Our beliefs

This is a comprehensive statement of faith for our ministry

We believe and accept the Bible – the Holy Scriptures – as our authority in matters of faith and practice and adopt the following Statement of Faith as our interpretation of Bible Doctrine:

We believe the Bible – the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments – as being uniquely, verbally, and fully inspired by God, written without error (inerrant) in the original manuscripts, and that it is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

We believe in one true God, eternally existing in one essence, yet three co-equal persons...the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.

We believe in God the Father, an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love, who infallibly foreknows all that shall come to pass and that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men.

We believe Jesus Christ is God, the Living Word, the begotten son from the Father, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.

We believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.

We believe Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the basis of His shed blood.

We believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died.

We believe Jesus Christ ascended bodily into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own as High Priest and Advocate.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

We believe the Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men.

We believe the Holy Spirit convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption.

We believe the Holy Spirit is the life of the believer and that His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer’s life by faith.

We believe the Holy Spirit empowers the preaching and teaching of the gospel.

We believe that man was originally created in the image of God, sinned by disobeying God and thereby incurred not only physical death but spiritual death, which is separation from God.  As a result all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners by choice and therefore under divine condemnation.

We believe that man’s nature is corrupted and as a result is totally unable to please God and is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

We believe the salvation of man is wholly a work of God’s free grace and is not the result, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony, and that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation.

We believe that all those who repent and receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again by the Holy Spirit, delivered from divine condemnation, and thereby become children of God and heirs of eternal life.

We believe that all those who are truly born again will be kept by the power of God and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives, and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again.

We believe it is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God through His written Word.

We believe every Christian is called to live their daily lives in the power of the indwelling Spirit so that they will bear fruit to the glory of God and for the well-being of their fellow man; that their conduct should be blameless before the world; that they should be a faithful steward of their possessions; and that they should seek to realize for themself and others the full stature of maturity in Christ.

We believe in the universal Church, a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members.

We believe it is the mission of the Church to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world.

We believe God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly in local churches with all of its endeavors being guided by multiple leadership and supported by wise stewardship of His people.

We believe that each local church is to consist of believers in Jesus Christ who have been baptized on a credible profession of faith and who assemble for worship, prayer, fellowship, participation in ordinances, edification through the Scriptures, mutual encouragement and to be equipped for service.

We believe that the ordinances of the Church, given by our Lord, are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Communion).

We believe that each church is to be independent and must be free from any interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority.

We believe that local churches can best promote the cause of Jesus Christ by cooperating voluntarily with other churches in the community and the world.

We believe in the existence of holy angels who were created by God to worship Him and serve Him as ministering agents to mankind, and that they are not to be worshipped or adored by man.

We believe in the existence of Satan, who is a created angel, the author of sin, and the open and declared enemy of God and man who is still working in the world to destroy the souls of men even though he has been defeated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe in the blessed hope, which is the personal, visible, and imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost in hell, and the fellowship of the saved in heaven.

We believe that at physical death the Christian enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.

We believe that at physical death the non-Christian enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation along with Satan and all the fallen angels and will eternally perish in the lake of fire.

We believethat the foregoing are Bible doctrines; therefore, we stand firm upon this Statement of Faith. 

We believe in God the Father who created Heaven and earth…the literal 6-day creation:

Genesis 1:1-3, “1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

Genesis 2:1-2, “1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”

Hebrews 11:3, “3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Colossians 1:16-17, “16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

John 1:1-5, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

We believe in the sanctity of marriage – the holy covenant of marriage being between one man and one woman – no exceptions.  Same sex marriage is not natural nor is it God’s plan.  The sanctity of marriage is maintained within the Holy covenant of such; the Scriptures have countless references/prohibitions to sex outside of marriage.  The following are only a few:

Genesis 2:21-24, “21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ 24  For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”

Leviticus 18:22, “22 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”

Romans 1:26-27, “26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

1 Corinthians 7:2-16, “2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. 3 The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.6 But this I say by way of concession, not of command. 7 Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am.  However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.  8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.  9 But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.  10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.  12 But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.  13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away.  14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.  15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace.  16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?”

Ephesians 5:23-33, “23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.  24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.  25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.  28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.  31For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.  32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.  33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

The Bible never specifically addresses the issue of abortion. However, there are numerous teachings in Scripture that make it abundantly clear what God’s view of abortion is.

Jeremiah 1:5, “5Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Psalm 139:13-16, “13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.  14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Exodus 21:22-25, “22If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. 23 But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, 24  eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

This clearly indicates that God considers a baby in the womb to be as human as a full-grown adult. For the Christian, abortion is not a matter of a woman’s right to choose. It is a matter of the life or death of a human being made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6).
 

The first argument that always arises against the Christian stance on abortion is “What about cases of rape and/or incest?” As horrible as it would be to become pregnant as a result of rape and/or incest, is the murder of a baby the answer? Two wrongs do not make a right. The child who is a result of rape/incest could be given in adoption to a loving family unable to have children on their own, or the child could be raised by its mother. Again, the baby is completely innocent and should not be punished for the evil acts of its father.

The second argument that usually arises against the Christian stance on abortion is “What about when the life of the mother is at risk?” Honestly, this is the most difficult question to answer on the issue of abortion. First, let’s remember that this situation is the reason behind less than one-tenth of one percent of the abortions done in the world today. Far more women have an abortion for convenience than women who have an abortion to save their own lives. Second, let’s remember that God is a God of miracles. He can preserve the life of a mother and a child despite all the medical odds being against it. Ultimately, though, this question can only be decided between a husband, wife, and God. Any couple facing this extremely difficult situation should pray to the Lord for wisdom (James 1:5) as to what He would have them to do.
 

Over 95 percent of the abortions performed today involve women who simply do not want to have a baby. Less than 5 percent of abortions are for the reasons of rape, incest, or the mother's health at risk. Even in the more difficult 5 percent of instances, abortion should never be the first option. The life of a human being in the womb is worth every effort to allow the child to be born.
 

For those who have had an abortion, remember that the sin of abortion is no less forgivable than any other sin. Through faith in Christ, all sins can be forgiven (John 3:16; Romans 8:1; Colossians 1:14). A woman who has had an abortion, a man who has encouraged an abortion, or even a doctor who has performed one—can all be forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.

 There is only ONE true God and only ONE way to reach Him

John 14:6, “6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’”