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We believe that
there is but one living and true God (Deut.
6:4; Isa. 45:5-7; 1 Cor. 8:4), an
infinite, all knowing Spirit (John
4:24), perfect in all His
attributes, one in essence, eternally
existing in three persons, called the
Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt.
28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14) – each
co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature,
and coequal in power and glory, having the
same attributes and perfections, and equally
deserving the same worship, homage,
confidence and obedience (John 1:14;
Acts 5:3-4; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 1:4-6).
We believe that Jesus Christ, the second
Person of the Trinity, possesses all the
divine excellencies, and in these He is
coequal, consubstantial, and co-eternal with
the Father (John 10:30; 14:9).
He is thus full Deity, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance
with the Father. We believe in the eternal
sonship of Christ.
We believe 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; Rom. 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24).
We believe that our justification is made
sure by His literal, physical resurrection
from the dead. In this literal physical
resurrection from the grave, three days
after His crucifixion, God confirmed the
deity of His Son and gave proof that God has
accepted the atoning work of Christ on the
cross (John 5:26-29; 14:19; Rom.
1:4; 4:25; 6:5-10; 1 Cor. 15:20, 23).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third
Person of the Trinity, a divine Person,
eternal, un-derived, possessing all the
attributes of personality and Deity. (1
Cor. 2:10-13; Eph. 4:30; 1 Cor. 12:11; Heb.
9:14; Ps. 139:7-10; Isa. 40:13-14; Rom.
15:13; John 16:13).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is given in
full to a believer at the moment of his
salvation and no second work of grace is
needed to receive the Holy Spirit (1
Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 2:21-22).
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We believe that
in Adam’s sin of disobedience to the
revealed will and Word of God, man lost his
innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual
and physical death, became subject to the
wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt
and utterly incapable of choosing or doing
that which is acceptable to God apart from
divine grace. With no recuperative powers to
enable him to recover himself, man is
hopelessly lost. Man’s salvation is thereby
wholly of God’s grace through the redemptive
work of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gen.
2:16-17; 3:1-19; John 3:36; Rom. 3:1-20, 23;
6:23; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1-3; 1 Tim.
2:13-14; 1 John 1:8).
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We believe that
only two ordinances have been committed to
the local church, baptism and the Lord’s
Supper (Acts 2:38-42).
We believe that Christian baptism is by
immersion. It is a solemn and beautiful
testimony of a faith in the crucified,
buried, and risen Savior, and a union with
Him (Rom. 6:1-11). It
represents the spiritual reality of our
baptism into the Body of Christ by the Holy
Spirit at the moment of salvation (1
Cor. 12:13), and is also a sign of
fellowship and identification with the
visible Body of Christ, the Church (Acts
2:41-42). Baptism is an act of
obedience, does not convey grace in and of
itself, and is not necessary for salvation.
We believe that the Lord’s Supper was
instituted by our Lord (Matt.
26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:23-33). The
Lord’s Supper is to be observed in
remembrance of the Lord (Luke 22:19).
It is a commemoration and proclamation of
His death to be observed until He comes, and
should always be preceded by solemn
self-examination (1 Cor. 11:28-32).
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We believe that
angels are created beings and as such are
not to be worshipped. (Luke 2:9-14;
Heb. 1:6-7, 14; 2:6-7; Rev. 5:11-14; 19:10;
22:9). We believe that Satan is a
created angel. He is the author of sin and
incurred the judgment of God by rebelling
against his Creator (Isa. 14:12-17;
Ezek. 28:11-19). He is the open and
declared enemy of God and man.
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We believe that
physical death involves no loss of our
immaterial consciousness (Rev.
6:9-11), that the soul of the
redeemed passes immediately into the
presence of Christ (Luke 23:43;
Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8), that there
is a separation of the soul and body (Phil.
1:21-24), and that, for the
redeemed, such separation will continue
until the rapture (1 Thess. 4:13-17).
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all
men both saved and lost. The saved are
resurrected to eternal life (John
6:39; Rom. 8:10-11, 19-23; 2 Cor. 4:14),
and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting
punishment (Dan. 12:2; John 5:29;
Rev. 20:13-15).
We believe in the personal, visible, bodily,
and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ
before the seven-year tribulation (1
Thess. 4:16; Titus 2:13) to
translate His Church from this earth (John
14:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:51-53; 1 Thess. 4:15-5:11).
We believe that following the removal of the
Church from the earth (John 14:1-3;
1 Thess. 4:13-18) the righteous
judgments of God will be poured out upon an
unbelieving world (Jer. 30:7; Dan.
9:27; 12:1; 2 Thess. 2:7-12; Rev. 16).
These judgments will be climaxed by the
return of Christ in glory to the earth (Matt.
24:27-31; 25:31-46).
We believe that the kingdom itself will be
the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel (Isa.
65:17-25; Ezek. 37:21-28; Zech. 8:1-17)
to restore them to the land which they
forfeited through their disobedience (Deut.
28:15-68). The result of their
disobedience was that Israel was temporarily
set aside (Matt. 21:43; Rom. 11:1-26)
but will again be awakened through
repentance to enter into the land of
blessing (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek.
36:22-32; Rom. 11:25-29).
We believe in the direct creation of the
heavens and the earth in six literal days by
fiat from Almighty God as described in the
first two chapters of Genesis (Gen.
1-2; Col. 1:16-17; John 1:1-3). We
believe Adam and Eve were literal historical
characters (Gen. 1-3; Matt. 19:4-5;
Rom. 5:12-21), the parents of all
men of every race, tribe, and kindred (Acts
17:26). We believe in the literal
fall of our first parents in the Garden of
Eden resulting in the depraved, fallen,
sinful state of all humanity, necessitating
their regeneration. We believe that death,
decay, and suffering entered creation for
the first time as a result of this fall (Gen.
3:1-3; Rom. 5:12-21). We believe in
a literal global flood of Noah as described
in Genesis 6-9. We believe that the early
chapters of Genesis are literal history.
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