Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
We believe that the Bible, consisting of the 66 books that make up the Old and New Testaments, is verbally, plenarily, inspired as a result of the superintendence of the Holy Spirit. These books are inerrant in the original manuscripts, and are the final authority for faith and practice. The Bible contains the total of God's revelation to man. We further believe that no new revelation is being given by God and that the canon of Scripture is closed.
2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21
God
We believe that there is one God, the Creator of all things--holy and eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. This is the biblical, historic, orthodox doctrine referred to as the Trinity.
Deuteronomy 6:4; Luke 3:21-22; 2 Corinthians 13:14
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal second person of the godhead, God the Son, fully and equally divine as the Father and Spirit. He is eternally begotten of the Father and was born of Mary, who was a virgin. He is fully human yet at the same time undiminished deity in one person forever. He is the only, and sufficient, mediator between God and humanity. We believe in the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of all who will believe in Him to be saved. We believe in his physical, bodily, resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His future return to establish His earthly, millennial, kingdom.
Matthew 1:18-25; Mark 10:45; John 1:1-18; John 20; Acts 1:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Revelation 19-21
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the eternal, third person of the godhead, fully and equally divine as the Father and the Son. He was actively involved in the creation of the universe and is active in the salvation, and sanctification of the believer, and in the church. The Holy Spirit regenerates God's elect, enabling them to repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ that they may be saved.
Genesis 1:1-2; John 16:8-11; Acts 5:1-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Titus 3:5-7
Humanity and Sin
We believe that human beings were created in the image of God. The first man, Adam, as a representative of the entire human race, sinned and thereby incurred spiritual and physical death. Therefore, all people born since that time are in Adam and therefore are totally depraved as sinners by nature. We believe that everyone rightly bears the guilt and responsibility for his sinfulness, alienation from God, and righteous condemnation. Therefore, each person sins because they are sinners in Adam. This leaves each person in a helpless state, in of themselves, without any righteousness by which God should accept them into His Kingdom. Therefore, every person, condemned before God in their sin, is in need of salvation.
Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 3; John 5:24; Romans 3:9-20; Romans 5:12-21; Romans 8:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-10; Colossians 3:9-10; James 3:9
Salvation
We believe that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice and resurrection are justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Those who believe, and are saved, are those who are the elect of God, unconditionally chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Although it is beyond our complete comprehension, God's sovereignty does not negate the individual's responsibility to believe, so then the general call of the Gospel goes out into all the World, calling all to repentance and faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ.
We believe in the eternal security of the believer, since our salvation is based on God's character and works, not on our own effort. Christ makes intercession for the believer and the Spirit seals the believer until the day of redemption, indwelling them, bringing about their sanctification, as the fruit of the Spirit are manifested in the believer in increasing measure, bearing the evidence of salvation in one's life. God promises in His Word that nothing will be able to separate us from Christ.
John 3:16; John 10:11-18, 27-30; Romans 4:1-5, 16-25; Romans 5:6-11; Romans 8:28-39; Galatians 2:15-16; Ephesians 1:4-14; Ephesians 4:30; Hebrews 7:23-28; Jude 24
The Church
We believe that the Church, which is Christ's body (also known as the universal or invisible church), consists of all true Christians from the Day of Pentecost until the Rapture. This church is manifested, temporally, in local churches made up of believers, around the world.
We believe that a local New Testament church is an organized body of baptized believers practicing the scriptural ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Table, engaging in corporate worship, church discipline, the edification of its members, and active in fulfilling the Great Commission.
We believe that biblical baptism is the immersion of a believer, in water, to give public testimony of his or her personal faith in Jesus Christ, as his Lord and Savior. We believe that baptism is to be performed under the authority of a local church and that it is a prerequisite to church membership. We believe that the Lord's Table (also known as communion or the Lord's Supper) is only for believers and is the commemoration of His death and the New Covenant relationship. In communion we proclaim Christ's death until He comes again, and should always be preceded by solemn self-examination.
We believe that the two biblical offices of the local church are pastors and deacons. The New Testament terminologies of pastor, bishop (or overseer), and elder all refer to the same office. Both offices are biblically restricted to men who meet the biblical qualifications described in 1 Timothy and Titus. We are not a congregational church and see the clear teaching of Scripture to be that God designed the church to be lead by a plurality of elders.
We believe that God has equipped every believer with the ability to minister in a unique way in the body of Christ. These spiritual gifts (which include such abilities as teaching, exhorting, serving, and showing mercy) are given at the time of salvation. We believe that some unique gifts which God used during the infancy of the church are no longer given to believers. These temporarily-given gifts include tongues, the interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and the gift of miraculous healing.
Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:41; Acts 6:1-6; Acts 8:36-39; Acts 20:17, 28; Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28; 1 Corinthians 12-14; Ephesians 1:22-23; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:12; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; 5:17; Titus 1:6-9; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Hebrews 13:7, 17
Future Events
We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The saved will take part in the resurrection of life and the lost in the resurrection of damnation. We believe in the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ for His Church, an event which can occur at any moment. At that time, those who have died, believing in Christ, will be resurrected, and both those who have died and were raised, and Christians who are living at that time, will receive glorified bodies and will be caught up (raptured), together, to meet the Lord in the air. After this the Tribulation (the 70th week of Daniel) will begin. We believe that this 7 year period of tribulation will be culminated by the revelation of Jesus Christ in power, and great glory, to sit upon the throne of David and to establish an earthly reign for 1,000 years. After this Christ's earthly Kingdom will merge with the Heavenly Kingdom, where the Triune God will reign in the New Heaven and New Earth. We believe that hell is a place of real, conscious, and eternal punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels, but it will also be the eternal destiny of the unsaved, who die in their sins.
Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 11:1-9; Jeremiah 31; Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 13:40-43; Matthew 24:27-31; Mark 9:42-48; Luke 1:30-33; Luke 16:19-31; John 5:24-30; Acts 2:29-36; 1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 1:20-24; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-6