The Bible Is The Word Of God
We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the Inspired Word of God, Authoritative, Inerrant, and God-breathed.
2nd Timothy 2:15 - "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Matthew 5:18; John 16:12-13; 2nd Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21
The Depravity of Man
Man is created in the image of God. Through Adam's original sin, the entire human race is born spiritually dead. Every person has a sin nature and this sin nature alienates them from God. Man is totally unqualified to redeem himself or restore his fallen condition.
Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 3:22-25, Romans 5:12; Ephesians 2:12
Salvation
Salvation in every dispensation is the gift of God brought to man by grace. It is received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose efficacious death on the cross provided man's reconciliation to God.
Salvation Is By Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, In Christ Alone.
No good deed, no church membership or attendance, no water baptism, and no amount of morality can save man.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. "
John 3:15-16; John 5:24; John 6:40-51; John 20:31; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:24-25; Romans 5:11-16; 2nd Corinthians 5:18-21
The Eternal Security of the Believer
All believers are secure forever. All believers have the right
to personal assurance of their eternal security because God promises
it.
Romans 8:38-39 - "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
John 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 1st Corinthians 1:4-9; 1st Thessalonians 5:23-24; Hebrews 10:14-18
The Person & Work of Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man while maintaining His essential Deity. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary to reveal God, redeem man, and resolve the invisible struggle among the angels by the total defeat of Satan.
We believe that Jesus Christ fully accomplished our redemption through His substitutionary sacrificial death on the Cross. The Father accepted totally the pouring out of His Son's soul unto death as the propitiation of sins.
The Father's acceptance of Jesus Christ's death is dramatized and realized by His literal physical resurrection from the dead.
Isaiah 53:9-12; Luke 1:35; John 1:1; Romans 3:24-26, Romans 4:24-25; 1st Corinthians 15:1-4; 2nd Corinthians 5:21
Hebrews 9:22, Hebrews 13:20-21; 1st Peter 1:3-5; 1st Peter 1:18-21; 1st Peter 2:24; 1st Peter 3:18
We further believe that even now, the Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven having been supremely exalted by God the Father. He sits at the right hand of God where He fulfills the ministry of Great High Priest, intercessor, and advocate for believers. Jesus Christ is the irrefutably acknowledged Head of the Church which is His Bride, His body, and His possession. He will return to crush all the enemies of God.
Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:19-23; Hebrews 7:25-28; 1st John 1:1-2
The Triune God
There is one Triune God existing in three persons: (1) God the Father, (2) God the Son, who became the unique person of the universe, the God-Man Jesus Christ, and (3) God the Holy Spirit.
Each person of the Trinity is equal in essence and authority and each possesses all the same attributes and perfection.
Deuteronomy 6:4; 2nd Corinthians 13:14
Sovereignty
God, existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is sovereign. He exercises supreme and absolute rule over all creation as a part of, and consistent with, the essence and all other attributes of His deity: love, righteousness, justice, eternal life, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, veracity, and immutability.
1st Chronicles 29:11-12; Daniel 4:35; Psalms 24:1; Ephesians 1:11; 1st Timothy 6:15
However, God in His sovereignty will not violate the free will of man. The free will of man and the sovereignty of God coexist by divine decree.
1 Timothy 2:4-6; Rom. 5:8-10; Romans 16:24-25; John 3:16; John 3:36
The Person & Work of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is a person, and not merely a force. He convicts the world of the sin of unbelief, restrains evil from its ultimate manifestation, glorifies Christ and guides believers into all truth.
We believe that at the point of personal faith in Christ the Spirit baptizes each individual into interminable union with Christ. He permanently regenerates, seals, and indwells each believer.
It is the duty of each believer to "walk" by means of the Spirit which means to daily recognize his sins before God the Father so that he is constantly empowered, controlled, i.e. - "filled" with God the Holy Spirit. By doing this, the believer avoids quenching or grieving Him
John 16:7-14; Romans 8:9; 1st Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 1:12-14; Ephesians 4:30
Ephesians 5:18; Titus 3:5-6
Spirituality
Though salvation is the result of one decision to believe, spirituality is the result of continuous decisions to maintain intimacy or fellowship with God by means of the daily recognition and confession of personal sins. This brings about God's forgiveness, the restoration of fellowship with Him, and the "filling" or empowerment of God the Holy Spirit which is commanded of every believer.
1st John 1:9; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 4:30; Ephesians 5:18; 1st Thessalonians 5:19
Spiritual Gifts
God the Holy Spirit, in grace and apart from human merits, administers a spiritual gift to believers in this dispensation. Permanent spiritual gifts in existence today include pastor/teachers, evangelists, administrators, and others.
The temporary spiritual gifts ceased with the completion of the canon of scripture. These temporary gifts were apostleship, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, healing, and working of miracles
1st Corinthians 12:13-25; Ephesians 4:7-12; Romans 12:4-8
Though spiritual gifts of miracles and healing have ceased, God may, and does, heal and miraculously intervene by His direct action.
Isaiah 46:10; Matthew 28:18; James 5:16
The Responsibility of the Believer
Once born again, the new child of God needs the sincere milk of the Word. continually nourished by God's instruction, he can grow spiritually in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is God's desire that first every man be saved, and secondly that every believer in Christ come to intimately know Him through the inculcation of the Word of God (1st Timothy 2:4).
The effectual work of God's Word brings the believer to spiritual maturity where he glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in all that he does and receives great blessings and eternal rewards.
Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 13:9; 1 Timothy 4:6; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18
The Church
The church, which is Christ's body, is made up of all born-again persons of this present age. The Church is a spiritual organism, and all believers are in union with Christ, irrespective of secondary affiliation with Christian denominations or organizations.
1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:22
Church Ordinance
The Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper to be observed until His return. The purpose of this ordinance is to honor and to remember Jesus Christ. It is not for the purpose of forgiving sins or maintaining salvation, nor do the elements magically turn into Christ's body and blood.
1 Corinthians 11:23
Satan
The Bible acknowledges the personal identity of Satan who is a high-ranking angel and the openly, declared adversary of God and man.
Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-17; 1 Peter 5:8
Satan is also the ruler of this present world.
Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31; John 14:30; John 16:11
Dispensations
A dispensation is a period of human history explained in terms of divine revelation. History is defined as a series of administrations or eras. Each dispensation reflects the unfolding of God's plan for mankind and constitutes divine viewpoint of history. Understanding dispensations is a means by which believers during a specific time can orient to God's will, plan, and purpose for their lives.
Ephesians 1:7-11; Ephesians 3:16; Romans 16:25-26; Colossians 1:26; John 1:16-17
The Blessed Hope
The next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. He will receive to Himself the resurrected bodies of Church Age believers who have died and believers who are alive at His coming. Their resurrection bodies will be just like Jesus Christ's body. This event is also known as the "Rapture," "Translation of the Church," or "Exit Resurrection" .
1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14
The Tribulation
The Exit Resurrection of the Church will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel's seventieth week. The latter half of this seven-year period is the time of Jacob's trouble, the Great Tribulation.
Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15-21
The Second Coming of Christ
The Great Tribulation will be climaxed by the (pre-millennial) return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom.
Zechariah 14:4-11; Matthew 24:15-25; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:6
The Eternal State
The soul and the human spirit of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation immediately pass into His presence at the moment of physical death. The soul and the human spirit remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming. At this time, soul, human spirit and body reunite and shall forever be associated with His glory.
The souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the millennium. At this time, their souls and bodies reunite to be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be salted with everlasting destruction and banished from the presence of the Lord forever.
Luke 16:19-26; Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Jude 6; Revelation 20:11-15