Our Beliefs
BIBLE
We believe the Holy Bible to be the source of truth. We therefore gladly turn to it as the source of our faith. Here is a brief summary of our faith in a topical format.
The BibleWe believe the writings of the Old and New Testaments, as originally written, were verbally inspired, therefore making God the actual author of the Bible. We believe that God has preserved His words without error and that we have God’s Word and word’s in the original Biblical languages today. We have confidence in the Greek testament commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus and in it’s English translation (the King James Version). The Old and New Testaments are our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice. II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19-21
GOD
We believe that God is one in essence and nature and yet composed of three persons; thus there is one and only one true God and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that they are equal and execute distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption. Exodus 20:2-3; I Corinthians 8:6; Genesis 17:1; II Corinthians 3:17
Jesus ChristWe believe that Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Triune God and therefore He has always been and was never created. Without giving up His deity He became man by the miracle of the virgin birth in that He was begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, a virgin. As the perfect Lamb of God He gave Himself in death upon the cross, arose bodily and ascended into Heaven where He is our High Priest and advocate with the Father. John 1:1, 14; Matthew 1:18-25; Philippians 2:6-8; I Corinthians 15:3-7; Luke 24:2-8, 51; Hebrews 4:14-16
Holy Sprit
This summary of our faith is to be viewed as a brief and orderly display of the core doctrines which we believe are taught in God’s Word.
BIBLE
We believe the Holy Bible to be the source of truth. We therefore gladly turn to it as the source of our faith. Here is a brief summary of our faith in a topical format.
The BibleWe believe the writings of the Old and New Testaments, as originally written, were verbally inspired, therefore making God the actual author of the Bible. We believe that God has preserved His words without error and that we have God’s Word and word’s in the original Biblical languages today. We have confidence in the Greek testament commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus and in it’s English translation (the King James Version). The Old and New Testaments are our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice. II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19-21
GOD
We believe that God is one in essence and nature and yet composed of three persons; thus there is one and only one true God and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that they are equal and execute distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption. Exodus 20:2-3; I Corinthians 8:6; Genesis 17:1; II Corinthians 3:17
Jesus ChristWe believe that Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Triune God and therefore He has always been and was never created. Without giving up His deity He became man by the miracle of the virgin birth in that He was begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, a virgin. As the perfect Lamb of God He gave Himself in death upon the cross, arose bodily and ascended into Heaven where He is our High Priest and advocate with the Father. John 1:1, 14; Matthew 1:18-25; Philippians 2:6-8; I Corinthians 15:3-7; Luke 24:2-8, 51; Hebrews 4:14-16
Holy Sprit
- The Holy Spirit — We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Triune God who convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgement; that He indwells and seals all who become children of God through Christ; that He empowers, teaches, sanctifies, and fills believers daily as they surrender to Him. John 16:8-11, 14:16, 17; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13; Acts 1:8; John 14:26; II Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 5:18
- The Charismatic Movement -- We believe the current charismatic movement is not a scriptural movement. The gifts of tongues, healing, drinking poison, and handling snakes were “sign-gifts” confirming the truth of the new revelation which the apostles were preaching. Once the new revelation was recorded in Scripture (New Testament) the confirming signs were no longer necessary and thus ended. Tongues had a deeper meaning regarding the destruction of Israel by a foreign power and ended when Israel was conquered by the Romans in 70 A.D. Mark 16:15-20; Luke 16:27-31; I Corinthians 13:8, 14:21,22
- Holy Angels — We believe that God created a host of angelic beings. Their ministry to the Christian is to protect, guide, and transport to heaven at death. Psalm 148:1-5; Hebrews 1:13,14; Psalm 91:10-12; Acts 27:23, 24; Luke 16:22
- Satan — We believe in the personality of Satan; that he was an exalted angel which rebelled against God; that he is now the unholy god of this age and is destined for eternal punishment in the lake of fire. II Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:10
- Unholy Angels — We believe that Satan led 1/3 of the angels in his rebellion against God and they are now the demons which aid him in his efforts to destroy that which is godly. Revelation 12:4; Ephesians 6:12
- Creation — We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth, but a literal account of the direct creative acts of God. No evolution was employed. All of mankind are descendants of the historical Adam and Eve. Genesis 1&2; John 1:3
- Fall -- We believe that when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Eden, they brought about the ruin of the entire human race causing it to fall into sin which brought spiritual, physical, and eternal death. Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12-19.
