Statement of Faith

Preamble: Reposing our faith wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, believing in the teachings and practices of the Baptists and in those great distinctive principles for which they have ever stood, namely:

1. The pre-eminence of Christ as our divine Lord and Master;
2. The supreme authority of the Bible and its sufficiency as our only rule of faith and practice;
3. The right of private interpretation and the competency of the individual soul in direct approach to God;
4. The absolute separation of church and state;
5. A regenerate church membership;
6. The beautiful, symbolic ordinance of Believer’s Baptism in obedience to the command of Christ;
7. The complete independence of the local church and its interdependence in associated fellowship with other Bible-believing churches.
8. The solemn obligation of majority rule, guaranteeing equal rights to all and special privileges to none;
9. The spiritual unity of all believers, for which the Master so earnestly prayed;
10. A worldwide program of missionary fervor and evangelism in obedience to the final command of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(John 1:14 Colossians 2:9 1 Timothy 3:16 2 Peter 1:21 1 Peter 2:5, 9 Hebrews 10:19 Matthew 22:21 Titus 3:5 Romans 6:4 Colossians 2:12 Ephesians 5:24 1 Corinthians 12:28 2 Corinthians 8:4 1 Corinthians 12:25 1 Corinthians 1:10 John 17:21 Ephesians 4:4 Mark 16:15 Matthew 28:19)

Section 1: The Bible. We believe that the whole Bible, all sixty-six books, is God’s revealed truth to man, and that He so divinely guided the writers in the use of their words as they recorded that revelation that every word they wrote, taken in its context, was the Word of God. We further believe that the Bible contains no contradictions and is therefore of supreme and final authority in faith and life.

Section 2: The Trinity. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Section 3: God the Father. We believe in God the Father, eternal and unchangeable in His being, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, and measureless in power. We rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men; that He hears and answers prayer; and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

Section 4: God the Son. We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, born of a virgin, sinless in His life, Who atoned for the sins of the world by His death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven, His high priestly intercession for His people, and His personal, visible, premillennial return to the world according to His promise.

Section 5: God the Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Spirit to be co-equal with the Father and the Son. He is a Person; He is come as the fulfillment of Christ’s promise; He convicts, regenerates, indwells, seals, infills, empowers, and guides the believer.

Section 6: The Depravity of Man. We believe that God created man in His own image; that Adam sinned and thereby all men incurred, through natural birth, not only physical death but also spiri- tual death—which is not annihilation of body, soul, or spirit, but which is eternal separation from God. Therefore, man is totally depraved and if not born again is eternally lost and will be condemned to eternal punishment in a place known as hell.

Section 7: Satan. We believe that Satan is a person, the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning; that he is powerfully operating in the world today, deceiving the nations and actively opposing Jesus Christ and His Church; that he will finally be overcome by the Lord Jesus Christ and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then finally committed to the lake of fire with all his angels to be tormented for eternity. The believer can overcome Satan by the power of God through the Holy Spirit.

Section 8: Salvation. We believe that we are saved by grace through faith and faith alone in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. The believer who has exercised saving faith by accepting Christ as personal Savior possesses eternal life and is secure in Christ. We believe that the attitude either of reconciliation or enmity toward God is eternally fixed at death. The doctrine of a second chance is not taught in God’s Word. We further believe that there is an appointed day for the judgment of the unsaved, when they will be cast into the lake of fire, there to remain in everlasting, conscious punishment.

Section 9: Christian Life and Service. We believe that all born-again Christians have a perfect standing in Christ and that they should purpose in their hearts to make their walk conform with their standing. We believe that we are justified by faith alone, but that separated life and Christian service are the outgrowth of salvation. Grace teaches good works and does not give license to sin. The Christian will be judged for his good works over and above the gift of salvation. We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, and so to live in the Spirit that we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh—but the flesh, being still in us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept continually in subjection to Christ or it will surely manifest its presence to the dishonor of His Name. Victorious living is possible only in the proportion of our yieldedness to Him.

Section 10: The Church. We believe that the Church is the called-out assembly of believers baptized with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Believers in this dispensation are members of the Body of Christ. God has called us to assemble together for mutual edification and service, and we encourage every believer to join a local Gospel assembly. We believe that Christ has commanded the Church to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We believe that the two God-given ordinances of the Church are Believer’s Baptism and the observance of the Lord’s Supper. We believe that the ordinance of Baptism is the immersion in water of the born-again believer; that the water does not save, but that the believer will be baptized in obedience to the Lord’s command as a symbol of His death and resurrection. We believe that the earthly leadership of the local assembly is vested in accordance with the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and that they become responsible for the overseeing of the church.

Section 11: The Resurrection, the Rapture, and Revelation. We believe that after His crucifixion, death, and burial, our Lord Jesus Christ arose personally and bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven where He is now our High Priest and Advocate. We believe that there will be a resurrection of all, first the just at His coming and finally the unjust after the Millennium. The saints are raised to be forever with the Lord and the unsaved will be confined for eternity in the lake of fire. We believe in the “blessed hope”—the personal, bodily, premillennial, and imminent return of our Lord and Savior for His Church (the Rapture). We believe the Rapture will occur before the seven years of the Great Tribulation, after which Christ will return to the earth in power and glory with His saints to the Mount of Olives (the Revelation) to set up His Kingdom (the Millennium).