What We Believe
Concerning the Bible:
The scriptures of the Old and New Testament are verbally inspired of God, and are inerrant in the original writings, and are of supreme and final authority in faith and practice (II Timothy 3:16).
Concerning God:
There is ONE God, externally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:14; John 1:1; 14:16,17).
Concerning Jesus Christ:
As man, He was begotten by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man (Luke 1:32,35; Matthew 1:23; Philippians 2:6,7).
Concerning the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, who was sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-11); to regenerate all believers in Jesus Christ (John 3:5; Titus 3:5); to baptize such into the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:13); to seal them unto the date of redemption (Ephesians 4:30); to lead them unto all truth (John 16:13-15; I John 2:27; I Corinthians 2:12); to make temples of God out of their bodies by indwelling them ( John 15:16,17; I Corinthians 6:19) . It is the will of God that the believer is filled with the spirit (Ephesians 5:18); walk by means of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18); and bears the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).
Concerning Man:
The first man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), but fell through disobedience (Romans 5:19), and thereby incurred the penalty of both Spiritual and physical death, which is separation from God (Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 4:18).
All of Adam’s posterity have been born with the nature of sin (Romans 7:18; Ephesians 2:1-3), which renders them powerless to please God apart from God’s gift of righteousness (Romans 8:8 ; 5:17,18), and which causes all who come to the state of moral responsibility to become sinners in thought, word, and deed (Romans 3:23).
Concerning Salvation:
The Lord Jesus Christ died according to the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15:1-3), as a representative in a substitution sacrifice, and all who receive Him by faith as personal Savior are justified freely by His grace on the ground of His blood shed on Calvary, and are born of the Holy Spirit, and thereby become the children of God (John 1:12; Romans 3:24,25).
Concerning the resurrection of Christ:
Jesus Christ arose from the dead Bodily, ascended into heaven, where He became head over all things to the Church, and He ever lives as High Priest and Advocate to keep eternally saved all who come to God by him (Ephesians 1:20-23 ; Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25 ; Luke 24:39).
Concerning Sanctification:
Every child of God is perfectly and eternally sanctified before God by merit of the Finished Work of Christ (Hebrews 10:10,14 ; I Corinthians 1:30). Whereas this standing in no way depends upon the daily manner of life, the believer is expected as his reasonable service to live a surrendered, spirit filled life to the glory of God (Romans 12:1,2 ; Ephesians 5:18;Galatians 5:16).
Concerning the Church:
The Church of this dispensation is called the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22,23). All believers upon receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are baptized by the Holy Spirit into that Church, of which Christ alone is the Head (I Corinthians 12:13). Every member of the Body is thus brought into a vital relationship and ministry with the Head and with every other member of that Body (Ephesians 4:15,16).
Concerning the Lord’s supper :
The Lord’s supper is the communion of the Body and of the Blood of Christ which is voluntarily observed by believers in publicly partaking, symbolically, of broken bread and poured out wine in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is a means of declaring His death until He comes (I Corinthians 10:16 ; 11:23-26).
Concerning Baptism:
There is only one Scriptural baptism for members of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:5). This baptism is administered by the Holy Spirit and not by human hands (Colossians 2:11,12), and results in the permanent union of the believer as a member of the Church which is His Body. The ceremonial baptisms of the Bible are related to God’s earthly Kingdom concerning the nation Israel (Acts 2:38 ; 13:24), and therefore have no place in god’s today (I Corinthians 1:17).
Concerning Prayer:
Prayer, both as a means of communion and of petition, is the privilege and obligation of every believer. Prayer must be according to the will of God, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 4:6,7 ; I Thessalonians 5:17).
Concerning Ministry:
Evangelists , pastors and teachers have been given to the church for the purpose of preparing the saints for their work of ministering. Each member of the Body of Christ is called upon to effectually work so as to make increase of the Body unto the building up of itself in love (Ephesians 4:11-16), and to propagate the Gospel of salvation to all mankind (Romans 16:25,26 ; II Timothy 4:1,2).
Concerning Future Things:
The blessed hope of the church is the imminent, personal, pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ to catch up into glory all of the members of His Body, both those who have died and those who are alive at His coming, to forever be with the Lord (Titus 2:13 ; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 15:51,52 ). After the rapture of the Church to glory and after the time of Great Tribulation upon the earth, Christ will return to earth in power and great glory to reign as King of Kings over Israel and the nations (Revelations 19:11 ; 20:6). All the unsaved are without hope (Ephesians 2:12). They will be raised bodily to stand before the Great White Throne at the final judgment and will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, where they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelations 20:10-15).