We Believe

THE CONGREGATION AND PASTOR ACKNOWLEDGE AND ACCEPT THE FOLLOWING DOCTRINAL STANDARDS AND SHALL SUBSCRIBE TO THESE IN CONSCIENCE AS WELL AS PRACTICE.

 I.         God is a Person who has revealed Himself as a Trinity in unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - three Persons and yet but one God.  (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; I Corinthians 8:6)

 II.        The Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, is a divine revelation; the Holy Spirit verbally inspired the original autographs. It is the final authority for faith and practice. (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:21)

 III.      Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, which is to say He is Himself very God; He took upon Him our nature, being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.  He died upon the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice, shedding His blood for the sin of the world.  He arose from the dead in the body in which He was crucified.  He ascended into heaven in that body glorified, where He is now, our interceding High Priest; He will come again personally and visibly to set up His kingdom and to judge the quick and the dead.  (Colossians 1:15; Philippians 2:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25; I Peter 2:24,25; Luke 24; Hebrews 4:14-16; Acts 1:9-11; I Thessalonians 4:16-18; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 11:15-17; 20:4-6, 1:1-15)

 IV.      Man was created in the image of God but fell into sin, and, in that sense, is lost; this is true of all men, and except a man be born again he cannot, see the kingdom of God; salvation is by grace through faith in Christ who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree; the retribution of the wicked and unbelieving and the reward of the righteous are everlasting, and as the reward is conscious, so is the retribution.  (Genesis 1:26, 27; Romans 3:10,23; John 3:3; Acts 13:38,39; 4:12, John 3:16; Matthew 25:46; II Corinthians 5:1; II Thessalonians 1:7-10)

 V.        There are two ordinances for the local church - Water baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper are ordinances to be observed by the Church during the present age.  They are, however, not to be regarded as means of salvation.  (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:9-13; I Corinthians 2:9-13; 11:23-33)

VI.      The Church is an elect company of believers baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body. Its
purpose is to glorify God through worship, evangelization and discipleship. Its mission is to  witness concerning its Head, Jesus Christ, preaching the gospel among all nations (Acts 2:41; 15:13-17; Ephesians 1:3-6; I Corinthians 12:12,13; Matt. 23:19,20; Acts 1:6-8; I Thessalonians 4:16-18)   

VII.     We believe in the blessed hope, the personal premillennial, pretribulational and imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is known as the rapture of the Church.  We believe also in the personal, visible and glorious return of Christ to the earth with His Saints at the end of the Great Tribulation.  This phase of His coming is known as the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  Then Jesus Christ will establish His millennial Kingdom and will reign for 1000 years. (Titus 2:13; I Thessalonians 4:13-17; John 14:3; Revelation 19:11-21, 20:1-6)

 VIII.    We believe the Holy Spirit indwells the believer at the moment of salvation, guides, convicts, and teaches the believer and equips every believer for the ministry in the body of Christ by bestowing gifts.  We believe all believers experience one baptism of the Holy Spirit at moment of their salvation. This baptism of the Holy Spirit is the believer's baptism into the body of Christ. While there is only one baptism of the Holy Spirit, the believer may filled by the Holy Spirit on more than one occasion.   We believe some of the gifts, such as the sign gifts and revelatory gifts were temporary and are not for this present day. (Romans 12:1-8; I Corinthians 13:8; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 5:18; John 16:7-11; 13).

 IX.       We believe marriage to be between one man and one woman as taught in the Scriptures. We believe fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and bestiality are practices and/or life styles that violate the clear teaching of Scripture. (Genesis 2:23-25; Matthew 5:27-32; 19:1--9; Romans 1:19-24; Ephesians 5; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)  We believe that the Scriptural exhortation “be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” applies to the marriage of a believer to an unbeliever. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) The Scripture references in this section do not represent the total of all Scriptural teaching on these subjects.

 X.        We believe the scriptures teach personal separation from all worldly practices that do not promote personal purity and ecclesiastical separation from apostasy, the ecumenical and charismatic movements.   All alliances and associations must be within the framework of our doctrinal position.  (1 Peter 1:13-25; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20; 2 Corinthians 6:11-7:1; 10:5; Romans 16:17; 1 Thessalonians 4:7-12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; 1 John 2:15-17)