Faith in the Holy Trinity

We believe in the one living and true God, both holy and loving, eternal, unlimited in power, wisdom, and goodness, the Creator and Preserver of all things. Within this unity there are three persons of one essential nature, power, and eternity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Father

We believe the Father is the source of all that exists, whether of matter or of spirit. With the Son and the Holy Spirit, He made man in His image. By intension, He relates to man as Father, thereby forever declaring His good will toward man. In love, He both seeks and receives penitent sinners.

The Son of God

We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly man. He died on the cross and was buried, to be a sacrifice both for original sin and for all the transgressions of men, and to reconcile us to God. Christ rose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and there intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all men at the last day.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is of the same essential nature, majesty, glory, as the Father and the Son, truly and eternally God. He is the Administrator of grace to all mankind, and is particularly the effective Agent in conviction for sin in regeneration, in sanctification, and in glorification. He is ever present, assuring, preserving, guiding, and enabling the believer until the day of redemption.

The Sufficiency and Full Authority of The Holy Scriptures for Salvation

We believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments constitute the Holy Scriptures. They are the inspired and infallibly written Word of God, fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all human authority, and have been transmitted to the present without corruption of any essential doctrine. We believe that they contain all things necessary to salvation so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Both in the Old and New Testaments, life is offered to mankind ultimately through Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man. The New Testament teaches Christians how to fulfill the moral principles of the Old Testament, calling for loving obedience to God made possible by the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit.

God's Purpose for Man

We believe that the two great commandments, which require us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and our neighbors as ourselves, summarize the divine law as it is revealed in the Scriptures. They are the perfect measure and norm of human duty, both for the ordering and direction of families and nations, and all other social bodies, and for individual acts, but which we are required to acknowledge God as our only Supreme Ruler, and all men as created by Him, equal in all natural rights. Therefore all men should so order their individual, social and political acts as to give to God entire and absolute obedience and thus bring glory to God.

Man's Choice

We believe that man’s creation in the image of God included ability to choose between right and wrong. Thus man was made morally responsible for his choices. But since the fall of Adam, man is unable in his own strength to do right. This is due to original sin, which is not simply the following of Adam’s example, but rather the corruption of the nature of every man, and is reproduced naturally in Adam’s descendents. Because of it, man is very far from original righteousness, and of his own nature is continually inclined to evil. He cannot of himself call upon God or exercise faith for salvation. But through Jesus Christ the grace of God makes possible what man of himself cannot do. It is bestowed freely upon all men, enabling all who will turn and be saved.

The Atonement

We believe that Christ’s offering of Himself, once and for all, through His sufferings and meritorious death on the cross, provides the perfect redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world, both original and actual. Atonement is effective for the salvation of those who repent and exercise faith in Christ.

Justification and Regeneration

We believe that when a man repents of his sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he is in the same moment baptized by the Holy Spirit, justified, regenerated, adopted into the family of God and assured of his salvation through the witness of the Spirit.

We believe that we are accounted righteous before God only on the basis of the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, being justified by faith alone, and not on the basis our own works.

We believe that regeneration is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the pardoned sinner becomes a child of God. This new life is received through faith in Jesus Christ, and by it the regenerate are delivered from the power of sin which reigns over all the unregenerate, so that they love God and through grace serve Him with the will and affections of the heart receiving the Spirit of Adoption.

Good Works

We believe that although good works cannot save us from our sins or from God’s judgment, they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and by them, a living faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by its fruit. Good works are to bring glory to the Father.

Sanctification; Initial Progression

We believe that sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the Child of God is separated from sin unto God and is enabled to love God with all his heart and to walk in all His holy commandments blameless. Sanctification is initiated at the moment of baptism of the Holy Spirit, justification and regeneration. From that moment, there is a gradual or progressive sanctification as the believer walks with God and daily grows in grace and in a more perfect obedience to God. The life of holiness continues through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving obedience to God’s revealed will.

The Gifts of The Spirit

We believe that the Gift of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself, and He is to be desired more than the gifts of the Spirit, which He in His wise counsel bestows upon individual members of the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit function through each individual member for the edification of the whole Church. These gifts are to be exercised in love under the administration of the Lord of the Church, not through human volition. The relative value of the gifts of the Spirit is to be tested by their usefulness in the Church and not by the ecstasy produced in the ones receiving them.

The Church

We believe that the Christian Church is the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ who is the founder and only Head of the Church. The Church includes both those believers who have gone to be with the Lord and those who remain on the earth, having renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil, and having dedicated themselves to the work, which Christ committed unto His Church until He comes. The Church on earth is to preach the pure Word of God, properly administer the Sacraments according to Christ’s instructions, and live in obedience to all that Christ commands. A local church is a body of believers formally organized on gospel principles, meeting regularly for the purposes of evangelism, nurture, fellowship, and worship.

The Sacraments; Baptism and The Lord's Supper

We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the sacraments of the Church commanded by Christ and ordained as a means of grace when received through faith. They are tokens of our profession of Christian faith and signs of God’s gracious ministry towards us.

We believe that water baptism is a sacrament of the Church, commanded by our Lord and administered to believers. It is a symbol of the new covenant of Jesus Christ. By means of this sacrament, believers declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

The Second Coming of Christ

We believe in the certainty of the personal and imminent return of Christ.

The Resurrection of the Dead

We believe in the bodily resurrection from the dead of all mankind – of the just unto the resurrection of life, and the unjust unto the resurrection of damnation. The resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of those who are in Christ.

The Judgment of Mankind

We believe that the Scriptures reveal God as the judge of all mankind and the acts of His judgment are based upon His omniscience and eternal justice. His administration of judgment will culminate in each man standing individually accountable before God.

Destiny

We believe that the Scriptures clearly teach that there is a conscious, personal existence after death. Heaven with its eternal glory and blessedness of Christ’s presence is the final abode of those who choose the salvation which God provides through Jesus Christ, but hell with its everlasting misery and separation from God is the final abode of those who neglect this great salvation.