We believe the Godhead eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God having the same nature, attributes (Infinite, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and Omniscient) perfection’s and, therefore, worthy of our complete and total praise, worship, honor and obedience. (Genesis 1:1; Deut. 6:4; Isaiah 45:21-22; Matthew 3:16-17).
God the Father
We believe God the Father is eternally God, an equal part of the Godhead (Trinity) and is acknowledged as such throughout the Holy Scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 1:3 we are told "May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ send you grace and peace."(See also Malachi 2:10: Mathew 11:25-27; Matthew 28:19).
Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ is eternally God, God's only-begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary and sinless in life. He made atonement for the Sin of the world by His death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His personal, visible, and bodily return to the world according to His promise. (Matthew 1:18-25; Matthew 28:5, 6; John 3:14-16; John 11:25; John 11:26; Acts 1:9-11; 2).
The Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is eternally God and came forth to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment and to regenerate sanctify and comfort those who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ and that He is an abiding helper, teacher, and guide. (Mark 13:11; John 14:26; John 16:8-11; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13; 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:5 and Titus 3:15).
We believe "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God"; therefore, all Scripture in the original manuscripts are inerrant in that it conveys exactly what God wants us to know and is complete in it’s present form. Holy men of God, being moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote every word of Scripture, and it is divinely and uniquely inspired, being absolutely trustworthy in all matters of faith and conduct. The Scripture should be read and understood which will lead us to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and will provide the born again believer solid, practical instruction. (Psalms 19:1-3: Matthew 5:18; Mark 12:26; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16, Acts 17:2-3, 18:28, 26:22-23, 28:23; Romans 15:4, 1:19-20).
We believe that, as provided and purposed by God as pre-announced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world so that He might manifest God to men, fulfill prophecy and become the redeemer of a lost world. To this end, He was born of a virgin and received a human body and took man’s nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities yet with a sinless human nature. (Luke 1:30-35; John 1:14; John 3:16; Hebrews 2:14, 16-17, 4:15).
We believe that on the human side, He became and remained a perfect man, sinless throughout his life; yet He retained His absolute deity being at the same time fully God and fully man, and that His life on earth sometimes functioned within the sphere of that which was human and sometimes within the sphere of that which was divine. (Luke 2:40; John 1:1-2; Philippians 2:5-8)
We believe that, in fulfillment of prophecy, He came first to Israel as her Messiah-King, and that being rejected by that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all (John 1:11; Acts 2:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:6).We believe that in infinite love for the lost, He voluntarily accepted His Father’s will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb that took away the sin of the world. Therefore His death was substitutionary in the most absolute sense - the just for the unjust - and by his death, He became the Savior of the lost (John 1:29; Romans 3:25-26; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Hebrews 10:5-14; 1 Peter 3:18).We believe that, on departing from the earth, He was accepted by His Father and that His acceptance is a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished (Hebrews 1:3).
We believe that He became head over all things to the church which is His body, and in this ministry He continues to intercede and be an advocate for the saved (Ephesians 1:22-23; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1)
We believe the Holy Spirit omnipresent from all eternity came into the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise and dwells within every believer. At every believers conversion the Holy Spirit unites all to Christ in one body and as the indwelling one, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service We believe that He never takes His departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ; seeking to occupy believers with Him and not with themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His presence in the world in this special sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the church age. (John 14:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:7). We believe that in this age, based on what the Holy Spirit is to the believer, the Holy Spirit has certain ministries, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand what the Holy Spirit is to him and to be rightly adjusted to the Holy Spirit in his own life and experience. We believe that the Holy Spirit, as a special provision of God, is an anointing (2 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:20-27) a seal (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14 8; Ephesians 4:30), and an effectual calling that convicts us of our sin and enlightens our minds to the knowledge of Christ. (Ezekiel 36:26-27; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Acts 2:37; Acts 26).
His ministries include the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will; the convicting of the world regarding sin, righteousness and judgment; the regenerating of all believers; the indwelling of all who are saved whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption and anointed of God for service; the baptizing into the one body of Christ of all who are saved; and the continued filling for power, witnessing, teaching, leading, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him and who are subject to His will. (John 3:6; John 16:7-15; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:4-14; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30).
We believe that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to all members of the church as He wills at their salvation. A spiritual gift is the God-given capacity of every Christian to carry out his function in the body of Christ and the effective functioning of the body of Christ is dependent upon the contribution of each individual part of the body. Spiritual gifts enable each believer to carry out their task within the body of Christ in a way that no one else can. Through the exercise of these gifts in the church, believers, who learn and apply the truth of Scripture to their lives, will mature spiritually. Spiritual gifts are not primarily given to benefit the individual, but the entire body. Anyone who seeks a spiritual gift and employs it in order to give himself a kind of spiritual high is missing the point of spiritual gifts. We believe no particular gift was universally given, such as, speaking in tongues, that is a common or necessary sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit. We believe that, in accordance with the sovereign will of God, healing is available through prayer of believers while complete deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection. (Acts 4:8; Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 13:8; 2 Corinthians 12:12,31;Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 2:2; James 5:14).
