The Bible

We teach that the Holy Bible is the verbal and completely inspired, inerrant and infallible Word of God. It is God’s only written revelation to man and is our sole authority for faith and practice. The Holy Spirit so directed each human author that they, through their unique personalities and writing styles, composed and recorded God’s Word to man without any errors in the whole or in the part (2 Pet.1:20-21; 1 Cor.2:7-14; 2 Tim.3:16-17).

God

We teach that there is but one living and true God who is eternally existent in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One in essence and perfect in all their attributes. An infinite, omniscient, omnipotent Spirit Who is alone worthy of praise, worship, and adoration (Deut.6:4; 1 Cor.8:4; Matt.28:19; 2 Cor.13:14).

Jesus Christ

We Teach that Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, and that He possesses all the divine excellencies, and that He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father. We teach that Jesus Christ, in His Incarnation, was born of a virgin but without sin, lived a perfect life in obedience to the Father. He was God incarnate. We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that He was buried and was raised to life on the third day. We believe in the literal, physical and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We teach that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the Father’s right hand interceding for His own, upholding all creation, sovereignly directing all events and affairs of mankind according to His own purposes. We teach that Christ will return and establish His millennial kingdom on earth (Matt.1:18-23, 28:6; Luke 24:38-39; John 1:1, 14; 10:30; Acts 2:30-31; Rom.4:25, 8:34; 1 Cor.15:1-4; Heb.1:2-3; 4:15; 7:75; 9:24; 1 John 2:1).

Holy Spirit

We teach that the Holy Spirit, as the third Person of the Trinity, is a divine Person, eternal, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity and coequal with both the Father and the Son. We teach that He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment but regenerates, seals, indwells, instructs, and empowers all true believers and transforms them into the image of Christ. Christians are to walk after the Spirit who works in their regeneration, justification, sanctification, and their preservation until the coming of the Lord. We teach that every true believer possesses the Holy Spirit at the moment of their salvation, but through sin and disobedience can quench and grieve the Holy Spirit. We teach that the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church for its edification and does not seek to bring attention to Himself but to Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Cor.2:10-13; 2 Cor.13:14; Heb.10:15-17).

Man

We teach that man was directly and immediately created by God in His image and likeness. Man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, and moral responsibility to God. We teach that man was created to glorify and enjoy God’s fellowship but then man lost his innocence, became inherently corrupt through Adam’s sin and is hopelessly lost, fallen, unable to save himself and can only be saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Ps.14:1-3; Jer.17:9; Rom.3:9-18; 5:10-12). We teach that the first man and woman were Adam and Eve, historical persons, created directly by God, not evolved, on the 6th day (a 24-hour day) of creation (Gen.1:26-31; 2:7, 21-25), and that all mankind came from these two people.

Salvation

We teach that salvation is wholly of God by grace through faith on the basis of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works. We teach that at the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and seals the believer forever. We teach that all true believers are kept secure in their salvation by the power of God and that they are eternally secure in Christ and cannot lose their salvation nor will they “walk away” from Jesus Christ. We teach that Jesus Christ will raise all true believers from the dead unto a literal, physical, and bodily resurrection and who will possess a glorified body unable to sin or die, for eternity (John 1:12, 5:24; 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom.3:24-25; 5:8-10; 8:1; 31-39; 1 Cor.1:4-9; Eph.1:4-7; 2:8-9; 4:30; Heb.7:25; 13:5; 1 Pet.1:4-5; 18-19; Jude 24).

The Church

We teach that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the church, of which Christ is the Head. We teach that the church began on the day of Pentecost and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His own at the Rapture. We teach that the church is distinct from Israel (Acts 2:1-21, 38-47; Romans Ch.9-11; 1 Cor.3:16; 12:12-13; 2 Cor.11:2; Eph.1:13-14, 22; 4:15; 5:23-32; Col.1:18). We teach that the establishment and continuing nature of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. The local church is commanded by its Head, Jesus Christ, to (1) be a beacon of light to the world as “the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim.3:15),” (2) carry out the Great Commission (Matt.28:19-20), and (3) be a place for corporate worship, fellowship and edification for the Body of Christ. (Acts 14:23, 27; 20:17, 28; Gal.1:2; Phil.1:1; 1 Thess.1:1-2; 2 Thess.1:1; Heb.10:24-25).

We believe that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by immersion is the solemn and beautiful outward testimony of a believer showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, and of his spiritual union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to a new life. It is also a sign of identification and fellowship with the visible body of Christ (Matt.28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 8:36-39; Rom.6:1-11). The Lord’s Supper is the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes again. The elements of communion are representative of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, but nevertheless are an actual communion with the risen Christ and His church (1 Cor.10:16; 11:23-32). The Scripture is clear that neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper has any merit at all toward salvation, because salvation is solely by grace through faith, not by works or rituals. The two ordinances are practiced only by those who have already placed their faith in Christ for salvation.

End Times

We teach the imminent (at any moment), personal, bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to translate His church from this earth (the Rapture), the seven-year Tribulation period followed by the return of Christ who will establish His 1000 year reign on the earth. Satan will be bound during this time and righteousness will rule the earth. After the 1000 years, all of the lost will be resurrected and judged at the Great White Throne Judgment. Then God will create a new heavens and a new earth which is called the eternal state (Dan.9:27; Matt.24:29-31; Jn.14:1-3; 1 Cor.15:51-53; 1 Thess.4:13-5:11; Titus 2:13; Rev.19:11-21; 20:1-22:21).