Doctrinal Statement/Statement of Faith

We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired by God and inerrant; there are no contradictions, no historical inaccuracies, and no false scientific information in the original manuscripts (II Timothy 3:16).  We believe that the Old and New Testaments not only contain the Word of God, but are the Word of God in their entirety, and are the final authority in all subjects on which they speak (II Peter 1:21).

We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 12:29 John 1:1, 14; Acts 5:3-4).

We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1:22-23), and is true God and true man (John 1:1 and 1:14).

We believe that human beings were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) from dust, as a perfect man named Adam; that Adam sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also that spiritual death that is separation from God (Genesis 2:17, 3:6; Romans 5:12), that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word, and deed (Romans 3:23).

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), was buried, and bodily rose from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:20).  We believe that He died as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified by grace on the basis of His shed blood (John 3:16 and Titus 3:5).  We believe that those so justified are eternally preserved (e.g., the eternally secure position of the believer in Christ, as opposed to the concept that a believer in Christ could ever lose his/her salvation) through the present ministries of our risen, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit (John 10:27-29 and Hebrews 7:25).

We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of, and indwelt by, the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God (John 3:3; 14:16,17).  We believe that regenerate persons must walk in dependence upon the Holy Spirit in order to please God (Galatians 5:16).

We believe in that blessed hope, the personal and imminent return of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:28 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the just, and the everlasting punishment of the unjust (i.e., there is no second chance in hell or the lake of fire for a restoration; nor is there universal salvation).  A person’s eternal destiny is set when he or she dies with no hope of a second chance of salvation (1 Corinthians 15:51, 52 and Revelation 20:11-15).

We believe that the church, composed of all those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, is the body and bride of Christ.  We believe that Christ is the head of the body, the church (Ephesians 1:22, 23); that all believers are baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and thus having become members of one another, are responsible to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (1 Corinthians 12:13 and Ephesians 4:3).