Nothing, apart from true faith in Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior, can result in salvation of one's body and soul. We believe the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing and is in itself a separate, independent condition of salvation. Salvation is through Jesus Christ alone and no feeling, nor faith, nor resolutions, nor sincerity and nor submission to rules and regulations can add, in the minutest degree, to the finished work of Christ. Our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 26:28; John 1:12; John 3:16, 18, 36; Acts 13:39; Romans 1:16-17; Romans 5:6-9; Romans 5:18).
We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior. This assurance is not founded upon any discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, causing within His children infinite love, gratitude and obedience toward their heavenly Savior. (Luke 10:20; Luke 22:32; Romans 8:15; 2 Corinthians 5:1).
We believe that because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, all true believers everywhere, once saved shall be kept saved forever. Because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, and because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, all believers can have assurance of their salvation. However, God is a holy and righteous Father and since He cannot overlook the sins of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He who cannot fail, will in the end, present every Christian faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. (John 5:24,10:28, 13:1,14:16-17, 17:11; Romans 8:29, 1 Corinthians 6:19; Hebrews, 7:25).
We believe passages such as Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26 and I John 2:9 are either a reference to individuals without genuine saving faith, or in the case of a true believer a loss of communion and fellowship with God. For it is impossible for a true believer to repent and be saved again in that Christ’s death is sufficient once only. A believer when saved cannot be resaved for Christ sacrifice is sufficient to pay for all sins, present, and future at the individual’s conversation. Believers can fall away (drift) thereby losing fellowship with God, but not their relationship to God. (Hebrews 6:6; Hebrews 9:12; I John 5:13, 2 Corinthians 6:4-17; 1 John 1:3,7).
The Universal Church
We believe that the church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God, that by the same Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, and thus being members one with another, we are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian prejudices and denominational bigotry, and loving one another with a pure heart. (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:42- 47; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-24;).
The Local Church
We believe that God's primary (intended) organization of believers, after the family unit, is the local assemblies of believers, committed to the Lord and to each other, for the purpose of carrying out the universal church's visible activities; that is, the communication of God's truth to the people of God, the worship of and prayer to God by God's people, the loving care of one another, and the spreading of the gospel. They should endeavor to cooperate with other Christian assemblies, and are to function under the lordship of Christ. It is God's intention that all believers publicly identify with a visible, local assembly. (Acts 2:41-47; 4:19; 5:29; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; Hebrews 10:24-25).
We believe that at death, those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into Christ’s presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and glorified body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. The unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment of the great white throne, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of Lord and from the glory of His power. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all the dead, the saved to eternal life and blessedness in Heaven and the unsaved to eternal conscious suffering and woe in hell. (Luke 16:19-26; Luke 23:42-43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Revelation 20:11-15)
We believe angels exist as created beings by God. These beings exist in two classes:
"Holy" (those who kept their holy estate with God, when Satan determined he would "be like the most high" and took a great company of angels with him for his unholy purposes).
"Fallen" (those who accompanied Satan in his fallen, sinful state and became demons who are active in prosecution of Satan's unholy purposes). We believe the holy angels are God’s servants and special ministers to His children (Christians). We believe the fallen angels, which include Satan, continue to wage war against God, His holy angels and God’s elect here on earth. We believe adversaries of Christians are fallen angels, led by Satan, who temp, deceive, slander, accuse, hate and revile anyone aligned with our Holy God. (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 15:10; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 12:3-4).
We believe that man was created by God as a human being, and did not evolve from a lower order of life. We believe man was originally created in the image and nature of God and, as a consequence of his sin, lost his spiritual life, and became subject to the power of the devil. We also believe that his spiritual death, or totally depraved human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race of man, therefore every descendant of Adam is born into the world with a fallen nature and will not change apart from the transforming work of Jesus Christ. (Genesis 1:26; 2:17; 6:3; Psalm 14:1-3; Psalm 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:6; 5:40; 6:53; Romans 3:10-19; Romans 8:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 3:8).
We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom where He will reign as King. He will return as He went, in person on the clouds of heaven, and with power and great glory. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the saved and the unsaved, the saved unto the resurrection of life, and the unsaved unto the resurrection of damnation. (Matthew. 24:15-25:46; Acts 1:11, 15:16-17; Romans. 8:19-23).
We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper were instituted by Christ and should be observed as ordinances. . (Matthew. 28:19; Acts 2:38; 8:12-13, 36-38; Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 12:12-13; Ephesians. 4:5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
