What We Believe
About the Scriptures
We believe the entire Bible is the inspired Word of God and that men were moved by the Spirit of God to write the very words of Scripture. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the verbal (every word) and plenary (complete) inspired Word of God. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible and God-breathed and, therefore, are the final authority for faith and life. Therefore, we believe the Bible is without error. We also believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the divinely preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people (Psalm 12:6-7). Because of its accuracy, majesty, time-proven reliability, and widespread familiarity, it has enjoyed a wonderful manifestation of God’s approval all during its history and use. The King James Version of the Bible shall be the official translation used by the church. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
About God
We believe in one triune God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ is the second member of the Trinity (the Son of God) who became flesh to reveal God to humanity and to become the Savior of the lost world. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, 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 might reveal God and redeem sinful men. (1 John 5:6-12; Matt. 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-9; John 3:16; Philippians 2:6-7; Luke 1:26-35; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 2:2; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-10; John 14:17; Romans 8:14-27; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 3:16).
About Salvation
We believe that the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, provides the sole basis for the forgiveness of sin. Therefore, God freely offers salvation to those who place their faith in the death and resurrection of Christ as sufficient payment for their sin. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross; and, that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
We believe that the salvation of sinners (all mankind) is wholly of grace through Christ the Mediator, who by the appointment of the Father freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin and honored the divine law by His personal obedience and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement was not merely an example but was the voluntary substitution (propitiation) enthroned in Heaven and is uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfection. He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Savior (Hebrews 2:9; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 10:4-14; I John 2:2).
We believe that salvation, the gift of eternal life, is divinely initiated, is instantaneous, and not a process. It is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance. We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations and also inseparable graces wrought in our souls by the quickening Spirit of God; thereby, being deeply convinced of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time, we heartily receive the Lord Jesus Christ and openly confess Him as our only and all-sufficient Savior. In order to be saved, the sinner must be born again, personally receiving Christ as Savior, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God’s Word and becoming the recipient of a new nature.
The great Gospel blessing, which Christ secures to such as believe in Him, is justification, that judicial act of God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness, not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood. The believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of eternal life, which is eternally secure (Jeremiah 8:6; John 1:11-12; 3:3-6, 16; 10:28-29; Acts 17:30; 26:30;; Acts 13:39; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 4:2; 1 Peter 1:18-23; 2 Peter 1:4).
About the Eternal Security of Believers
We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus eternally secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39: 1 Corinthians 1:4-8). We also believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to live a life of sin (Romans 13:13-14; Galatians 5:1; Titus 2:11-15).
About Humanity
We believe that all people were created in the image of God to have fellowship with Him but became alienated in that relationship through sinful disobedience (Genesis 3). As a result, all people are incapable of regaining a right relationship with God through their own efforts and are born sinners, totally depraved, and therefore under just condemnation without defense or excuse and are guilty before God (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5; Romans 3).
About the Christian Life
We believe all Christians should live for Christ and not for themselves. By obedience to the Word of God and through daily yielding to the Spirit of God, every believer should mature and be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
About the Church
We believe that the church is the body of Christ, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. The members of the church are those who have been born-again, trusting by faith the finished work of Christ. The purpose of the church is to glorify God by loving Him and by making Him known to the lost world.
We believe that a New Testament church consists of an assembly of believers, who have been baptized by immersion, who have united for the express purpose of fulfilling the “Great Commission” which consists of worship, evangelism, edification, fellowship, discipleship, and instruction. We believe that the officers of the Church are ordained pastors and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:6-9). We believe that the Church observes two ordinances: baptism, and the Lord’s Supper (communion), and that they have no saving power.
About the Righteous and the Wicked:
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem (Romans 8:1-10); all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse (Romans 3:19-23), and this distinction holds among men both in life and after death in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost (Rev. 20:11-15).
About Baptism and the Lord’s Supper:
We believe that New Testament baptism is the immersion in water of a born- again believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, with the authority of the local church to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, as it pictures our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Matt 28:19,20); that it is pre-requisite to the privileges of church membership and to the observing of the Lord’s Supper.
We believe the Lord’s Supper should always be preceded by solemn self- examination and that the sacred use of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ until He returns (Matt 26:26-29; I Corinthians 11:30). The prerequisites to participation in the Lord’s Supper are those laid down by Christ and his apostles as a church ordinance that include (1) Salvation (I Corinthians 11:27-29), (2) Baptism (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41, 46), (3) Church membership (Acts 2:46-47; I Corinthians 11:18, 22), and (4) an orderly walk (I Corinthians 11:27-29).
About Creation:
We believe the Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively (Genesis 1); that the creation was accomplished in six (6), twenty-four (24) hour days (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31; 2:2; Exodus 20:11); that man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness (Genesis 1:26,27); that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life were made directly by God, and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only “after their kind.” We deny any form of atheistic or theistic evolution (Romans 1:19, 20).