What We Believe

Trinity 
Self-existing and self-revealing in three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (John 5:26; Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14), each of whom is to be honored and worshiped equally as true God.   (John 5:23; Acts 5:3-4) 

 

Bible 
Accepting fully the writings of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God, verbally inspired in all parts and therefore wholly without error as originally given of God, altogether sufficient in themselves as our daily infallible rule of faith and practice (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35, 17:17; II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:21). 

Creation of Man That he was the direct creation of God, spirit and soul and body, not in any sense the product of an animal ancestry, but made in the divine image (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:7; Matthew 19:4; I Thessalonians 5:23). 

 

Fall of Man 
That by personal disobedience to the revealed will of God man became a sinful creature and the progenitor of a fallen race (Genesis 3:1-24, 5:3) who are universally sinful in both nature and practice (Ephesians 2:3; Romans 3:23, 5:12), alienated from the life and family of God (Ephesians 4:18 John 8:42-44), under the righteous judgment and wrath of God (Romans 3:19, 1:18), and have within themselves no possible means of recovery or salvation (Mark 7:21-23; Matthew 19:26; Romans 7:18). 

 

Salvation 
That salvation is the free gift of God (Romans 3:24, 6:23) neither merited nor secured in part or in whole by any virtue of work of man (Titus 3:4-5, 9:16), but received only by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16, 6:29; Acts 16:30-31: Ephesians 2:8-9), in whom all true believers have as personal possession the gift of eternal life, a perfect righteousness, son-ship in the family of God, deliverance and security from all condemnation, every spiritual resource needed for life and godliness, and the divine guarantee that they shall never perish (I John 5:13; Romans 3:22; Galatians 3:26; John 5:24; Ephesians 1:3; John 10:27-30), that this salvation includes the whole man, spirit, and soul and body (I Thessalonians 5:23-24), and apart from Christ there is no possible salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). 

 

Second Coming of Christ 
That His return from Heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious, a blessed hope for which we should constantly watch and pray; the time being unrevealed but always imminent (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7; Mark 13:33-37; Titus 2:11-13; Revelation 22:20), that when He comes He will first, by resurrection and translation, remove from the earth His waiting church (I Thessalonians 4:16), and then pour out righteous judgment of God upon the unbelieving world (Revelation 6:1-17), afterward descend with His church and establish His glorious and literal kingdom over all the nations for a thousand years (Revelation 19:1, 20:6; Matthew 13:41-43), at the close of which He will raise and judge the unsaved dead (Revelation 20:11-15), and finally, as the Son of David, deliver up His Messianic Kingdom to God the Father (I Corinthians 15:24-28), in order that as the eternal Son He may reign with the Father in the new Heaven and the new earth along with all His children (Christians) (Revelation 21:1; 22:6). 

 

Eternal Life 
A.HEAVEN That the spirits of the saved at death go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven (Philippians 1:21-23; II Corinthians 5:8), where they abide in joyful fellowship with Him until His second coming, when their bodies shall be raised from the grave and changed into the likeness of His own glorious body (Philippians 3:20-21; I Corinthians 15:35-38; I John 3:2), at which time their works shall be brought before the Judgment Seat of Christ for the determination of rewards, a judgment which may issue in the loss of rewards, but not the loss of the soul (I Corinthians 3:8-15). 
B.HELL That the spirits of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hades, where they are kept under punishment until the final day of judgment (Luke 16:19-34; II Peter 2:9), at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, they shall be judged according to their works, and cast into the place of final and everlasting punishment (Revelation 20:11-15, 21:8; Mark 9:43; Jude 13). We understand that the above articles do not by any means exhaust the content of our creed which is the whole Word of God, and they are not intended to set a limit beyond which faith cannot go without this word; but we do believe that insofar as these articles extend, they are a true representation of the sound doctrine taught in the Scriptures, and therefore binding upon us as Christian believers.

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