What We Believe

The Word of God:  We believe that the Bible is the Word of God, fully inspired and without error in the original manuscripts, written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that it has supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.  (II Tim. 3:16-17; II Peter 1:19-21)

The Trinity:  We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are equal in being and nature.  (Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; John 14:16, 17:3; II Cor. 13:14)

God the Father:  We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, measureless in power.  We rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.  (Psa. 145; John 17:1-3)

Jesus Christ:  We believe in Jesus Christ, the eternal and only begotten of the Father, fully God and fully man, conceived of the Holy Spirit, of virgin birth, sinless in His life, making atonement for the world by His death through the blood of the everlasting covenant.  We believe in His bodily resurrection, His ascension, and His visible, personal, pre-millennial, bodily return to the world according to His promise.  (Matt. 1:18-25; John 1:1-5, 1:14-18, 14:1-6; Acts 1:1-3,9-11; Heb. 1:2-9; I Peter 2:2-8, 21-24)

The Holy Spirit:  We believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment; and to regenerate, sanctify, comfort and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ.  We believe that He indwells every believer and is an abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide.  (John 14:16-17, 15:26-27, 16:7-15; Acts 1:8, 2:39; Rom. 8; I Cor. 12)

Man and Sin:  We believe that God created man in His own image, but that through Adam’s disobedience sin entered the world.  We believe, therefore, that all men are sinners by nature and by choice, and are under God’s condemnation.  We believe there is a personal devil, that he is the arch-enemy of God and man, and that he is the present god of the age, the “prince of the power of the air” and the “spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.”  We believe that Christ defeated him on the cross and that the believer can share the victory by faith.  (Gen. 1:26-27; Rom. 3:9-19, 23, 5:12; Eph. 2:1-2)

Salvation and Regeneration:  We believe that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; all who repent of their sins and put their trust in Him are justified before God and regenerated by the Holy Spirit.  We believe in the eternal security of all who are actually born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Christ as revealed in the scriptures, and that it is the privilege of all such to be assured of their present salvation and eternal safety.  (John 3:3-8, 16, 5:24, 10:29-30; Rom. 3:23-26, 6:23, 8:33-39, 10:9-10; Eph. 2:8-10; Phil. 1:6; II Tim. 1:12; Titus 3:5-6)

The Church:  We believe in the universal church, a living, spiritual body of which Christ is the Head and all regenerated persons are members.  We believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in Christ.  We believe in the local church: consisting of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized upon their confession of faith, associated for worship, work and fellowship.  We believe that God has entrusted to the members of the local church the primary task of giving the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world.  (Matt. 16:18-19, 28:18-20; Acts 1:8, 2:37-47; I Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:1-16)

Christian Conduct:  We believe that a Christian should live for the glory of God and well-being of his fellow men, that his conduct should be blameless before the world, that he should be a faithful steward of his possessions, and that he should seek to realize for himself and others the full stature of maturity in Christ.  (Eph. 4, 5; Titus 2:11-14)

Ordinances:  We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We believe that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ to commemorate His body, broken for our sins, and His blood, shed for redemption.  We believe that these two ordinances should be observed and administered by the local church until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41; Rom. 6:3-6; I Cor. 11:23-29)

The Last Things:  We believe that this present age will end in the imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: first to receive His church unto Himself before the Great Tribulation, and later to establish the Throne of David upon the earth and to reign in righteousness over it for a thousand years.  We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost: the saved unto the resurrection of life, and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation.  We believe that the saved will live eternally with Christ in Heaven, and that the lost will live eternally in Hell.  (II Sam. 7:16; Psa. 72:7-8; Isa. 9:6-7; Micah 5:2; Matt. 25:46; Luke 1:32-33; John 5:26-29, 14:1-6; Acts 1:10-11; I Thess. 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Heb. 9:27-28; Jude 14, 15; Rev. 1:7, 19:11-21, 20:11-15; 21)

Religious Liberty:  We believe that every human being is responsible to God in all matters of faith; that each church is independent and self-governing and must be free from interference by any outside church or political authority.  Therefore, Church and State must be kept separate as having different functions, each fulfilling its duties free from the dictation or patronage of the other.  (Rom. 13; 14)