What We Believe

 

• ONE GOD: infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, subsisting in a mysterious, eternal trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). 

• ONE WORD: the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, all given by inspiration of God, and our only infallible rule of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21).

• ONE CONDEMNATION: there being one difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10-26; 6:23; John 3:36; Ezekiel 18:4).

• ONE SAVIOR: the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh; in His essential deity, virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, physical and bodily resurrection from the grave, and His ascension into Heaven from whence He shall return personally and premillenially to set up an earthly kingdom (John 1:1-14; 14:9; Isaiah 7:14; Revelation 19: 19-20; Acts 3: 12-26; Hebrews 9:24; 1 Corinthians 15: 12-28; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Acts 1; Revelation 3:10; 20: 1-6; Titus 2: 11-14).

• ONE ATONEMENT FOR SIN: made by Jesus Christ in a substitutionary and sacrificial death on the Cross, sufficient for all, adapted to all, taking every legal obstacle out of the way of all, and on these grounds to be offered to all, and that all must be born again or be forever lost (Hebrews 2:10; 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; John 11:50; Mark 10:45).

• ONE SPIRIT: God, the Holy Ghost, through whose sovereign agency in regeneration, the soul, dead in sin, is made alive in Christ, and through whose sovereign agency in sanctification the soul is changed more and more into the divine image from glory to glory (John 16:7-15, 2 Corinthians 3:18)

• TWO NATURES OF THE BELIEVER: that every saved person, possesses two natures, with provision made for victory of the new nature over the old nature through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and that all claims to the eradication of the old nature in this life are unscriptural (Romans 6:13; 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4: 22-24; Colossians 3:10; 1 Peter 1: 14-16; 1 John 3:5-9). 

• ONE CHURCH: Which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, and a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons (Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27; I Corinthians 12:12-14; 2 Corinthians 11:2): further that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament (Acts 14:27; 20:17; 28:23; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1: 5-11).

• TWO DESTINIES: Heaven where the souls of the redeemed are absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 24:43; Revelation 20: 4-6; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17); and Hell where the souls of unbelievers remain, after death in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear before the Great White Throne Judgment, and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire to suffer everlasting conscious torment (Luke 16:19-26; Matthew 25: 41-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 20: 11-15).

• SATAN: both tempter and accuser who exists in personality and reality (Job 1-2; Revelation 12:9-10; Matthew 4:2-11; John 8:44; Ephesians 6:12).

• TWO PURPOSES: that of winning precious souls to the Lord Jesus Christ in accordance with our great commission, and that of perfecting the saints (Matthew 28: 19-20; Ephesians 4:11-24).

• SEPARATION: that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord, and that separation from all religious apostasy, all worldly and sinful practices, pleasures, and associations is commanded of God (2 Timothy 3: 1-5; Romans 12: 1-2; 2 Corinthians 6:14; 7:1).

• BAPTISM: the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to show forth our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effects in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Matthew 3:13-17; Acts 8: 36-39; Romans 6:2-4).