What We Believe

We believe the Bible, including the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments and excluding what are called the Apocryphal books, to be the verbally inspired Word of God. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, complete, and only God-breathed revelation to man, and it is therefore the supreme and final authority in all matters of doctrine, faith, and practice. It not only contains the truth, but is the truth. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to their normal grammatical-historical meaning. We believe that the Word of God is preserved in the Authorized Version, known as the King James Version of the Bible, and so for this reason and for sake of consistency among its members, the King James Version of the Bible shall be the official and only translation used for public worship and instruction by the church. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21).

1. We believe that God the Father is the First Person of the Godhead and that He has expressed Himself as the Maker and Supreme Ruler of Heaven and Earth, and is declared to be Spirit (John 4:23-24; Acts 17:22-30; Romans 1:20; Revelation 19:5-6).
2. As God the Son, He has expressed Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who became man without ceasing to be God; that He ever existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In His incarnation, He was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is therefore true God and true man (John 17; Luke 1).
3. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the literal third person of the Holy Trinity, possessing all the attributes of deity and is in essence equally God. We believe that He consist the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He regenerates the sinner by the Word of God. He permanently indwells the church and the body of each believer. He seals, enlightens, instructs, and guides every born again person. He is the efficient power of God for living in the life of the Spirit-filled believer. He equips for Christian service, and enables in spiritual worship (John 3:5; 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-11; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Peter 1:23).
4. We believe in one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that they re coeternal in being, co-identical in nature and co-equal in power. The Godhead is therefore omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, eternal, and infinitely holy, being One in essence and inexpressibly glorious and worthy of all possible praise, honor, confidence, and love (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; John 14:10, 16, 26).

1. We believe that Jesus was not only very God, but also very Man. He was God manifest in the flesh. We believe that He pre-existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit and was active in the creation of the universe (John 1:1-19).
2. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Luke 1:35; Galatians 4:4-5; Philippians 2:5-8).
3. As the Man Christ Jesus, we believe that He lived an absolutely sinless life, and then died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative, vicarious, and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood. We believe that He rose physically and bodily from the dead on the third day, making our justification sure (John 3:16, 36; Acts 2:18-36; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 4:15; 9:27-28; 1 Peter 1:3-5; 2:24).
4. We also believe that our Lord ascended into Heaven, and that having completed eternal redemption, is now exalted and seated at the right hand of God the Father, and is our Great High Priest and Divine Advocate with the Father. We believe that by His finished work on the cross, and His unceasing ministry of intercession in Glory, that Jesus Christ has procured for every believer eternal redemption, eternal salvation, and everlasting life (Mark 16:19; John 3:16; Acts 1:9-10; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 5:9; 7:25; 8:1; 9:12, 24; 1 John 2:1-2).

1. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the literal third person of the Godhead, possessing all the attributes of deity and is in essence equally God. We believe that He convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, that He regenerates the sinner by the Word of God, that He permanently indwells the church and the body of every believer and that He seals each believer until the day of redemption (John 16:8-11; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30).
2. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Teacher who assists, instructs, and enlightens believers to understand and appropriate the Scriptures guiding them into all righteousness (John 16:12-15; Ephesians 1:17-18; 1 John 2:20, 27).
3. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the sufficient power for Godly living, and spiritual worship and that it is the privilege and duty of all saved to be filled with the Spirit (John 3:5-7; 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-15; Ephesians 4:30-32; 5:18).
4. We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowal of spiritual gifts to every believer for Christian service. God also uniquely uses evangelists, pastors, and teachers to equip believers in the assembly in order that they can do the work of the ministry (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-12, 28; Ephesians 4:7-12).

We believe that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. We believe that the earth was created in six literal, 24-hour periods. We reject evolution, and believe that man was created by the direct act of God in the image of God (Genesis 1-2; 4:1; Exodus 20:11).

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God; but that in Adam’s sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God. Man’s sin incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death which is separation from God, and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are totally depraved, and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. We believe that those who reach moral responsibility are sinners in thought, word, and deed, and that they must be born again to be accepted of God and thus saved from their lost condition (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 51:5; John 3:1-21; Romans 3:10, 22-23; 5:12; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-9; 4:17-19; Revelation 21:8).

