Statement of Faith
We believe the Bible to be the verbally inspired Word of God, the final authority for faith and life, without error in the original writings, infallible, and God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16, 17; Matt 5:18; 2 Pet 1:20-21; John 16:12, 13).
We believe in one true 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 having the same attributes and perfections (Deut 6:4; 2 Cor 13:14).
We believe that 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, the Lord Jesus Christ, might reveal God and redeem sinful men (John 1:1, 2, 14; Luke 1:35). We believe that He accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Rom 3:24-25; 1 Pet 1:3-5). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to 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 (Acts 1:9, 10; Heb 7:25; 9:24; Rom 8:34; 1 John 2:1, 2).
We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer, and by His baptism, which occurs at conversion, unites all believers to Christ in one body, and that He, as the indwelling One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service (John 14:16, 17; 16:7-15; 1 Cor 6:19; Eph 2:22).
We believe 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 thus of himself utterly unable to remedy His lost condition (Gen 1:26, 27; Eph 2:1-3; Rom 3:22, 23; 5:12).
We believe that salvation is a gift, made available through the grace of God totally apart from meritorious works on the part of sinful men, and must be personally appropriated by faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12; 5:24; Acts 4:12; Rom 4:4, 5; Gal 3:10-14; Eph 2:8, 9). We believe it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation as taught by God’s Word. We believe the Bible clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh (Rom 8:16; 13:13; Gal 5:13; Tit 2:11-15; 1 John 5:13).
We believe that the Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of born-again persons (Eph 1:22, 23; 5:25-27; 1 Cor 12:12-14; 2 Cor 11:2). We believe that the establishment and continuance of the local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27; 20:17, 28-32; 1 Tim 3:1-13; Tit 1:5-11). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ left two ordinances to be observed by the local church in commemoration of His person and work. The one is that of baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The other is the partaking of the Lord’s Supper (Matt 28:19, 20; Acts 2:41, 46, 47; 16:33; 1 Cor 11:23-32).
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all people, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment (Matt 25:44; John 14:1-3; 1 Thess 1:10; 4:13-17).
We believe in the sure return of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom on earth, that this second coming will be a literal, bodily, personal return; and that His coming for His bride, the Church, constitutes the “blessed hope” set before us, for which we should be constantly looking (Matt 24:27, 30, 44; John 14:1-3; 1 Thess 1:10; 4:13-17).
We believe that it is the obligation of the saved to witness by life and by word to the truths of the Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the Gospel to all mankind (Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 5:19, 20).