What We Believe

Holy Scripture- Our ultimate Authority

  1. We teach that the Bible, with its canonical 66 books contained in the Old Testament (39 Books) and New Testament (27 Books) is God’s written revelation to man.

  2. All 66 books of the Bible are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life.  We teach that the Word of God is verbally inspired in every word (2 Timothy 3:16) absolutely inerrant, infallible, and God breathed. 

  3. The authority of the Holy Scripture, because of which it ought to be believed and obeyed, does not depend upon the testimony of any man or church, but entirely upon God, its author (Who alone is Truth, John 14:6); therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God. 

  4. We teach that the Bible is the only authority that holds the infallible rules for faith and practice.  ( Mathew 5:18, John 17:17, 1 Corinthians 2:13, Hebrews 4:12) 

 Holy Scripture- Interpretation

  1. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. Therefore, when there is a question about the true and full meaning of any Scripture that meaning must be searched out and ascertained by other places in scripture that speak more clearly. 

  2. We teach that, whereas there may be several application of any given passage of scripture, there is only one true interpretation. The meaning of scripture is found by diligently applying the literal grammatical historical method of interpretation by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. (John 16:12-15, 1 Corinthian 2:7-15) 

 Holy Scripture- Sufficiency

  1. Psalm 19: 7-9 “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; 
    The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 
    8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; 
    The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 
    9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; 
    The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. 

  2.  We believe that scripture is fully sufficient to equip a believer in living out the Christian life. 

 God

  1. There is only one living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection. He is a most pure spirit, invisible, with neither body, parts, nor passive properties. He is unchangeable, boundless, eternal, and incomprehensible. He is almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, and most absolute. He works all things according to the counsel of his own unchangeable and most righteous will, for his own glory. He is most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. 

  2. He alone is all-sufficient, in and to himself, not standing in need of any creatures which he has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but rather manifesting his own glory in, by, to, and on them. 

  3. He is most holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his commands. To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatever worship, service, or obedience he is pleased to require of them. 

God- Triune God

  1. We believe that the one true God is eternally existing in three persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – each equally deserving worship and obedience( Mathew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:14) 

  2. In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

  3. The Father and the Son are one ( John 10:30-33) 

  4. The Father and Spirit are one. ( 1 Corinthians 3:16)

  5. The Son and the Spirit are one. ( Romans 8:9) 

  6. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one ( John 14:16-23) 

God- Father

  1. We teach that God the Father, orders and disposes all things according to his own purpose and grace (Psalm 145:8-9).  

  2. He is the creator of all things ( Genesis 1:1-31) 

  3. He is the only absolute and omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence and redemption. ( Romans 11:36) 

  4. He is Father in his designation within the Trinity and in His relationship with mankind. 

God- Son

  1. We believe that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity. He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30, John 14: 9) 

  2. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary and of her substance. In this way, two whole natures, the divine and the human, perfect and distinct, were inseparably joined together in one person without being changed or mixed. This person is truly God and truly man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. 

  3. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself—which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up to God—has fully satisfied the justice of his Father. He purchased not only reconciliation but also an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven for all those whom the Father has given to him. 

  4. We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive ( Romans 3:24-25, 5:8) 

God- The Holy Spirit 

  1. The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son; all infinite without beginning. 

  2. We teach that the work of the Holy Spirit in this age began at Pentecost, when He came from the Father as promised by Christ to complete the building of the Body of Christ, His church. ( 1 Corinthians 12:13) 

  3. We teach that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in Regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ.  

  4. The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers believers for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption. 

Justification- Salvation 

  1. We believe that salvation is only of God by His Grace in which He gives the Faith to believe upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior so that he and He alone would receive all the Glory.        ( Ephesians 2:8-9) ( Doctrines of Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria) 

  2. We believe that we are saved only by the work of Christ and any human merit can not satisfy the debt of sin. 

  3. We believe that Christ is our substitute who has both paid our penalty and achieved our righteousness.  

  4. We believe that election is the act of God by which, before the foundation of the world, He chose in Christ those whom he graciously regenerates, saves, and sanctifies ( Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 1:4-11; 2 Timothy 2:13) 

  5. We teach that the unmerited favor that God grants to totally depraved sinners is not related to any initiative of their own part or to God’s anticipation of they might do by their own will, but is solely of His sovereign grace and mercy. 

Sanctification

  1. We believe that those whom God saves He sanctifies. ( Romans 6:6, 1 Corinthians 6:11, 1 Peter 1:2, John 17:19, 1 John 1:9) 

  2. We believe that the Holy Spirit works in the believer through progressive sanctification. Through obedience to the Word of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more life Jesus Christ. ( John 17:17, Romans 6:1-22, 2 Corinthians 3:18) 

Security in Salvation 

  1. We teach that all the redeemed once saved, are kept by Gods power and are thus secure in Christ forever. ( John 5:24; John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 5:9-10; 8:1; 8:31-39; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8; Ephesians 4:30; Hebrews 7:25, 13:5: 1 Peter 1:5) 

Baptism 

  1. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be a sign of His fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins and of giving up into God through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life. ( Romans 6:3-5, Col. 2:12, Mark 1:4, Acts 22:16) 

  2. Only those who profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ are to be baptized. ( Mark 16:6, Acts 8:36,37, Acts 2:41, Acts 8:12, Acts 18:8) 

  3. The outward element to be used in this ordinance is water, where in the party is to be baptized by immersion in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit 

Marriage

  1. We teach that the term “marriage” has only one meaning and that is marriage is sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union of which is never to be broken. ( Gen. 2:23-24, Matthew 19:6) 

The Lord’s Supper 

  1. The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in His church unto the end of the world for the perpetual remembrance of His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood for the atonement of the sins of all believers. 
    ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17, 21 ) 

  2. The Lord’s Supper is exclusively for those who have repented of their sins, have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and savior and have decided to follow Christ in service and obedience. 

