THE SCRIPTURES
The Old and New Testaments are a divine revelation and constitute the Word of God. The Bible was recorded by selected men who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is verbally and plenarily inspired, as originally given, and the manuscripts which we possess are identical with the originals. Thus it is our sole authority in all matters of faith and practice. (The King James Version 1611 is an example of an honest and accurate translation of these manuscripts.) We believe it can be used with confidence and authority.
Psalm 12:6-7; Proverbs 30:5-6; John 17:17; Revelation 22:18-19; Acts 3:21; Matthew 5:18; 24:35; Acts 1:16; II Samuel 23:2; II Timothy 3:15- 17; II Peter 1:19-21; Romans 1:16; Jude 3.
THE GODHEAD:
Comprehensively, the Scriptures testify that God is spirit, light, and love. Theologically, God is infinite, eternal, and immutable in His wisdom, power, presence, unity, holiness, justice, goodness, truth, and love. Thus God is sovereign. God is revealed as self-existent and self-revealing in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who share the same attributes and are worthy of the same distinct place in the execution of divine purposes.
Genesis 1:1; Exodus 3:14; Psalm 115:3; Luke 1:37; Psalm 139:1-16: 145:17; I Peter 1:16; Malachi 3:6; John 3:16; Psalm 103:8; John 4:24; 5:26; I Thessalonians 1:19; Deuteronomy 6:4; Genesis 1:26; Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19- 20; John 14:16; I Corinthians 12:4-6; II Corinthians 13:14; I John 5:7; I John 3:16.
THE FATHER:
We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, measureless in power. We rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all that come to Him through Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Exodus 6:3; Deuteronomy 4:35; Psalm 90:2; 139:7-10; Isaiah 40:28; John 4:24; I John 1:5.
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST:
The second Person of the triune God is the Son, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He existed eternally with the Father, and at the time of His incarnation, without change in His deity, became a man through the miracle of His divine conception and virgin birth. He lived a sinless, impeccable life, died a substitutionary death for all men, was buried, and arose from the grave physically the third day. He ascended into Heaven, is presently fulfilling His intercessory and mediatorial ministry, and has promised to return to rapture the Saved, prior to the Tribulation, at the conclusion of which He will institute His Davidic reign over Israel and the nations.
Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 18:11; 20:28; John 1:1,14; 3:16; 8:58; Romans 3:25- 26; I Corinthians 15:3; II Corinthians 5:14-21; Philippians 2:6- 11; Hebrews 2:9-15; I Peter 1:19.
THE HOLY SPIRIT:
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead and is the divine Agent in creation, revelation, and redemption. He convicts the world of sin, calls, regenerates, and seals. He indwells all who are born again, empowers them for service, illumines their understanding of the truth, and promotes sanctification in all who become children of God through faith in Christ.
Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; I Samuel 10:10; 16:13; Job 33:4; John 3:3-6; 14:26; 16:8-11; Acts 5:3-4; Romans 15:30; I Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 1:13-14; Hebrews 9:14.
THE CREATION:
We believe in the Genesis account of Creation and that it is to be accepted literally and not figuratively; that man was created directly in God's own image and after His own likeness and did not evolve from any lower form of life; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly, and God's established law is that they bring forth only "after their kind."
Genesis 1:1-2,25; 1:11-12,21; 1:24-25; Nehemiah 9:6; Acts 14:15; Hebrews 11:3.
THE FALL OF MAN:
Man was created in the image and likeness of God immediately and apart from any process of evolution. By personal disobedience to the revealed will of God, man became sinful and subject to the power of the Devil. This total depravity has been transmitted to the entire human race so that man is not only a sinner by nature and practice, but is guilty before God and possesses within himself no means of recovery or salvation.
Genesis 2:16-17; 3:6-7; Psalm 51:5; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:9-20.
THE WAY OF SALVATION:
Salvation is by the grace of God through a free gift, which is neither merited nor secured in whole or in part by any virtue or work of man. The single ground or basis of salvation is the shed blood or our Lord Jesus Christ, and the single condition is the faith in the risen Son of God.
Salvation is achieved through the instrumentality of God's Word.
John 3:16-18,36; 5:24; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 15:11; Romans 10:9-10,13,17; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-9; I Peter 1:18-19; I John 4:10.
