Doctrinal Statement

Statement of Faith

The Scriptures

We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error, for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.

The Godhead

There is one and only one living and true God, an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe, infinite in holiness and all other perfection, whom we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. He is revealed to us as a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Son

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit without a human father, born of a virgin, and is truly God and truly man, that His deity is absolute, wholly unique, and singular.

God the Holy Spirit

We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, who is the divine interpreter of the infallible word, who convicts the world, regenerates and indwells every true believer, testifies of Christ, energizes, enlightens, and constrains in the way of holiness.

The Fall of Man

We believe, according to the teachings of Scripture, that man was created a moral being in the image of God after His likeness, but man by voluntary transgression fell from his original sinless state. In consequence, the whole human race was involved in guilt, making all mankind now sinners, depraved in nature, spiritually dead, subject to the powers of evil, void of holiness, positively inclined to evil, and hopeless apart from divine grace.

The Resurrection of Christ

We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of Christ, that this body, which was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, was a literal body consisting of flesh and bone and that He ascended into Heaven and “sitteth on the right hand of God” as the believer’s High Priest and Advocate.

The Way of Salvation

We believe that salvation, according to the Scriptures, is wholly by grace through faith plus nothing. This salvation of the ill-deserving sinner is based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who became the sinner’s substitute before God and died a provisionary sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Since the natural man is dead in trespasses and sins, at enmity against God, and blinded by sin and Satan to his own condition, it is only through the operation of the Holy Spirit using the Word that man is brought to repentance and faith. No degree of reformation, however great; no attainment in morality, however refined; no culture, however attractive; no ordinance or ceremony, however ancient and sacred; no feeling, however satisfying; no sincerity, however approved; no church membership, however authenticated, can in the least degree add to the value of the precious blood or to the merits of that finished work wrought for us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Justification

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal, upon the principles of righteousness, of all sinners who believe in Christ. This blessing is bestowed, not in consideration of any work of righteousness which we have done, but as a state of most blessed peace and favor with God, and secures every other needed blessing. 10 The blessings of salvation are made free to all by the Gospel. It is the duty of all to accept them by penitent and obedient faith. Nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner except his own voluntary refusal to accept Jesus Christ as Teacher, Savior, and Lord.

The Security of the Believer

We believe that all born-again persons are eternally secure in Christ, since the Scriptures teach that our justification before God rests upon the finished work of Christ alone and forever remains the unchanging grounds of the believer’s faith. This security is further guaranteed by the continuous High Priestly work of Christ in Heaven itself and by the work of the Holy Spirit who wrought in the believer regeneration and performs an unceasing ministry within his soul.

The Church

We believe that the church, the body of Christ, is composed of all those who have true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We further believe that the visible church or assembly is a congregation of baptized believers associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ, the true head of the church; looking to the Holy Spirit, the administrator, for guidance in exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in the believer by His Work.

The Obligation of Holiness

We believe that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are called into a life of separation from the world to which they have been crucified by the death of Christ, and should abstain from worldly lust and such practices and habits as will retard spiritual growth or cause others to stumble and thus bring reproach upon the cross of Christ. The believer is called upon to walk worthily, keeping himself unspotted from the world, and to be zealous of good works.

The Evangelization of the World

We believe in the evangelization of the world, placing emphasis upon the task of reaching the individual with the gospel and its implications, and that no humanitarian and philanthropic schemes may be substituted for the preaching of the Cross.

Biblical Interpretation

We believe in accepting the literal teaching of the Word. “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense.” Therefore, every declaration is to be taken in its primary, ordinary, literal, and its most obvious meaning unless the facts of the context and the well-defined laws of language clearly indicate the terms either to be symbolic or figurative and not literal. Whatever is not literal must be explained in the light of other passages which are literal.

Creation

We believe in the Genesis account of creation, which teaches that all things found their origin in God Who created by His own fiat, instantaneously, every living thing after its own kind.

The Return of Christ

We believe, according to Scriptures, in the sure return of the Lord Jesus Christ; that this second coming will be a literal, bodily, personal return; and that His coming for His bride, the Church, constitutes the “Blessed Hope” set before us, for which we should be constantly looking. We believe that His coming will be premillennial.

Eschatology

• The righteous dead
  
  We believe that the souls of those who trusted in Christ for salvation will go immediately at death into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the righteous dead at the second coming when soul and body shall be reunited to ever be with the Lord in glory.
• The unrighteous dead
  
  We believe that the souls of the lost remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the great white throne when the soul and body will be reunited in resurrection to be arraigned before God in judgment and then cast “into the lake of fire, which is the second death” to be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power.”

Satan

We believe in the reality of the person of Satan, “that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.