Statement of Faith

Section 1: The Bible

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally and plenarily inspired Word of God (Matthew 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). We hold the Bible to be inerrant in the original writings, infallible, God-breathed, and the complete and final authority for faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The
Holy Spirit was the divine author of Scripture (2 Peter 1:21). While still using the individual personalities of the human authors, the Spirit superintended them to insure that they wrote precisely what He wanted written, without error or
omission.

Section 2: God

We believe in one Triune God, who is Creator of all (Deuteronomy 6:4; Colossians 1:16), eternally existing in three distinct Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14), yet one in being, essence, power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections (John 10:30). God is our creator (Genesis 1:1), is eternal (Psalm 90:2), infinite (1 Timothy 1:17), sovereign (Psalm 93:1) and unsearchable (Romans 11:33-34). God is omniscient (Psalm 139:1-6), omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-13), omnipotent (Revelation 19:6), and unchanging (Malachi 3:6). God is holy (Isaiah 6:3), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and righteous (Exodus 9:27). God is love (1 John 4:8), gracious (Ephesians 2:8), merciful (1 Peter 1:3), and good (Romans 8:28).

Section 3: Jesus Christ

We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is fully God, the expressed image of the Father, who, without ceasing to be God, became man in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man (Matthew 1:21; John 1:18; Colossians 1:15).

We believe that God the Son became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ; that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was born of the virgin Mary; that He is truly God and truly man; that He lived a perfect, sinless life; that all His teachings are true (Isaiah 14; Matthew 1:23). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind (1 John 2:2) as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice (Isaiah 53:5-6). We hold that His death is efficacious for all who believe (John 1:12; Acts 16:31); that our justification is grounded in the shedding of His blood (Romans 5:9; Ephesians 1:17); and that it is attested by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matthew
28:6; 1 Peter 1:3).

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven in His glorified body (Acts 1:9-10) and is now seated at the right hand of God as our High Priest and Advocate (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).

Section 4: The Holy Spirit

We believe in the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4). We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8-11). He regenerates sinners (Titus 3:5) and indwells believers (Romans 8:9). He is the agent by whom Christ baptizes all believers into His body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). He is the seal by whom the Father seals believers unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14). He is the Divine Teacher who illumines believers’ hearts and minds as they study the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is ultimately sovereign in the distribution of spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians12:11).
We believe that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures were completed, their authority upheld, and the early church firmly established (1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 2:20; 4:7-12).

Section 5: Angels and Demons

We believe in the reality and personality of angels. We believe that God created an innumerable company of these sinless, spiritual beings who were to be His servants and messengers (Nehemiah 9:6; Psalm 148:2; Hebrews 1:14).

We believe in the existence and personality of Satan and demons. Satan is a fallen angel who led a great company of angels into rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-15). He is the great enemy of God and man, and the demons are his agents in his unholy purposes. He and his demons shall be eternally punished in
the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10).

Section 6: Man

We believe that man came into being by direct creation of God and that man is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). We believe that the human race sinned in Adam (Romans 5:12), that sin is universal in man (Romans 3:23), and that it is exceedingly offensive to God. We believe that all mankind, because of Adam's fall, has inherited a sinful nature. Humanity is utterly unable to remedy its lost estate (Eph 2:1-5,12).
We believe that all men are guilty and in a lost condition apart from Christ (Romans 2:1).

Section 7: Salvation

We believe that salvation is a gift of God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross (Ephesians 2:8-9). Christ shed His blood to accomplish justification through faith, propitiation to God, redemption from sin, and reconciliation of man. Christ died for us (Romans 5:8-9) and bore our sins in His own body (1 Peter 2:24).

We believe that all those who have truly placed their faith in Christ are eternally secure in their salvation, kept by God’s power, secure and sealed in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24).

Section 8: The Church

We believe that the Church, which is the Body and Bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again believers of the present age (1 Corinthians 12:12-14; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27). We believe in the ordinances of believer’s water baptism by immersion as a testimony and the Lord’s Supper as a remembrance of Christ’s death and shed blood (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). We believe in the priesthood of all believers (1 Corinthians 1:1; Revelation 1:6). We believe that the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Lord and Savior, and that separation from sinful pleasures, practices, and associations is commanded by God (Romans 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 John 2:15-17). We believe in the Great Commission as the primary mission of the Church. It is the obligation of believers to witness, by word and life, to the truths of God’s Word. The gospel of the grace of God is to be preached to all the world (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:19-20). New believers are to be taught to obey the Lord and to testify concerning their faith in Christ as Savior and to honor Him by holy living.

Section 9: Things to Come

We believe in the blessed hope (Titus 2:13), the personal, imminent, pretribulational, and premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). We believe in the subsequent, visible
return of Christ to the earth with His saints to establish His promised millennial kingdom (Zechariah 14:4-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10; 19:11-16; 20:1-6). We believe in the physical resurrection of all men – the
saints to everlasting joy and bliss, and the wicked to conscious and eternal torment (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5-6, 12-13). We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where they await the first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 20:4-6). We believe that the souls of unbelievers 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 (Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation 20:11-15).