We believe that the Scriptures clearly teach that the salvation of sinners is by the grace of God through the personal faith of the believer in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ; that redemptive work being the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary upon which He shed His precious blood; His burial and His resurrection showing that the wages of all sin had been paid in full and that death had been conquered. Salvation is therefore a gift of God and it is wholly apart from man’s works. Salvation can only be received by faith and can in no way be attained in whole or in part by one’s works or deeds. At the moment of salvation, the sinner is born again, being regenerated but he power of the Holy Spirt, and thus becoming a recipient of a new nature called the Divine Nature. We believe that the great gospel blessing, which Christ secures to those who believe on Him, is justification which includes pardon of sin, the imputing of divine righteousness and sanctification solely through faith in the Redeemer’s shed blood. Having exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the believer is completely justified and is in possession of salvation which is eternally secure (Isaiah 53; John 1:12; 3:3-6; John 10:28-29; Acts 13:38-39; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-7; 1 Peter 1:18-19; 3:18; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 2:2).

We believe it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word in that Jesus died once for all. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever. However, the Word also clearly forbids the use of our Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh (John 10:28, 29; Romans 10:13; 13:13, 14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Galatians 5:13; Ephesians 1:13, 14; 4:30; Titus 2:11-15; Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 2:16).

We believe that every believer possesses two natures, with provision made for victory of the new nature over the old nature through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit as the believer yields himself to the word of God and the will of God. We further believe that all claims to the eradication of the old nature in this life are unscriptural (Romans 6:13; 8:12, 13; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 John 3:5-9).

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just, called the “First Resurrection”. The “First Resurrection” takes place in two parts. The first part being at the Rapture of the Church when the dead in Christ shall rise, before the Tribulation and the second part being at the end of the tribulation and before the Millennial Reign of Christ when those who were martyred for Christ during the Tribulation will be raised (1 Thessalonians 4:16; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Revelation 20:4). We also believe in the bodily resurrection of the unjust at the end of time (Matthew 25:44-46; John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15; 2 Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:5-6; 11-15).

We believe all men will face God in judgment. The believer will appear at the judgment seat of Christ and be judged according to his works since salvation. He shall be rewarded or suffer loss according to his works. This is not a judgment in respect to salvation, but for reward. All the unsaved will be judged at the Great White Throne according to their works and found that they, like all men, come short of the glory of God and cast into the Lake of Fire, to suffer and be in torment forever (Matthew 10:15; 11:21-22; Mark 6:11; Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10-11; Revelation 20:11-15).

1. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. We believe that both Heaven and Hell are actual physical places; Heaven being a place of eternal conscious joy and Hell being a place of eternal conscious torment in the Lake of Fire. We believe the Scriptures teach that all that are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ through the reception of Jesus Christ as personal Savior will spend eternity in full enjoyment of God’s presence. We also believe and that those souls, who through impenitence and rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior, refuse to accept God’s offer of mercy and salvation and die in their sins, will spend eternity in everlasting punishment in a place the Bible calls Hell, the Lake of Fire (Matthew 25:41, 46; John 5:28-29; 8:24; 11:25-26; 14:1-6; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Revelation 20:5-6; 12-15; 21:8).
2. We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when the spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 20:4-6).
3. We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited, they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment, and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment and torment (Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Revelation 11:15; 20:5-6).

We believe in the blessed hope. This consists first of the pre-tribulational and premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ, where all saved, both living and dead, shall rise to meet Him in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord. This imminent event is known as the Rapture of the Church. We also believe in the personal, visible and glorious return of Christ to the earth with His saints at the end of the Great Tribulation. When He returns to the earth with His saints, we believe that Jesus Christ will establish His millennial kingdom, and will reign for one thousand years upon the earth while Satan is bound. After the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan shall be loosed for a short time and then put down and cast into the bottomless pit for all eternity. It is then that the dead without Christ shall be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment. Finally, there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth where we will live with Christ throughout eternity (Daniel 2:44-45; Zechariah 14:4-11; Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-18; Titus 2:13, Revelation 4:1; 19:21, Revelation 20, 21).

