- We believe that the Scriptures, consisting of the
sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, are verbally and plenarily
inspired by God and inerrant in the original writings in all matters of
which they treat: scientific, historical, moral, and theological.
- We believe that there is one true God who is the
infinite, eternal, personal spirit. He is the Creator and supreme Ruler
of the universe. He is inexpressibly glorious in holiness, wisdom,
power, justice, goodness, truth, and love and is worthy of all love,
honor, trust, and obedience. God exists in three persons: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, each having the same nature and perfections.
- We believe that Jesus Christ is truly and
eternally God; that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary; that He became perfect man and remains forever the
theanthropic person; that He shed His blood for the sins of all men as a
substitutionary sacrifice; that He arose in the very body, though
glorified, in which He had been crucified; that He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God; and that He now appears in the
presence of God on behalf of His people.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Divine
Person; that He is Christ’s representative on earth and convicts the
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He regenerates all
those who believe, places them into the spiritual Body of Christ,
empowers and indwells them.
- We believe that certain gifts of the Holy Spirit
such as speaking in tongues, prophecy and miraculous healings were
intended for the apostolic era of the Church; that no particular gift
was the necessary sign of the baptism of the Spirit.
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We believe
that the universe was created in six literal days by the Word of God;
that man was specifically created by God; that the first man, Adam,
through disobedience fell from his original state of innocence, became
corrupt in nature, and came under condemnation and the sentence of
death; and that because of the unity of mankind in Adam, all come under
the same consequences.
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We believe that through faith in the crucified and
risen Christ, man is justified, regenerated, and given the position of a
son in the family of God; that there is but only one way of salvation,
which is through faith alone in Christ alone; and that all those who
have been born of the Spirit of God will never perish.
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- We believe that a local church is an autonomous
body of immersed believers organized together upon profession of faith,
having two biblical offices, those of pastor and deacon, and observing
two ordinances (believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper).
The function of the local church is to encourage the worship of God, the
edification of believers, and the evangelization of the lost through by
proclaiming the Gospel of our Lord to the
uttermost parts of the earth.
- We believe that God created an innumerable host of
personal spirit beings, commonly known as angels, to glorify and serve
Him; that a large number of angels, led by another known as Satan,
sinned against God; that together they are in active opposition to God
and His work; that they were defeated by Christ at the cross; that they
will be bound for a thousand years at the return of Christ.
- We believe that a time of great judgment and
cleansing (called the Tribulation) lies in the future and will herald
the return of Christ to the earth to establish a millennial kingdom over
Israel and the nations; that the spiritual body of Christ (called the
Universal Church) will be gathered to Christ in a rapture before the
Tribulation; that all the dead will be resurrected—the righteous to
eternal life at the first resurrection and following the millennium the
wicked to judgment in the lake of fire together with Satan and his
emissaries where they will be punished forever.
- We believe missions, the endeavor to reach all the
world with the gospel, is a charge to, and the responsibility of the
church; that the church is debtor to those who have never heard the
gospel; that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the gospel to be
preached at home and abroad -- to the uttermost parts of the earth.
- We
believe God's program for financing the execution of His Great
Commission is the program by which every believer gives tithes and
offerings to God in and through the New Testament storehouse: His
Church; that the institution of tithing predates and is separate from
the Law; and that cheerful, obedient, sacrificial giving presents for
God opportunities to manifest His grace and His inexhaustible bounty of
blessings.
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