Declaration of Faith
We believe the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God
We believe the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired Word of God; that the very words as well as the thoughts, in the original languages, were “God-breathed” and given by the Holy spirit to God-chosen writers and that they are the final, supreme authority for the believers’ faith and practice. (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21)
We believe God exists eternally as the trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
We believe the Godhead does eternally exist in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature and attributes, being co-eternal and co-equal. (John 10:30; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
We believe Jesus Christ is God the Son, fully God and fully man
We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. He lived and taught and wrought mighty works and wonders and signs exactly as is recorded in the four Gospels. (John 1:1,2,14; 20:30,31) We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His ascension into the heavens, and in His present life there for us as High Priest and Advocate. (Heb. 9:24; 7:25; Rom. 8:34;1 John 2:1-2)
We believe the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the trinity who regenerates and empowers the believer
We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit and that He, as God, regenerates repentant and believing sinners; that He indwells, sanctifies, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and fruitful service as they surrender to Him and walk in Him. (Heb. 9:14; John 16:8-11; John 14:16,17,26)
We believe that man is sinful by nature and completely separated from God
We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned, and thereby incurred not only physical death but also that spiritual death which is separation from God; that all human beings are born with a sin nature, and that in the case of those who reach moral responsibility become sinners in thought, word and deed; that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and therefore, because of universal moral and spiritual depravity, no one can possibly be saved and enter into fellowship with God here or hereafter except by means of the New Birth. (Gen. 1:26; Rom. 5:12; 3:10-23; Isa. 52:6; Eph. 2:1-3; John 3:3-5)
We believe salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; that our redemption and salvation and the only ground upon which sinful man can be forgiven and regenerated is the work of Christ on the Cross, and the atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This work he came to do by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, and for this work He became “God manifest in the flesh” by means of the virgin birth and incarnation, and as the Divine Savior of sinners in a substitutionary work “bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness.” (I Peter 2:23,24; 2 Cor. 5:21; I Cor. 15:1-4) We believe that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior by faith are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, become possessors of eternal life, and are baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ which is the Church. (John 1:12, 13; I Cor. 12:13; John 5:24, 14:6)
We believe in a real heaven, a real hell and the soon return of Jesus Christ
We believe that the soul of those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith do at death pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious blessedness until the resurrection of the body at His coming when the soul and the body will be reunited and in the glorified state be forever with the Lord. We believe also that the soul of all who reject the Lord will remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment at the Great White Throne when the soul, reunited with the resurrected body, will be cast into the Lake of Fire to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. (Phil. 1:23; I Cor. 5:6-8; Luke 16:19-26; Rev. 20:11-15) We believe in the imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to take away His Bride the Church, which is composed of all true believers, both those who are alive and those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. We believe also that our Lord will afterward return in visible form and in glory to this world, accompanied by all His saints, to subdue all His enemies and to set up His Kingdom and to reign on the earth during the Kingdom Age. (I Thes. 4:13-18; I Cor. 15:51-53; Acts 15:13-17; Isa. 35:4-10; Dan. 7:26,27)
We believe baptism and the Lord’s Supper are given by God to symbolize a believer’s relationship with Jesus
We believe that there are two divinely instituted ordinances of the Church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe in baptism of believers only, by immersion, the mode most clearly taught in the Word of God, and that all who request baptism shall be baptized. (Matt. 3:13-17; 28:19; Acts 2:41; 8:35-39)
