Doctrinal Issues

• We believe that the Bible is the complete and verbally-inspired Word of God and without error in its original manuscripts, and therefore, the supreme standard for faith and conduct.  We believe in a dispensational view of the Scriptures, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.  (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Peter 1:21)
  
  
• We believe in one, living, eternal, and true God, existing in three persons as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  (Deut. 6:4; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Cor. 13:14; I John 5:7)
  
  
• We believe in the absolute Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; in His virgin birth, in His perfect humanity (that is, it was impossible for Him to sin); His Vicarious Death through the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of sins; His bodily resurrection and Ascension; His present High Priestly ministry; and in “That Blessed Hope,” the Personal, Imminent, Pretribulational, Premillennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His redeemed ones; and His subsequent return to earth, with His saints, after the Tribulation to establish His Millennial Kingdom.  (John 1:1, 2, 14; Luke 1:35; Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 7:25; Titus 2:13; Rev. 19:11-16)
  
  
• We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and that He is the Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption.  (John 16:8-11; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Rom. 8-9; Eph. 1:13-14)
  
  
• We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved, and of himself, utterly unable to redeem his lost condition.  (Gen. 1:26; Rom. 3:22-23; Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1-3, 12)
  
  
• We believe that the salvation of the sinner is wholly of Grace through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever.  (Eph. 2:8-9; John 6:37-40; I Peter 1:5)
  
  
• We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowment of all His gifts, and that the gifts of Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers are sufficient for the perfection of the saints today, and that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles gradually ceased as the New Testament Scriptures were completed and their authority became established.  We believe that God does heal and answer the prayer of faith, in accord with His own will, for the sick and afflicted.  (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:7-12; 1 John 5:14-15; James 5:14-15)
  
  
• We believe the Church of Jesus Christ was begun at Pentecost and is the Body and Bride of Christ, a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons of this present age.  We also believe in the local church as defined in the New Testament Scriptures.  (Eph. 1:22-23, 1 Cor. 12:12-14; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)
  
  
• We believe that our Lord instituted two ordinances in the local church.

1. Baptism by immersion in water of a believer in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life.
2. The communion service as instituted by Christ is a perpetual remembrance to all believers of His sacrificial death and is to be observed until He comes again. (Matt. 28:19; 1 Cor.11:23-29)

• We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire.  (Isa. 14:12-17; Rev. 20:10)
  
  
• We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved in Heaven and the everlasting punishment of the lost in hell.  (John 5:28-29; 2 Cor. 5:8; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15)
  
  
• We believe it is Satan’s desire to pollute the church with false teachers and doctrines of demons.  We believe that the church is to be warned from the Scriptures upon any attempt to preach or teach any false doctrine or to wrongly divide the Word of Truth. (Matt. 7:15-23; 1 John 4:1)

Moral Issues

• We believe that all human life is sacred, created in the image of God.  We believe that human life begins at conception and that the unborn child is a living human being.  Abortion constitutes the unjustified, taking of unborn human life and is therefore murder (Gen 1:27; Job 3:16; Ps. 51:5; 139:14-16; Isa. 44:24; 49:1, 5; Jer. 1:5; 20:15-18; Luke 1:44)
  
  
• We believe that God has instituted the office of marriage to be between one man and one woman.  Intimate sexual activity is reserved exclusively to be within this marriage.  As such, any sexual activity outside of marriage, including any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography, etc. are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex (Mal. 2:14-17; Matt. 5:31-32; 19:3-12; Rom. 7:1-3)
  
  
• Additionally, we believe that God intends marriage to last until the death of a spouse and that divorce is a distortion of God’s intention for marriage.  Scripture does allow for two exceptions in which divorce may be initiated (though not required); namely, sexual unfaithfulness or abandonment by an unbeliever.  Divorced and remarried persons or divorced persons may still hold certain positions of service in the local church (see Article VI for requirements of officers) and be greatly used of God for Christian service (Gen. 2:24; 19:5, 13; 26:8-9; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom. 1:26-29; I Cor. 5:1; 6:9, 7:15; I Thess. 4:1-8; Heb. 13:4)