About

What we Believe and Teach

Statement of Faith

1. THE SCRIPTURES

We believe and teach that the Bible is God's written revelation to man, and thus the 66 books of the Bible constitute the plenary Word of God. These Scriptures are the only true rule of faith and practice and are sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness. The Word of God is absolutely inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and authoritative.

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7-10; 119:11,89,105,140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1-32; Matthew 5:17-18; 22:29; 24:35; Luke 21:33; 24:44-46; John 5:39; 10:35; 16:12-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16ff.; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25-26; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:3, 19-21.

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2. THE TRINITY

We believe and teach that there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite, all-knowing, self-existent Spirit, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three unique persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each equally deserving worship and obedience. God is in every way infinite, absolutely holy, perfectly wise, wholly free, and completely absolute.

Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4, 6; John 4:24; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3, 15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 4:6; Colossians 4:15; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:6.

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3. GOD THE FATHER

We believe and teach that God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, orders and executes all things according to His own purpose and grace. As the only absolute and omnipotent ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events. In His sovereignty, He is neither the author nor approver of sin nor does He diminish or destroy the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures.

Psalm 103:19; 145:8–9; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Peter 1:17; Romans 11:36; Ephesians 1:11; 1 Chronicles 29:11; Hab. 1:13; John 8:38–47.

4. GOD THE SON

We believe and teach that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies. In these, He is coequal, consubstantial (of one and the same essence), and coeternal with the Father. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary; He was God incarnate, very God and very man, wholly without sin. He fulfilled the divine law by His obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He accomplished the redemption of all those who would repent and believe in His complete work. After three days, he was resurrected bodily from the dead, appearing to many witnesses and instructing them for forty days. He ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, where He is the One Mediator. He will personally return in power and glory to judge the living and the dead and to raise to immortality those who eagerly await Him, perfecting them in His image.

John 5:26-29; 14:19; Romans 1:4; 4:25; 6:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; John 10:30; 14:9; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1, 14.

5. GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe and teach that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is eternal, underived, and possessing all the attributes of personality and deity. In all the divine attributes, He is coequal and consubstantial (of one and the same essence) with the Father and the Son. From the moment of spiritual birth, He indwells believers, individually and corporately, as their Helper. By the Spirit's agency, believers are made new, sanctified, and adopted into God's family. He imparts new life to believers, transforming and empowering them for Christ-like living, and sealing them until the day of redemption. He is the enabler for all acceptable worship and ministry, as He imparts a diversity of enabling gifts that equip God's people for service. He enables believers to understand and apply God's truth in love.

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1 Corinthians 2:10–13; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Hebrews 9:14; Psalm 139:7–10; Isaiah 40:13–14; Romans 15:13; John 16:13; Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3–4; 28:25–26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jermiah 31:31–34 with Hebrews 10:15–17.

6. CREATION

We believe and teach that in the beginning, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were pleased to create, out of nothing, the world and all things, visible and invisible, in a literal six-day period, and all were very good.

Genesis 1:1; Exodus 20:11; John 1:2, 3; Hebrews 1:2; Job 26:13; Colossians 1:16; Genesis 1:31; Romans 1:20.

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7. HUMANITY

We believe and teach that man is the special creation of God, made in His image and likeness, male and female, as the crowning work of His creation. Man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self-determination, and moral responsibility to God. God created man as a two-part being: a material body formed by God at conception and an immaterial Soul or Spirit. God's intention in the creation of man was that man should glorify God, enjoy God's fellowship, live his life in the will of God, and by this, accomplish God's purpose for man in the world. However, in Adam's sin of disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, man lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual, physical, and eternal death, became subject to the wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt from birth and utterly incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace. Man is not able to recover himself from the fallen state he is in by nature of his own free will and holiness.

Genesis 1:26-30; 2:5,7,18-22; 3; 9:6; 5:1; 9:6; 18:10; Leviticus 12:2, 5, 7; 18:22; 20:13; Psalms 1; 8:3-6; 32:1-5; 51:5; Isaiah 6:5; 43:7; Jeremiah 17:5; Matthew 5:28; 16:26; 19:4-6; Mark 10:6; John 3:36; 6:23; Acts 17:26-31; Romans 1:19-32; 3:10-18,23; 5:6,12,19; 6:6; 7:14-25; 8:14-18,29; 1 Corinthians 1:21-31; 2:14; 6:9-11; 7:1-5; 15:19,21-22; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 2:1-3, 12; Colossians 1:16; 21-22; 3:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; 1 Timothy 1:10; 2:13-14; Hebrews 13:4; James 3:9; 1 John 1:8; Revelation 4:11.

8. REDEMPTION

We believe and teach that salvation is wholly of God's grace, through the redemptive work accomplished by Jesus Christ and on the merit of His shed blood, not on the basis of any human merit or works, offered as a gift to all who would repent and believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Redemption is wholly conceived, accomplished, and applied by God's sovereign grace. It is not, in whole or in part, conceived or accomplished by human will or work.

Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5.

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9. MARRIAGE, FAMILY, AND SEXUALITY

We believe and teach that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. The family is composed of people related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. God instituted marriage, meaning only a covenant union between one naturally born man and one naturally born woman as husband and wife. The word "spouse" refers only to a person of the naturally born opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. As our Creator, God stipulates in His Word that the only legitimate and acceptable sexual desires and sexual acts are those between a man and a woman within the context of marriage. In two separate acts, God created only two distinct genders: male and female. The genders of Adam and Eve were established by God and defined by their physiological sexes at creation. Subsequent to creation, God determines the gender of all other humans based on their physiological sex at the time of conception. This is accomplished through the direct assignment of X or Y chromosomes from the Creator; thus, all attempts to redefine human sexuality beyond the physiological male-female distinction (whether framed biologically or culturally) and all attempts to change one's birth gender are sinful rebellions against our Creator.

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Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26-28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1-8; 127; 128; 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15-20; 6:20-22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13-14; 24:3; 29:10-31; 31. 

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10. THE CHURCH

We believe and teach that the Holy Spirit immediately places all who place their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body, the Church, the Bride of Christ, of which Christ is the Head. The establishment and continuity of local churches are clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures, and the members of the one spiritual body are directed to associate themselves together in local assemblies. We believe and teach that the church's ultimate purpose is to glorify God, which is only accomplished as the church carries out its biblically assigned mission.

Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 10:32, 12, 12:12-13; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 19:7-8, 21:2-3. 

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11. LAST THINGS

We believe and teach that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. In their resurrected and glorified bodies, the righteous will receive their reward and dwell forever in heaven with the Lord.

Isaiah 2:4; 11:9; Matthew 16:27; 18:8-9; 19:28; 24:27,30,36,44; 25:31-46; 26:64; Mark 8:38; 9:43-48; Luke 12:40,48; 16:19-26; 17:22-37; 21:27-28; John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; 17:31; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 4:5; 15:24-28,35-58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20-21; Colossians 1:5; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 5:1ff.; 2 Thessalonians 1:7ff.; 2; 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 9:27-28; James 5:8; 2 Peter 3:7ff.; 1 John 2:28; 3:2; Jude 14; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1-22:13.