Our Distinctives, taken together as a whole, distinguish us from other churches.
We are a Baptist church. Historically, particular doctrinal distinctives have accompanied believers who have borne the name “Baptist.” We hold to those doctrinal positions because we believe they most accurately reflect New Testament Christianity. They are important to us. Identifying with them distinguishes us from other churches.
We are a Fundamental Baptist church. The name “fundamental” has come to mean many things to people due to references like “Islamic Fundamentalists.” In the 1920’s the term was used to describe groups of believers who held to the “fundamentals” of the faith (such as the Deity of Christ, The Virgin Birth...) as opposed to the “liberals” or “modernists” who denied some or all of the fundamentals. The label “Fundamental” came to describe those who will take a strong stand on all the truths of God’s Word and who evidence that by the following: A militant defense of and proclamation of the Word of God and a separation from those who do not believe and practice the truths of the Word of God. As a fundamental Baptist church, we are “non-ecumenical.” We believe it is contrary to God’s Word for us to identify with, cooperate with, or show approval of those who do not hold to the doctrines of the Word of God.
We are Independent. We do not identify with nor are a part of a larger group of churches or organization. We are not a part of a “denomination” and its organizational structure. We are not a franchise of another church or group of churches. We may fellowship with other churches of like faith and practice (For example the Indiana Fundamental Baptist Fellowship), but no other church, group of churches, or individuals dictates to our local church, its doctrine, or practices.
We are Congregational in our church governance. We believe that the New Testament pattern is that the local church is “self-governing.” The members of the church gathered together to hear matters and to make choices. The local church congregation chooses its own officers, exercises its own discipline and addressed its own internal affairs. The local church congregation supported its own local ministries through regular, systematic giving and chooses, sends, and supports its own missionaries or messengers.
We are not “charismatic.” We are Cessationist. We believe that the biblical gift of tongues was the instantaneous, supernatural ability to speak in known foreign languages as a sign authenticating the message and the messengers of the gospel. We believe that the gift of tongues, along with other miraculous gifts, prophecy and healing, ceased to function with the completion of the written Word of God and the death of the Apostles.
We use the King James Version of the Bible, but we are NOT King James Only in our teaching.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.