What We Believe
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
We believe in the Holy Scriptures, accepting fully the writing of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God, verbally inspired in all parts, infallible and authoritative as our rule of faith and practice (II Tim 3:16-17, II Peter 1:21), and that the Scriptures are providentially preserved in their most accurate form, in English, in the King James Version of the Bible.
We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deut 6:4; matt 28:19, II Cor 13:14).
We believe in the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and shed blood for the atonement of all, bodily resurrection, and ascension into Heaven to be our Intercessor (Matt 1:23, Heb 9:22, Matt 28:6, Acts 1:11, I Tim 2:5).
We believe that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, makes believers children of God through the New Birth, baptizes them into the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13), assures them of a place in Heaven, and by His indwelling and filling He enables Christians to live godly lives (Eph 5:18). We reject the charismatic notions, recognizing that His true work is revealed in glorifying Christ, not Himself (John 16:7-11, I Cor 6:19-20).
We believe the Genesis account of creation in seven, literal, twenty-four hour days, that man was created by the direct act of God’s power, not by an evolutionary process. We believe God created the universe with age, so there is no need for a long period of time and there was no catastrophic judgment between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, for it was with Adam that sin came and death by sing (Rom 5:12).
We believe that all men are by nature and choice sinful and lost, and have within themselves no possible means of salvation (Rom 3:10, 23).
We believe in salvation by grace through faith in all ages; that salvation is the free gift of God, not by any virtue or works of man, but received only by the choice of personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; that all true believers possess the gift of eternal life, a perfect standing, adoption into the family of God, and the divine guarantee that they shall never perish but are eternally secure (Eph 2:8-9, John 10:27-30, Rom 3:24-28, Rom 6:23).
We believe in the existence of Satan, the deceiver and prince of this present world, that he was defeated and judged at the cross, and therefore his final doom is certain (Is 14:12-17, Eph 6:12, Gen 3:15, Rev 20:20).
We believe in the imminent rapture of the Church (I Thess 4:13-17). The tribulation period follows, during which God will pour our His righteous judgment upon the unbelieving world. Afterward, God the Son will descend in His Second Coming that will be personal and visible. He will then set up His millennial kingdom, and with His church, He will rule over all nations for 1,000 years (Rev 4:3-20).
We believe that at the death of the saved they go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven. Their bodies will be raised at the rapture, after which their works will be judged and rewards given. We believe that at the death of the unsaved, they descend immediately into Hell until the final day of The Great White Throne Judgment. There they shall be raised from the grave, judged, and cast into the Lake of Fire, the place of everlasting torment (Rev 20:15, II Cor 5:8 & 10, Luke 16:19-31).
We believe in everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved in heaven, and the everlasting conscious punishment of unbelievers in the Lake of Fire (Rev 21:3-4, 8).
We believe in the priesthood of all believers, that Christ is our Great High Priest, and through Him every born again person has direct access into God’s presence without the need of a human priest. The believer has the right and responsibility to personally study and interpret the Scriptures as guided by the Holy Spirit (I Pet 2:9, II Tim 2:15, Heb 4:14).
We believe that the New Testament Church (the first, beginning at Pentecost) is an organized body of believers who practice Scriptural ordinances (I Cor 11:23-32, Acts 2:41-47), seek to edify its members in love (Eph 4:11-16), and encourage one another to glorify God with a life of obedience and faithfulness (I Cor 15:58, Heb 10:24-25).
We believe the two Scriptural ordinances given to the local church are:
1) Baptism by immersion (of believers only) as an identification with Christ (I Pet 3:21, Acts 2:47, 8:36-39, 10:28). Baptism has nothing to do with our salvation.
2) The Lord’s Supper (to commemorate His broken body and shed blood) to be partaken by any obedient believer present (I Cor 11:23-32).
We seek to honor the Scriptures through preaching, teaching and exhorting God’s people to obedience. We seek to warn the flock by exposing error and compromise (II Cor 6:14-18, II John 7-11, Rom 16:17-18, II Cor 5:9-11, II Thess 3:6, I Tim 6:3-5, Titus 3:9-11, I John 4:1).