We believe the Scriptures are inspired and, therefore, without error and infallible in the original manuscripts. We believe the men who wrote the Bible - forty authors - were superintended by the Holy Spirit so that the final product of their work was exactly as God intended it to be. We believe the Bible is verbally inspired, meaning every word is as God intended. We also believe the Bible is plenarily inspired, meaning the Bible is inspired as a whole unit. No part of the Bible is more inspired than any other part. For example, Genesis 1-11 is just as inspired as John 3:16. All historical data, scientific data, biographical data, etc., is inspired and, therefore, trustworthy. Scriptures to compare: Psalm 119; "The Word of the LORD came unto me, saying..." Ezekiel 22:17 and many expression like that used hundreds of times; Matthew 5:17-19; Luke 24:25-27; John 10:35; I Corinthians 14:37; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21-22; 3:15-16.
Regarding God
We believe there is one true and living God who is eternal, all wise, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present, who is immutable, Holy, Righteous, Loving, Good, and Just. We believe He is a person and that He is a spirit. We believe God is a tri-unity: God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit. These three are distinct persons and no less God than the other. Scriptures to compare: Exodus 34:5-9; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 6:1-4; Ezekiel 1; John 4:24; John 10:30; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14
Regarding Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ is the second person of the trinity, no less God than the Father or the Holy Spirit. We believe Jesus became man by the incarnation and is truly and fully God and truly and fully man. In His incarnation He possessed real flesh, yet was without sin. He died vicariously for us on the cross, and bodily arose from the dead on the third day. He will come again to receive the Church and, later, in power and great glory, to the earth to rule and reign. Jesus Christ is to be given pre-eminence and worship. Scriptures to compare: John 1:1-4, 14; 10:30; 14:1, 9; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-19; 2:9; I Timothy 2:5; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:1-7; I John 1:1-4; 4:1-3; 2 John 9-13.
Regarding the Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is no-less God than the Father or the Son. He possesses a personality. He convicts the world of "sin," righteousness," and "judgment." His primary work in this age is to promote and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He places the believer into the Body of Christ at the time of their conversion, He indwells every believer and is their possession forever. Scriptures to compare: Genesis 1:1:2; Zechariah 4:6; John 14:15-26; 16:7-16; Acts 1:8; 5:3-4; Matthew 28:19; Romans 8; I Corinthians 12:13; 12-14; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 5:22-26; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18-21; I Thessalonians 5:19; 2 Peter 1:21; I John 4:2; Revelation 2:7.
Regarding Salvation
We believe salvation is the plan of God whereby He devised to save sinful man by the substitutionary and vicarious death of Jesus Christ. We believe the plan existed before the "foundation of the world." In every dispensation it is by grace through faith alone. No one is saved apart from the grace of God as displayed in the finished work of Christ on the cross. In the Old Testament those who were saved looked forward to the promised one who was to "take away" the sins of the world. The first prophecy of the death of Christ as the payment for sin was given in Genesis 3:15. The sole condition for salvation is "faith." All who have genuinely believed Christ died for them and rose again are... given eternal life without the possibility of losing it declared righteous based upon the righteousness of Christ adopted into God's family as His children given the Holy Spirit as a permanent possession given an eternal inheritance and assurance of heaven baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit given "every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus" Scriptures to compare: Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 53; Matthew 11:28-29; John 3; 14:3; Acts 4:12; Romans 6:23; 10:9-10; I Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 2:12-16; Colossians 1:3-6; Titus 3:5-7; I Peter 1:18-19; 1 John 5:10-12; Jude 24; Revelation 1:5
Regarding Man
Man was created directly by God on the sixth day of creation. He was created in the "image and likeness" of God. He was created without sin but with a capacity to sin. Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman. Adam fell into sin by disobeying God's prohibition and eating the fruit from the tree of "the knowledge of good and evil." As a consequence of man's fall, sin and death were introduced into the human race. Spiritual death occurred immediately and physical death came later for Adam and Eve as well as for every living creature which was to follow (there were only two exceptions, namely, Enoch and Elijah). The "Second Death" (eternal separation from God) will be the final condition of all who die without Christ. Man is totally depraved, helpless and hopeless, regarding his spiritual condition, apart from the grace of God found only in His Son, Jesus Christ. Scriptures to compare: Genesis 1:26-31; 2:18-25; 3; 9:6; Psalm 8:4-8; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 5:12-21; I Corinthians 15:21-22, 47; Hebrews 2:6-8
Regarding the Church
We believe the universal Church of Jesus Christ is made up of every born again person from Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, until the Rapture which is yet to come. The local Church is an assembly of baptized believers meeting together regularly. It has for its officers, Pastors and Deacons. It is autonomous, electing officers, performing Biblical ministries and sending out missionaries in obedience to the Lord's command and commission. The local church has been given two ordinances to practice until Christ returns, namely, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Scriptures to compare: Matthew 16:18; Acts 2; I Corinthians 11:20-34; 12:13; Ephesians 3; I Timothy 3; Titus 1
Regarding Satan
We believe there is a personal Devil who was created by God as a sinless and most beautiful creature. This angelic being rebelled sometime before the events of Genesis three. In his fall he took with him one-third of the angels who are now either free evil angels or bound evil angels. Satan opposes God and His work relentlessly. He is the "accuser of the brethren." He is described as the "prince of the power of the air" and the "god of this world." He does have access to the third heaven but, in the middle of the Tribulation, will be cast down to the earth. He will be bound for one-thousand years when Jesus comes to the earth and, at the end of the thousand years, he will be released for a "short season." He will finally be cast, along with the "Beast and the False Prophet" and all of the evil angels, into the "Lake of Fire." Scriptures to compare: Genesis 3; Job 1; Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28:14-19; Matthew 4:11; Luke 10:18; Romans 16:20; Ephesians 2:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; I Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:7-12; Revelation 20:1-3
Regarding "Last Things"
We believe Jesus Christ will come again and that His literal Second Coming will be in two phases, namely, His coming in the AIR to receive His Church and, seven years later, His coming to the EARTH in "power and great glory." Between Christ's coming in the air and His coming to the earth there will be a time of judgment on the earth known as the "GREAT TRIBULATION." This is when God's wrath will be poured out on all "earth dwellers." The Church will not experience this judgment because it will be with Christ. When Christ comes to the earth He will establish a literal kingdom over which He will literally and personally reign. At the end of the one-thousand year Kingdom on earth ("millennium") all of the lost of all the ages will be gathered from Hades (the place of their immediate departure after death) to the Great White Throne Judgment. They will be judged and put into the "Lake of Fire" where they will be eternally punished as a consequence of having rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ.* *The Bible does not teach annihilation but rather "everlasting punishment in fire" for the lost and eternal blessed existence for the believer, with the Lord Jesus, forever and ever, in the New City John saw coming down in Revelation21-22. Scriptures to compare: Literally dozens of Old Testament passages regarding a literal Kingdom period coming to this earth as well as a time of awful world-wide tribulation, i.e. Isaiah 2; 11; 40; 66; Micah 4; 5; Daniel 9; Matthew 24-25; John 14:1-3; I Corinthians 15:51-58; I Thessalonians; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians; Philippians 3:20; Colossians 3:4; 2 Timothy 4:1; Titus 2:13; I John 3:2-3; Revelation. The Apostle Paul refers to the Second Coming of Christ some seventy-five times either directly or indirectly in his thirteen epistles alone.