We affirm that the Bible is our sole authority for life and godliness, and what is set forth below is what we believe about the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

 

• The Scriptures – We believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we mean that God superintended human authors so that by using their individual human personalities they composed and recorded without error His message to man in the words of the original autographs (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21).

 

• God – We believe that God eternally exists in three persons: one called Father, one called Son, and one called Holy Spirit; that these three persons are the one God, having precisely the same nature and perfections, and are worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence and obedience (cf. Gen. 1:1; Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19; John 4:24, 10:30; 2 Cor. 13:14).

 

• Man – We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but in Adam all mankind fell into sin with the result that all men are sinners, hopelessly sinful in themselves apart from the grace of God (cf. Gen. 1:27, 9:6; Rom. 3:23, 5:12; Eph. 2:1).

 

• Christ – We believe that the second person of the triune God, the one called Son, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, thus to continue as both undiminished deity and perfect humanity united in one person forever (cf. John 1:1, 1:14, 1:18, 5:18; Heb. 1:1-9, 5:8; 1 John 5:20; 1
Tim. 2:5).

 

• Salvation – We believe that salvation is a gift of God brought to men by His grace and received by faith alone in Christ, who died for our sins and rose again, apart from any sacraments, good works, or human merit (cf. John 3:16; Acts 4:12, 13:38-39, 16:31; Rom. 4:4-5, 5:1; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 2:8-9).

 

• The Holy Spirit –
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine, eternal person, and that He is not just an influence, but has intellect, emotions and will of His own (cf. Matt. 28:19; John 15:26, 16:13-14; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:11; 13:14; Eph. 4:30).

 

• We believe that the present ministry of the Holy Spirit is restraining sin in the world and convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. He also in this present age regenerates those who will believe in Christ, indwells them permanently, seals them unto the day of redemption, bestows upon each believer special ability for service (gifts), and fills those yielded to Him through God’s word (cf. John 3:8, 14:16, 15:26-27, 16:7-15; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19, 12:4-13; Eph. 4:30, 5:18).

 

• The Church – We believe that the Church is composed of all believers of all racial groups, colors and nations, is the body and bride of Christ, is formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and exists in two aspects, universal and local. The universal Church is an elect company of believers, baptized with the Holy Spirit. Together, these believers comprise one body. Its mission is to witness to its head, Jesus Christ, by preaching the gospel among the nations. The local church is a group of believers voluntarily joined together to worship God with praise and thanksgiving and to glorify Jesus Christ through an aggressive effort to disciple others by teaching the Scriptures and the exercise of spiritual gifts (cf. Acts 13:1; 1 Cor. 12:4-13, 12:27; Eph. 1:22-23).

 

• The Second Coming –
We believe that the blessed hope of the imminent return of the Lord for His Church is to be followed in order by: Daniel’s 70th week (often referred to as the tribulation period); the second coming of Christ to the earth at the end of Daniel’s 70th week; the establishment of the reign of Christ on the earth for one thousand years; the eternal state of punishment for the unsaved and the eternal state of blessing for the saved (cf. Dan. 9:24-27; Matt. 24:21, 24:29-30, 25:31-46; John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 1:10, 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Rev. 3:10, 20:1-6, 20:11- 15).