STATEMENT OF FAITH

THE SCRIPTURES

The Bible, with its 66 books, is the very Word of God. The Bible is verbally and completely inspired as originally given and it is divinely preserved in the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Received Text. The Bible is our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. The King James Version in English is an example of an accurate translation of the preserved Hebrew and Greek texts; we believe it can be used with confidence.

THE GODHEAD

The Scriptures testify that God is a spirit whose nature is light, love, and holiness; He is infinite, eternal, all wise, all powerful, all knowing. There is only one God, but that God is revealed as three distinct Persons called “The Trinity” – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

THE FATHER

We believe in God the Father, perfectly holy, all wisdom, all powerful. The sovereign of the universe. He concerns Himself in the affairs of men, He hears and answers prayer, and He saves from sin and death all that come to Him through Jesus Christ His son.

JESUS CHRIST

The second Person of the trinity is the Son, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He existed eternally with the Father. At His incarnation, without giving up His deity, the eternal Son of God became a man through the miracle of the virgin birth. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life, performed miracles to prove that He was the Messiah, died a substitutionary death for all men, was buried, and arose from the grave bodily the third day. He ascended into Heaven and is presently fulfilling His role as intercessor and mediator. He promised to return to Rapture the church age saints prior to the Tribulation and to return to the earth to establish His millennial reign at the end of the Tribulation.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead. He is eternal. He was active in creation. He fashions men and imparts life to them. He anointed and empowered Israel’s judges, kings, and prophets. He inspired the Scriptures using holy men of old. He convicts the world of sin and draws them to Christ. He came upon the church age saints at Pentecost to empower them for world evangelism. He regenerates those who believe and seals them unto the resurrection. He indwells all who are born again, sanctifies them, equips and empowers them for service, and illuminates their understanding of the truth. He calls and sends missionaries.

THE CREATION

We believe in the Genesis account of Creation and that it is to be accepted literally and not figuratively; that the world was made in six 24-hour days; that man was created directly in God’s own image and did not evolve from any lower form of life; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly and made subject to God’s law that they bring forth only “after their kind.”

SIN

By disobedience to the revealed will of God, man became sinful and subject to the power of the Devil. When Adam and Eve sinned, their hearts became fallen and corrupted by sin, and this corrupt nature has been transmitted to the entire human race so that men are sinners.

 “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” – Isaiah 64:6

THE GOSPEL(GOOD NEWS)

Salvation is by the grace of God alone, which means that it is a free gift that is neither merited nor obtained by any virtue or work of man or by any religious duty or sacrament. The gift of God’s grace was purchased by Jesus Christ alone, by His blood and death on Calvary. The sinner receives God’s salvation by repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Though salvation is by God’s grace alone through faith, it results in a changed life; salvation is not by works but it is unto works. The faith for salvation comes by hearing God’s Word. Men must hear the gospel in order to be saved. The Gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

ETERNAL SECURITY:

We believe that all who put their trust in Jesus Christ are justified (declared righteous by God because of Christ); their sins are pardoned; they are regenerated (born again) and are given spiritual life by the Holy Spirit; they are eternally secure because they are kept by God.

THE CHURCH

We believe that the church on earth is a congregation of scripturally baptized believers bound together by a common New Testament faith and fellowship in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church was established and built by Jesus Christ. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. Each church is autonomous (self-governing, self-disciplining, self-supporting, self-propagating) and stands on its own feet under its one Head Jesus Christ. Its officers are pastors (also called elders and bishops) and deacons. Its two ordinances are baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which are performed as memorials of Christ’s death and resurrection. Baptism is for believers only and is by immersion. It is not for salvation and is not a part of salvation but follows after salvation as a public testimony. The church’s sole authority is the Bible. Its Great Commission is the work of world evangelism and discipleship.

FUTURE EVENTS

The Scriptures teach that at death the believer passes instantly into the presence of Christ and dwells there until the resurrection of the body. At death, the spirit of the unbeliever descends immediately into Hell to await the resurrection of the wicked into judgment. The Bible teaches a pre-tribulational, pre-millennial appearance of Christ to rapture the church age saints away. This coming of Christ is imminent. God’s righteous judgments will then be poured out on an unbelieving world during the Tribulation. This is the seventieth week of Daniel described in Daniel 9:24-27. The climax of this fearful era will be the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth in great glory to establish the His Kingdom. Israel will be saved and restored completely to their land and kingdom. Satan will be bound, and the curse will be lifted from the physical creation. Following the Millennium, Satan will be loosed from the bottomless pit, will lead one last unsuccessful rebellion, and will be cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever. This will be followed by the Great White Throne judgment of the unsaved dead and the establishment of the New Heavens and the New Earth

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SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD

We believe the Bible also requires strict separation from the evil things of the world.