1. We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ was begun to be assembled during the ministry of Jesus Christ and empowered and established at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven and came into the Church. The Church is composed only of born again persons who have been called out from among the Jews and Gentiles to become the Body and Bride of Christ. (Acts 1:8; 2; 15:14; Ephesians 2:11-16).
2. The Church is a spiritual organism. The one body unites believers to each other and all to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ glorified in Heaven is its Head and the Holy Spirit on earth is the active Agent of the Godhead, who seeks to bring about within the Church obedience to the Word of God and the Will of God. (Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; Acts 2; 15:14; Romans 1:16; Ephesians 5:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 11:2; 12:12, 13).
3. We also believe that the establishment and continuance of the local church is clearly taught in scripture, and that a local church is a company of born again, immersed believers called out from the world, separated under the Lord Jesus Christ, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word and mutual edification of its members, for the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances. (Acts 2:41; 14:27; 20:17, 28-32; Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27).
4. We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control. The local church is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the great Head of the church. We believe that its officers are pastors and deacons. (Acts 13:1-4; 15:19-31; 20:28; Romans 16:1, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 12:12-14; 2 Corinthians 11:2; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11; 1 Peter 5:1-4).
5. We recognize water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the Scriptural ordinances for the church in this age. While recognizing that water Baptism has no saving merit, it is our conviction that after one is saved, Baptism is the next step in portraying to the world the believer’s union with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. We further believe that Water Baptism is observed once subsequent to salvation and is a sign of identification and a testimony of newness of life. It is our conviction that the Scriptural method of water Baptism is immersion. We believe that Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper to commemorate His death until He comes. It is a memorial of the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper is purely commemorative and has no redemptive power whatsoever (Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:18; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 11:23-33; Colossians 2:9-13).

We believe that Satan is a personal being, a fallen angel, prince of demons, the god of this age, the great enticer and deceiver, the adversary of Christ and His people, the accuser of the brethren whose end is the Lake of Fire (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28: 11-19; Matthew 25:41; John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:9, 10; Revelation 20:10).

1. We believe the Scriptures clearly teach non-conformity to the world for every believer so that his manner of life will not bring reproach upon his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is clearly commanded of God that born-again people should be separated from the world unto Christ and to live lives of separation from all worldly habits, sinful pleasures, doubtful practices, to refrain from all immodest and immoderate appearances and separate from all religious apostasy and associations. The children of God are to be holy as He is holy (Romans 12:1-2; 14:13; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 John 2:15-17; 2 John 9-11; Leviticus 19:28; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
2. We believe that positional sanctification occurs at the moment of regeneration, and that practical sanctification is to be progressive throughout the entire lifespan of a believer on earth. We believe God’s provision for holy living is in the believer’s identification with Christ and His death, resurrection and ascension and in the indwelling person and power of the Holy Spirit, and the believer’s yieldedness to Him in submission to and through the power of the Word of God (John 17:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20; 2 Corinthians 6:15-17; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 1:15; 2:6; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:13; 3:1-4; Hebrews 10:14; Titus 2:14, Hebrews 4:12).
3. We believe in ecclesiastic separation of the church from combined meetings with any or all organizations or groups who deny inspiration of the Scriptures, the deity of Jesus Christ, and who will repudiate or deny the general principles and practices expressed in this statement of faith (Romans 16:17, 18; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; Ephesians 5:11; Titus 3:11; 2 John 9-11).

We believe it is the privilege, challenge, obligation and responsibility of all believers to witness, by life and word, to the truths of the gospel; that each believer is commanded to seek to proclaim the gospel message, both at home and abroad; and that missions is the primary and inescapable duty of every Christian. We believe that each member should seek the direction of God in what God would have him do in the matter of missions whether he should personally go to a foreign field or to support missions by financial aid or other forms of aid (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:20).

We believe that we should demonstrate love for others, not only toward fellow believers, but also toward those who are not believers and those who oppose us. We are to deal with those who oppose us graciously, gently, patiently, and humbly. God forbids the stirring of strife, the taking of revenge, or the threat or the use of violence as a means of resolving personal conflict or obtaining personal justice. Although God commands us to abhor sinful actions, we are to love and pray for any person who engages in such sinful actions (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:44-48; Luke 6:31; John 13:34-35; Romans 12:9-10; 17-21; 13:8-10; Philippians 2:2-4; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; Titus 3:2; 1 John 3:17-18).