What We Believe
We believe…
Doctrine
The Holy Scriptures
We believe that God has preserved His word through the ages and that the King James or Authorized Version of the Bible is the divinely preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people (Psalm 12:6-7). That the Bible is the God breathed and God inspired Word; that it is truth without any error; and is and therefore shall remain to the end of the age the complete and final revelation of the will of God to man; the true supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. By the "Holy Bible" we mean the Canon, the collection of the sixty-six books from Genesis to Revelation, which, is the very Word of God. By "inspiration" we mean that the books of Bible were written by holy men of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21).
The True God
We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God, eternally existing in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three are equal in divine nature and attributes. The triune God has created all things, is holy and is worthy of all possible honor, worship, confidence and love by his creation.
(1) God the Father
We believe that God the Father is infinite in his atributes of holiness, perfection, wisdom and power. He is the merciful Father who was willing to send His only Son Jesus to redeem sinful man from eternal punishment and death. The Father sent Jesus to die as a perfect sinless, substitutionary, sacrifice for the sins of mankind (John 3:16); and that all who repent of their sin and receive His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, as their personal Lord and Savior by faith, will be reconciled to God the Father, will have the once broken relationship restored, and will be the recipients of eternal life forever with God. Also, in following the perfect example of our Savior Jesus Christ, believers are to pray to God the Father who hears and answers the prayers of His people (Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-9).
(2) God the Son
We believe in the essential deity and the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; that He is eternal with the Father, was begotten of the Holy Spirit, and in miraculous manner; that He was born of Mary, a virgin, as no other person was ever born of a woman, and that He is both the Son of God and God the Son (I John 1:1-2). He is both true man, one person with two natures, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. We believe that His death was a substitutionary death for the appeasement of His Father, and for the sins of the whole world. We believe in His bodily resurrection, ascension, return (John 3:16; Philippians 2:6-7; Luke 1:26-35; II Corinthians 5:21, I John 2:2; I Corinthians 15:3-4; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-10).
(3) God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person; eternal and equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same essence (I John 5:7); that He was active in the creation (Genesis 1:2); that in the unbelieving world He restrains evil, and the evil one, until God's purpose is fulfilled; the world of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness; that He bears witness of the truth of the Gospel in preaching, teaching, and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth; that He seals, empowers, guides, teaches, bears witness with, sanctifies, and helps the believer (John 14:26; Romans 8:14-27; Ephesians 3:16). Using Acts 1:8 and Galatians 5:22 as our criteria for evaluation, we believe that the evidence for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is boldly witnessing for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and daily living like our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Creation
We believe the Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively (Genesis 1); that the creation was accomplished in six (6), twenty-four (24) hour days (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31; 2:2; Exodus 20:11); that man was created directly in God's own image and after His own likeness (Genesis 1:26,27); that man's creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life were made directly by God, and God's established law was that they should bring forth only "after their kind." We deny any form of atheistic or theistic evolution (Romans 1:19, 20).
The Fall of Man
We believe that God created man (Adam) in innocence and in His own image, and by voluntary transgression, he sinned against God and fell from his sinless and happy state of perfection (Genesis 3), in consequence of which, all born after Adam are now sinners, totally depraved, and therefore under just condemnation without defense or excuse and are guilty before God (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5; Romans 3).
The Doctrine of Salvation
We believe that the salvation of sinners (all mankind) is wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices (work) of the Son of God who by the appointment of the Father freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin and honored the divine law by His personal obedience and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement was not merely an example but was the voluntary substitution. He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, compassionate, all-sufficient Savior (Romans 3:24-27, 10:21; I Timothy 4:10; II Peter 3:9; Hebrews 2:9; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 10:4-14). We believe that salvation, the gift of eternal life, is divinely initiated, is instantaneous, and not a process. It is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance. In order to be saved, the sinner must be born again, personally receiving Christ as Savior, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God's Word and becoming the recipient of a new nature. The great Gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification, that judicial act of God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness, not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer's blood. The believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of eternal life, which is eternally secure (John 1:11-12; 3:3-6, 16; 10:28-29; Acts 13:39; Romans 2:4; II Corinthians 7:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-10; I Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 4:2; I Peter 1:18-23; II Peter 1:4). We believe that the attitude either of reconciliation or enmity toward God is eternally fixed at death. We further believe that there is an appointed day for the judgment of the wicked when they will be cast in to the lake of fire (hell), there to remain in everlasting conscious punishment and torment (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27; II Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:12-15, 21:8).
The Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers
We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are thus eternally secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; I Corinthians 1:4-8). We also believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God's Word, which, however clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to live a life of sin (Romans 13:13-14; Galatians 5:1; Titus 2:11-15)
The Church
We believe that the local New Testament church consists of an assembly of believers, who have been baptized by immersion, who have united together for the express purpose of fulfilling the "Great Commission" which consists of worship, evangelism, edification, fellowship, discipleship, and instruction. We believe that the officers of the Church are ordained pastors and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures (I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:6-9). We believe that the Church observes two ordinances: baptism, and the Lord 's Supper (communion), and that they have no saving power. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of selfgovernment, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; and that Christ is the head of the Church and superintends over the work of the local church through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-23).
The Righteous and the Wicked
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem (Romans 8:1-10); all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse (Romans 3:19-23), and this distinction holds among men both in life and after death in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost (Revelation 20:11-15).
The Baptism and the Lord's Supper
We believe that baptism is by immersion in water of a born again believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, with the authority and approval of the local church to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the death, burial, and resurrected Savior, as it pictures our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Matthew 28:19, 20; Romans 6:4); that it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord's Supper should always be preceded by solemn self-examination and that the sacred use of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ as He died on the cross and His blood was shed, until He returns (Matthew 26:26-29; I Corinthians 11:23-30). The prerequisites to participation in the Lord's Supper are those laid down by Christ and His apostles as a church ordinance that include (1) Salvation (I Corinthians 11:23-30), (2) Baptism (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41, 46) and (3) An orderly walk (I Corinthians 11:27-29). A disorderly walk designates a course of life contrary to the precepts of the gospel, including immoral conduct, disobedience to the commands of Christ, heresy (teaching false doctrine), and schism or promotion of division and dissention in the Church.
The Doctrine of Last Things
We believe in the personal, bodily, pretribulational, premillennial, and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ for His church. Christ will rapture (catch up) all born again believers in the air to be with Him forever (I Thessalonians 4:15-17; I Corinthians 3:12-14). The unbelievers left behind will go through a seven-year period called the Tribulation, after which Christ shall return visibly to the earth to set up His kingdom of 1,000 years of righteous rule; after this, the unbelievers of all ages will stand at the Great White Throne to be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire (Hell), separated from God forever, while the believers spend eternity in the fullness of joy and in the presence or our Lord forever (Revelation 20:11-15).
Missions and Missionaries
We believe that all people everywhere are lost and condemned and that the command to go and preach the Gospel to the entire world is clear and unmistakable, and that this commission was given to local churches (Acts 13:1-4). We believe that God is a missionary God (John3:16, 20:21), that the Bible is a missionary book, that the church is a missionary people, in that all born again believers are to be actively involved in reaching the whole world with the message of the Saviour beginning at Jerusalem unto the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The Grace of Giving
We believe that God's method of financing His earthly work of spreading the Gospel to all nations, the care of the Churches, and the support of the ministry is by the tithes and offerings of God's people. We believe that they are to be given to the Lord through His church, or storehouse, and are to be distributed as directed by the leadership of the Holy Spirit as the need arises. We believe that the time to tithe is upon the first day of the week. We also believe that everyone is accountable to the Lord for a minimum standard of giving of one-tenth of one's income and that offerings are to be given above the tithe as God has prospered the individual (Malachi 3:8-10; I Corinthians 16:2).
Satan and the Fallen Angels
We believe that Satan is real. He is a created being who sinned and became the arch enemy of God and His creation. He is the chief adversary of God's children. He seeks to keep men from God; and when he cannot succeed in this, he seeks to weaken the testimony and effectiveness of Christians. He has at his command a great host of fallen angels (demons) to carry out his purposes. He is not omnipotent and can be overcome by the power of God. His doom is sealed in the Lake of Fire (Hell) forever and ever (Ezekiel 28:12-19; Isaiah 14:12-14; Revelation 12:10; 20:10).