WHAT WE BELIEVE

Doctrine of the Bible​

We believe the Bible is the verbally (every word) and plenary (complete) inspired Word of God as contained in the original manuscripts; that all portions of Scripture are equally inspired and contain no contradictions. (II Timothy 3:16) God’s Word is to be the only rule of faith and practice for the believer in Jesus Christ; and that the Canon, the sixty-six books of the Bible, is complete. We further believe that God has supernaturally and providentially preserved His inspired Word for every generation. (Psalm 12:6-7)

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A:  By inspiration, we mean that the books of the Bible were written by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally and verbally inspired and free from error, as no other writings have ever been or ever will be.  This was a one-time event in which God, once for all, delivered His truth to the church. (II Peter 1:20-21; Jude, v. 3; II Timothy 3:16)

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B:  By providential preservation, we mean that God, through the ages, in His divine power has preserved the very words He inspired.  We further believe that the Hebrew Old Testament text, as found in the Traditional Masoretic Text, and the Greek New Testament text, as found in the Textus Receptus, are the true texts of Scripture and therefore are the complete, preserved, inerrant, infallible Word of God. (Psalm 12: 6-7; Isaiah 40:8; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23)

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C:  We, therefore, believe that the King James Version is the only accurate and faithful translation of the true texts of Scriptures which constitutes the preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God for the English-speaking people of the world.  The King James Version of the Bible is the only translation that will be used by our church, its ministries, English speaking missionaries, etc. We do however reject the teaching of double inspiration, also known as Ruckmanism. We have a Perfect Bible in the English language through the doctrine of Preservation. 

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Doctrine of God​

We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections; and are worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. (Genesis 1:1, 25; John 1:1; John 14:16-17; I Timothy 3:16)

 

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Doctrine of God the Father​

We believe that God the Father is the first Person of the Trinity; a person, possessing the features of personhood: ie, Self-Awareness (John 4:32), self-determination (John 6:38-39), morality (Luke 10:21, personal distinctiveness (John 14:16), intelligent, emotion and communication. He also functions as a Person in that He: speaks, sees, gives, works, and blesses. He is the source of all created things, divine revelation, and initiates salvation. 

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Doctrine of Jesus Christ​

We believe in the essential deity and virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; that He was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary not having human father, and is true God and true man. He is man’s only hope of salvation from sin, being the only mediator between God and man; that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day for our sins according to the Scriptures. We hold that His return for His Church, the Body of Christ, which He will take with Himself into heaven is imminent; and that He will come to this earth to set up His millennial reign. (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:35; John 1:1-4; John 10:30; John 14:6; I Timothy 2:5-6; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:4-6)

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Doctrine of the Holy Spirit​

We believe the Holy Spirit to be coequal with the Father and with the Son. He is a Person. He came to this earth as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise. He convicts, regenerates, indwells, seals, fills, empowers, and guides the believer. (John 16:7-13; John 3:3-5; Acts 1:8; I Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 5:18)

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Doctrine of Man​

We believe that God created man in His own image and that man sinned, and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death which is conscious and eternal separation from God in hell. We believe that all people are born with a sinful nature, evidenced by sinful acts; that man has a fallen and sinful nature (every aspect of man has been affected by sin) and that if he is not born again, he is eternally lost. (Genesis 1:26-27; Psalm 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Luke 16:23; Revelation 21:8; Romans 3:10-23; Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21-22; Revelation 20:11-15, Revelation 21:8)

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Doctrine of Salvation​

We believe that a person is saved when he repents of his sin and exercises faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ thus receiving Him as personal Savior. ​We believe that the scope of salvation includes forgiveness of all our sins past, present, and future: a perfect standing before God as in Jesus Christ: and the changing of our earthly body to be conformed like unto the body of our Lord at His return for His own.  We believe that the saved will spend eternity with God in heaven.

