by the Premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom (Zech 14:4-11; Matt 24:27-31; 2 Thes 1:7-10; Rev 20:6).

XVII. The Eternal State
We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence (2 Cor 5:8; Luke 23:43; Phil 1:23) and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body when soul and body, reunited, shall be associated with Him forever (1 Thes 4:17).

The souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery (Luke 16:19-26) until the Final Judgment of the Great White Throne after the close of the Millennium, when soul and body, reunited, shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence and glory of the Lord (2 Thes 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev 20:11-15).

XVIII. The Responsibility of Believers
We believe that all Believers should seek to walk in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Lord and Savior which includes Biblical separation from the world, though not isolation (1 Cor 5:9-13; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 14:13; 2 Cor 6:14-7:1); seeking to not discredit the ministry in anything (2 Cor 4:1-2; 6:3); and not living in willful sin (1 Tim 1:8-10; Col 3:1-6); that it is the obligation and privilege of every Believer to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the Gospel to all the world (Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 5:20); that it is the objective to “keep the faith,” but recognizing that the Believer may not persevere to the end (2 Tim 2:13); that it is the responsibility of all believers to remember the work of the Lord in prayer and support it with their means as the Lord has prospered them (1 Cor 16:2; 2 Cor 9:7).

XIX. Marriage and Family
We believe the institutions of marriage (Genesis 2:20-25, Matthew 19:1-6, Mark 10:6-9), family (Genesis 2:24), responsible dominion of man over the earth (Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:1, Hebrews 2:5-8), human government (Genesis 9:6, Romans 13:1-4), and national diversity (Exodus 1:5, Deuteronomy 32:8, Acts 17:26) are established by God, are defined and limited by God in Scripture, and shall not be transgressed or altered by man.