Our Beliefs in regards to key Bible doctrines.
1. The Bible
The Bible (66 books) is God's inspired Word and is the only source of God's Word in this world. We believe in God's work of inspiration whereby the Holy Spirit exercised such influence over certain men that their writings constitute the communication of God (1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Sam. 23:2). This inspiration of the autographs extended to the very words (verbal; Matt. 5:18; 1 Cor. 2:13) and to the totality of Scripture (plenary; 2 Tim. 3:16). The Bible is the only source of God's plan of salvation and is our guide for the Christian life (2 Tim. 3:15-17).
2. The Godhead
God is one in essence (Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29), yet three in persons (Matt. 28:19). God is an infinite (Ps. 139), self-existent (John 5:26), indivisible (John 10:30), eternal spirit (John 5:24). The three persons of the Godhead are co-equal and co-eternal, each of whom possess the totality of the divine essence simultaneously while existing as separate personal manifestations. The Scriptures declare that these three persons are God. The Father is declared to be God (James 3:9); the Son is declared to be God (John 1:1; Heb. 1:8,10); the Holy Spirit is declared to be God (Acts 5:3-4,9).
3. Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the second person of the Godhead, being co-equal and co-existent with God (Phil. 2:6; John 10:30). The Deity of Christ is seen in His possessing the attributes of God (John 14:6; Heb. 13:8; Matt. 28:20), and in His exercise of the prerogatives of God such as receiving worship (Matt. 15:25), forgiving sin (Mark. 2:3-12), and being the object of faith (John 1:12). God the Son was with the Father before the foundation of the world (John 1:1; John 8:58). In the incarnation, Christ humbled Himself and subordinated Himself to the power of the Holy Spirit and to the will of the Father (Isa. 11:2; Phil. 2:5-8). In the incarnation, He was born of a virgin (Matt. 1:23), and conceived of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20). He was one person with two unmixed natures, perfect humanity and perfect deity.
Christ lived a sinless life (2 Cor. 5:21) and on the cross was the propitiation for the sins of the world (Heb. 2:17; John 1:29), being the sacrifice for our sins by his death and the shedding of His blood (Heb. 9:13,14; Heb. 10:12). Christ was resurrected bodily (Matt. 28:6) and ascended bodily to the right hand of the Father to ever make intercession for His saints (Acts 1:9; Heb. 7:25). Christ shall return for His saints in the event known as the pre-tribulational rapture of the church (1 Thess. 4:16,17). At the end of the tribulation period which follows the rapture, Christ will return with His saints as the King of kings, and will rule with power and glory on the throne of David for one thousand years (Acts 1:10,11; Rev. 19:11; Rev. 20:3; Zech. 14:4-9).
4. The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and is co-equal and co-existent with God the Father and God the Son. He is declared to be God (Acts 5:3,4; 2 Cor. 3:17) and as God possesses the attributes of God, such as: eternality (Heb. 9:14), omnipresence (Ps. 139:7-10), and omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10,11). The Holy Spirit convicts the unsaved of sin and their need to receive Christ (John 16:7-11), gives spiritual life in the new birth (John 3:5), seals the believer, is the earnest of our inheritance (Eph. 4:30), and permanently indwells the believer with power for holy living and service (1 Cor. 6:19).
The Holy Spirit gave apostolic gifts to the apostolic churches (1 Cor. 12), to authenticate the message of the early church (Heb. 2:1-5). These authenticating and revelatory gifts ceased with the completion of the body of the Scripture (1 Cor. 13:8-12).
5. Man
God created man a perfect being, in innocence, and in His own image and likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). Man was created a moral, rational, spiritual being consisting of a body, soul, and spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). Man's original nature was good (Gen. 1:26,27,31); however, he had a free will, and when he chose to disobey God, he fell from innocency, and sin entered the world (Rom. 5:12). At that time, man not only began to die physically (Gen. 2:17), but also spiritually, and Adam being the head of the human race, passed on this sinful nature through propagation in human generation (Gen. 5:1-3; Ps. 51:5). Man is thus born with a sinful nature and is not able to please God (Rom. 3:10-12) and is in need of salvation through the new birth (John 3:3-7).
6. Sin
Sin is lawlessness or disregard for the law of God (I John 3:4) and is missing the mark of the perfect holiness of God. Sin originated with Satan (Isa. 14:12-17) and came into the human race through the fall of Adam (Gen. 3:1-7; Rom. 5:12). As a result of Adam's sin, death passed upon all men. Because of the fall of man, man is depraved and unable to please God through his own nature (Rom. 3:10-12; Rom. 5:12-19). He is born with a sinful nature which will naturally produce sin (Ps. 51:5). Man has no means of recovery from this sinful state apart from the work of Christ on the cross as the Divine provision for this sin nature (Rom. 6:1-6; Eph. 2:8-9) and its sin (I John 2:2).
