The following is a summary of what we believe...
- We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the verbally inspired Word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible, and God breathed.
- We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and have the same attributes and perfections.
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that he might reveal God and redeem sinful man. We believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, and that the sufficiency of this atoning sacrifice to accomplish the redemption and justification of all who trust in him is assured by his literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
We believe that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, he fulfills the ministry of representative, intercessor, and advocate.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, or righteousness, and of judgment; and that he is the supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Divine teacher who guides believers into all truth; and that it is the privilege and duty of all saved to be filled with the Spirit.
- We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam's sin, the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved, and , of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.
- We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of sins. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever. We 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 the flesh. We believe that every saved person possesses two natures, with provisions made for victory of the new nature over the old nature through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit; and that all claims to the eradication of the old nature in this life are unscriptural. We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord; and, that separation from all religious apostasy, all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices, and associations is commanded of God.
- We believe that it is the obligation of the saved to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the gospel to all mankind.
- We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowment of all his gifts; and, that the gifts of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are sufficient for the perfecting of the saints today; and, that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures were completed and their authority became established. We believe that God does hear the prayer of faith, in accord with his own will, for the sick and afflicted.
- We believe that the Church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age. We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. We believe int he autonomy of the local church, free of any external authority or control. We believe in the ordinances of believer's baptism and the Lord's supper as scriptural means of testimony for this church age.
- We believe that the Scriptures interpretted in their ntaural, literal sense reveal divinely determined dispensations or rules of life which define man's responsibilities in successive ages. These dispensations are not ways of salvation, but rather divinely ordered stewardships by which God directs man according to his purpose. Three of these-- the age of law, the age of the Church, and the age of the millennial kingdom--are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture.
- We believe that satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the fall; that he is the opened and declared enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of fire.
- We believe in that "Blessed Hope", the personal, imminent, pre-tribulational and pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for his redeemed ones; and in his subsequent return to earth, with his saints, to establish his millennial kingdom.
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. We believe 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 also believe that the souls of the unbelivers 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.