Doctrinal Statement
Section 1: The Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scripture to be the verbally inspired Word of God, authoritative, inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed. By this we understand the whole Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament, is inspired in the sense that holy men of God “were moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of Scripture. We believe that His divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the writing: historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical – as appeared in the original manuscripts. We believe that all the Scripture center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work, in His first and second coming, and hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read or understood until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our practical instruction and are sufficient on their own (no need to be mixed with humanistic psychology or philosophy) to equip and mature believers and to give them wisdom and truth to address spiritual and emotional problems. We believe the Scriptures are the final authority of faith and practice. We believe the Scriptures are the fresh and present voice of God and are alive and powerful and are entirely adequate for meeting the needs of the saints today. We believe that the Scriptures are complete and no other prophetic word is needed in this age.
Matthew 5:18 Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11 Luke 24:27, 44 John 5:39 Romans 15:4 I Corinthians 2:13; 10:11 2 Timothy 3:16 2 Peter 1:21 Acts 1:16; 17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; 28:23 Revelation 22:18-19 Hebrews 4:12 1Thess 2:13
Section 2: The Godhead
We believe in the one true God, Who created all things; that the Godhead eternally exists in three distinct coequal and coeternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.; each having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Matthew 28:18-19 Mark 12:29 John 1:14 Acts 5:3-4 2 Corinthians 13:14 Hebrews 1:1-3 Revelation 1:4-6
Section 3: The Angels, Fallen and Unfallen
- Creation and Classification: We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless, spiritual beings, known as angles; that one sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan; that a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
Isaiah 12:12-17 Ezekiel 28:11-19 1 Timothy 3:6 2 Peter 2:4 Jude 1:6
2. Satan’s Strategy: We believe that Satan is the originator of sin, and that under the permission of God, he, through subtlety, led our first parents into transgression, thereby accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting them and their posterity to his own power; that he is the enemy of God and the people of God; that he in his warfare often appears as an angel of light, even counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and systems of doctrine, which systems are characterized by a denial of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and of salvation by grace alone.
Genesis 3:1-19 Romans 5:12-14 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 11:13-15 Ephesians 6:10-12 1 Timothy 4:1-3
3. The Judgment of Satan: We believe that Satan was judged at the cross, though not then executed, and that he, a usurper, now rules as the “god of this world;” that, a the second coming of Christ, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years, and after the thousand years he will be loosed for a little seasons and then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” where he “shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
John 12:31 2 Corinthians 4:4 Colossians 2:15 Revelation 7:11
4. Elect Angels: We believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are before the throne of god, from whence they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.
Luke 15:10 Hebrews 1:14 Revelation 7:11
Section 4: Man Created and Fallen
We believe that man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, that he fell through sin and (as a consequence of his sin) lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and that he became subject to the power of the devil. We also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus alone being excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace.
While man has dignity, as he was created in the image of God, he is corrupted in every part of his nature due to the fall. Man is a sinner by his family association with the first man Adam: by his nature: and by choice
Genesis 1:26; 2:17; 6:5 Psalm 14:1-3; 51:5 Ecclesiastes 7:20 Jeremiah 17:9 Romans 3:10-19, 3:23 5:12; 8:6-7 2 Corinthians 5:21 Ephesians 2:1-3
Section 5: The Dispensations
- Basic Concept: We believe that the dispensations are stewardships by which God administers His purpose on the earth through man under varying responsibilities during different ages. We believe that these different administrative responsibilities are manifest in the Biblical record, which spans the entire history of mankind, and that each ends in the failure of man under the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from God. We believe that three of these dispensations or rules of life are the subject of extended revelation in the Scripture; the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of grace, and the future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. We believe that these are distinct and are not to be intermingled or confused, being chronologically successive.
Ephesians 1:10; 2:11-18; 3:2-6 Colossians 1:24-27
2. Salvation in All Dispensations: We believe that the dispensations are not different ways of salvation. We believe that according to the “eternal purpose” of God, salvation in the divine reckoning is always “by grace, through faith,” and rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Christ. We believe that God has always been gracious, regardless of the ruling dispensation, but that man has not at all times been under an administration or stewardship of grace as is true in the present dispensation which will last until the rapture of the Church.
We believe that it has always been true that without faith is it impossible to please God, and that the principle of faith was prevalent in the lives of all the Old Testament saints. We believe further that their faith was counted unto them for righteousness.
Genesis 15:6 Romans 4:3-8 Hebrews 11:1-40
Section 6: The First Advent of Jesus Christ
- His Virgin Birth: We believe that, as provided by God and as announced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to men, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin Mary, and received a human body and a sinless human nature.
Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:18-25 Luke 1:26-35 John 1:18; 3:16 Galatians 4:4 Hebrews 4:15
2. His Two Natures: We believe that, as to His human nature, He became and remained a perfect man, but sinless throughout His life; yet He retained His absolute deity, being at the same time true God and true man.
John 1:1, 14 2 Corinthians 5:21 Philippians 2:5-8 Colossians 2:9 Hebrews 4:15
3. His Rejection: We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy He came first to Israel as her Messiah-King, and that, being rejected of that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all.
John 1:11 Acts 2:22-24 1 Timothy 2:6
4. His Substitutionary Death: We believe that, in infinite love for the lost, He voluntarily accepted His Father’s will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world, bearing the holy judgments against sin which the righteousness of God must impose. His death was, therefore, substitutionary in the most absolute sense – the just for the unjust – and by His death he became the Savior of the lost.
John 1:29; 19:33 Romans 3:25-26 2 Corinthians 5:14 Hebrews 10:5-14 1 Peter 3:18
5. His Resurrection: We believe that He arose from the dead and was seen in the same body, in which He had lived and died, and that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which ultimately will be given to all believers.
John 20:20, 24-28 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 Philippians 3:20-21
6. His Ascension: We believe that, on departing from the earth, He was accepted of His Father and that His acceptance is a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished.
Acts 1:9 Ephesians 1:20-21 Hebrews 1:3
7. His Present Session: We believe that He became Head over all things to the church which is His body, and in this ministry He intercedes and advocates for the saved.
Romans 14:9 Ephesians 1:22-23 Hebrews 7:25 1 John 2:1
Section 7: Salvation Only Through Christ
- The Sufficiency of the Work of Christ. We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless “born again,” and that no degree of reformation, however great, no attainments immorality, however high, no culture, however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance, however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven’ but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the word, is absolutely essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are sons of God. We believe, also, that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was made to be sine and was made a curse for us, dying as our substitute; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the apostles, can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood, or to the merit of the finished work wrought for us by Him Who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity.
Leviticus 17:11 Isaiah 64:6 Matthew 26:28 John 3:5, 18 Romans 5:6-9 2 Corinthians 5:21 Galatians 3:13; 6:15 Ephesians 1:7 Philippians 3:4-9 Titus 3:5 1 Peter 1:18-19, 23
2. The Appropriation of the Work of Christ: We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ. We believe that repentance is not to be emphasized in itself as a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, dedication, or faithful service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. We believe that anyone who desires God’s free offer of eternal life may respond in faith to receive it. We further believer that common clichés often used to ask people to believe in Christ such as: “ask Jesus into your heart”, “pray the sinners prayers”, “make him Lord of your life”, “surrender” to Christ are confusing or erroneous because they take the focus off the finished work of Christ and obscure God’s gracious plan of salvation. We believe these invitations create confusion that can lead to insecurities regarding one’s salvation and that they are often a contributor to a person’s lack of stability as they seek to live the Christian life.
John 1:12; 3:16-18, 36; 5:14; 6:28-29 Acts 13:39; 16:31 Romans 1:16-17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4 Galatians 3:22 1 John 2:2
Section 8: The Extent of Salvation
We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises faith in Christ, he passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life and from the old creation into the new; being justified and accepted before the Father according as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having His place and portion as linked to Him and one with Him forever. Though the saved one should grow in the realization of his blessings and know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ.
John 5:24; 17:22 Acts 13:39 Romans 5:1-2 2 Corinthians 5:17 Ephesians 1:3; 2:1-7 Colossians 2:10 2 Peter 3:18 1 John 4:17; 5:11-12
Section 9: Sanctification
We believe that sanctification, which is a setting apart unto God, is threefold: (1) It is already complete for every saved person. (2) We believe, however, that he retains his sin nature in this life. Therefore, while the position of the Christian in Christ is perfect, he is not perfect in this life. There is, therefore, a progressive sanctification wherein the Christian is to “grow in grace” and “be changed” by the unhindered power of the Spirit and the Word of God. (3) We believe, also, that the child of God will yet be fully sanctified when he shall see his Lord and shall be “like Him.”
John 17:17 Romans 7:18 2 Corinthians 3:18; 7:1 Ephesians 4:24; 5:25-27 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 5:23 Hebrews 10:10, 14; 12:10 1 John 3:2
Section 10: Eternal Security
We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present unending intercession of Christ in heaven, because of the unchangeable covenants of God, and because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all believers in Jesus Christ shall be kept saved forever. We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father, and that, since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart form all human merit, He, Who cannot fail, will in the end present every one of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son.
John 5:24; 10:28; 14:16-17; 17:11 Romans 8:29-30 1 Corinthians 6:19; Hebrews 7:25 1 John 2:1-2; 5:13 Jude 1:24
