Our Statement Of Faith

I.                    The Scriptures

God's Word, as revealed in the Holy Bible (or “Scriptures”), is the sole basis (“Sola Scriptura”) and cornerstone of all Christian beliefs and practices. 

All Scripture is inspired by God or “God breathed” (Theopneustos).  This inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts (verbal and plenary) of the canon of Scripture. 

Scripture is authoritative.  It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks including all that is necessary to life and salvation.

Scripture is infallible.  It is fully capable, and trustworthy to answer all questions and govern all matters to which it addresses itself.

The entirety of Scripture is inerrant in the original autographs.

The 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament, 66 books in all, constitute the entire work which God has superintended as the complete canon of Scripture for Mankind in this age. 

II.               God

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections (attributes) that He possesses.  God is invisible, personal, omnipresent, eternal, dependent on none, unchanging, truthful, trustworthy, almighty, sovereign, righteous, holy, good, loving, merciful, long-suffering gracious, and omniscient.  His perfect knowledge extends to all things, at all times, and at once, including the future decisions of His free creatures.  God is neither controlled nor confined by any one or any thing, including time or space.  To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.

God is Triune (three-in-one).  He is one God existing eternally and simultaneously as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead share equally and completely one divine essence or nature, and are therefore the same God, coequal in power, nature, and glory.

A.       God The Father

God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.  God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.  He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

B.        God The Son – Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is both true and fully God (the second Person of the Trinity, possessing all attributes and perfections of deity at all times) and He is true and fully man (the Incarnate Son of God of the descent and lineage of Adam and David).  He is coeternal with the Father and Holy Spirit thus preexisting His incarnation, begotten, not made.  He is without beginning or end and is Himself the Beginning and End (“Alpha and Omega”) of all things.

Jesus was tortured, crucified, died, and was buried.  On the third day, He rose bodily from the dead conquering sin and death.  From thence He ascended bodily into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made subject to His rule.

Christ’s death at Calvary made God’s only means of justification available for all mankind. God bore testimony to his acceptance of his Son's work by raising him from the dead.

After His resurrection, He ascended to the right hand of his Father in glory, where He makes continual intercession on the behalf of His people as High Priest and Advocate until, in the fullness of time, He will return to the Earth in power and glory to vanquish His enemies, to rule personally upon the Earth, to resurrect all men, and to judge them.

C.       God The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit of God is the third Person of the Trinity.  He is a Divine Person, coequal with the Father and the Son.  He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His Church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the Church in worship, evangelism, and service.

III.          Man

God created mankind in His image and likeness (having rational, moral, relational, and spiritual capacities) to fellowship with Him and give Him glory. Human beings are therefore the crown of God's creation (possessing inherent dignity and moral worth), and thus distinct in kind from all other life on earth.

The first man, Adam, fell from his original righteousness into sin and brought upon himself and all his offspring death, condemnation and sinnership (known as “Original Sin”, this is a natural predisposition of rebellion and disobedience toward God and includes both corruption and guilt.)

Unregenerate human beings are incapable of pleasing or commending themselves to God and lack, on their own initiative, even the desire to be reconciled to God

It is utterly beyond the power of fallen man to love God, to please Him, to keep His laws, to understand the Gospel, to repent of sin, or to trust in Christ (“Total Depravity”).

The presence of sin, both original and actual, in the lives of all human beings (excepting Jesus Christ alone), utterly and permanently separates all men from God, His kingdom, and His righteousness.  The total depravity of man makes impossible any act or even desire for repentance from man’s own initiative or power.  Thus all men are utterly and hopelessly lost and separated from God and His design for their lives.

IV.         Salvation

The only remedy for mankind's pitiful predicament is redemption to God through faith in Jesus Christ.  Salvation (redemption) involves the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

God has acted sovereignly to bridge the gap that separates people from Himself. He sent His Son, born of a virgin, attested by miracles and by a sinless life, to bear the full penalty for humanity's sin. Jesus Christ suffered and died in the place of sinners, thus satisfying the Father's just wrath against human sin, and effecting true reconciliation between God and mankind for those who repent and trust in this act of grace. In the atoning death of Christ, both God's love and God's justice are fully manifested. The righteousness of Jesus Christ in perfectly fulfilling the law of God is graciously credited to all believers. Redemption is solely a work of God's grace, received exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ, and neither obtained nor retained by works of human merit.  Thus Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and redemption to God.  Salvation is obtained therefore by the individual in an act of free will by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.

