Statement of Faith
1. We believe in the verbal and
plenary inspiration of the Bible, that it is the inerrant and infallible
Word of God. We believe that God has preserved His word throughout
the ages until this day. We believe that the KJV is the most accurate,
trustworthy, and reliable of modern translations and we use no other version in
the pulpit or printed publications.
2. We believe in the Trinity
of the Godhead: one God eternally existing in three equal Persons - Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
3. We believe in the deity,
virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and
imminent, pre millennial coming of Christ.
4. We believe in the personality
of the Holy Spirit. It is He who calls and regenerates believers. He
baptizes them into Christ. He indwells, seals and fills the believer for
service.
5. We believe that the believer
receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation, not at some later time.
We reject the modern tongues movement and the charismatic teachings.
6. We believe in the direct
creation of the universe and man by God, as set forth in the Genesis account,
and apart from any process of evolution.
7. We believe in the fall, the
depraved nature and guilt of the human race, which necessitates the New Birth of
the sinner by the Grace of God in Christ.
8. We believe in the eternal
salvation of all individuals who put their trust in Christ and His shed blood.
9. We believe that the believer,
at the moment of trusting Christ, becomes a member of the body of Christ and a
member of the church of Christ. We believe that the local church is
a company of baptized (immersed) believers, associated by a covenant of faith
and fellowship of the Gospel.
10. We believe that the true
mission of the church is to be found in the Great Commission: first, to make
disciples; second, to baptize them; third, to instruct new disciples as He has
commanded. We are to observe the ordinances of Christ (immersion and the
Lord’s Table). We hold that the local church has the absolute right of
self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or
organizations and that its one and only Head is Christ through the Holy Spirit.
The ordinance of baptism is for believers only by immersion and is a
pre-requisite for membership in the local church. (There is no redemption
whatsoever in the ordinance of baptism.) Officers in the New Testament local
church are pastors and deacons. We believe that these offices are
specifically for males.
11. We believe in the obedience to the
Biblical command to separate entirely from worldliness and ecclesiastical
apostasy unto God and oppose without apology ecumenism and compromise in
Christian principles.
12. We believe in a personal, real
Satan who is the enemy of the believers. We believe in the personal
existence of angels and demons.
13. We believe in the bodily
resurrection, immortality and rapture of all believers at Christ’s imminent
coming. We further believe a pre-tribulation rapture, meaning that
the saints will not go through any part of the tribulation period.
14. We believe in the sovereign
selection of Israel as God’s eternal covenant people and that all the promises
of God to Abraham will occur and Israel will be continually blessed by God.
15. We believe in a literal hell
which is for all those who refuse to trust in the substitutionary death of
Christ. Likewise, we believe in a literal Heaven which is the abode of God
and the future home of all the redeemed.
(This is only a partial list of
our beliefs.)