Articles of Faith – links
- Scripture, the Written Word of God
- The True God
- The Devil or Satan
- Creation
- Mankind
- The Atonement for Sin
- Salvation
- Sanctification
- The Church
- Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
- Separation
- Civil Government
- The Rapture and Subsequent Events
- Heaven and Hell
Articles of Faith
1. Scripture, the Written Word of God
We believe the Holy Bible, when originally written was verbally and plenarily inspired by God and is the product of Spirit controlled men. It is therefore truth without any admixture of error for its entire matter. We believe the Bible to be the center of true Christian unity and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and opinions should be tried.
2. The True God
We believe there is one, and only one, living and true God, Who is an infinite, sovereign Spirit and the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth; that He is 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 roles in the great mission of redemption.
2.1 GOD THE FATHER – We believe in God the Father, Creator, and Sustainer of all things both visible and invisible , who is true holiness , eternal power , infinite love, perfect justice , absolute truth , the Alpha and Omega , and the I AM THAT I AM.
2.2 GOD THE SON – We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God; that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life and completed a positive righteousness, thus to continue forever as both true God and true man – one Person with two natures.
We believe that by His death He voluntarily offered Himself as a substitute in the sinner’s place, bearing our sins in His own body on the cross, and satisfied the demands of God’s holiness toward our sins.
We believe that He physically rose again from the dead, thus guaranteeing our future resurrection and demonstrating the Father’s acceptance of His atoning death.
We believe that Jesus is now in heaven, exalted as Lord at the right hand of God, where He fulfills the ministry of intercession and advocacy as His peoples’ high priest.
2.3 GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT – We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal in essence with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the regenerating agent in the new birth; that He indwells, seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer. The ’sign gifts’ of the Spirit, such as tongues, are often counterfeit. We do not accept the ’sign gifts’ as normative for the church today.
3. The Devil or Satan
We believe in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy god of this world and the ruler of all the powers of darkness and that he is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the lake of fire.
4. Creation
We believe the Genesis account of creation is neither allegory nor myth but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God completed in six literal days; that man was created by a direct work of God from the dust of the ground; and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race.
5. Mankind
5.1 ORIGIN OF MANKIND AND ORIGINAL SIN – We believe that man was created in the image of God, in innocence under the law of his Maker. By voluntary transgression Adam fell from his sinless and happy state, and all men sinned in him. In consequence, all men are totally depraved, are partakers of Adam’s fallen nature, and are sinners by nature and by conduct. Therefore, they are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.
5.2 MARRIAGE – We believe that marriage was ordained by God at creation as the sacred union of one man and one woman. All sexual relations must therefore be reserved for that union. Christian marriage is a representation of Christ’s relationship to His church.
5.3 HOMOSEXUALITY – We affirm the clear Biblical teaching that homosexual desires and actions are sinful and contrary to nature. Homosexuality is an assault on the creation ordinance of marriage.
We believe that all social, political and ecclesiastical attempts to normalize homosexuality are contrary to God’s Law and should be opposed.
As Christians we have a mandate to show compassion towards homosexuals, as we do with all sinners outside of God’s saving grace, which means speaking the truth in love to them about their sin and the Deliverer of sin, Jesus Christ. Christ’s transforming power can change not only the behavior, but the heart of a homosexual.
5.4 ABORTION – We believe that from the point of conception, every unborn child is a human being, made in the image of God. Therefore, the practice of abortion is an act of murder, condemned by the Law of God. The sin of abortion is a national tragedy, a social evil and the worst form of oppression and injustice because it victimizes the most helpless of our society, taking by force the most basic human right, which is life, and deceives those it pretends to help.
As Christians we have a Biblical mandate to protect the oppressed, therefore we are committed to stopping abortion and protecting life by teaching our children the Biblical sanctity of human sexuality, by providing ministries of mercy for those in need, sharing the Gospel in word and deed, and supporting laws which would protect the unborn.
6. The Atonement for Sin
We believe that the salvation of sinners is divinely initiated and exclusively of grace through the mediatorial office of the Son of God who, by the appointment of the Father, freely took upon Himself our nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but in providing once for all a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust, Christ, the Lord, bearing our sin in His own body on the cross.
7. Salvation
7.1 GRACE IN THE NEW CREATION – We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again, that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus, that it is instantaneous and not a process, that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God, that the new creation is brought about by our sovereign God in a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the gospel, and that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance, faith and newness of life.
7.2 REPENTANCE AND FAITH – We believe that repentance is a change of mind and purpose from sin, toward God, granted 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 in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that this faith is the only condition of salvation.
7.3 JUSTIFICATION – We believe that justification is the judicial act of God whereby He declares us to be righteous through faith in Christ Jesus, that justification includes the pardon of sin and the imputation of God’s righteousness, and that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood.
7.4 ADOPTION – We believe that adoption is the gracious act whereby the Father, for the sake of Christ, places new believers into the honored position of mature sons, in contrast with regeneration, whereby the believer receives the nature of God and becomes a child of God. The full benefit of the position accorded by adoption as the sons of God awaits at the glorification of the believer at the coming of the Lord.
7.5 THE SECURITY OF THE SAINTS – We believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the Father for Jesus Christ.
8. Sanctification
We believe that sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God and is accomplished in a threefold manner: first, an eternal act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, that establishes the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Savior (salvation), second, a continuing process (sanctification) in the saint as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to the life, and third, the final accomplishment of this process (glorification) at the Lord’s return.
9. The Church
9.1 We believe in the unity of all true believers within the Church, which is the Body of Christ, established on the day of Pentecost, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to the Church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation.
9.2 We believe that the Church is manifested through the local church, which is a congregation of immersed believers bonded by the covenant of the faith and fellowship of the gospel that is observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word, and that its leaders are pastor(s) and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the Scripture. We believe the true mission of the church is the faithful proclaiming of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations, that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit, and that on all matters of membership, of polity, of government, of discipline, and of benevolence, the will of the local church is final.
10. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We teach that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism by immersion is the solemn and beautiful testimony of a believer showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, and his union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to a new life. It is also a sign of fellowship and identification with the visible Body of Christ.
We teach that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes, and should be always preceded by solemn self-examination. We also teach that, whereas the elements of Communion are only representative of the flesh and blood of Christ, participation in the Lord’s Supper is nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ, who indwells every believer, and so is present, fellowshipping with His people.
11. Separation
We believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate from lawlessness and filthiness of flesh and spirit, from idolatry, from false teachings and false teachers, and from disobedient brethren.
12. Civil Government
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society, that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Lord of lords and the coming King of kings.
13. The Rapture and Subsequent Events
We believe in the personal, bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church, and that at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in Christ shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
We believe that the Rapture of the Church and the Great Tribulation will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power and great glory to sit upon the throne of David and to establish the millennial kingdom.
14. Heaven and Hell
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked, that only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His sight, while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse. We believe that this distinction holds among men both in and after death, in the everlasting joy of the saved and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost.
We teach that the souls of the unsaved at death are kept under punishment until the second resurrection, when the soul and the resurrection body will be united. They shall then appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into hell, the lake of fire, cut off from the life of God forever. We believe that after the closing of the millennium, the temporary release of Satan, and the judgment of unbelievers, the saved will enter the eternal state of glory with God, after which the elements of this earth are to be burned up, dissolved and replaced with a new earth, wherein only righteousness dwells. Following this, the heavenly city will come down out of heaven and will be the dwelling place of the saints, where they will forever enjoy fellowship with God and one another. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled His redemptive mission, will then deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, that in all spheres the triune God may reign forever and ever.