THE BENEFITS OF SALVATION:
We believe that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified, their sins are pardoned, and the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed to them; that they are regenerated (born again) and are given spiritual life, a manifesting repentance and faith, eternally secure through the power of Christ.
Isaiah 53:11-12; Acts 10:43; 13:39; Romans 5:1-2,9; II Corinthians 5:21; I John 2:12; Romans 8:1; Titus 3:7.
SANCTIFICATION:
We believe that sanctification is presented in three phases in Scripture:
that believers have been made partakers of Christ's holiness, that they are being progressively sanctified, and that they will be completely sanctified at His glorification; that there is no complete eradication of the old nature in progressive sanctification, that speaking in tongues is not a sign of either regeneration or sanctification, nor is the New Testament gift of tongues in existence today, but has ceased.
John 17:17; Romans 1:17; I Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; Ephesians 4:15; 5:26-27; Philippians 1:9-11; I Thessalonians 4:3-7; Hebrews 10:10; I Corinthians 13:8-13; 14:20,22.
THE SPIRIT WORLD:
Prior to the creation of man, God created a great host of persons known as angels, many of whom kept their first estate of holiness and presently worship God and serve His earthly people. One of the angels, Lucifer, fell through the sin of pride, taking with him a large number of his associates, who became demons and participated in his unholy purposes. Satan is the author of sin. He accomplished the moral fall of the progenitors of the human race, subjecting them to his authority and defrauding them of world dominion. He is the enemy of God and the accuser of God's people. He was judged at the cross and, while active in this age and the scourge of the Tribulation, his destiny is the Lake of Fire, to which he will be consigned at the close of the Millennium.
I Kings 19:5; Nehemiah 9:6; Matthew 4:11; 18:10; Mark 13:32; Acts 8:26; Colossians 1:16; 2:18; Ii Thessalonians 1:7; Hebrews 1:14; Revelation 12:10-12; 20:10;
The Fall and Work Of Satan: Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Genesis 3:1- 6,14; Job 1:6-12; II Corinthians 11:14-15.
THE CHURCH:
We believe in the local, visible church, which is a congregation of baptized believers bound together by a common faith and fellowship in the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ and being governed by His Word; seeking to extend the Gospel to the ends of the earth; that its only Scriptural officers are bishops (pastors) and deacons. Their qualifications, claims, and duties are defined in the epistles to Timothy and Titus.
Matthew 16:18; 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-47; 5:11; 8:1; I Corinthians 11:23- 24; I Timothy 3:1-16; II Timothy 2:15; 3:14-17; 4:1-5.
A GOSPEL CHURCH IN ITS INDEPENDENCE AND RELATIONSHIPS:
We believe that the church of Christ is a voluntary and independent, autonomous group of baptized believers; that it organically can join nothing, and that it has the power and right within itself to confess its own faith in accordance with the New Testament; and that each congregation recognizes its own self-containing government as its highest authority for carrying out the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 18:15-18; Acts 6:3,5; I Corinthians 5:4-5,13; I Timothy 3:15; Jude 3; Revelation 2-3.
BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER:
We believe that both Christian baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of the church and are a memorial, a symbol, and a prophecy. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to show forth, in a solemn and beautiful emblem, our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is prerequisite to the privileges of a church relation and a prerequisite to the Lord's Supper, in which, members of the church by the use of bread and fruit of the vine commemorate together the death of Christ, preceded always by solemn self-examination.
Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; John 3:22-23; Acts 2:37-41; 8:36-39; 16:30- 34; 18:8; Romans 6:3-4; I Peter 3:21; Mark 14:22-25; I Corinthians 11:18-34.
THE LORD'S DAY:
We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's day, and is a Christian institution. It is to be kept sacred to spiritual purposes by abstaining from all unnecessary secular labor and recreation which detracts from the spirit of the Lord's day for it commemorates the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead by the devout observance of all the means of grace, both private and public, and by predicting the rest that remaineth for the people of God.
Mark 16:9; John 20:19; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:1-2; Colossians 2:16-17; Hebrews 4:3-11; 10:24-25.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY:
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the Prince of the kings of the earth; that church and state should be separate, the state owing the church protection and full freedom, no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be preferred above another by the state; the state should not impose taxes for the support of any form of religion; a free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
Psalm 72:11; Matthew 22:21; 23:10; Acts 4:18-20; 5:29; Romans 13:1-7; I Timothy 2:1-6; Titus 3:1; I Peter 2:13-14.
