Our Beliefs

THE SCRIPTURES               

We believe the Bible to be inerrant in the original writings and that it was verbally inspired and produced by the Holy Spirit through holy men.  The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the only complete and divine revelation of God's will to the church and the only rule of faithful practice.  The Scriptures are properly interpreted according to the literal, grammatical-historical, and dispensational method.

 

THE GODHEAD               

We believe in the one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons --the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each equal in every divine perfection, nature, power, and glory, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.  

 

THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST               

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God to man and redeem sinful man.  We believe that He was tempted, yet without sin in His life, that He died a substitutionary death on the cross for our sin, that He literally arose from the dead bodily.  We further believe that He ascended to the right hand of the Father on high, and He is in every way qualified to be a suitable and compassionate High Priest, Intercessor, and Advocate.  

 

THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled; that He exalts Christ; that He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth; that He seals, empowers, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies and helps the believer.               

We believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and the gift of healing were temporary.  We believe that the tongues in the New Testament were actual dialects native to people in the audience and speaking in tongues was never for personal edification nor were they a sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit.  

 

CREATION               

We believe in the direct creation by God of the physical universe, of all spirit beings, of man, and of all other forms of life, without the process of evolution, accomplished in six twenty-four hour days.  We believe that the early chapters of Genesis are literal and accurate history, including the worldwide flood in the days of Noah.  We believe that man was created directly by God on the sixth day of creation and was made in God’s own image and after His own likeness.   

 

SALVATION

We believe salvation to be by grace through faith, wholly apart from human works and merit, and that each individual must exercise definite and personal faith in the redeeming work of Christ in order to be saved.  He must be born again. We believe the new birth is instantaneously wrought by the Holy Spirit and is not a process and that by the new birth an individual becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus.  We believe that all who are truly born again are eternally kept by God the Father for Jesus Christ.   

 

RESURRECTION, HEAVEN AND HELL

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. We believe that the souls of believers in Christ do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain until the resurrection of the body at the rapture when the soul and body reunited shall stand before Christ to be judged of their Christian works for the giving of rewards, and that they shall then be associated with Him forever in glory.  We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final resurrection of the body at the end of the Millennium; the result of this judgment will be that all will be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

 

THE CHURCH

We believe in the church universal, which is made up of those Jews and Gentiles who have received Jesus Christ as Savior.  This is the body of Christ with Christ as its head, also called the bride of Christ.  This church is formed by the work of the Holy Spirit, and is a Holy Temple, an invisible, spiritual organism, and consists of all who are saved, from Pentecost until the Rapture.  Israel is not the church. We believe that the local church is currently the center of God’s activity in this world, being composed of believers who have been immersed in water as a testimony of their faith in Jesus Christ, and being organized according to the principles of God’s Word in order to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ.  We believe that every born-again believer should be a functioning member of a local New Testament church.  

 

CHURCH ORDINANCES

We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water to show forth our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior.  This solemn and beautiful emblem is a public identification following a profession of faith, is a picture of our death to sin and our resurrection to newness of life, should precede participation in the Lord’s table, and is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a partaking of unleavened bread and grape juice as symbols of Christ’s body and blood.  We believe that it is the commemoration of His death until He comes, should be observed only by those who have been saved through faith in His atoning blood and are walking in obedient fellowship with Him, should always be preceded by solemn self-examination, and that it has no sacramental value.   

 

LAST THINGS

We believe in the literal return of Jesus Christ that will take place in two stages. The first stage is the Rapture, or His personal, imminent, and pre-Tribulational coming for all saints of the church age. The second stage is the Revelation or the Second Coming in glory, which is His personal and public coming at the close of the Tribulation Period to establish the messianic, Millennial Kingdom on the earth when Israel will be restored to covenant favor with God and to her land and the Church will reign with Christ for a thousand years. After the Millennium there will be a new heaven and earth wherein God will dwell eternally with His people.