Statement of Faith

A. The Scriptures

  1. We believe in Verbal Plenary Inspiration of the Word of God; that the Sixty-six books in our present Bible were divinely given wholly without error in their original and that we have today a faithful copy, the Authorized King James version, which is the final and absolute authority for our faith and practice (II Tim. 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21).
  2. We believe that the Scriptures interpreted in their natural, literal sense reveal divinely determined dispensations or rules of life which 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 (Gen. 1:28; I Cor. 9:17; II Cor. 3:9-18; Gal. 3:13-25; Eph. 1:10; 3:2-10; Col. 1:24-25, 27; Rev. 20:2-5).

B. God

We believe that there is one true God (Isa. 43:10; Isa. 46:9; Duet. 4:39), eternally existent in three persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:14).

C. The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

We believe in the deity and preexistence of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jn.1:1-2, 14; Phil. 2:6), in His Virgin Birth (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:20, 22-23), in His sinless life (I Pet. 2:21-23; II Cor. 5:21), in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection (I Pet. 1:18-19; I Pet. 3:18; I Cor. 15:3-8; Acts 1:1-3; Luke 24:33-43), in His ascension to the right hand of the Father (Mk. 16:19; I Pet. 3:22), His present intercessory ministry (Heb. 7:25; I Jn. 2:1), His personal and bodily return in the air for his bride, the Church, prior to the Tribulation (I Thess. 4:16-18; I Cor. 15:51-52; Jn. 14:2-3), and His bodily and pre-millennial return with the church to the earth to establish His kingdom and to reign on David’s Throne over the whole earth for a thousand years (Zech. 14:4-5,9; Rev. 19:11-16, 20:4-6; Matt. 24:29-30), after which He will judge the lost at the Great White Throne Judgment and enter and eternity of bliss and joy with His saints (Rev. 20:11-15, 21:3-4; Ps. 16:11).

D. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

  1. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; and that He is the Supernatural Agent in regeneration; baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption (Jn. 16:8-11; Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 3:6; Eph. 1:13).
  2. We believe He is the Divine Teacher who assists believers to understand and appropriate the Scriptures, and that it is the privilege of all the saved to be indwelt with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18; I Jn. 2:20, 27).
  3. We believe that although tongues were given as a sign, they were never necessary for the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit. As to healing, we believe God may choose, in answer to prayer, to heal His people (James 5:14-15).

E. Man

We believe that man was created by God in His own image, not by evolution but by a special act of creation, and that this creative act of God was separate and distinct from any other work of God. We believe the Scripture record of the fall of man through his own disobedience, bringing the whole human race under sin and death. We believe that man is totally depraved and hopelessly lost apart from the grace and salvation of God (Gen 1:26-28, 2:7; Rom. 3:23, 5:21; Gal. 3:22).

F. Salvation

  1. We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ; that it is instantaneous and wholly apart from human merit; that every individual is born a sinner; and that all accountable human beings are sinners by practice and by choice and therefore must exercise personal faith in the redeeming work of Christ on Calvary and receive Him as Saviour in order to be saved (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Ps 51:5; Rom. 3:23, 10:9-10).
  2. We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in full assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word but that the same Word clearly forbids the use of our liberty as an occasion to the flesh (Rom. 13:14; Titus 2:11-15).
  3. We believe that salvation is eternal, that all who are truly born-again are kept by God the Father for the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Rom. 8:35-39; Phil. 1:6; Jude 1).

G. The Church

  1. We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27, 20:17, 28-32; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11).
  2. We believe that the local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is solely made up of born-again persons (I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22-23, 5:25-27).
  3. We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control (Acts 13:1-4, 15:19-31, 20:28; Rom. 15:1,4; I Cor. 3:9,16, 5:4-7, 13; I Pet. 5:1-4).
  4. We recognize water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the Scriptural ordinances of obedience for the church in this age (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42, 18:18; I Cor. 11:23-26).

H. The Ordinances

  1. We believe that Christian Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an ordinance to be kept by the Church according to Christ’s command and the example of the early Church. It has no part in accomplishing salvation but is a testimony of a person’s trust in the Lord and what has taken place in his heart and life (Matt. 28:19; Acts 8:36-39; Acts 16:30- 33).
  2. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He comes and should be preceded always by solemn selfexamination. We believe that there is no saving grace in the elements and that they are not changed either physically or spiritually but are symbols used to remind us of the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 11:23-29; Matt. 26:26-29).

I. The Christian Life

The Christian life is a life of righteousness, good works and separation unto God from the evil ways of the world (I Pet. 1:14-16; Eph. 2:10; Heb 12:14; II Cor. 6:17; Eph. 5:11), with guidance from the Bible and strength from the Holy Spirit resulting in the fruit of the Spirit (Ps. 119:9,11; Jn. 17:17; Acts 1:8; Eph. 3:16; Gal. 5:22-23). The goal is to mature personally and to build up other Christians in the faith and to lead unbelievers to Christ (II Pet. 3:18; Heb. 6:1, 10:25; Jn. 17:18; II Cor. 5:20).

J. Satan

We believe in his existence and personality; that he is a created being, once known as the “anointed cherub that covereth”; that through pride he fell; that he is the “god of this world” and the “prince of the power of the air”; that the judgment already passed on him will be executed at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and that ultimately he will be cast into the lake of fire (Matt. 13:19; Jn. 8:44; Eph 2:2; Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:13-15; I Pet. 5:8; Rev. 20: 7-10).

K. Civil Government

We believe that civil governments are of Divine appointment for the interest of good order in Human society; that magistrate are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed except in things opposed to the will of God as expressed in His Word and interpreted in the light of this Constitution and Confession of Faith (Rom. 13:1-7; Titus 3:1; I Pet. 2:13-14, 17).

L. The Lord’s Return

We believe in the bodily, personal imminent, premillennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ; that He will come before the great tribulation to catch away His bride, the church; that all who are His shall then be caught up to meet Him “in the air”; that at the end of the tribulation He will come with His Church to the earth to judge the living nations and set up His kingdom (Matt. 25:31-46;
I Thess. 4:3-16; Rev. 9:11-21).

M. The Righteous and the Wicked

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ are righteous in His sight, while all who continue in impenitence and unbelief are wicked in His sight and under His wrath; and that this distinction hold both in and after this life, in the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost (Gen. 18:23; Mal. 3:18; Matt. 7:13-14, 25:34-41; Luke 16:25; Rom. 6:17-1).

N. 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 Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin (Gen. 1:31; Ex. 20:11).

O. The Eternal State

  1. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28, 29, 11:25-26; Rev. 20:5-6, 12-13).
  2. We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where they consciously await their bodily resurrection, when spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23, 3:21; I Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 20:4-6).
  3. We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited, they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment, and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment and torment (Matt. 25:41- 46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; II Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15).

P. Authority of the Confession of Faith

The Confession of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible, itself, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. We do believe, however, that the foregoing Confession of Faith accurately represents the teaching of the Bible.