- Destination -- We believe that man’s destination is hell; that this comes as a result of his rebellion against God and alignment with Satan. Romans 6:23a; II Thessalonians 1:7b-9; Revelation 20, 21:8.
- Family -- We believe that the family is the basic unit of society. God gives children to families with the responsibility to rear them. Such responsibility includes their education. Genesis 2; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 127 & 128; Ephesians 6:1-4. We believe that the family is a man and a woman covenanted together for life and 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 (Genesis 2:24; 19:5, 13; 26:8-9; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4).
- Abortion -- We believe that human life begins at conception and that the unborn child is a living human being. Abortion constitutes the unjustified, without excuse taking of unborn human life. Abortion is murder. We reject any teaching that abortions of pregnancies due to rape, incest, birth defects, gender selection, birth or population control, or the mental well-being of the mother are acceptable (Job 3:16; Psalm 51:5; 139:14-16; Isaiah 44:24; 49:1, 5; Jeremiah 1:5; 20:15-18; Luke 1:44).
- Civil Government -- We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, and obeyed (except in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ); that the church and state are to be separate (no state established church), each having definite and distinct spheres of responsibility. Neither the church nor the state has the right to infringe upon the God-ordained responsibilities of the other. Romans 13:1-7; II Samuel 23:3; Exodus 18:21, 22; Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:29, 4:19, 20; Daniel 3:17, 18.
- Nature of Sin – We believe that sin is the transgression of the law, will and desire of God; that sin is disobedience, lawlessness, “a missing the mark” of God’s revealed will; that man was created in innocence and that by voluntary choice man transgressed God’s law, and all men sinned in him, therefore all men are totally depraved being sinners by nature and by conduct. Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19, 5:12, 19; I John 3:4
- Penalty of Sin – We believe that the penalty of sin is death – spiritual death, physical death and eternal death in hell. Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:11-15.
- Meaning of Salvation — We believe that the doctrine of salvation deals with God rescuing (saving) man from the results of sin. God rescues man from the power of sin, enabling a rescued man to live a holy life; from the penalty of sin, giving a rescued man a release from hell; and from the presence of sin one day when taken to heaven. Luke 15; Romans 6; Revelation 20:11-15; 21:24-27
- Death of Jesus Christ — We believe Jesus’ death made a full and vicarious (in our place) payment for our sin; that His death consisted not in merely setting an example for us as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust, bearing our sin in His own body on the tree. Romans 3:24, 25; Hebrews 2:14, 9:22; Isaiah 53; I Peter 1:18-21, 2:24 There could be NO salvation without His death through the shedding of His blood.
- Salvation By Grace — We believe that our salvation is a free gift from God, not merited in any way, therefore is wholly by grace. Salvation is received by the placing of one’s faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8, 9
- Repentance — We believe that repentance is a change of mind and purpose from sin toward God; that it is characterized by godly sorrow for sin that separates man from God, and that true repentance is inseparably related to true faith. Acts 20:21
- Remission — We believe that remission (forgiveness) of sins is only received through and because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:22; I John 1:7
- New Birth — We believe that salvation is a spiritual birth whereby one enters the family of God and becomes partaker of God’s nature. John 3:1-8, 1:12, 13; I John 2:29, 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18; II Peter 1:4
- Atonement — We believe that salvation involves atonement (“to cover over”) which deals with the covering and removal of our sin. Lev. 6:1, 2, 6, 7; Psalm 103:10-12; Micah 7:19b
- Propitiation — We believe that salvation involves the satisfying of God’s holy wrath against sin. I John 4:10; Romans 3:24-26
- Reconciliation — We believe that salvation involves our being restored to God’s fellowship. Romans 5:9, 10; Colossians 1:21-23
- Redemption — We believe that salvation involves our being purchased from the slave market of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ and being set free from the power of sin. I Peter 1:18, 19; Titus 2:13, 14; I Corinthians 6:19, 20
- Justification — We believe salvation involves the judicial act of God by which He declares the believing sinner to be righteous and acceptable before Him because Christ has borne the sinner’s sin on the cross, and has been made unto him righteousness. Romans 3:24, 28, 5:1; Galatians 2:16; I Corinthians 1:30
- Sanctification — We believe that salvation involves the act of setting apart a sinner unto God, the process of daily becoming more set apart unto God, and the future event of being completely set apart unto God. Sanctification has to do with holiness or separation from sin unto God. I Corinthians 6:11, 15:51-54; Hebrews 10:10-14; II Peter 3:18; I John 3:2
