OUR BELIEFS

A Summary Of What We Believe

The Holy Scriptures

We believe and stand firm on the position that the words of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (O.T.) and New Testament (N.T.) are inspired of God; and, every word of the Holy Scriptures to be verbally, plenary, inspired of God, and entirely inerrant. We stand firm upon the position that God not only inspired His words perfectly in the original autographs (manuscripts), but that He has perfectly preserved His words providentially.

We believe that these preserved words are available in the texts of the original language manuscripts, which have been received by the Lord’s churches, namely the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew and Aramaic O.T., and the Textus Receptus (the “Received Text”) of the N.T. We believe that accurate translations using the principles of formal equivalency (word-for-word translation) can be made from these preserved, received texts into receptor languages of all people. For English-speaking people, the Authorized Version of the English Bible, commonly called the King James Version (KJV), is the only accurate, modern English translation of the preserved original language texts and is the Word of God in English for English-speaking people.

The True God

We believe there is only one living and true God, an infinite, sovereign Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of Heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

The Lord Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ is “the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” and that He was the fulfillment of numerous O.T. prophecies concerning the Messiah. We believe in the absolute divinity of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity; in His eternal existence with the Father, yet distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. We believe that He humbled Himself, to be born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Spirit, to become a man. We believe that He is truly man, and truly God. We believe that, although He was tempted in all things, He was sinless in His life, and always obedient to the Father. We believe in His substitutionary death through His shed blood on the cross, and that He arose bodily from the dead on the third day, then ascended into Heaven shortly thereafter, where He is now seated at the right hand of the Father; where He is our High Priest and Divine Advocate with the Father; and where He ever liveth to make intercession for His saints.

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, not an influence or some mystical power. The Holy Spirit is equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature, yet He is also distinct. We believe that He moved “holy men of God” in the writing of the Scriptures; that He was active in the creation of the world; and that He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled. We believe that He convicts the world of sin; He quickens and regenerates the believer in the new birth; He seals the believer and then is the earnest of their salvation; He permanently indwells the body of each believer at the instant of salvation; He then illuminates, guides, and comforts each believer in and through the Word of God; and He enables the believer to be filled with power for holy living and service. The Holy Spirit bears fruit in the believer and gives believers spiritual gifts to exercise in the context of the local church. However, we believe that sign gifts ended with the completion of the Bible Canon.

Creation

We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God in six literal twenty-four hour days without any evolutionary process; that man (spirit, soul and body) was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms of life; and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race.

Redemption & Salvation

We believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell. Heaven, is a place of eternal, conscious blessedness, where one will live for evermore with God and all those who have by faith received the free gift of eternal life. Hell is a place of eternal conscious separation from God and punishment in the lake of fire.

We believe that God had determined before the foundation of the world that the redemption of man would be accomplished by the physical blood of His Son. The exact image of the work of redemption is found in the Mosaic Law. The plan of God required the shedding, the presentation, and application of the blood. The earthly models prefigured the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the presentation of His literal blood in a heavenly sanctuary. Our redemption is therefore perfect and eternal. There is no other offering or sacrifice for sin. We believe that through Jesus Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, He shed His blood to redeem fallen mankind; that when the believing sinner repents of his sin and places his total faith in Christ’s shed blood and substitutionary sacrifice, the believing sinner is justified and reconciled to God. We believe salvation is a free gift to all who will put their complete faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. Salvation secures everlasting life for this one who has received this gift. Heaven is his eternal home.

We believe that all those that have been saved, are saved only once, and that they cannot lose their salvation. They are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever and have an inheritance reserved for them in heaven. We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word. However, we believe that the Scriptures clearly forbid the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh

Repentance

We believe that repentance is a change of mind and purpose toward God prompted by the Holy Spirit; that it is characterized by godly sorrow for sin as offensive to God and ruinous to the soul; and that true repentance is inseparably related to true faith.

Church

We believe that the Bible clearly teaches that a local church is comprised of assembled individuals that have placed their faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and have been scripturally immersed. Therefore, we believe that the church is an assembled, local, visible body of believers called out from the world for the purpose of obeying the Great Commission, and that the assembled members are to be separated unto Christ. We believe that the supreme mission of the local church in this age is to preach the Gospel to every creature and, in the context of the local church, to disciple (by “baptizing” and “teaching” the “all things” of Scripture) those who believe on His name according to the geographical outline given by our Saviour in Acts 1:8.

We do NOT believe that the word “church” in the Scriptures ever refers to the existence of a mystical or invisible or universal body of Christ because such an entity could never assemble in one place prior to the rapture. But instead, we believe that each assembly is the body of Christ in that locale, with Christ as its head.

Things To Come

We believe in the blessed hope of the personal, corporal, glorious, imminent, pre-tribulational return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the skies, where He will meet in the air all the dead in Christ (N.T. Saints) and the regenerated ones that are alive here on the earth. Shortly after this catching away (rapture), all N.T. believer’s will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an oral account as to the character of the things done in his/her body. Then the Marriage of Christ and His bride, at the Marriage Supper will take place in heaven. These future events will take place during the seven year tribulation on the earth which concludes with the pre-millennial, Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! After the Lord Jesus Christ defeats the armies of the world in the Battle of Armageddon, the devil is bound for a thousand years, while Christ’s kingdom is established here on earth and the Lord Jesus Christ reigns with His saints for a millennium. At the end of the millennial reign of Christ on this earth, the devil is loosed, the final battle takes place, and the earth is purged. Then follows the Great White Throne Judgment when the unsaved of all the ages will be judged and cast into the lake of fire for evermore. The Bible concludes with all the saints of God living for eternity in the new heaven and the new earth reigning with Him for evermore.