ARTICLES of FAITH

            A. The Holy Scriptures.  We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writing, and that they are of supreme and final authority in all matters of doctrine, faith and life. – (II Peter 1:21; II Timothy 3:16-17)

 

             B. The Godhead.  We believe in one God eternally existing in three Persons, Father, Son -Jesus the Christ, and Holy Spirit. – (Gen. 1:1; Col. 2:9; John 10:30; Matt 28:19)

 

            C. The Person and Work of Christ.

            1. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and is true God and true man.-(Isa. 7:14; Matt.1:18-23; I Tim.3:16)

 

            2. We believe that the Lord 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 ground of His shed blood. – (Acts 13:38-39; Rom. 4:1-7, 25; Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:5)

           

            3. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there for us as High Priest, Intercessor, and Advocate. (Luke 24:1-43; Acts 2:24-33; Heb. 7:25; I John 2:1; Rom. 8:11; Phil. 3:20-21)

 

            4. We believe in the blessed hope, and the personal, bodily, visible, and certain return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to judge the living and the dead. – (II Thess. 1:7-10; I Thess. 4:13-18; 5:1-11; Jude 14-15; Rev. 20; Acts 1:9-11; Isa. 9:6-7; 65:17-21; 11:6-9; Micah 4:3-4; Hosea 2:18)

           

            D.  Man.  We believe that man was created in the image of God, and that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death, but spiritual death which is separation from God, and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in word and thought and deed. – (Gen. 1:27; 2:17; Rom. 5:12-21; 3:23; 6:23; I Cor. 15:22; 2:14; Psalm 51:5; Jer. 17:9)

 

            E. Salvation.  We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit, and preserved unto the day of redemption. – (John 3:3-8; 10:28; I Peter 1:23; Rom. 8:356-39; Eph. 1:11-14)

 

            F. The Eternal State of the Saved and Unsaved.  We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust; the everlasting blessedness of the saved and in conscious everlasting punishment for the lost. – (John 5:28-29; Rev. 20:4-5; Dan. 12:2; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31)

 

            G. Christian Practice.  We believe that all the saved are called to forsake all worldly and sinful practices and apostasy, and are under obligation to the truth of and proclamation of the Gospel by life and word unto all the world  – (Rom. 12:1-2; II Cor. 5:14-18; Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:14-16; II Cor. 6:14-18; II Tim.3:1-5; II John 9-11; Rev. 18:1-5)

 

            H. The Personality of Satan.  We believe in the reality and personality of Satan. – (Job 1:8-9; John 8:21-45; I Peter 5:8; II Cor.2:11)

           

            I. The Church. 

            1 We believe that the church in its invisible form is universal, the true body and bride of Christ and that all who are born again are members regardless of organizational affiliation. – (Eph.1:22-23; 5:21-23; Matt 28:19; I Cor. 12:13)

 

            2. We believe in the autonomy of the local church to determine its own doctrinal position and in the responsibility to uphold these doctrines and practice. (Matt 16:19; Acts 20:17-35; I Cor. 5; 6:1-5)

 

            J. Ordinances.  We believe Jesus Christ instituted two sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We believe that for the believer, baptism by immersion or sprinkling is a sacrament, wherein the washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, signifies and seals our engrafting into Christ and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s, and that the children of believing parents are to be baptized as an act by the parents of their dedication of them to Christ.  We believe Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper to commemorate His death until He comes again. – (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38-39; I Cor. 11:23-26)