We Believe
- In the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Bible as given in the original manuscripts, which constitute the inerrant Word of God in all matters to which it speaks.
- In the Trinity of the Godhead: one God eternally existing in three equal Persons:
- Father
- Son
- Holy Spirit
- In the deity, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and imminent, pre-millennial coming of Christ.
- In the personality of the Holy Spirit. It is He who calls and regenerates believers. He baptizes them into Christ. He indwells, seals, and fills the believer for service.
- In the direct creation of the universe and man by God, as set forth in the Genesis account, and apart from any process of evolution.
- In the fall, total depravity, and guilt of the race of Adam, which for man’s salvation, necessitates the sovereign, divinely initiated deliverance of the sinner by the Grace of God in Christ.
- In the eternal salvation of all individuals who put their trust in Christ and His shed blood.
- In the unity of all true believers in the Church that is the Body of Christ.
- In the local church as a company of baptized (immersed) believers, associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel. The true mission of the church is to be found in the Great Commission: first, to make disciples; second, to baptize them; and third, to instruct new disciples as He has commanded. It is to observe the ordinances of the church (immersion and the Lord’s table). We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations, and that its one and only Head is Christ through the Holy Spirit. The ordinance of baptism is for believers only by immersion and is a prerequisite for membership in the local church. Officers in the New Testament local church are pastors and deacons.
- In the obedience to the Biblical command to separate from ungodliness and ecclesiastical apostasy unto God.
- In the personal existence of angels, demons, and Satan.
- In the bodily resurrection, immortality, and rapture of all believers at Christ’s imminent coming.
- In the sovereign selection of Israel as God’s eternal covenant people, and that she will be regathered in the Holy Land from her dispersion among the nations and that she will, as a nation, be saved in a day at the Second Advent of Christ.
- In the eternal life and blessedness of all believers and the eternal existence and punishment of all unbelievers.
- In prayer as both a command and a provision of God. It is the blessed channel by which blessings of mercy and grace are appropriated. It is essential to daily living and is the secret of power, comfort, and effective service.