What We Believe

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THE SCRIPTURES
We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, the complete revelation of God’s will for man and the final authority for Christian faith and conduct.
2 Timothy 3:15-17; Matthew 4:4; 1 Peter 1:23-25

THE ONE TRUE GOD
We believe in one God, the Creator of all things, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are co-equal and infinitely perfect.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God manifested in the flesh, true God and true man. We believe in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.

MAN: HIS FALL AND REDEMPTION
We believe that man was created in the image of God but through sin became lost and his only hope for salvation is by the New Birth, the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

THE SALVATION OF MAN
(a) We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection provide the only ground for justification and salvation for all who believe, and only those who receive Jesus Christ are born of the Holy Spirit, and thus become children of God.

(b) We believe that man’s salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by human works, and is the free gift of God; however, the believer’s works will determine his rewards in eternity.
Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:10

(c) We believe the inward evidence to the believer of his salvation is the direct inward witness of the Holy Spirit with the believer’s spirit. The outward evidence to all men is a life of true holiness.

ORDINANCES
We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are to be observed by the Church during this present age. They are not, however, to be regarded as means of salvation. Through water baptism, the believer is identified with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection to newness of life.
Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:35-38; 10:47,48; 19:3-5; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28

THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe all those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ are entitled to, and should ardently expect and earnestly seek, the promise of the Father, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit according to the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. This experience is distinct from and subsequent to the New Birth and is evidenced by a prayer language of speaking in tongues. With it comes the endowment of spiritual power to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, manifested in public testimony and service through various gifts of the Holy Spirit which are distributed to believers as He wills.
Matthew 3:11; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-8; 2:4; 8:14-17; 10:44-46; 11:14-16; 15:7-9; 19:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31

THE CHURCH
We believe that the true Church is universally composed of all those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures and are united together in the body of Christ of which He is the Head. Only those who are members of the universal Church, the body of Christ, may be members of the local church. Every local church has the right and responsibility under Christ to decide and govern its own affairs.

DIVINE HEALING
We believe that divine healing for the ills of the physical body is available through faith in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:4,5; Matthew 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24; 3 John 2

THE BLESSED HOPE
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to gather His saints to Heaven and that this “Blessed Hope” has a vital bearing on the personal life and service of the believer.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; 2 Thessalonians 2:1

MILLENNIAL REIGN
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ will return with His saints from Heaven to rule and reign for one thousand years on the earth, after which the New Heaven and New Earth will be established.
Revelation 19:11-16; 20:1-7; 21:1

RESURRECTION
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, both the believer and the unbeliever; of the believer to everlasting blessedness and joy in the presence of the Lord, of the unbeliever to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire.
Revelation 20:10-15

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