Doctrinal Confession
I. THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that both the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired by God and are inerrant in the original writings. Through the providence of God, the Scriptures have been preserved and are the supreme and final and adequate authority in faith and life (Ps 19.7; 2 Tim 3.16; 2 Pet 1.21).
II. GOD
We believe that there is only one true and living God existing in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit –each a distinct Person, but all of one essence and all having the same nature, perfections, and attributes, and each is worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience (Gen 1.26; Jer 10.10; Matt 3.16-17; 28.19).
III. JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the
virgin Mary, that He shed His blood on Calvary as a vicarious substitute, was buried, rose again bodily, and ascended to the Father according to the Scriptures (Isa 7.14; Matt 1.18-25; 1 Cor 15.3; Heb 4.15).
IV. HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, very God, co-existent with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is the chief agent in regeneration, the chief convictor of sin, and the chief comforter of the believer. Simultaneous with regeneration, the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ (Matt 28.19; John 16.7-11; Acts
5.3-4; Rom 8.9; 1 Cor 12.12-14)
V. MAN
We believe that man is the direct creation of God–body, soul, and spirit–and is not in any sense the result of evolution but is made in the image of God. Adam, the first man, sinned by disobedience. This act resulted in the fall of mankind and incurred both physical and spiritual death for all. God created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every ethnicity possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. God has ordained the family for man as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
(Gen 1.26-27; Rom 3.10, 23; 5.12).
VI. SALVATION
We believe that all who, as they are drawn and enabled by the Holy Spirit, in repentance and faith, receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are born again by the Holy Spirit and thus are the children of God. Salvation involves election, redemption, regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification and is wholly of the Lord, apart from the works of man. (John 1.12; 3.3; 6.44, 65;17.17; Rom 8.29-30; Eph 2.8-9; 4.30; 2 Thes 2.13-14; Tit 3.5).
VII. SECOND COMING
We believe in the literal, visible, personal return of Jesus Christ. At this event the dead in Christ and living believers will be translated to meet Him in the air. At the end of the Great Tribulation, when Christ returns, He will establish His earthly millennial kingdom (Acts 1.11; 1 Thes 4.13-18; Rev 20.1-6).
VIII. SATAN
We believe that Satan was originally created a perfect being. He rebelled against God. As a result, he became depraved, the Devil, an adversary of God and His people, and leader of a host of angels who fell with him. Satan has been judged and defeated at the cross and awaits his ultimate doom at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ (Isa 14.13-14; Ezek 28.13-17; John 16.11; 1 Tim 3.7; Rev 20.10).
IX. HEAVEN
We believe in the eternal abode of God and the holy angels, where Jesus intercedes for His people on earth and where the spirits of departed saints await their resurrected, glorified bodies. Heaven is a literal place of conscious bliss to which all saints go upon death and from which the Lord Jesus Christ will come to receive those saints who are alive at His coming. To depart and be in heaven is to be “present with the Lord” and so is “far better” than to remain alive on earth, but the eternal blessedness of heaven is only for those who possess eternal life through faith in the atoning work of Christ (Heb 12.22-24; John 14.1-3; 2 Cor 5.1-10; Phil 1.23, 3.20-21; I Thes 4.16-18; Rev 21.1-22.5; John 14.6).
X. HELL
We believe that hell is a literal place of judgment created for the devil and those angels who followed him in his rebellion against God. In the final state, the devil and his demons will spend eternity banished from the presence of God in the Lake of Fire. This same final punishment also awaits all unredeemed people who refuse to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures declare that the torment of all the inhabitants in the Lake of Fire lasts forever. Prior to the final state, the soul of the unjust at death is condemned to Hades (Hell) in a state of conscious torment until the resurrection of the unjust. At this resurrection, the disembodied soul is reunited with the resurrected body and cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20.10; Matt 25.41; Mark 9.43-48; Rev 14.11; 20.10, 15; Luke 16.19-31; Jn 5.29; Rev 20.11-15).
XI. THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE BELIEVER
We believe in the priesthood of all believers so that every Christian has direct access to God in prayer through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, and that there is no mediator between God and man other than Jesus Christ (Heb 4.16; 1 Tim 2.5; Rev 1.6).
XII. PRESERVATION/PERSEVERANCE OF THE BELIEVER
We believe that salvation is not only a gift from God but also is sustained by the Lord. The Holy Spirit permanently indwells the believer and seals him in salvation for all eternity. Therefore, since salvation is wholly of the Lord, apart from the works of man, we hold that the believer shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto eternal salvation (John 10.28; 14.16-17,26; 1 Cor 2.9-14; Eph 1.13; 2.8-9; 1 Pet 1.5; Jude 24-25).
XIII. PROVIDENCE
We believe in the providence of God in all things; however, He is not the author or approver of sin nor the destroyer of the moral agency and responsibility of man (John 3.16; Rom 8.28-30).
XIV. THE LORD’S DAY
We believe that Sunday is the Lord’s Day and is a Christian institution for regular observance of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private (1 Cor 16.2; Rev 1.10).
XV. CREATION
We believe the triune God created the universe apart from preexisting materials and without any evolutionary process. We believe in the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis (Gen 1.1; Matt 19.4; John 1.1-3; Rom 1.20; Col 1.16-17; Heb 11.3).
XVI. THE LOCAL CHURCH
We believe that the New Testament church is a local body of baptized believers with Christ as its head and the Holy Spirit as its guide. New Testament churches promote God’s work by cooperating together for missions and many other joint efforts. The local church is to be governed independently of outside persons, bodies, groups, or authorities. The two biblical offices of a local church are Elder (Pastor) and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of Elder (Pastor) is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. (Matt 28.16-20; Acts 1.6-8; 6.3; 1 Cor 12.12-14; Eph 1.3-6,22-23; 1 Thes 4.16-18; Phil 1:1-2).
XVII. ORDINANCES
We believe that the local church observes two ordinances- baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe that all who have received Christ as Savior and Lord should be baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that baptism is by immersion in the likeness of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; and that the Lord’s Supper should be observed in remembrance of Him to show forth His death for our sins until He comes again (Matt 26.26-30; 28.19-20; Rom 6.3-6; 1 Cor 11.23-26).