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We believe the doctrinal extremes of Calvinism and Arminianism are unbiblical; and that man has a free will.​ We further believe that there is an appointed day for the judgment of the wicked when they will be cast into the Lake of Fire, there to remain in everlasting conscious punishment and torment. (John 1:12; John 5:24; John 10:28, 29; Romans 6:23; II Corinthians 5:21; Eph. 2:8, 10; I John 5:17; Romans 8:19-23; I John 3:2; II. Thessalonians 1:7-9; Hebrews 9:27; II Peter 2:8, 9; Revelation 20:12-15; Revelation 21:8)

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The Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers​

1. We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever. (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 38-39; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8; 1 Peter 1:4-5)​

2. We 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 sin. (Romans 13:13-14; Galatians 5:13; Titus 2:11-15)

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Doctrine of Eternity​

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust; the eternal conscious punishment of the lost in Hell and the eternal joy of the saved in Heaven (Daniel 12:1-2; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Corinthians 15:22-24; Revelation 20)

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Doctrine of the Church

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We believe that the local church is composed of:​

- A local group of believers that is autonomous, self-governing, and has no ecclesiastical organization in authority over it.

​- Believers who are baptized by immersion.

​- Believers who are organized and have two officers: pastors and deacons.

​- Believers who observe the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

​- Believers who meet regularly for fellowship, worship, and Bible study.

​- Believers who carry out the Great Commission. (1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 2; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 16:19; Acts 2:41; 1 Corinthians 12; Hebrews 10:25; I Corinthians 11:23, 24; Matthew 28:18-20)

​- We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures and that churches plant churches. (Acts 12:27; 20:17, 28-32; 1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

​- We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control, we reject any conventions, associations, groups, etc. which limit, govern, or dictate the autonomy of the church. (Acts 12:1-4; 15:19-31; 20:28; Romans 16:1, 4; 1 Corinthians 3:9, 16; 5:4-7, 13; 1 Peter 5:1-4)

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Dispensationalism​

We believe that the Scriptures interpreted in their natural, literal sense reveal divinely determined dispensations (periods of time, stewardships) or rules of life that define man's responsibilities in successive ages. These dispensations are not ways of salvation, but rather are divinely ordered stewardships by which God directs man according to his purpose. Three of the seven dispensations- the law, the church, and the kingdom- are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture. (Genesis 1:28, 1 Corinthians 9:7, 2 Corinthians 3:9-18, Galatians 3:13-25, Ephesians 1:10, 3:2-10, Colossians 1:24-25, 27, Revelation 20:2-6.

 

We reject the teaching that the church is spiritual Israel. We believe that they are two distinct groups of people as outlined by Romans 9-11; and that God is not finished with His dealings with the nation. We also reject ultra-dispensationalism. We believe that all scripture is given by God and is profitable for the church; and that salvation has and always will be through the blood of Jesus Christ.

 

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Creation​

We believe that God created the universe in six literal, 24-hour periods. We reject evolution, the Gap Theory, the Day-Age Theory, and the Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin. (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 20:11)

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Doctrine of Satan and Fallen Angels​

We believe that Satan is a person. He was created perfect but sinned and became the arch enemy of God and His creation. He is the chief adversary of God’s children. He seeks to keep man from the Lord, and when he cannot succeed in this, he seeks to weaken the testimony 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 forever and ever. (Ezekiel 28:12-19; Isaiah. 14:12-14; Revelation 12:10; Revelation 20:10)

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Doctrine of Last Things​

We believe there will be a resurrection of all, first the just at the coming of Jesus Christ and finally the unjust after the millennium. The saints are raised to be forever with the Lord, and the unsaved will be confined for eternity in the Lake of Fire. We believe in the “Blessed Hope” (Titus 2:13) which is the personal, bodily, pretribulational, premillennial, and imminent return of our Lord and Savior for His Church at the rapture and His later return to the earth in power and glory with His saints to set up His Kingdom (the millennium). (John 14:1-3; Acts 1:9-11, Acts 24:15; I Corinthians 15:3-20; Philippians 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:13-18, I John 2:1-2, Revelation 20: 1-15, Revelation 21:8)

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Doctrine of Human Sexuality​

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 for life. ​We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, transgenderism, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex. 

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We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one’s birth gender by action, surgery, or appearance. (Genesis 2:24, 19:5, 13, 26:8-10, Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1, 6:9-10; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4)​ We further believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female.  These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God, and the rejection of one’s biological gender is a rejection of the image of God within that person.  (Genesis 1:26-27)

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Doctrine of Marriage​

We believe that the term “marriage” has only one, legitimate meaning, and that is marriage sanctioned by God, which joins one man and one woman in a single, covenantal union, as delineated by Scripture.  Marriage ceremonies performed in any facility owned, leased, or rented by this church will only be those ceremonies sanctioned by God, joining one man with one woman once for life. 

