Our Beliefs
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE – God’s Word is absolutely reliable and inspired by God. The Bible is the means by which God reveals Himself, His gift of salvation, and His desires for our lives.
We believe that the whole Bible in the original writings is inspired of God, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God, the only source of God’s plan of salvation and the only guide for the Christian life. (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:21)
THE GODHEAD – God is eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19; I John 5:7; II Cor. 13:14)
- God, the Father — We believe in God the Father, creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible; Who is true holiness, eternal power, infinite love, perfect justice, absolute truth, the Alpha and Omega, the “I AM THAT I AM.” (Ex. 20:2-3; Gen. 1:1; Lev. 19:2; Rom. 1:20; I John 4:8-9; Rom. 3:26; Titus 1:2; Rev. 22:13; Ex. 3:14)
- God, the Son — We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His bodily ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven, where He ever lives to make intercession for His saints, in His pre-millennial coming for His saints, and in His return to earth to reign in power and glory. (John 1:1, 14; Matt. 1:18; Matt. 1:22-23; Heb. 4:15; Acts 10:38; I Peter 1:18-19; Matt. 28:6; Acts 1:9; Heb. 7:25; I Thess. 4:13-18; Acts 1:10-11; Zech. 14:4-9)
- God, the Holy Spirit — We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, Who moved holy men of God to write the Scriptures, Who convicts of sin, Who quickens in the new birth, Who seals the believer and is the earnest of our inheritance, and Who indwells the believer with power for holy living and service. (John 14:16-17; II Peter 1:21; John 16:7-11; Titus 3:5; Eph. 4:30; II Cor. 1:22; I Cor. 6:19; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 1:13-14)
MAN: HIS CREATION, FALL, AND NEED OF REDEMPTION – Man is a sinner and hopelessly lost without the gift of Heaven found in the saving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that man was created by God in His own image as given in the Genesis account; that through disobedience to God man lost his first state of innocence, and thereby became a sinner in need of a Savior, and that since that time all men are born sinners, spiritually dead, alienated from God, and stand in need of personal redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. (Gen. 1:26-27; Gen. 3:1-24; Rom. 5:12; Ps. 51:5; Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13; Eph. 4:18; Col. 1:21; Rom. 3:23-24; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12)
BLOOD ATONEMENT FOR SIN – Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed His blood to satisfy God’s demand of a sinless sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace; that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, shedding His blood on the cross as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; and that all who repent and believe in Him, receiving Him by faith as personal Savior, are thereby justified on the ground of His shed blood. (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 4:4-5; I Cor. 15:3, 5-6; Isa. 53:6; Acts 17:30; Matt. 9:13; Acts 10:43; 13:38-39; John 1:12; Col. 2:6; Rom. 5:9; Eph. 1:7)
PERSONAL NEW BIRTH – In John 3, Jesus spoke of the need for a sinner to be born again if he is going to receive eternal life. The new birth occurs as one accepts by grace through faith the person of Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior.
We believe that in order to be saved, all men, being sinners, must be born again. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again by the Holy Spirit. We believe that this new birth is instantaneous, not a process; and that it is brought about in a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. We believe that in the new birth, God justifies the believer, writes his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life and that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer with power for holy living and service. (Rom. 3:10, 23; John 1:12-13; Rev. 3:20; I Cor. 6:19-20; II Cor. 5:17; Acts 16:30-34; John 16:7-8; I Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5-7; Rom. 8:33; Rev. 21:27; Gal. 5:22-23)
JUSTIFICATION – In receiving Christ as Savior, the genuine believer receives a complete pardon of all sin and is granted the righteousness of Jesus Christ as his own.
We believe that justification is a judicial act of God by which He imparts to the born again believer complete pardon of sins, the gift of eternal life and imputes to the believer His own righteousness. We believe that justification is bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which the believer has done, but solely because his faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 4:5-8; Acts 13:38-39; John 5:24; John 6:47; Phil. 3:8-9; Rom. 3:21-22; Titus 3:5; Rom. 5:9; Rom. 3:25)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SAVED AND UNSAVED – God makes a distinction between His children (the saved or Christians) and those who reject Christ (the unsaved or non-Christians). God’s children spend eternity in His presence in Heaven. Those who reject Jesus and salvation are cast into eternal judgment and separation from God.
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous (saved) and wicked (unsaved). We believe the righteous to be those who have been born of the Spirit of God through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the wicked to be those who have never been born of the Spirit of God. We believe that the righteous are assured of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ whereas the wicked are destined to everlasting conscious suffering in a real and literal hell, eternally separated from God. (Ps. 1; Mal. 3:18; Gal. 3:26; John 3:3, 5; Rom. 8:9; John 3:18; I John 5:11-13; Rev. 20:15; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31)
SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER – A truly born again believer is permanently welcomed into the family of God without danger of being rejected at a later time.
We believe that all who are truly born again are eternally secure since they have been saved by believing on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and are kept by the power of God unto salvation. (I John 5:1; Acts 16:31; John 10:26-29; Rom. 10:9-10, 13; Eph. 1:13-14; II Cor. 1:22; I Peter 1:3-5; Rom. 8:31-39)
THE CHURCH – The church is the name given to those who have accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ in saving faith. The church gathers in local congregations all around the world for the purposes of worship, growth, and service for the Lord.
We believe that the true church is the body of Christ, a living organism made up of born again believers including those believers who have gone to be with the Lord. We believe that a local church is a congregation of immersed believers, associated by the covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word; that its officers are pastors and deacons whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures. (Acts 2:41-42; I Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:11; 5:30; Acts 2:47; Col. 1:18; I Tim. 3:1-13)
ORDINANCES OF THE CHURCH – There are two Scriptural practices that are part of church life – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is a visible identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord’s Supper is the regular opportunity to remind the church of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for sin. Neither ordinance is an additional work to guarantee and/or maintain a person’s salvation.
We believe that Christ as the Head of the Church commanded two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
- Baptism — We believe that baptism as taught in the Scriptures is by immersion, is not necessary for salvation, yet it is the privilege and duty of every child of God to follow the Lord in baptism as an open confession of his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. (Mark 1:9; John 3:23; Acts 8:38-39; Luke 23:39-43; Acts 10:47-48; Rom. 6:3-5)
- The Lord’s Supper — We believe that the Lord’s Supper is to be observed by the born again believers in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ; that its observance shows forth His death until He comes, and should always be preceded by self-examination. (Matt. 26:26-29; Luke 22:19-20; I Cor. 11:23-32; I Cor. 10:21)
THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST – After three days in the grave, Jesus rose in a literal, bodily resurrection to be seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.
We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His bodily ascension into heaven where He now is at the right hand of God as our High Priest, Mediator, Intercessor and Advocate. (Mark 16:5-7; Matt. 28:5-7; John 20:27; Luke 24:36-40; Acts 1:9-11; Luke 24:50-51; Heb. 8:1; 9:15; Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1; Heb. 1:3)
JESUS’ SECOND COMING – Jesus promised to return to receive His church to be with Him in Heaven in an event called the Rapture. We are not told when the rapture will happen. Following seven years of God’s wrath poured out on the earth, Jesus will return to Jerusalem to reign from the throne of David for 1,000 years.
We believe that at present the Lord is taking out a people for His Name and that those who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior constitute the body of Christ which is His true church. We believe that the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then the living in Christ which are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We believe in the personal, visible, pre-tribulation, pre-millennial return of Christ. (John 14:3; Acts 1:11; I Thess. 4:13-17; James 5:8; Heb. 9:28; I Cor. 15:42-44; Isa. 32:1; 11:4-5; Ps. 72:8; Rev. 20:6)