Brief Summary of Major Doctrinal Beliefs.
• We believe in the God of the Bible and that He is the One and only true God. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
• We believe in a Triune God who exists in three equal persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and that each are of one essence, perfect and holy.
• We believe that God created (spoke into existence) the Heavens and the
Earth and everything in them, and that He did this ex nihilo (out of nothing) in six days of 24 hours each. We believe that man was created in God’s own image, with a mind, a will and emotions, and that the world God created was perfect when He finished it.
• God is not the author of sin. We believe that sin entered into the human race through man’s disobedience and therefore death through sin. This applies to everyone, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
• We believe that God is transcendent far beyond our human ability to understand all of Him. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
• We believe that Jesus is God’s one and only Son, eternally existent, but born in human form of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was fully God and fully man but without a sin nature.
• We believe that Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried; then rose from the dead and that He has achieved victory over sin and death once and forever.
• We believe that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God and that it is the final authority on all things. It is an actual, historical account of creation, the fall of man and God’s redemptive plan for mankind. The Bible is about God’s glory, not man’s, but it also instructs us in the way we ought to live in obedience through faith in Jesus Christ.
• We believe that the only way to Salvation and eternal life is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Man can do nothing to earn salvation. It is by God’s grace that we are saved through faith and not of ourselves. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
• We believe in an actual second coming (Parousia) and that Jesus Christ will return to Earth again one day and he will reign on Earth for a thousand years.
• We believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the church. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
• We believe in a literal Heaven and Hell. (John 14:2-3) (Revelation 20:14)
• We are dispensational: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2) [All salvation whether Old Testament (the promise of) or New Testament (fulfilled by) is based on Jesus Christ.]
• We believe that the church and the nation of Israel are not the same. The church has not replaced national Israel. Israel always means the biological descendants of Abraham. The church is made up of believers in Christ whether Jew or Gentile and all distinctions are erased in the Body of Christ. Israel continues to exist apart from the church.
• We believe that we can approach God on a personal basis through prayer and meditation. (Hebrews 4:16)
• We believe in the power of prayer. (James 5:16)
• We believe in corporate worship. (Hebrews 10:25)
• We believe it is the duty of every Christian to spread the Gospel of Salvation to the lost in this world as God gives them opportunity. (Mathew 28:19)
• We believe that the church is commanded to observe the Lord’s Supper and Baptism by immersion (Greek- βαπτίζω “baptizo”, which means “to immerse”). We do not believe in infant baptism. (Mark 1:10)
• The Lord’s Supper and Baptism are not for salvation purposes but to 1) remember Jesus’ death on the cross; and 2) publicly declare one’s faith in Jesus Christ.
