Our Doctrine
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
are the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, complete
as a revelation of God's will for salvation and the supreme and final authority
in faith and life.
(2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:19-21).
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God, sharing the same nature
and attributes.
(Gen. 1:26; Deut. 6:4; Mt. 3:16-17, 28:19)
We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal
Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe He concerns
Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, hears and answers prayer, and saves
from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.
(Jn.
16:23-27; Gal. 4:4-6; Eph. 1:3, 17-23)
We believe that Jesus Christ is God's eternal Son.
He is true God and true man, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary. We also believe in His sinless life, His substitutionary atonement,
His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into Heaven, His priestly
intercession on behalf of God's people and His personal, visible, Pretribulational
and Premillenial return from Heaven.
(Mt. 1:18,23; Lk. 24:1-8; Jn. 1:1,14;
Acts 1:11; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; 1Thess. 4:13-18; Heb. 4:14-16, 7:24-25; 1 Jn. 2:1;
Rev. 19-20)
We believe the Holy Spirit is a person and is
fully God. He regenerates, baptizes into the Body of Christ, indwells every
believer, guides and empowers believers, and gives gifts to all believers
to be used in ministry so that the Church functions properly.
(Mt. 28:19;
Jn. 3:5, 16:13; Acts. 1:8, 5:3-4; 1 Cor. 6:11,19, 12:4-13; Eph. 3:16; 4:11-16)
We believe God created man, male and female, in His image and
free from sin. We further believe that man, because of His fall in Adam, is
a sinner by nature and choice and is thus spiritually dead in his trespasses
and sins and is in need of salvation.
(Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:7-3:19; Rom. 3:23; 5:12-21; 6:23)
We believe in salvation by grace alone through faith alone
and in the Lord Jesus Christ. We further
believe that this salvation is based upon the sovereign grace of God, was
purchased by Christ on the cross, and is received by man through simple, childlike
faith apart from any human merit, works, or ritual. Salvation results in righteous
living and good works.
(John 1:12; 3:3-7; 5:24; Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Tim. 2:5)
We believe that God heals from disease and
sickness both directly and through His people. We further believe that Christians
can and do have demons and that God is still in the delivering-from-demons
business (being THE CHILDREN'S BREAD) and that He does it both sovereignly
and directly as well as through His people in ministry and service to one another.
(Mk. 7:27; 16:17-19)
We believe that the church is the spiritual body of which
Christ is the head. The true church is composed of all persons who through saving
faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. This body
expresses itself in local assemblies whose members have been baptized upon
a credible confession of faith and have associated themselves for worship,
instruction, evangelism, healing, deliverance and service. The ordinances
of the local church are believer's water baptism by immersion and the Lord's
Supper (Communion). We also believe in the interdependence of local churches
and the mutual submission of believers to one another in agape - love.
(Mt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; 2:41-47; Eph. 5:21; Col. 1:18; Heb.
10:24-25)
We believe that each local church
is self-governing in function and must be free from interference by any ecclesiastical
or political authority. We further believe that every human being is directly
responsible to God in matters of faith and life.
(Mt. 22:21; Rom. 13:1; 1 Tim. 2:1-6)
We believe that the supreme task of every believer
is to glorify God in his/her life. The believer should live blamelessly before
the world, be a faithful steward of his possessions and seek to realize the
full stature of maturity in Jesus Christ.
(1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 1:28; 1 Tim. 6:6-9; 1 Peter 1:14,15)
End
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the saved and
the lost, the eternal conscious existence of all men either in Heaven or Hell,
and in Divine judgments, rewards and punishments.
(John 5:29; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; 15:51-58; 2 Cor. 5:6-10; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 2 John 8; Rev. 19,20)