Doctrine

We believe in one living and true God, creator of the universe. He is eternally existing in three persons…Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each are co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature and co-equal in power and glory.

• God the Father is the supreme ruler of the universe. He providentially directs the affairs of history according to the purposes of His grace.
• God the Son is the Savior of the world. Born of the virgin Mary, He declared His deity among men, died on the cross as the only sacrifice for sin, arose bodily from the grave, and ascended back to the Father. He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for believers until he returns to rapture them from the world.
• God the Holy Spirit is the manifest presence of deity. He convicts of sin, teaches spiritual truth according to the written Word, permanently indwells believers, and confers on every believer, at conversion, the ability to render effective spiritual service.

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the complete, inerrant and infallible Word of God written by divinely-inspired men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Being that the Scriptures are inspired (God-breathed), they are the final authority for the believers’ daily faith and life-practice, they reveal teh principles by which God will judge all, and express the true basis of Christian fellowship.

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but beginning with Adam’s sin, the human race fell and transmitted a sinful nature to every subsequent member of the human race and became alienated from God. In his unregenerate state, man is totally depraved, void of spiritual life, under the influence of the devil and lacks any power to save himself.

We believe salvation is the gracious work of God whereby He delivers undeserving sinners from sin and its results. In justification He declares righteous all who put faith in Christ as Savior giving them freedom from condemnation, peace with God and full assurance of future glorification.

We believe that salvation is the gift of God purchased by the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Salvation is received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of His substitutionary work.

We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are therefore secure in Christ forever. They are born again, made new creatures in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit enabling their perseverance in good works. A special providence watches over them. It is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word which; however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to sin.

We believe that the New Testament church consists of a local congregation of baptized believers in Christ Jesus, who are united by covenant in belief of what God has revealed and in obedience to what He has commanded.

We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control. The church acknowledges Jesus as her only Head and the Bible as her only rule of faith and practice, governing herself by democratic principles under the oversight of her pastors.

We recognize water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the scriptural ordinances of obedience for the church in this age.

• Baptism is the immersion in water of a believer as a confession of his or her faith in Christ. 
• The Lord’s Supper is the sacred sharing of the bread of communion and the cup of blessing by the assembled church as a memorial to the crucified body and shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord. All believers are set apart to God at the time of their regeneration. They should grow in grace by allowing the Holy Spirit to apply God’s Word to their lives and by being conformed to the principles of the righteousness and holiness of God.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men: the saved to eternal life in heaven, in the presence of God, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.

We believe that God created the universe in six literal twenty-four-hour periods. God created all things for His own pleasure and glory as revealed in the biblical account of creation.

We believe that Satan is a person, not a personification of evil. He is the open and declared enemy of God and man. With his demons, He opposes all that is true and godly by blinding the world to the gospel, tempting saints to do evil and warring against the Son of God. He will be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire.

God created an innumerable host of spirit-beings called angels. Holy angels worship God and execute His will;  while fallen angels serve Satan seeking to hinder God’s purposes.

God created man in His own image. As the crowning work of creation, every person has dignity and worth and merits the respect of all other persons.

We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions: (1) the home, (2) the church and (3) the state. Every person is subject to these authorities but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by His Word.

We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex.

We believe that men and women are spiritually equal in position before God but that God has ordained distinct and separate spiritual functions for men and women in the home and the church. The husband is to be the leader of the home and men are to be the leaders (pastors and deacons) of the church. Accordingly, only men are eligible for licensing and ordination by the church. We believe that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the church. The wife is to submit herself to the scriptural leadership of her husband as the church submits to the headship of Christ. Children are an heritage from the Lord. Parents are responsible for teaching their children spiritual and moral values and leading them, through consistent lifestyle example and appropriate discipline, including scriptural corporal correction.

We believe that God disapproves of divorce and intends marriage to last until one of the spouses dies. God’s goal in marriage is a lifelong union within which two people love one another and enrich one another’s lives. Successful lifelong marriage is possible for any two people willing to follow Jesus’ guidelines for developing a supportive personal relationship.

We believe that God has given the church a great commission to proclaim the Gospel to all nations so that there might be a great multitude from every nation, tribe, ethnic group and language group who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ, we must use all available means to go our community, our state, our nation and the utmost reaches of the earth with the good news of the Gospel of salvation through Christ.

We believe that every Christian, as a steward of that portion of God’s wealth entrusted to him, is obligated to support his local church financially. We believe that God has established the tithe as a basis for giving but that every Christian should also give other offerings sacrificially and cheerfully to the support of the church, the relief of those in need and the spread of the Gospel. We believe that a Christian relinquishes all rights to direct the use of the tithe or offering once the gift has been made.

This Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself is the sole and final source of all that we believe. We do believe that the forgoing Statement of Faith accurately represents the teaching of the Bible and, therefore, is binding upon all members. All literature used in the church shall be in complete agreement with the Statement of Faith.