The Triune God

We teach and believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-identical in nature, coequal in power and glory. (Deut. 6:4; John 1:1-4; 16:7-15; Luke 1:35; Matt. 3:16-17)

God the Father

We teach and believe in God, who is Spirit and a person; infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; sovereign. (Deut. 4:15-18; John 4:24; Exodus 3:14; Num. 23:19)

God the Holy Spirit

We teach and believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, and not merely an influence; that He is the source and power of all acceptable worship and service. We teach and believe that His work is to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, to convict and regenerate sinners, to dwell in the hearts of believers, to guide, comfort, protect and sanctify them in this world, and to glorify Christ. We teach and believe that He will never depart from the Church nor from the weakest believers. (John 14:16-17,26; 16:13-15: Acts 1:8; 5:3-4; Rom. 8:2,16; I Cor. 6:19; 12:13; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:30; 5:18).

God the Son

We teach and 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 sinners. (John 1:1,2,14; Luke 1:30-35; Phil 2:5-8; Heb. 4:15; Matt. 1:18-25) We teach and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood in death on the cross as a representative, substitutionary sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical, resurrection from the dead. (Rom. 3:24-25; I Peter 2:24; Eph. 1:7; I Peter 1:3-5) We teach and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate. (Acts 1:9-10; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1-2)

Christian Testimony

We teach and believe that Christians should bear a good testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ by living lives separated unto God, and abstaining from worldly practices. (Rom. 12:1-2; I Cor. 3:16-17; 8:13; II Cor. 6:3,14-18; I Thess. 5:22; I John 2:15)

Man

We teach and believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin, the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved in the sense that his whole being is affected and cursed by sin so that he cannot, in this state, please God. We teach and believe that he is unrighteous in an absolute sense and can only accomplish relative good. We teach and believe that he is lost and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. (Gen. 1:26-27; Eph. 2:1-3, 12; Rom. 3:22; 5:12) We teach and believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone and is thus given a new position of righteousness and holy standing before God, in which he becomes a son of God by spiritual rebirth, a new creation in Christ. (John 1:12; Rom. 8:1,38-39; I Cor. 1:14-15; 10:10; II Cor. 5:17) We teach and believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever. (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1,38-39; I Cor. 1:4-8; I Peter 1:5) We teach and believe 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 the flesh. (Rom. 13:13-14; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-14)

The Second Coming

We teach and believe in the imminent, personal, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to gather His bride, the church. This should be the joyful hope of every believer. While we generally hold to a pre-tribulation, dispensational view, there are those that may hold alternative orthodox positions re. eschatology (Acts 1: 11; I Thess. 4: 16-17; 3: 13; Colossians 3: 4; Revelation 19: 11-16).

Satan

We teach and believe that Satan is a fallen angel; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; that he is the prince of the power of the air, often appearing to man as an angel of light, but that he attempts to frustrate all of God’s purposes through hindering the true proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We teach and believe that eventually Satan and those separated from the goodness of God will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be eternally tormented and separated from God. (Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matt. 4:2-11; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:10)

The Eternal State

We teach and believe that every unrepentant, unbelieving sinner whose sins have not been forgiven through Jesus Christ, will immediately be condemned after death to conscious torment until the Great White Throne Judgment, when they will be reunited with their body and cast into a literal, eternal place of conscious torment, never to be annihilated, but punished by God Himself, with everlasting torment for their sins, separated from all that is good about God. Further, we teach and believe that all of those who have received the gifts of repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will, at death, immediately enter into His presence in Heaven and will there remain in conscious comfort until the resurrection of the body at His coming for His bride, the Church, when soul and body will be reunited and they, together with the saints from all ages, will dwell with Him forever in glory (Luke 16: 19-26; 23:43; John 3: 36; II Cor. 5: 8; Phil. 1: 23; II Thess. 1: 7-9; Rev. 20: 11-15; 21: 8).

The Scriptures

We teach and believe in the verbal, plenary God-breathed inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, consisting of 66 books, inerrant in the original writings. The Bible is God’s sufficient revelation to man and there is no need for any additional revelation from God. (II Tim. 3:16,17; Matt. 5:18; II Peter 1:21,22; John 16:12,13)

The Church

We teach and believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age and is distinct from the nation of Israel. (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:25-27; I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 11:2) We teach and believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches are clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. (Acts 14:27; 20:17,28-32; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11) We teach and believe that the Church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit and the continuing witness to God in the world. We believe it is the mandate of the whole church to go into the world and preach the gospel to every person (Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:15; John 13:35; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27; Ephesians 4:11–16; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 21:2,9,10).

Baptism

We teach and believe that every new believer should be baptized (preferably by immersion) in water as a physical picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as a picture of the believer’s death to self, and resurrection to new life in Christ. Baptism does by no means confer forgiveness. Further, baptism does not initiate an infant into a protective covenant with God. Baptism is an outward picture of an inward work of grace (Matthew 28: 19-20; Acts 10: 48).

The Lord’s Supper

We teach and believe that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic meal of bread and wine that represents the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper does not confer forgiveness. The Lord’s Supper should only be partaken by those who are repentant believers who are willing to make amends with anyone in the body if there is division. The failure to rightly examine one’s self in this manner could result in weakness, sickness, or even death (Mark 14: 22-25; I Corinthians 11: 23-24).

Creation

We teach and believe that the biblical record of primeval history in Genesis 1–11 is factual, historical, and clearly understandable. All things were created and made by God in six literal days of the Creation Week described in Genesis 1:1-2:3 and confirmed in Exodus 20:8-11. Life exists because it was created on Earth by a living Creator. Further, the biblical Flood was global and cataclysmic, and its after-effects explain most of the stratigraphic and fossil evidence found in the earth’s crust.

We teach and believe that all things in the universe were created and made by God in the six literal days. The creation record is factual, historical, and perspicuous; thus, all theories of origins or development that involve evolution in any form are false. All things that now exist are sustained and ordered by God’s providential care. However, a part of the spiritual creation, Satan and his angels, rebelled against God after the creation and are attempting to thwart His divine purposes in creation.

We teach and believe that the biblical record of primeval earth history in Genesis 1-11 is fully historical and perspicuous, including the creation and Fall of man, the Curse on the Creation and its subjection to the bondage of decay, the promised Redeemer, the worldwide cataclysmic deluge in the days of Noah, the post-diluvian renewal of man’s commission to subdue the earth, and the origin of nations and languages at the tower of Babel.