- Righteous and Wicked — We believe only those who are justified by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ are righteous in the sight of God. Those who continue in unbelief are, in God’s sight, wicked and under the curse of the law and face everlasting conscious suffering. Malachi 3:18; Romans 6:17, 18; Proverbs 14:32; Galatians 3:10
- Security of the Saints — We believe that those who are truly saved are kept by the power of God, and sealed by the spirit of God, therefore making it impossible to be lost once saved. I Peter 1:5; Romans 8:35-39; Ephesians 1:13
- Priesthood of the Believers — We believe that through Jesus Christ every believer has direct access into God’s presence without the need of a human priest; that every believer has the right and responsibility to study the Scriptures guided by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 4:16; II Timothy 2:15; I Peter 2:9
- Separation — We believe those who have been saved, as God’s children, should live holy lives and thus separate themselves from worldliness and ecclesiastical apostasy unto God. II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; I Thessalonians 1:9; I timothy 6:3-5; Romans 16:17; II John 1:9-11; I Jn. 2:15-17
- The Church – We believe that a church is an organized assembly of saved, baptized believers meeting for worship, prayer, fellowship, teaching, to practice the ordinances, and to carry out the Great Commission; that this assembly is independent and free to govern itself without ecclesiastical interference; that this assembly is accountable directly to it’s Head (Jesus Christ). Matthew 28:19,20; I Corinthians 11:2; Acts 2:41,42; Matthew 18:15-17; Acts 15; Colossians 1:18
- Bishops and Deacons — We believe that God established the offices of the church to minister to it and enable it to carry out its function effectively. The office of bishop (terms bishop, elder, pastor are used interchangeably) designates the overseer who provides leadership to the church. The office of deacon designates men who are yielded to serving the church in ways that enable the pastor to be more effective in the ministry of the Word of God through preaching, teaching and praying. Philippians 1:1; Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5-7; I Peter 5:1-4; Acts 6; I Timothy 3
- Baptism and Lord’s Supper — We believe that only two ordinances were given to the church — baptism and the Lord’s Supper; that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water under the authority of a New Testament church, portraying the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that Christian baptism is the door into church membership. We believe that the Lord’s supper is a continuing memorial of the broken body and shed blood of Christ observed by the church and should be preceded by solemn self-examination. Matthew 28:19, 20; Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12; Acts 2:41, 42; Matthew 26:26-30; I Corinthians 11:23-34
- New Testament Church — We believe that God established one kind of church and that through sin, division and different doctrinal belief many different kinds of churches have been established. We believe that the distinctive beliefs of the Baptists are those of the New Testament church and that we have an historic and doctrinal continuity which stretches back to Jesus Christ, a heritage stained with the blood of our Baptist forefathers. Matthew 3:1, 2, 13, 16:18; Acts 20:28-30; II Timothy 4:1-4; History
- Rapture — We believe in the imminent, pretribulational catching away of the saints, and that at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in Christ shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-54; Philippians 3:20, 21; Revelation 3:10
- Tribulation and Millennium — We believe that the Tribulation Period, which follows the Rapture of the saints, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power and great glory to sit upon the throne of David and to establish a literal millennial reign. Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 1:30-33; Isaiah 9:6, 7, 11:1-9; Acts 2:29, 30; Revelation 20:1-4, 6
- Final Events — We believe that following a 1000 year reign on earth Satan will be loosed, a final battle fought, the earth renovated by fire, the Great White Throne Judgment held and the New Paradise entered by the saints of the ages! Revelation 20:7-22:5
- Heaven and Hell — We believe that the saved at death go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven, that their works shall be brought before the Judgment Seat of Christ for the determination of rewards which will take place at the time when Christ comes for His own; that the spirits of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hades where they are kept in fiery punishment until the final day of judgment, at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, that they shall be judged and cast into Hell, the place of final and everlasting fiery punishment.
John 14:1-6; II Corinthians 5:8-10; I Peter 3:22; Matthew 25:46;Luke 16:19-31; Mark 9:42-48; Revelation 20:11-15
This summary of our faith is to be viewed as a brief and orderly display of the core doctrines which we believe are taught in God’s Word.
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