We Believe

 We believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we understand that the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God “were moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of Scripture.  The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God, speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, and is the sole and final source of all that we believe. We also believe that all Scriptures were designed for our practical instruction. (Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11; Rom 15:4; I Cor 2:13;  10:11 2 Tim. 3:16)  

 We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this world to become the Redeemer of the lost world. He was born of a virgin Mary, receiving a human body and a sinless human nature, and retaining His absolute deity. He voluntarily accepted His Father’s will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world. He then arose from the dead and ascended to heaven, exalted at the right hand of God. He is now intercessor and advocate for the saved. (Luke 1:30-35; John 1:18; 3:16; John 1:1-2; John 20:20; Phil  2:5-8; Heb. 7:25) 

   We believe that man was originally created in the image of God, and that he fell through sin, and that as a consequence of his sin, he became dead in trespasses and sins. This spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race; therefore,  every child is born with a nature that is essentially bad apart from divine grace.  (Gen. 1:26; 2:17; Eph. 2:1-3)  

 We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again. We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ and His completed work on the cross. We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises that faith in Christ he passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and from the old creation into the new; being justified from all things. (John 1:12, 3:16, 18, 36,  5:24, 6:29; Rom 1:16-17; 3:22, 26, 4:5, 10:4; Col. 2:10)  

 We believe that sanctification, which is a setting apart unto God, is threefold. First, it is already complete; since the believer is in  Christ, he is set apart unto God in the measure in which Christ is set apart unto God. Secondly, there is a progressive sanctification wherein the Christian is to “grow in grace” and to “be changed” by the power of the Spirit. Finally, we also believe that the child of God will yet be  fully sanctified in his state as he is now sanctified in his standing in  Christ when he shall see his Lord and shall be “like Him.” (John 17:17;  2 Cor 3:18, 7:1; Eph 4:24, 5:25-27; I Thess 5:23; Heb 10:10, 14, 12:10) 

 We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God are members of the church, which is the body and bride of Christ. We believe that by the same Spirit all believers in this age are baptized into, and thus become, one body that is Christ’s, and having become  members one of another, are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the  Spirit in the bond of peace, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. (Matt 16:16-18; Acts 2:42-47; Rom 12:5; 1Cor 12:12-27; Eph  1:20-23, 4:3-10; Col 3:14-15) 

 We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. After believers are saved, they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the whole world. (Matt 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor 5:18-20; I  Peter 1:17, 2:11) 

 We believe that, according to the Word of God, the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His coming, and also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and that this event is the blessed hope set before us in the Scripture, and for this we should be constantly looking. (John 14:1-3; 1 Cor 15:51-52; Phil  3:20; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14) 

 We believe that following the coming of the Lord in the air, the period of great tribulation in the earth will be climaxed by the return of the  Lord Jesus Christ to the earth to introduce the millennial age, to bind Satan and place him in the abyss, to lift the curse which now rests upon the whole creation, to restore Israel to her own land and to give her the realization of God’s covenant promises, and to bring the whole world to the knowledge of God. (Deut 30:1-10; Isa 11:9; Ezek 37:21-28; Matt  24:15-25, 46; Acts 15:16-17; Rom 8:19-23, 11:25-27; 1 Tim 4:1-3; Rev  20:1-3) 

 We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. The spirits and souls of the unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-26, 23:42; 2 Cor 5:8; Phil  1:23; 2 Thess 1:7-9; Jude 1:6-7; Rev 20:11-15)