We believe that the Holy Bible is the verbally (every word) and plenary (complete) inspired Word of God as contained in the original manuscripts; that it is truth without any admixture of error for its matter; and is and therefore shall remain to the end of the age the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man; the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. By the “Holy Bible,” we mean the Canon, that collection of sixty-six books from Genesis to Revelation, which, as originally written, does not only contain and convey the Word of God but is the very Word of God. By “inspiration” we mean that the books of Bible were written by holy men of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally and verbally inspired.

(II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21)

We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God, an infinite, intelligent Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of Heaven and Earth (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 90); that He is inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence, and love; that in the unity of the Godhead (the Trinity), there are three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, being equal in their nature, attributes, and perfections and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption and in the accomplishments of His eternal plan and purpose (I John 5:6-12).

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• God the Father. We believe that God the Father is the first Person of the Godhead (Trinity); that He is the initiator of the salvation of mankind, sending His only Son to die as a perfect sinless sacrifice for the sins of mankind (John 3:16); and that all who repent of their sin and receive His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, as their personal Lord and Savior by faith, will be reconciled back to God the Father, will have the once broken relationship restored, and will be the recipients of eternal life forever with God. Also, in following the perfect example of our Savior Jesus Christ, believers are to pray to God the Father who hears and answers the prayers of His people (Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-9).

• God the Son. We believe in the essential deity and the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; that He is eternal with the Father, was begotten of the Holy Spirit, and in miraculous manner; that He was born of Mary, a virgin, as no other person was ever born of a woman, and that He is both the Son of God and God the Son (I John 1:1-2). He is both true man, one person with two natures, tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. We believe that His death was a substitutionary death for the appeasement of His Father, and for the sins of the whole world. We believe in His bodily resurrection, ascension, and pre-tribulation, pre-millennial return (John 3:16; Philippians 2:6-7; Luke 1:26-35; II Corinthians 5:21, I John 2:2; I Corinthians 15:3-4; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-10).

• God the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person; eternal and equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same essence (I John 5:7); that He was active in the creation (Genesis 1:2); that in the unbelieving world He restrains evil, and the evil one, until God’s purpose is fulfilled; the world of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness; that He bears witness of the truth of the Gospel in preaching, teaching, and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth; that He seals, empowers, guides, teaches, bears witness with, sanctifies, and helps the believer (John 14:26; Romans 8:14-27; Ephesians 3:16). Using Acts 1:8 and Galatians 5:22 as our criteria for evaluation, we believe that the evidence for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is boldly witnessing for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and daily living like our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe the Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively (Genesis 1); that the creation was accomplished in six (6), twenty-four (24) hour days (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31; 2:2; Exodus 20:11); that man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness (Genesis 1:26,27); that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly by God, and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only “after their kind.” We deny any form of atheistic or theistic evolution (Romans 1:19, 20).

We believe that God created man (Adam) in innocence and in His own image, and by voluntary transgression, he sinned against God and fell from his sinless and happy state of perfection (Genesis 3), in consequence of which, all born after Adam are now sinners, totally depraved, and therefore under just condemnation without defense or excuse and are guilty before God (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5; Romans 3).

We believe that the salvation of sinners (all mankind) is wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices (work) of the Son of God who by the appointment of the Father freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin and honored the divine law by His personal obedience and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement was not merely an example but was the voluntary substitution. He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, compassionate, all-sufficient Savior (Hebrews 2:9; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 10:4-14). We believe that salvation, the gift of eternal life, is divinely initiated, is instantaneous, and not a process. It is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance. In order to be saved, the sinner must be born again, personally receiving Christ as Savior, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God’s Word and becoming the recipient of a new nature. The great Gospel blessing which Christ secures to those who believe in Him is justification, that judicial act of God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness, not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood. The believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of eternal life, which is eternally secure (John 1:11-12; 3:3-6, 16; 10:28-29; Acts 13:39; Romans 2:4; II Corinthians 7:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-10; I Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 4:2; I Peter 1:18-23; II Peter 1:4). We believe that the attitude either of reconciliation or enmity toward God is eternally fixed at death. We further believe that there is an appointed day for the judgment of the wicked when they will be cast in to the lake of fire (hell), there to remain in everlasting conscious punishment and torment (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27; II Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:12-15, 21:8).

We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus eternally secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; I Corinthians 1:4-8). We also believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to live a life of sin (Romans 13:13-14; Galatians 5:1; Titus 2:11- 15).

We believe that the local New Testament church consists of an assembly of believers, who have been baptized by immersion, who have united together for the express purpose of fulfilling the “Great Commission” which consists of worship, evangelism, edification, fellowship, discipleship, and instruction. We believe that the officers of the Church are ordained pastors and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures (I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:6-9). We believe that the Church observes two ordinances: baptism, and the Lord ‘s Supper (communion), and that they have no saving power. 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 Christ is the head of the Church and superintends over the work of the local church through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-23).

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem (Romans 8:1-10); all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse (Romans 3:19-23), and this distinction holds among men both in life and after death in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost (Revelation 20:11-15).

