What We Teach
THE BIBLE: VERSE BY VERSE!
The Scriptures
We believe in the verbal (every word) and plenary (complete) inspiration of the Old and New Testaments; that they are the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible and God-breathed, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions shall be tried. Psalm 119:160; Romans 15:4; II Timothy 3:15-17; II Peter 1: 19-21; Revelation 22:18-19
The True God
We believe there is one and 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, yet one in substance and equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
The Devil, or Satan
We believe in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy god of this age, and the ruler of all the powers of darkness and sin, and is destined to the justice of an eternal judgment in the lake of fire.
The 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 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.
The Fall of Man
We believe man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker; but by voluntary transgression Adam fell from his sinless and happy state, in consequence of which all men are totally depraved, are partakers of Adams's fallen nature, and are sinners by nature and by conduct; and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.
The Atonement for Sin
We believe that the salvation of sinners is divinely initiated and wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God.
Faith and Salvation by Grace
We believe that faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation from sin and this salvation is wholly by grace; that no works, however good, make that salvation more secure.
The Security of the Saints
We believe that all who take Christ as their savior are born from above and are eternally secure in Christ.
The Resurrection & Priesthood of Christ
We believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, in His ascension into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father as our high priest.
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.
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; 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.
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.
Sanctification
We believe that sanctification is the divine setting apart of the believer unto God, accomplished in a threefold manner; first, an eternal act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, establishing the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts the Savior.
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 Church
We believe in the unity of all true believers in the Church which is the Body of Christ, which was established on the Day of Pentecost, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to this Church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism and the Lord's Supper
We believe that there are two church ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Separation
We believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate entirely from worldliness and ecclesiastical apostasy unto God.
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.
Israel
We believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God's eternal covenant people, that she is now dispersed because of her disobedience and rejection of Christ, and that she will be regathered in the Holy Land, and, after the completion of the Church, will be saved as a nation at the second advent of Christ.
The Return of Christ
We believe in the bodily, personal, premillennial, and imminent return of Jesus Christ.
The Resurrection
We believe in the resurrection of the bodies of the dead; that believers who sleep in Jesus will be raised in glorified bodies at the coming of Christ for His Church and caught up with transformed living saints to meet the Lord in the air, and that the wicked dead will be raised at the close of the millennial kingdom and stand in their bodies at the Great White Throne judgment to receive their final doom.
The Righteous and Wicked
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that only such as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit of God, are truly righteous in God's esteem.