  3. In this ordinance Christ is not offered up to his Father, nor any real sacrifice made at all for remission of sin of the quick or dead, but only a memorial of that one offering up of himself by himself upon the cross, once for all; and a spiritual oblation of all possible praise unto God for the same. (Hebrews 9:25-28, 1 Corinthians 11:24, Matthew 26:26-27) 

The Last Days 

  1. We teach that physical death involves no loss of our immaterial consciousness (rev. 6:9-11), that the soul of the redeemed passes immediately into the presence of Christ (Luke 23:43, Phil 1:23), that there is a separation of soul and body (Phil. 1:21-24), and that for the redeemed, such separation will continue until the rapture, when our soul and our perfected glorified body will be reunited to be forever with our Lord ( Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:35-44, 50-54). 

  2. We believe in the personal, bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ before the seven year tribulation (1 Thess. 4:16, Titus 2:13) to take His church before the tribulation period. 

  3. We teach that immediately following the removal of the church from the earth the righteous judgements of God will be poured out upon an unbelieving world. ( John 14:1-3, 1 Thess. 4: 13-18, Jeremiah 30:7, Daniel 9:27, Daniel 12:1, 2 Thess. 2:7-12, Rev. 16) 

  4. We teach that after the tribulation period, Christ will come to earth to occupy the throne of David ( Mathew 25:31, Luke 1:31-33, Acts 1: 10-11) and establish his messianic kingdom for 1,000 literal years on the earth. ( Rev. 20:1-7). 

  5. During this time the resurrected saints will reign with Christ over Israel and all the nations of the earth. ( Ezekiel 37:21-28, Daniel 7:17-22, Rev. 19:11-16) 

Eternity 

  1. We teach that after the closing of the millennium, the saved will enter the eternal state of glory with God, after which this earth is dissolved and replaced with a new earth, wherein only righteousness dwells. ( 2 Peter 3:10; Rev. 20:15, 21:1-27; 22:1-21. 

Church Leadership

  1. The focal point of all church leadership is the elder. An elder is one of a plurality of biblically qualified men who jointly shepherd and oversee a local body of believers. The word translated “elder” is used nearly twenty times in Acts and the epistles in reference to this unique group of leaders who have responsibility for overseeing the people of God. (Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 5:17; Acts 20:17; Acts 11:30; Acts 15:12, 21:18) 

  2. Numerous passages in the New Testament indicate, the words “elder” (presbuteros), “over- seer” (episkopos), and “pastor” (poim ̄en) all refer to the same office. overseers and pastors are not distinct from elders; the terms are simply different ways of identifying the same people. The qualifications for an over- seer (episkopos) in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, and those for an elder (presbuteros) in Titus 1:6-9 are unmistakably parallel. In fact, in Titus 1, Paul uses both terms to refer to the same man (pres- buteros in v. 5 and episkopos in v. 7). All three terms are used interchangeably in Acts 20.  

  3. The qualifications for elders are found in 1 Timothy 3:2-7 and Titus 1:6-8. According to these passages, an elder must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money, not fond of sordid gain, a good manager of his household, one who has his children under control with dignity, not a new convert, one who has a good reputation outside the church, self-controlled, sensible, able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict, above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, loving what is good, just, and devout.   

  4. The primary responsibility of an elder is to serve as a manager and caretaker of the church (1 Tim. 3:5). That involves a number of specific duties. As spiritual overseers of the flock, elders are to determine church policy (Acts 15:22); oversee the church (Acts 20:28); ordain others (1 Tim. 4:4); rule, teach, and preach (1 Tim. 5:17; cf. 1 Thess. 5:12; 1 Tim. 3:2); exhort and refute (Titus 1:9); and act as shepherds, setting an example for all (1 Pet. 5:1-3). Those responsibilities put elders at the core of the New Testament church’s work.  

Church Membership

  1. To become a member of a church is to formally commit oneself to an identifiable, local body of believers who have joined together for specific, divinely ordained purposes. These purposes include receiving instruction from God’s Word (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2), serving and edifying one another through the proper use of spiritual gifts (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-31; 1 Pet. 4:10-11), participating in the ordinances (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:38-42), and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost (Matt. 28:18-20). In addition, when one becomes a member of a church, he submits himself to the care and the authority of the biblically qualified elders that God has placed in that assembly. 

  2. In the book of Acts, much of the terminology fits only with the concept of formal church membership. Phrases such as “the whole congregation” (6:5), “the church in Jerusalem” (8:1), “the disciples” in Jerusalem (9:26), “in every church” (14:23), “the whole church” (15:17), and “the elders of the church” in Ephesus (20:17), all suggest recognizable church membership with well-defined boundaries  

Church Discipline

  1. In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus outlines the way the church is to seek the restoration of a believer who has fallen into sin—a four-step process commonly known as church discipline. First, when a brother sins, he is to be confronted privately by a single individual (v. 15). If he refuses to repent, that individual is to take one or two other believers along to confront him again (v. 16). If the sinning brother refuses to listen to the two or three, they are then to tell it to the church (v. 17). If there is still no repentance, the final step is to put the person out of the assembly