What We Believe

1. The Scriptures – The Holy Scriptures are the absolute and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. The original manuscripts were given by inspiration of God, and were without error. God providentially preserved His Word, without error, and as such, is made available to the English speaking people in the Authorized (King James) Version of 1611.
   1. The newer translations, having descended in full or in part from the work and labor of Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Wescott and Hort, etc., are illegitimate and inaccurate translations put forth by the Roman Catholic church (termed in Revelation 17 as “the great whore” and “the mother of harlots”), and are not to be taken seriously.
   2. The Apocrypha is not Scripture.
   3. The AV 1611 is not correctable by the “original Greek” or the “original Hebrew.”
2. The Trinity – There is ONE God, eternally existent as the Father, The Word, and the Holy Ghost.
3. Creation – God is the Creator of all things and in Him we live, and move, and have our being. All things are upheld by the word of His power.
4. Deity of Jesus Christ – The Lord Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh. This was demonstrated by His Virgin Birth, His sinless life, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension back into Heaven. His identity before His incarnation was “The Word,” and His identity at His second advent will be “The Word.”
5. Salvation
   1. Man is depraved, wicked, and alienated from the life of God through man’s own ignorance.
   2. Salvation is available to all men, freely, through the merits of Jesus Christ alone, and His atoning work at Calvary on the cross, fully ratified by His physical, bodily resurrection.
   3. Man is free to receive or reject the salvation available to him through Jesus Christ. Predestination, according to Scripture, relates to the redemption of the body at the Rapture. Plainly, we are not Calvinists.
   4. The Scriptures plainly teach that repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are required for salvation.
   5. Though a Christian is eternally secure, and will not loose his salvation, his old nature is still present and his flesh is still sinful. It is fully possible for a Christian to digress to his former way of life before his New Birth. This does not mean the Christian has lost their salvation, but are backslidden. God loves His children, and thus will chastise them to make them partakers of His holiness.
6. Eternal Security – Once born again, the child of God is kept eternally secure, having been sealed by the Holy Ghost.
7. Church Membership – At salvation, a person becomes a member of the Body of Christ and thus should gather together with like-minded believers on a regular basis for the purpose of mutual edification and exhortation.
8. Soul-Winning – It is the responsibility of every believer to proclaim the Gospel to all men through personal witness, by prayer and financial support to missionary efforts of the local Church.
9. Eternal State – All men who reject Jesus Christ will spend eternity in a conscious state of torment, burning in a lake of fire, while those having accepted Jesus Christ will spend eternity in the glorious presence of God.
10. Individual Separation from the World – The Christian has been delivered from the bondage of this world, and thus should seek to be separated from the inner spirit and the outer ways of the world. Though righteousness does not come by the works of the law, it is something cultivated in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Thus, an emphasis on inward holiness should naturally produce an outward change.
11. The Church – There are two Scriptural uses of the term “church.” One use is reference to the collective body of all believers throughout the Church Age. This Body is Christ’s Body, composed of those who have trusted Christ and thus have experienced the New Birth. The other Scriptural use of the term refers to a local, visible assembly of Christians, who gather on a regular basis for the purpose of evangelism and mutual edification in the faith.
12. Baptism – Water baptism is a public testimony of a person’s salvation, and contributes nothing to salvation or making a person a member Bride of Christ.
13. Communion – Communion (sometimes referred to as the Lord’s Supper) is a time of remembering the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and should be observed until He returns.
14. Church Polity – The Church is a Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head. Thus, the Church is not a democracy to be run by the will of the people, but its business, both spiritual and temporal, should be conducted in accordance to the Word of God, led by its pastors and deacons.
15. Second Coming of Jesus Christ – The Scriptures plainly teach a Pre-millennial view of the Second Advent. While Jesus Christ can bring peace to the heart of man through the Person and work of the Holy Ghost by regeneration, this is not the fulfillment of the Second Advent as taught in Scripture. Peace in the world, to the nations, will not come until Jesus Christ returns to this earth and destroys the entire system of human government and sets up a government – His government – that will know no end.
16. The Rapture – Prior to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, there will be a personal, private appearing of Jesus Christ to believers only. Those that have “fallen asleep,” i.e., died a physical death after having been born again, will be resurrected and then with those that have trusted Christ and still live, will be “caught out” prior to the Tribulation, termed in the Scripture as Daniel’s Seventieth Week or The Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
17. The Tribulation – The Bible places a distinction between those that are in Christ, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, and the physical offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Tribulation is identified as The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, in which the physical descendants of Jacob will be chastised for their past history of idolatry, and their national rejection of Jesus Christ. This is a period of seven years. The Church will have no part of this particular tribulation.
18. Signs and Speaking in Tongues – Signs are a legitimate part of Biblical history, in that the nation of Israel started with signs and these signs were used repeatedly to confirm God’s dealings regarding Israel in one fashion or another. These signs continued, to some degree, through the book of Acts and were always in relation to Israel. It should be noted, however, that towards the end of Paul’s life these signs were “fading out,” so to speak. As the Scripture plainly says that Jews require signs, and the Church walks by faith and not by sight, we reject the modern Charismatic movement and their claim of possessing these historical sign gifts.
19. Ecumenism – In view of the fact that Biblical doctrine is the source of unity among Christians, we reject any notion of joining hands with other denominations, secular organizations, or groups interested in promoting what is typically referred to as “the common good.”
    1. This is driven by the understanding that the Church, the Body of Christ, is the platform of THE singular thing that the whole of man needs: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
    2. While the Scripture commands us to be kind and care for all souls to whom Christ commended His love, the Scripture equally emphasizes that the Church has never had such an impact on this world as when she was totally dead to the world’s opinions and wishes regarding the Church.
    3. In short, our goal is not to reform the world, but to call men out of it. Our goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ that love Him, love the truth, and are established in the faith. The Church, as the Body of Christ, or as a local assembly, cannot do this if she seeks to “fit in.”

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