STATEMENT OF FAITH

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We believe that the Bible is God’s written revelation to man, and thus the sixty-six books of the Bible are verbally inspired in every word, absolutely inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:7-14; 2 Peter 1:20-21). 

We believe that there is but one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (John 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)—each equally deserving worship and obedience. 

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35); that He is God incarnate (John 1:1,14); and that the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom (Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:29; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 7:25-26; 1 Peter 1:18-19) and that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (John 10:15; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24).

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity and that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind which includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ; and transforming believers into the image of Christ (John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5; 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:22). 

We believe that man was directly and immediately created by God in His image and likeness and that because all men were in Adam, a nature corrupted by Adam’s sin has been transmitted to all men of all ages, Jesus Christ being the only exception. All men are thus sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration (Psalm 14:1-3; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:9-18, 23; 5:10-12). 

We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works (John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10; 1 Peter 1:18-19) and that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (Romans 3:25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). 

We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-13), the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 19:7-8), of which Christ is the head (Ephesians 1:22; 4:15; Colossians 1:18) and that the purpose of the church is to glorify God (Ephesians 3:21) by building itself up in the faith (Ephesians 4:13-16), by instruction of the Word (2 Timothy 2:2, 15; 3:16-17), by fellowship (Acts 2:47; 1 John 1:3), by keeping the ordinances (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:38-42), and by advancing and communicating the gospel to the entire world (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8; 2:42). 

We believe that the souls of the redeemed who die pass immediately into the presence of Christ in heaven and remain in joyful fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8), while their bodies rest in the grave awaiting the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 2 Corinthians 5:1-5; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Upon death, the souls of the unsaved are kept under punishment in hell, awaiting their final judgment and eternal punishment (Matthew 25:41; John 5:28-29). 

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty (Acts 2:33; 5:31; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1), will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth according to His promise to judge the living and the dead (John 14:3; 1 Peter 4:5; Revelation 1:7; 22:7, 12). 

We believe that there will be a bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life (John 6:39; Romans 8:10-11, 19-23; 2 Corinthians 4:14), and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment (Daniel 12:2; John 5:29; Revelation 20:13-15).