THE STATE OF 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 through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His sight; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under condemnation; that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and a resurrection of the unrighteous.
Daniel 12:2; Malachi 3:18; 7:13-14; Luke 9:23-26; John 3:18; Romans 1:7; Revelation 19:4,11-15; 20:6-8.
FUTURE EVENTS:
We believe the Scriptures teach that at death the spirit and soul of the believer pass instantly into the presence of Christ and remain in conscious joy until the resurrection of the body when Christ comes for His own. At death, the spirit and soul of the unbeliever pass immediately into a place of conscious punishment in Hades to await the resurrection of the wicked into judgment. The blessed hope of the believer is the imminent, personal, pre-Tribulational, pre-Millennial appearance of Christ to rapture the Saved. His righteous judgments will then be poured out on an unbelieving world during the Tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel), the last half of which is the Great Tribulation. The climax of this fearful era will be the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth in great glory to introduce the Davidic Kingdom; Israel will be saved and restored completely to their land; Satan will be bound, and the curse will be lifted from the physical creation. Following the Millennium, the Great White Throne judgment will occur, at which time the bodies and souls of the wicked shall be reunited and cast into the Lake of Fire.
Matthew 24:21; Mark 9:43-49; Luke 16:22-31; I Corinthians 15:51-57; II Corinthians 5:8; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Revelation 20:13.
CONCERNING HERESY AND APOSTASY.
We believe the Scriptures teach that it is necessary to maintain a total and complete separation from all forms of heresy and ecclesiastical apostasy. We believe the Scripture admonishes us to try them, mark them, rebuke them, have no fellowship with them, withdraw ourselves, receive them not, have no company with them, reject them, and separate ourselves from them.
Romans 16:17; II Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:11; II Thessalonians 3:6,14; Titus 1:13; 3:10; I John 4:1; II John 10,11.
CONCERNING THE GRACE OF GIVING.
We believe the Scriptures teach that giving is one of the fundamentals of the faith; that God is the Source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; that tithing is a Bible principle, and that the storehouse for the tithe in this present age is the common treasury of the church; that we are under obligation to serve God with our time, talents, and material possessions; and are commanded to cheerfully, regularly, and liberally bring our tithes and offerings into the storehouse upon the first day of the week.
Psalm 24:1; Haggai 2:8; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 8:18; Genesis 14:18-20; 28:20-22; Leviticus 27:30; Malachi 3:8-10; Matthew 23:23; I Corinthians 9:13,14; 16:1,2; Hebrews 7:2,4; Acts 4:35,37; Proverbs 3:9; II Corinthians 8:3,12; 9:7,8; Luke 6:38.
CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION AND LAST THINGS.
@AOF-BODY 1 = We believe the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ rose literally and bodily from the dead on the third day; that having ascended into glory, He alone is our merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God; that this same Jesus shall return to earth bodily, personally, and visibly; first to raise the righteous dead and catch up all living believers in the twinkling of an eye, then to return with the saints to set up His glorious kingdom of a millennium of peace and righteousness, having executed judgment upon an unbelieving world; that at the final day of judgment all Christ- rejecting sinners will be raised, judged, and cast into the lake of fire for everlasting damnation, that the saved will live with Him for eternity according to the sure promises of God.
Matthew 28:6,7; Luke 24:2,4-6,19,51; John 20:27; I Corinthians 15:4; Mark 16:6,19; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 8:1,6; 12:2; I Timothy 2:5; I John 2:1; Hebrews 2:17; 5:9,10; John 14:3; I Thessalonians 4:16,17; Matthew 24:27,35,42; Hebrews 9:28; I Corinthians 15:25,42-44,51-53; Philippians 4:20,21; Luke 1:32; Isaiah 11:4,5; Psalm 72:8; Revelation 20:1-4,6,15; 21:7,8,24-27; 22:11; I Peter 4:7; I Corinthians 7:29-31; Hebrews 1:10-12; Revelation 1:7; I John 2:17; Acts 24:15; Luke 14:14; Daniel 12:2; John 5:28,29; 6:40; 11:25,26; II Timothy 1:10; Acts 10:42; Matthew 13:37-43,49; 25:35-41; II Peter 2:9,11,12; Revelation 20:20.