7. Salvation
Salvation is a free gift through the grace of God (Eph. 2:8-9) and cannot be received on the basis of human merit or works (Rom. 4:4; Rom 6:23). Each person needs salvation because of their sinful condition (Rom. 3:23) and their only basis of salvation is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross (Eph. 1:7; Acts 4:12). By His death and the shedding of His blood on the cross (Heb. 8:12,14,15; Matt. 26:28), Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2); He became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Those who receive Christ by faith as their own Savior are justified on the ground of His shed blood (Rom. 5:9).
When a person by faith receives Jesus Christ as personal Savior, he becomes a child of God (John 1:12,13); he is instantly born again by the Spirit of God (John 3:5); he is converted; and he becomes a new person in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Acts 3:19). At the moment of salvation, he is justified, that is, judicially declared righteous by God because the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him (Rom. 5:1,2; 4:5). He is likewise sanctified, being set apart for holy service (1 Cor. 1:2). The saved are eternally saved and are kept by the power of God (John 10:28) and have eternal life (1 John 5:11,12). Click Here to read how Tina was Saved! Click Here to read how Michael was saved!
8. The Church
Jesus prophesied that He would build His church (Matt. 16:18) and the official, organized beginning of His church began on the day of Pentecost, on which occasion Jesus' disciples were baptized by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 11:15-16). The local church (1 Cor. 12:27) is the institution which God has instituted and chosen to carry out His work in this age. It is composed of saved, immersed believers (Acts 2:41), who join together to carry out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), and meet for edification, fellowship, prayer, worship, for instruction in the Word, and for observing the ordinances (Acts 2:42; Heb. 10:25). This body is independent in character and is under the immediate authority of Christ (Rev. 2:1) with God's Word being its sole authority for both faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:15-17). The local church has only two divinely appointed offices, pastor and deacon (Phil. 1:1). The local church observes two ordinances, baptism by immersion (John 3:23; Acts 8:36-39), and the Lord's Supper.
Baptism is not necessary for salvation (Eph. 2:8-9), yet it is the privilege and duty of every child of God to follow the Lord in baptism as an open confession of his identification with Christ as Savior and with His death, burial, and resurrection (Matt. 28:19; Acts 10:47-48; Rom. 6:3-5). The Lord's Supper is to be observed by born again believers in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:20-32). This observance shows forth His death until He comes, and should always be preceded by self-examination. The cup and bread are symbolical of the blood and body of Christ (Luke 22:19-20); the cup being described as the “fruit of the vine,” (Matt. 26:26-29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18), pure, unfermented grape juice.
9. Angels
Angels are created beings and are divided into two groups: good angels who obey the will of God (Matt. 26:53; Ps. 103:20; Heb. 1:14) and bad angels who left their first estate (Jude 6), obey Satan (Matt. 25:41), and will be cast into the lake of fire. Satan was created a perfect, anointed cherub, but because of pride he fell (Ezek. 28:11-19; Isa. 14:12-25). Today he works as the adversary of God and His work (1 Pet. 5:3).
10. Last Things
The next great prophetic event on God's time calendar is the pre-tribulational rapture, the imminent return of Christ for His own (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Thess. 5:9). Following the rapture, believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and the works of each believer will be judged; the works of the flesh being consumed and the works of the Spirit being rewarded (1 Cor. 3:10-15; 2 Cor. 5:10).
The unbelievers who are left after the rapture will face seven years of tribulation in which the wrath of God is poured out upon this earth. This period is the seventieth week of Daniel (Dan. 9:24-27). The tribulation will end with Christ returning to the earth, and all unbelievers and unbelieving nations will be destroyed (Rev. 19:11-21).
Christ will establish His promised millennial kingdom with the earthly citizens being those believers who were living at His return. During the millennium, Satan will be bound and peace will prevail (Rev. 20:1-3). At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan will be loosed for a season, and many will rebel against Christ (Rev. 20:8-10). After being conquered by Christ, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire and spend eternity there (Rev. 20:10).
Following the defeat of Satan, the great white throne judgment will take place at which time all the unsaved will be brought from their temporary place of torment in Hades, and their bodies will be resurrected from their place of abode (Rev. 20:11-13). After this judgment, all the unsaved will be cast into the lake of fire to spend eternity, but this judgment will determine the degree of that eternal torment (Matt. 11:20-24).
Eternity will follow in which all believers will enjoy eternal blessedness in the presence of God, in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21 and 22).