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We further believe that God created marriage as a divine institution between one man and one woman for life. God hates divorce and intends marriage to last until one of the spouses dies. Therefore, we never promote divorce as a solution to marital problems. We also believe God’s forgiveness includes all sins, including those who violate God’s permanence of marriage. Even though such forgiven people can be used of the Lord and serve in many areas of the church, we do believe the Scriptures prohibit them from being considered for the offices of pastor or deacon. (Genesis 2:24; Malachi 2:14-17; Matthew 19:3-12; Romans 7:1-3; I Corinthians 7:10-11; Ephesians 5:22-23; I Timothy 3:2,12; Titus 1:6)

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Family Relationships​

We believe that men and women are spiritually equal in position before God, but God has ordained distinct and separate spiritual functions in the home and the church. The husband is to be the leader of the home, and men are to be the leaders (pastors and deacons) of the church. Accordingly, only men are eligible for licensure and ordination by the church. (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:18; 1 Timothy 2:8-15; 3:4-5, 12) 2. We believe that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. The wife is to submit herself to the Scriptural leadership of her husband as the church submits to the headship of Christ. Children are a heritage from the Lord. Parents are responsible for teaching their children spiritual and moral values and leading them, through a consistent lifestyle example and appropriate discipline, including Scriptural corporal correction. (Genesis 1:26-28; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 127:3-5; Proverbs 19:18, 22:15; 23:13-14; Mark 10:6-12; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4, Colossians 3:18-21; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1-7)

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Doctrine of Human Life​

We believe that human life begins at conception and that the unborn child is a living human being. We believe that the unjustified, unexcused taking of human life such as abortion, euthanasia (at any age), and infanticide is murder. We reject any teaching that abortions of pregnancies due to rape, incest, birth defects, gender selection, population control or the mental wellbeing of the mother are acceptable. (Job 3:16; Psalms 51:1-5, 139:14-16; Isaiah 44:24; 49:1,5; Jeremiah 1:5, 20:15-18; Luke 1:44)

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Euthanasia​

We believe that the direct taking of innocent human life is a moral evil, regardless of the intention. Life is a gift of God and must be respected from conception until natural death. Thus we believe that an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder contrary to the will of God. Discontinuing medical procedures that are extraordinary or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be a legitimate refusal of over-zealous treatment. (Exodus 20:13, 23:7; Matthew 5:21; Acts 17:28)

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Separation

We believe that saved individuals should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord. God commands His people to separate from all religious apostasy, all worldly and sinful pleasures both individually and within the church, practices, and associations, the appearance of evil, and to refrain from all immodest and immoderate appearances, piercings, and bodily markings. (Leviticus 19:28; Romans 12:1-2; 14:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 1 John 2:15- 17; 2 John 9-11)

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Civil Government​

We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions: the home, the church, and the state. Every person is subject to these authorities, but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by His Word. God has given each institution specific Biblical responsibilities and balanced those responsibilities with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other. The home, the church, and the state are equal and sovereign in the respective biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God. (Romans 13:1-7; Ephesians 5:22-24; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 2:13-14)

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Missions​

We believe that God has given the church a great commission to proclaim the gospel to all nations so that there might be a great multitude from every nation, tribe, ethnic group, and language group who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ, we must use all available means to go to the foreign nations and other areas of our own country and not wait for them to come to us. We believe that God’s method for financing God’s Mission (Great Commission) is God’s man’s money, and thus we are grace givers above and beyond our tithe through our local church. (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-47; John 20:21; Acts 1:8)

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Giving

We believe that every Christian, as a steward of that portion of God’s wealth entrusted to him, is obligated to financially support his local church. We believe that God has established the tithe as a basis for giving, but that every Christian should also give other offerings sacrificially and cheerfully to the support of the church, the relief of those in need, and the spread of the Gospel. We believe that a Christian relinquishes all rights to direct the use of his tithe or offering once the gift has been made. (Genesis 14:20; Proverbs 3:9-10; Acts 4:34-37; 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7; Galatians 6:6; Ephesians 4:28; 1 Timothy 5:17-18; 1 John 3:17)

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Authority of Statement of Faith

This Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself is the sole and final source of all that we believe.