Doctrinal Statement

 

1. Verbal, Plenary Inspiration of Scripture
We believe that the complete written revelation of God is the sixty-six books of the Holy Bible; the center of true Christian unity; that those books were God-breathed through holy men of old, resulting in their verbal and plenary inspiration in the original manuscripts; that these books are therefore infallible and inerrant; and that God has preserved His Word without error through the centuries as the supreme, literal and authoritative standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions shall be judged. Through the faithful, careful translations of godly linguists, men of all nations and languages may have access to God's authentic Word.
(Psalm 119:160;  II Timothy 3:16,17; II Peter 1:19-21)

2. God
We believe that there is only one living God, the Infinite Spirit, Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign Ruler of all things, eternally existing, and revealing Himself in three Persons as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes and functions but without division, perfectly equal in nature, essence, and being.
(Deuteronomy 4:39; 6:4,5; Psalm 83:18; Isaiah 46:9; Matthew 28:19; I Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11)

3. Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ the eternal, only begotten Son of God, is totally God and totally man. He was incarnated by means of the Virgin Birth, lived a sinless life, and He died by shedding His blood for the remission of the sins of mankind. He rose bodily from the tomb and now exercises a high priestly ministry in heaven.
(Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; John 1:18; 3:16; I Corinthians 15:12-20; I Timothy 2:5; I Peter 1:18,19; I John 2:1; 5:20)

4. Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He has been active from eternity; that He is God's agent in the world today; that relative to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God's purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the Truth of the Gospel in preaching and in testimony; that He is the agent in the New Birth; that He indwells, seals, baptizes, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies and fills the believers.
(Genesis 1:1-3; Matthew 28:19; 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 1:35; John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26,27; 16:8-13; 3:5,6; Acts 5:30-32; 11:16; Romans 8:14, 16, 26, 27; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2:18; 5:18; II Thessalonians 2:7, 13; Hebrews 9:14; I Peter 1:2)

We believe that the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts on believers for the purpose of glorifying Christ, evangelizing the lost, and edifying believers. We believe that the apostolic sign gifts were for the purpose of authenticating the Gospel message in the early church, and were temporary gifts. Thus we reject the authenticity of the modern pentecostal and charismatic movements.
(Romans 12:4-9; I Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:8-10; II Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:3,4)

5. Return of Christ
We believe in the premillenial, pretribulational, imminent return of Jesus Christ to rapture the Church which is the body of Christ. We believe that Christ will also return following the Tribulation to establish a literal one thousand year kingdom upon the earth. The final judgment of Satan and those who are lost will follow at the Great White Throne judgment.
(I Corinthians 15:51-53; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; 5:1-6; II Thessalonians 1:5-10; Revelation 5 - 19)

6. Satan
We believe that Satan was a created, holy, subservient Cherub who fell as a result of his pride and rebellion. He became the author of sin and the cause of man's fall, is now the wicked "god of this age", ruler of a demonic hierarchy, and "accuser of our brethren." He is destined to eternal judgment in the Lake of Fire.
(Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:12-18; II Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; Revelation 12:10; 20:10)

7. The Lostness of Man, Necessity of New Birth, and Maintenance of Good Works.
We believe that man was created by God, in His image, to worship Him, fear Him and enjoy fellowship with Him, but through Adam sin entered the world and all human beings are now sinners by nature, choice and action, spiritually dead and incapable of contributing in any way to their salvation.
(Genesis 1:26, 27; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Romans 3:23, 5:12; Ephesians 2:2,3)

We believe that man receives the gift of eternal life through faith alone in the person and work of Christ, on the basis of grace alone, without any merits or works, either before or following salvation. At the moment of spiritual rebirth, he becomes a new creature, spiritually capable to witness, overcome sin, and to honor and worship God. He is called to live a holy life through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
(John 3:6; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 2:11-14)

8. The Resurrection of the Saved and the Lost.
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all mankind, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. 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 spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord. We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery 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.
(Matthew 25:41, 46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; John 5:28, 29; 11:25, 26; II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6,7; Revelation 20:4-6)

9. The Local Church and Christian Ordinances.
We believe that all believers during the dispensation of the church age make up the body of Christ. This church is demonstrated by the local assembly which is an independent, self governing body, not to be bound by an ecclesiastical hierarchy, however cooperation with other churches of like mind and faith is in accordance with the New Testament and honoring to God. The church is described as the center of preaching, teaching, discipleship, missionary work, ministry, fellowship and discipline. We believe that there are two ordinances administered by the local church: (1) Baptism by immersion as testimony to a believer's faith in the death, burial and resurrection of the Savior; (2) the Lord's Table which is a memorial service whereby the bread and cup call to the memory of the believer the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ for our sins.
(Acts 2; 11:26; 13:1-3; 14:23; 15:4; Romans 6:3-6; I Corinthians 11:17-34; Ephesians 1:22, 23; 3:1-12; 5:23,24;  I & II Timothy)

10. The Security and Priesthood of Believers.
We believe that all true believers are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever. Every born-again person is a part of the 'Royal Priesthood'  before God and therefore having direct access to God through Christ is responsible to worship God without a human mediator. As a priest before God, each believer is responsible to "rightly divide" the Word of Truth, to serve God by offering acceptable spiritual service and to represent God to a lost and dying world.
(John 10:27; Romans 8:1,38,39; 12:1; Ephesians 6:10-18; II Timothy 2:15; Hebrews 10:12-24; I Peter 2:1-10)

11. Ecclesiastical and Personal Separation.
We believe in Biblical separation, that it is the natural outgrowth of the holiness of God and is directed both to the believer and to the church.
(Psalm 99:9; Habakkuk 1:12, 13; I Peter 1:13-16)

We hold that all believers should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord. We hold that separation is commanded by God from all religious apostasy (departure from the Bible and from the historic Christian faith that "was once delivered unto the saints"), all worldly and sinful practices and associations.
(Romans 12:1,2; II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; II Timothy 3:1-5; I John 2:15-17; II John 7-11)

Separation is necessary for purity and stability. Thus we will maintain, by God's grace, a position of separation from liberal, apostate churches, missions and organizations as represented by such groups as the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, etc.; Roman Catholicism; cults; the Charismatic and Pentecostal movements; the New Age movement; from New Evangelical churches, missions, evangelists and organizations (such as the National Association of Evangelicals and its related ministries, etc.) with their compromise of Biblical principles and disobedience to God's commands of separation.
(Acts 20:25-31; Romans 16:17,18; Galatians 1:6-9; Ephesians 5:11; Philippians 3:17-19; II Thessalonians 3:6, 14, 15; I Timothy 4:1-7; 6:3-5; II Timothy 2:19; 4:1-5; Titus 1:13; 3:10,11; I John 4:1-3; Jude 3, 4; Revelation 18:4)

12. Creation
We believe the Genesis account of creation as being a literal historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God. It is neither allegory nor myth. We believe that the triune God, by a free act and for His own glory, without the use of existing materials or secondary causes, brought into being in six literal days by the word of His mouth the whole visible and invisible universe, including all life, "each after its own kind", by direct act and not by the process of evolution; that man was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms of life; and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race.
(Genesis 1 & 2; John 1:3; Colossians 1:16, 17)​