What We Believe

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

There is one and only one living and true God, all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

God The Father reigns with providential care over His creation, and the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, though He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

God The Son is Christ. In His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. In His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God. He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord, and He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ, 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, sealing the believer unto the day of final redemption. He is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He further enlightens and empowers the universal Church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image, the crowning work of His creation. As He created them male and female, the gift of gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Tempted by Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence, endowing all generations with a nature & environment to sin.
Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.

Since all humanity bears God's image, and Christ died for all humanity, all people of all ages, tribes, tongues, and nations possess inherent dignity, worthy of all respect and Christian love.

Salvation 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.

• In Regeneration, there is a work of God’s grace, whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance from sin toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, accepting His gift of grace and committing oneself to Him as Lord & Savior.
• Justification, a term of legal nature, is God’s gracious and full acquittal of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ, based entirely on Christ's righteousness.
• Sanctification is the experience by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress in moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, certain to bear fruit as personal evidence of genuine, obedient faith.
• Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed, in the glorious, loving presence of God forever and ever, Amen.

Regarding the Grace of God, we believe the gift of Salvation is free to all mankind, and that its only condition is genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

An autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Each congregation (and its encompassing members) operates under the Lordship of Christ. Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited only to scripturally-qualified men.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Baptism, biblically, is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience, symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, as well as a portrayal of the believer’s death to sin, burial of the old life, and resurrection to newness of life in Christ Jesus. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of local  church membership.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorializes the death of Christ Jesus and anticipates His second coming. 

Sunday as The Lord's Day is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord’s Day should be commensurate with the Christian’s conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God includes both His reign over the universe, as well as His kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Ultimately, the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God’s will be done on earth.

God, in His own time and means, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will righteously judge all men. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, and the redeemed will dwell in Heaven with Him, forever and ever. Amen.