We believe that baptism is the immersion in water of a born again believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, with the authority and approval of the local church to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the death, burial, and resurrected Savior, as it pictures our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Matthew 28:19, 20; Romans 6:4); that it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the observing of the Lord’s Supper.

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We believe that the Lord’s Supper should always be preceded by solemn self-examination and that the sacred use of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ as He died on the cross and His blood was shed, until He returns (Matthew 26:26-29; I Corinthians 11:23-30). The prerequisites to participation in the Lord’s Supper are those laid down by Christ and His apostles as a church ordinance that includes (1) Salvation (I Corinthians 11:23-30), (2) Baptism (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41, 46), (3) An orderly walk (I Corinthians 11:27-29). A disorderly walk designates a course of life in a church member which is contrary to the precepts of the gospel, including immoral conduct, disobedience to the commands of Christ, heresy (teaching false doctrine), and schism or promotion of division and dissension in the Church. The New Testament accounts indicate that the Lord’s Supper was observed only at regularly appointed meetings of local churches, and thus we believe that the scrutiny of qualifications for participation in the Lord’s Supper remains with the local church (Luke 22:19,20; I Corinthians 11:23-26).

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good of human society; that magistrates (leaders of our nation) are to be prayed for (I Timothy 2:1-3), conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 5:29; Romans 13:1-5).

We believe in the personal, bodily, pre-tribulation, premillennial, and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ for His church. Christ will rapture (catch up) all born again believers in the air to be with Him forever (I Thessalonians 4:15-17; I Corinthians 3:12-14). The unbelievers left behind will go through a seven-year period called the Tribulation, after which Christ shall return visibly to the earth to set up His kingdom of 1,000 years of righteous rule; after this, the unbelievers of all ages will stand at the Great White Throne to be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire (Hell), separated from God forever, while the believers spend eternity in the fullness of joy and in the presence or our Lord forever (Revelation 20:11-15).

We believe that all people everywhere are lost and condemned and that the command to go and preach the Gospel to the entire world is clear and unmistakable, and that this commission was given to local churches. Following New Testament precedent and example, we believe that all missionary endeavors should be under the ultimate sponsorship of the local congregation and that no mission board should ever misconstrue its purpose to attempt to hold or to assign authority to itself (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 13).

We believe that God’s method of financing His earthly work of spreading the Gospel to all nations, the care of the Churches, and the support of the ministry is by the tithes and offerings of God’s people. We believe that they are to be given to the Lord through His church, or storehouse, and are to be distributed as directed by the leadership of the Holy Spirit as the need arises. We believe that the time to tithe is upon the first day of the week. We also believe that everyone is accountable to the Lord for a minimum standard of giving of one-tenth of one’s income and that offerings are to be given above the tithe as God has prospered the individual (Malachi 3:8-10; I Corinthians 16:2).

We believe that Satan is real. He is a created being who sinned and became the arch-enemy of God and His creation. He is the chief adversary of God’s children. He seeks to keep men from God; and when he cannot succeed in this, he seeks to weaken the testimony and effectiveness of Christians. He has at his command a great host of fallen angels (demons) to carry out his purposes. He is not omnipotent and can be overcome by the power of God. His doom is sealed in the Lake of Fire (Hell) forever and ever (Ezekiel 28:12-19; Isaiah 14:12-14; Revelation 12:10; 20:10).

We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transsexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex (Genesis 2:24; 19:5, 13; 26:8-9; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4).

We believe that marriage was instituted by God to be a permanent union between a man and a woman, and, therefore, we are highly opposed to same-sex marriages. We further believe that God hates divorce and intends for marriage to last until one of the spouses dies. Although divorced persons may hold positions of service in the Church and be greatly used of God for Christian service, they may not be considered for the offices of Pastor or Deacon (Genesis 2:24; Malachi 2:14-17; Matthew 19:3-12; Romans 7:1-3; I Timothy 3:2,12; Titus 1:6).

We believe that human life begins at conception and that the unborn child is a living human being. Abortion constitutes the unjustified, unexcused taking of unborn human life. Abortion is murder. We reject any teaching that abortions of pregnancies due to rape, incest, birth defects, gender selection, birth or population control, or the mental well being of the mother are acceptable (Job 3:16; Psalms 51:5; 139:14-16; Isaiah 44:24; 49:1,5; Luke 1:44). We believe that life is sacred and any act of putting to death a person suffering from a distressing disease, illness, or health problem from injury (euthanasia or mercy killing) for his or her own good is virtually an instance of self-deification usurping a right that belongs to God (II Kings 5:7; Job 1:21; 2:6; Hebrews 9:27).

We believe that Christians are prohibited from bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or the Church to resolve personal disputes. We believe that the Church possesses all the resources necessary to resolve personal disputes between members. We do believe, however, that a Christian may seek compensation for injuries from another Christian’s insurance company as long as the claim is pursued without malice or slander (I Corinthians 6:1-8; Ephesians 4:31-32).