It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit through faith in Christ, to be fully assured of their Salvation from the very day that they receive Him as their Savior. Just as the believer is saved by grace, so is he sustained by grace.  Thus the one who has been cleansed and redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb has been purchased and eternally adopted by God, and therefore cannot be lost.

Although the soul which God has saved and granted His free gift of eternal life can never be lost, this is not a license for sin to the believer. Because God is a holy and righteous Father Who cannot overlook the sins of His children, if they persistently sin, He will chasten and correct them.

Rather, the regenerate man is called to a new life of discipleship and obedience to God will revealed in him by the Holy Spirit.  This sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit begins in the life of a new believer and continues until it is completed at the glorification of the believer.  This obedience and the associated good works that are the natural fruit of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer are not the basis for either justification or sanctification.  Rather, they are the byproduct of these works.

A.       Baptism

At the moment of regeneration, all believers are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ.  This event alone is properly termed the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”.  While subsequent acts of grace may or may not be available to the believer (this is an area of controversy which we choose not to make a statement upon), all believers are “baptized in the Spirit”.

Water baptism is not now nor has it ever been a mechanism of regeneration or justification.  Its nature is symbolic only representing the death to sin, burial with Christ, and resurrection to new life of the believer at the moment of regeneration.  This outward symbol is given to the Church as an institution instructed by Christ and is therefore to be followed.  However, it is not, in itself efficacious of producing regeneration.  Conversely, refusing to be baptized, while considered disobedient, does not prevent or thwart the true inward work of regeneration by the Holy Spirit in the true believer.

V.               The Church

The Church universal is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ (its Founder, Head, and Shepherd) and consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit.  The Church is a unique entity in history, distinct from Israel, and encompasses all those who have truly believed in Christ since the time of John the Baptist and until the Rapture. 

The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, and mutual encouragement and the sharing of one another’s burdens. 

One of the central purposes of the Church – as individuals and as the Body corporate - is to preach the Gospel (in both word and life), the good news that humankind can find salvation from sin through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Church, also known as the Bride of Christ, awaits the day when Christ will return specifically to take her to be with Him forever in mystical union characterized in the Scripture as a marriage and celebrated in Heaven at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  And so we shall be with Him forever.

VI.         Last Things

The Word of God speaks extensively on the subject of future events surrounding the Second Coming of Christ in both the Old and New Testaments.  These events, while obviously accompanied by powerful symbolism and allegorical implications, are firstly to be understood as literal events accompanying the literal return of Christ and the literal judgment of God upon the impenitent nations of the Earth.

Therefore, we hold strongly to a Dispensational, Premillennial Eschatology holding that the Church and Israel are distinct entities with distinct origins, purposes, and destinies, and thus God’s dealings with them at the end of this Age are distinct and non-overlapping.

The Church will be removed from the Earth some time prior to the start of the “70^th Week” of Daniel 9 in an event called ‘The Rapture” wherein Christ will meet His Church in the air, we shall be resurrected, and we shall thenceforth never be separated from Him again. 

The “70^th Week” (final seven year period of Israel’s prophetic history) will be characterized by the rule of the “Beast” (also called “Antichrist”) and “False Prophet”.  The final three and one half years of this period, formally knows as “The Great Tribulation”, will be a time of suffering, death, destruction, and judgment such as the world has never before seen, nor will ever see again.  This time will be followed by the physical return of Jesus Christ.

At the return of Christ, He shall conquer His enemies, and shall reign on the Earth for 1000 years.  At the end of that time, shall come the resurrection of the rest of the dead, the final “Great White Throne” judgment of the dead followed by new Heavens, a new Earth, and a New Jerusalem.  And so all things shall be restored and all evil shall be consigned to their eternal residence in the Lake Of Fire where their torment shall be eternal.