The Bible: scriptures of the Old and New Testaments have been given by the verbal plenary inspiration of God and are, therefore, inerrant.1 They are designed to lead us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. They are fully inspired by God and therefore, serve as the authoritative guide for Christian understanding, life, and ministry.2 The Scriptures are not to be added to, superseded, or changed by tradition or any supposed later revelation.3 Every doctrinal formulation, whether of creed, confession or theology, must be put to the test of the full counsel of God in the Holy Scriptures.4 All redemptive understanding of the Scriptures depends upon the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the most accurate factual knowledge attained through exegesis, exposition, and interpretation does not bring about conversion or spiritual comprehension without the Holy Spirit creating an understanding through the Word and applying the message to the heart.5
God is triune. There is but one God, infinite, eternal, almighty, and perfect in holiness, truth, and love.6 In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are co-existent, co-equal, co-eternal.7 The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. Yet each is true Deity. One God –the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit– is the foundation of Christian faith and life.8
God is the Creator of heaven and earth.9 All things were made by His Word. Through the same Word, He daily sustains all of His creation.10 He made man for fellowship with Himself and intended that all creation should live to the praise of His glory.11 As Creator, this triune God created the universe apart from any pre-existing materials and without any evolutionary process. We believe in the historicity of the first eleven chapters of Genesis.
Man was created male and female, in the image and likeness of God.12 Through the original sin of man (by Adam and Eve), mankind has fallen from God and has become corrupt in his whole nature. By himself, man is totally incapable of returning to God.13 Fallen, sinful humanity, whatever its character or attainments, is eternally lost and without hope apart from salvation in Christ.14
Jesus Christ the Son is fully God and fully man, the only Savior from the sins of the world.15 He was the Word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and was perfect in nature, teaching, and obedience.16 He died and shed His blood on the cross as the vicarious atonement for the sins of all mankind. He rose from the dead in His own glorified body, ascended into heaven, and will return in glory.17 He is the Head of His body, the church, and the Victor over all the powers of darkness. He reigns at the right hand of God the Father.18
Salvation, the gift of God, is provided by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ on the basis of His shed blood in a vicarious death.19 Recognizing his need for a Savior, and looking to Christ and His vicarious atonement for sin, man is born anew unto eternal life by the Holy Spirit.20 There is no other name except Jesus Christ by which man may be saved.21 Through His great redemptive act, there is forgiveness of sin, liberation from bondage to the world, and freedom in His Spirit.22
The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He unites man to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth, and dwells within the regenerate. He produces in them the fruit of the Holy Spirit, enabling them to grow in the experience of sanctification.23 The Holy Spirit inspired the prophets, anointed Jesus Christ for His ministry, filled the church with power on the day of Pentecost, and will transform the mortal bodies of believers into bodies like Jesus’ own body in the glory of the resurrection.24 The Holy Spirit is imparted to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior.25 The promise of the Father that the Holy Spirit would be sent in power was not only made to the early disciples, but continues through generations to come. God sovereignty gives the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the edifying of the body of Christ.26 The gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers were given by the Lord Jesus Christ for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.27
The church, which is the body and future bride of Christ, is dedicated to the worship and service of God, the observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as the practice of good works.28 The primary task of the church in all ages is to teach all nations and to make disciples, bringing the Gospel into every aspect of life and thought. The ultimate mission of the church is the redemption of souls, through obedience to the Great Commission.29
Satan. We believe that Satan was created a perfect angelic being.30 He rebelled against God.31 As a result he became depraved, the devil, the leader of the host of angels who fell with him, and the adversary of God and of God’s people.32 Satan has been defeated and judged at the cross. He now awaits his ultimate doom at the end of the Millennium.33
The consummation of all things includes the rapture of the church, followed by a literal seven year period of tribulation on the earth, the Second Advent of Jesus with His literal one thousand year reign on the earth from Jerusalem, and the final judgment of the unsaved.34 Satan with his hosts, and all humanity outside of Christ, will be separated eternally from the presence of God, enduring eternal punishment in a literal hell.35 All who have been redeemed by Christ from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light will be secure with Christ in the New Jerusalem with the new heaven and new earth forever.36
1 Psalm 19:7-13; 119:89,105.
2 2 Timothy 3:15-17.
3 Isaiah 8:20; Galatians1:8-9.
4 Matthew 22:29-33; Ephesians 2:20; Acts 28:23.
5 1 Corinthians 2:7-16.
6 Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4,6; Isaiah 44:6-8; 57:15; 1 John 4:8; Genesis 17:1; Ps. 145:3.
7 Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14.
8 John 14:23,25; 15:26; 16:13-15.
9 Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 33:9.
10 John 1:3,10; Colossians1:15-17; Hebrews 1:2-3; Psalm 147:13; Romans 8:28; John 3:16.
11 Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:11.
12 Genesis 1:26-27.
13 Romans 5:12, 16-17; Jeremiah 17:9; Ephesians 2:1-3; John 6:44.
14 John 3:3-7; Acts 4:12.
15 John 1:1, 20:28; Colossians 1:19; 1Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 2:14-18.
16 John 1:14; Matt. 1:18, 22-23; Luke 1:35; John 8:29; Heb 5:8.
17 John 19:33-37; Romans 4:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:2; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
18 Colossians 1:8, 2:15; Hebrews 1:3-4.
19 Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 5:1; Acts 16:31, Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:12, 10:19; Rev. 1:5.
20 Acts 2:38; Titus 3:4-7; Acts 3:19-21.
21 Acts 4:12.
22 Ephesians 1:17; Galatians 6:14-15.
23 John 15:8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:13; John 3:5; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9-11; Galatians 5:22-23; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, 1 Peter 1:2.
24 1 Peter 1:10,12; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Luke 4:1, 18-21; Acts 2:4, 4:31; Romans 8:11; Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 John 3:2.
25 Acts 2:38-39; Luke 11:13.
26 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 28-31; 14:1, 13; Romans 12:6-8.
27 Ephesians 4:7-16; Luke 11:28; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13.
28 Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 2:22; 5:23, 26,27; 1 Peter 2:5, 9-10; Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:14.
29 Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
30 Ezekiel 28:15.
31 Ezekiel 28:15-18; Isaiah 14: 12-17.
32 Revelation 12:4, 10-17; 13:7; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.
33 John 16:11; Revelation 20:1-2, 7-10.
34 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15; Matthew 24:30; Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7; Zechariah 12:10; 14:3-11; Revelation 20:11-15.
35 Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:47-48; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.
36 Revelation 21:1-4.