Doctrine

We believe in one triune God, 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.

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the verbally and plenary inspired Word of God written by divinely inspired men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible and God-breathed. They are the final authority for faith and life.

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature and became alienated from God. Man is totally depraved and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.

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 brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.

We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus 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 local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is solely made up of born-again persons 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.

We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord.

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

We believe that God created the universe in six literal twenty-four hour periods. We reject the Theory of Evolution, the Gap Theory, the Day-Age Theory and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin. 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, the author of sin and the cause of the Fall of Man. He is the open and declared enemy of God and man and he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire. He, with his demons, 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.

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, ehtnic group and language group who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As ambassadors of Christ we must use all available means to go to the foreign nations and not wait for them to come to us.

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.