The Scriptures

The Bible is the written word of God and is the supreme and sole authority of Christian faith and practice.  The Bible consists of 66 books and is comprised of the Old Testament and New Testament.  The canon is complete - no other books will be considered scripture.  The Bible is the inspired word of God.  The Bible does not merely contain the word of God – it is the word of God.  God inspired every word (not just thoughts) and every word is true.  By inspiration we mean that the Bible is “God-breathed.”  No other writings are inspired in this sense.  The Bible is totally without error.  God not only inspired His word, He also preserved His word without error.  In this day of hundreds of versions of the Bible, we believe that God has preserved His word for the English-speaking world in the King James Version of the Bible (Authorized Version).  The KJV is the final authority of our church.  No version except the KJV will be used in our preaching, teaching, or publications (except for comparison purposes only).  The Bible is our final authority, and all experiences must be judged in light of the revealed word of God.  Traditions, experience, and all other writings are to be judged by the scriptures.  The scriptures are to be interpreted literally except when obviously otherwise.  When symbols and figures are used these are obvious from the context and are to be interpreted in a manner consistent with their use throughout the word of God.  Scripture must be rightly divided, compared with one another, and always interpreted in light of the context in which it was written.

 

The Nature of God

The only true and living God is a Trinity, eternally existing in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  God the Father is Creator and Sustainer of all things.  His attributes are revealed through the Spirit in the scriptures.  He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and eternal.  He has revealed Himself through the written word and the incarnate Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, equally divine and eternal with God the Father.  He is also the Son of man, truly human yet without sin of any kind.  He is Redeemer and Savior of all who place their faith in Him for salvation.  The Holy Spirit is a person, one with the Father and the Son in the Godhead, whose work in this dispensation is to testify of the Son and to convince men of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come.  

 

The Nature of Man

The Genesis account of the creation of man is literally true, revealing that man came by direct creation of God, not by any process of evolution.  Man was created in the image of God but lost this image when Adam sinned.  Adam and Eve willfully sinned against God, bringing sin and death upon all men.  Every person born into this world now bears the image of Adam and has inherited a sin nature.  Upon reaching the age of accountability, every person sins by willful choice.  All men are sinners and are guilty before God, in need of redemption.  

 

The Work of Christ

The eternal Son of God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who was born of the virgin Mary by miraculous conception.   He lived a sinless life, fulfilled the law of God, and then offered Himself up as a substitutional sacrifice for the sins of every man.  He died on the cross, shedding His blood for the full atonement of the sins of all men everywhere.  He was buried and on the third day he arose bodily from the dead, and He is alive forevermore.  He later ascended bodily into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for the saved and able and willing to save all who will place their trust in Him for salvation.

 

Salvation

Man is utterly unable to save himself from the power and penalty of sin.  Each person must be saved wholly on the basis of the work Jesus Christ has done in dying for his sins and rising again for his justification.  This salvation is received and appropriated by simple faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and personal Savior.  A person is saved when he realizes that he is a sinner headed for hell, that he cannot save himself, that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, and that Jesus died for his sins, was buried, and rose again for his justification, and, believing this, he calls upon the Lord to save him for Jesus’ sake.  A person must repent of his sins and place his faith in Jesus Christ.  Repentance and faith cannot be separated.  A person is born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, when he truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.  Salvation is for all, and is not limited in any way – it is for “whosoever will.”

 

The Church

The true church  is composed of all who are in Christ, born again by faith in him.  The local church is composed of saved individuals who assemble freely and regularly together to worship and serve God.  Each local church should be organized scripturally for the purposes of worship, evangelism, discipleship, ministry, and fellowship.

 

Spiritual Gifts

The Holy Spirit has bestowed His gifts upon all believers for the purpose of the edifying of the entire Body of Christ and for the purpose of winning the lost to Christ.  Some of these gifts were used for signs to authenticate the message of the apostles to the Jews.  With the completion of the canon of scripture, we believe that the gifts of speaking in tongues, divine revelations, and miraculous “point of contact” healing ceased.  Certainly God can still work miracles and speak to His children today, but the signs of the apostles ended with the death of the apostles.  Such “occurrences” of the above are not to be considered as spiritual gifts for the believer today, nor as evidences of salvation or superior spirituality.  The word of God is complete, and all experiences must be judged by the standard of the scriptures.  

 

The Second Coming of Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ will return in the air for His church in what is known as the rapture of the church.  This is what every believer should look for.  After this rapture and following tribulation period on earth, the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this earth to establish his millennial kingdom, from which He will reign literally upon this earth for a period of a thousand years. 

 

The Judgments

All people who are born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have had their sins judged at Calvary in Christ, and will not be judged for their salvation, but will be judged for their works at the Judgment Seat of Christ and will receive rewards or a loss of rewards.

All unsaved people will be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment according to their works and will be cast into the lake of fire and there suffer eternally, forever separated from God.

 

Satan

Satan, or the Devil, is a real person, not some mystical force.  He was created perfectly by God as the anointed cherub in heaven, but proudly sinned against God and was cast out of heaven.  He is now the god of this world and the accuser of the brethren.  He will be bound for a thousand years during the millennium.  After this, he will be cast by God into the lake of fire, prepared for he and his angels, and there remain eternally.

 

Other Important Items

We believe that salvation is for all, that Christ died for the sins of all men, and that God is not willing that any should perish.  We reject hyper-Calvinism as an unscriptural theological system.

 

We believe in rightly dividing the word of truth.  We believe and teach in dispensationalism (biblical – not hyper).  We believe that the church is not Israel and the church cannot claim their promises.  God is not through with the Jews, and all the promises that He has made to His chosen people will be literally fulfilled.    

 

We reject covenant theology.

 

We reject the charismatic movement and their teachings, including speaking in tongues and “slaying in the Spirit.”

 

We believe that baptism is for believers only and the only biblical mode of baptism is immersion.

 

We believe in the Genesis account of creation literally, We reject the modern theory of evolution.

 

We believe that all believers in Christ are eternally secure, kept by the power of God, and can never lose their salvation.

 

We stand against the ecumenical movement in that it discards essential doctrines and seeks a union that is not based upon the truth of God’s word.

 

We believe that the two biblical offices of the local church are pastor and deacon.

 

We believe that the two ordinances of the local church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.