1.We believe that the Scriptures
of both the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired by God and inerrant in
the original writing so as to be the final and sufficient rule of faith and
practice (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).
2. We
believe that there is only one living and true God, infinite in every
excellence; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three personal
distinctions—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—one in substance and equal
in every divine perfection (Ex. 20:2-3; 1 Cor. 8:6).
3.We
believe in the absolute Deity of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; that He was
divine as no other man can be, being very God of very God, exisiting from
eternity co-equal with the Father and the Spirit; that He never ceased to be
God for one instant and that His humiliation did not consist in laying aside
His Deity; that as man He was miraculously begotten of the Holy Ghost and born
of the Virgin Mary (John 1:1-2; 1 John 5:20; Matt. 1:20).
4.We
believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, equal with the Father and Son
and of the substance and nature; that He convicts of sin, righteousness and
judgment, bears witness to the truth, is the Agent of the New Birth and that He
seals, edues, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies and helps the believer,
indwelling every true Child of God from the time of their acceptance of Christ
as Savior (2 Cor. 13:14; John 14:16; Romans 8:14-27).
5.We
believe that God created the heavens and the earth, including all life, “each
after its own kind”, according to the Genesis account of creation, and this was
by the direct act of God, and not the process of evolution (Genesis 1-2; Col.
1:16-17; John 1:3).
6. We believe that man, in the
person of the first Adam, was created in the image of God in innocence but by
voluntary transgression fell into sin thus plunging the whole race into
condemnation and death, so that now all mankind is born in sin and shapen in
iniquity and become practical sinners with the first expression of personal choice, not by constraint, but by choice and so are without excuse before God (Genesis 3; Rom. 5:10-19; Ps. 51:5; Rom. 1:20-21).
7.We believe that the only escape from the condemnation of sin is through the atonement wrought by Jesus Christ, when He voluntarily took upon Him a human body and nature, yet without sin, and by His suffering, death, and resurrection made full satisfaction to the justice of God for the sin of man, that the blessings of this salvation are given on the grounds of grace to all who believe and confess that it is the immediate duty of all to prove these offers of mercy (John 1:1-3, 14; 3:1-7; Hebrews 10:4-14; Acts 16:30-33).
8.We believe that faith in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only condition of salvation from sin and that this
salvation is wholly by grace; that no works, however good, make that salvation
more secure (Acts 16:31; Ephesians
2:8,9; Titus 3:5-7; Romans 10:9-13).
9.We believe that all who take Christ as their Saviour are born from above and are eternally secure in Christ. This assurance is based solely upon the Word of God (2 Timothy 1:12; Romans 8:35-39; 1 Corinthians 3:13-15).
10.We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body
of our Lord, in His ascension
into heaven, and in His present ministry there as
our High Priest and advocate,
whence He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell the
believer (John 20; Acts 1:3-9; I
Corinthians 15:3-20; Hebrews 4:14-16).
11. We believe in the unity of all true believers in what
is called the Body of Christ,
(also called The Bride) and that all believers,
both Jew and Gentile, are added to
this body by the receiving of Jesus Christ
as personal Savior.
12. We
believe that the Body of Christ is manifest through the local church which is a
congregation of immersed believers, associated by covenant of faith and
fellowship of the
gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His
laws; exercising gifts, rights
and privileges invested in it by His Word; that
its officers are bishops or pastors and
deacons; that it has the absolute right
of self-government directed by the Holy Spirit and it
is answerable only to
Christ, and that in all matters of membership, policy, government,
discipline
and benevolence, the will of the local church is final (Matthew 18:15-17; I
Corinthians 1:2; 7:17;
11:16; 12:12, 13; I Timothy 3:1-15).
13. We
believe that there are two church ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper.Baptism
is the immersion of the believer in
water and is properly called “Believer’s Baptism.”It sets
forth in a beautiful and solemn way
our faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior, with its
effects in our lives
of death to sin and resurrection to a new life.Baptism is a prerequisite to
the privileges of church relation.The Lord’s Supper is the commemoration
of our Lord’s
death until He comes and our continual fellowship with Him,
should be preceded by baptism
and always by careful self-examination.Since it is a local church ordinance, we
believe that
only members of this church or a church only
members of this church or a church of like
faith and practice should partake of
the Lord’s Supper (Acts 8:36-39; Rom.
6:3-5; I Cor.
11:23-32; Acts 2; Ephesians 1:21).
14. We
believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous
and the
wicked, that only through faith are we justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and
sanctified by the Spirit of God, and are truly righteous
in God’s esteem (Matt.
3:18, Rom.
6:17-23; Matt. 25:34-41; Luke 6:25; John 8:21;Acts 8:36-39; Rom. 6:3-5; I Cor. 11:23-32; Acts
2; Ephesians 1:21).
15. We believe in the bodily, personal, pre-millenial and
pre-tribulation return of Jesus
Christ; that He will come before the seven-year
tribulation period to catch away
His Bride, coming only into the air, and that
He will come with His Bride at the
close of the tribulation to judge the living
nations and to set up His kingdom (I
Thess. 4:13-18; Matt. 25:31-46; Rev. 19:11-21).
16. We believe in the resurrection of the bodies of the
dead; that believers who sleep
in Jesus will be raised at the coming of Christ
for His Bride and caught up with
transformed living saints to meet the Lord in
the air, and that the wicked dead will
be raised at the close of the Millenial
Kingdom and stand in their bodies at the
Great White Throne Judgment to receive
their final doom (John 5:21-30; I
Thess.
4:16; Rev. 7:9-17; 20:11-15).
17. We believe that civil government is of divine appointment
for the interests and
good order of human society; that magistrates are to be
prayed for,
conscientiously honored, and obeyed, except in things opposed to
the will of
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Lord of the
conscience, and the
coming Prince of the Kings of the earth (Rom. 13:1-17; II Sam. 23:3; Es. 18:2;