I. The Scriptures
The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. II Timothy 3:14-17.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, without division of nature, essence, or being.
III. The Trinity
God is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, of being. Matthew 28:19; Galatians 4:4-6.
A. God the Father. God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. God is the Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
B. God the Son. Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of the human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking in the nature of God and of man, and in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers and is the living and ever present Lord.
C. God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He inspired Holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He cultivates and, is the Source of, Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer into the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship. evangelism, and service.
Note on Holy Spirit Baptism:
We believe that a believer is baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation (I Corinthians 12:13). We also believe that following salvation a believer, by offering himself to God as a living and holy sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), can experience a deeper work of the Holy Spirit in which the believer is said to be "Filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). This experience speaks of the Holy Spirit possessing the spirit and soul of the believer. In this relationship, as a believer is yielded to the Lord and controlled by Him, he increasingly manifests the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The Holy Spirit’s indwelling (John 14:17; Romans 5:5; I Corinthians 6:19), sealing (II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13), and baptism (I Corinthians 12:13) occur at the time of regeneration and thus are not commanded. However, believers are commanded to be filled continuously with the Spirit. Each Christian has all of the Spirit, but the command of Ephesians 5:18 is that the Spirit have all of him. We believe that the evidence of being filled with the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit in a believer’s life. The gifts of the Spirit may accompany this experience, but the continuing experience itself is received by faith.
IV. Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by His creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence; whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action become transgressors and are under condemnation by their own action. Only the grace of God can bring man to His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
V. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
A. Regeneration, or new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds by God’s grace in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as savior and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
B. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
C. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
VI. God’s Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man. It is a glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.
All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, are sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
VII. Local Church
We believe that the Church is the Body of Christ and is commissioned to continue the ministry Jesus started. Those who are part of the local church are believers who have been baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are under scripturally delegated authorities, and assemble for praise, worship, ministry and the preaching and teaching of the word.
VIII. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience, symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privilege of church membership.
The Lord’s Supper is an act of obedience whereby members of the Body of Christ, through partaking of the bread and the wine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. The presence of Christ is manifested spiritually in the gathering of the church and partaking of the Eucharist.
IX. Christ’s Second Coming
According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
X. Divine Healing
We believe that God uses doctors, medicine, and other material means in healing. We also believe in God’s direct intervention to heal the whole person as an extension of Christ’s continued ministry today through the church. Elements in divine healing include God’s Word, faith, prayer, and anointed ministry in the Body of Christ.
XI. Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents and material possessions; and should recognize these as entrusted to them for use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the scriptures, Christians should contribute offerings from their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth.
EXPANDED SCRIPTURAL BASIS
I. Scripture
Exodus 24:24; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalm 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36; Matthew 5:17-18; 22-29; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16 ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1: 19-21.
II. God
Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:1-3; Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Matthew 3: 16-17; 23:29; John 17; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6;
1 Corinthians 8:4-6; 1 John 5:7.
III. The Trinity
A. God the Father
Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11 ff.; 20:1 ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3; 15; 64-8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9 ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-18; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.
B. God the Son
Genesis 18:1 ff.; Psalm 2:7 ff; 110:1 ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16; 27;17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16; 28; 17:1-5,21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; Galatians
