Doctrine What We Believe
1. The Bible: We believe that the Bible, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible and inerrant Word of God. It is divine revelation; the original writings (words) were verbally inspired by the Holy Ghost as He inbreathed holy men of old. We believe in Gods divine preservation of His Word and that for us in the English language, he has preserved His Word in the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.
2. God: We believe in a Triune God. (Eph. 2:18) One God eternally existent in three persons.
God the Father: Creator of Heaven and earth, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, rich in grace, supreme in love, and measureless in power. We rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of all mankind, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him in faith through Jesus Christ.
God the Son, Jesus Christ: God’s only begotten Son, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, sinless in His life, ever obedient unto the Father, and the only atonement for the sin of this world by His death (through the shedding of His blood) on the cross. We believe that He arose bodily after the third day, ascended into Heaven on the fortieth day, and even now is seated at the Father’s right hand, as our High Priest and Only Mediator, making intercession for His own. We look for His personal, visible, bodily, premillenial, pretribulational, and imminent return to the earth according to His promises, which is our Blessed Hope.
God the Holy Spirit: A person co-equal with the Father and Son in all His attributes. He was sent by the Lord Jesus Christ from God the Father to reprove the world of sin, to regenerate all who receive Christ as personal Saviour, and to indwell, guide, and teach them the things of God. He empowers the believer to live in victory over sin, self, Satan, and the world. He helps our infirmities and intercedes for us according to the will of God the Father.
3. Man: We believe that man was created in the image of God but because of Adam’s transgression (disobedience) that the whole human race fell. Because of this, all men are totally depraved and without Christ, spiritually dead and lost. All men everywhere are sinners, both by nature and by choice. To die in this condition is to be damned forever and eternally separated from God.
4. Satan: We believe in a personal devil (Satan) who is presumptuous, proud, powerful, wicked, malignant, subtle, deceitful, religious, and fierce. He was cast out of Heaven and is now prince of the air and this world system. He caused the fall of man, is his constant adversary, and seeks to beguile, tempt, accuse, and devour him. He opposes the work of God, hinders the Gospel, and works lying miracles (wonders). He has already been judged and someday will be cast into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night, forever and forever.
5. Salvation: We believe that salvation is only in Christ. To obtain this salvation is to repent of one’s sin toward God and to have faith toward Christ (to receive Him in the heart by faith). This great salvation is solely by grace, a free gift, through the shed blood of the Son of God. The blood of Jesus Christ was shed for the sins of the whole world (all mankind). As a work of God’s grace and not man’s works, it is an eternal work. Those who are truly saved can never be lost again. Those who are truly saved will persevere until the end. It entails what Christ called the new birth, being born again from above by the Word of God (the instrument), and the Spirit of God (The Person).
6. Heaven & Hell: We believe that Heaven and Hell are literal places, prepared of God as the only eternal abodes of mankind. All those who have been saved (born-again) shall live eternally with God in Heaven. All those without Christ (devoid of spiritual life) shall abide in Hell, the lake of fire, forever, eternally separated from God.
7. Church: We believe in the Church (the Body of Christ), which is made up of all blood-bought, born-again believers from the public ministry of Christ until His coming again for His own (the Rapture). Some are already in Heaven. The group has never all been together at one time; so, in this respect, we could say that the Church is in prospect. The Church will be together for the first time at the time of the Rapture. We also believe in the churches (local assemblies). The Scriptures teach us more concerning the local churches than the Church. These local churches consist of regenerated believers who have been Scripturally baptized (buried with Him in baptism) and are banded together for worship, work, and spiritual fellowship, spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, according to the specific teachings of the New Testament. Christ is the Head of the Church and the churches. The authority to carry on the work of God in this dispensation is given to the local church, the visible body of Christ in this dispensation. As such, all Christians and all Christian ministries should be the ministry of, and accountable to, a local New Testament church. Scripture knows nothing of authority of, or accountability to, a single universal church. Each local church is to be independent, autonomous, and free from political authority or ecclesiastical hierarchy. We believe in separation of church and state.
8. Ordinances: Two ordinances have been given to the local church, those being Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These two ordinances are for believers only and to be administered by the local church.
Baptism: We believe that the only Scriptural baptism is by complete immersion in water, in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The prerequisite to Scriptural baptism is the new birth. There is no saving power in baptism but is rather the first step of obedience of every Christian, identifying them with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Scriptural baptism must be administered by a local, New Testament, Bible-believing church.
The Lord’s Supper: We believe that the Lord’s Supper consists of unleavened bread, and unfermented fruit of the vine, and that they are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, broken and poured out on the cross for our sins. The prerequisites to Scriptural observance of the Lord’s Supper are the new birth, and Scriptural baptism. Those receiving the Lord’s Supper should either be members of the local church where being administered (Closed Communion), or if the church desires to invite guest, those who are members of a church of like precious faith (Close Communion). There is no Scriptural grounds for the practice of Open Communion whereby anyone is invited to take of the elements.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the only ordinances of the New Testament assemblies and are not for believers apart from the assemblies.
9. Separation: We believe in Bible separation, that is, to be set apart from the world, sin, self, and Satan, and to be separated “unto the praise of His glory” and the furtherance of the Gospel. We believe in being separated from pride, lying, tattling, backbiting, envy, jealousy, bitterness, malice, foolish talking, ingratitude, covetousness, and any other sin of the flesh or spirit. We believe in being separated from the world, and therefore not participating or indulging in the things of this world, its organisations and lodges, or being a part of anything that dishonours our Lord or jeopardizes the Gospel. This is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit when He fills and controls our life. True separation can only come when we are filled with His Spirit.
We believe that every believer should be born of the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, and be filled with the Spirit, that by His power and grace we might bear the fruit of the Spirit. Every Christian is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the family of God at the time of the new birth, but the filling of the Spirit is a daily requirement and need in our lives.
10. Witness: We believe that all believers are to be witnesses unto the lost for Christ. We believe that all believers have certain God-given gifts and are stewards for God and that some are called to preach or to other special tasks. We also believe that all who have rejected the Gospel or have never heard the Gospel are lost and that it is every believer’s responsibility to help get the Gospel to everybody. The individual Christian and the local church should do everything in their power to get the Gospel to the ends of the world through both local and foreign mission.
11. Creation: We believe in the Genesis account of creation as literal and factual, and therefore that God created all that exists in 6 literal days. God spoke and it was! Our God is big enough to do all that He did without the need of millions or billions of years. The fact that God created a mature earth, and that earth was later covered in a worldwide flood, leaves scientists with the impression that it took millions or billions of years when in fact it was all accomplished in 6 days. We would also deny the need of any gap theory between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.
