Articles of Faith
THE BIBLE - We
believe in the inspiration of the Bible by which we mean that God the Holy
Spirit so moved upon the writers of Scripture that what they wrote was
verbally and plenarily the Word of God without error. Therefore, the
sixty-six books of the Bible are the final authority for our faith and
practice.
II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter
1:20-21
THE TRIUNE GOD
- We believe in the Trinity of the Godhead; there is one God eternally
existing in three equal but distinct persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew
28:18-19; II Corinthians 13:14
GOD THE FATHER -
We believe that God the Father is a person separate from the Son
and the Spirit, invisible to man in this life. He concerns himself with the
affairs of men, elects and draws men unto salvation, and has a paternal
relationship to all believers.
Matthew 28:19; I Timothy
1:17;
Daniel 2:21;
Matthew 5:45;
I Peter 1:2; John 6:44;
Romans
8:15
GOD THE SON -
We believe in the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, His nonparticipation in
sin and His incapacity to sin, His shed blood for atonement for the sins of
mankind, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, His present intercession,
and His personal coming in the air for His church prior to the seven-year
tribulation period. He will then return at the close of the tribulation
to establish His millennial kingdom on earth.
John 10:30-33; Isaiah
7:14; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:35; Hebrews 7:26; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:20;
GOD THE SPIRIT.
We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, by whom
believers are convicted, regenerated, baptized into the body of Christ,
indwelt, sealed, and filled for life and service. The Holy Spirit bestows
spiritual gifts upon believers, some of which were temporary and some of
which are permanent for the entire church age. The temporary gifts, which
are not to be expected in this present period of church history, include
apostles, prophets, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing and
miracles. The gifts were given to prepare the saints to do the work of the
ministry and to build up the body of Christ.
Acts 5:3-4; John 14:26; John
16:8-11; Titus 3:5; I Corinthians 12:12-13; I Corinthians
6:19-20;
CREATION - We
believe in the direct creation by God of the physical universe, all spirit
beings, man, and lower forms of life, without the process of evolution. We
also believe that the early chapters of Genesis are literal and
accurate history. God sustains all creation but exists in no necessary
relationship to it.
Genesis 1, 2; Colossians
1:15-18
ANGELS - We
believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless spirit beings.
One of these, though created holy by God, sinned through pride,
thereby becoming Satan the Devil, the enemy of his Creator, leading a host
of angels in rebellion against God. He became the god of this age and the
ruler of all the powers of darkness and is destined to the judgment of an
eternal punishment in the lake of fire.
Colossians 1:16;
Ezekiel 28:12-15; Revelation 12:7-9; II Corinthians 4:3-4; Ephesians 2:2;
MAN AND SALVATION
- We believe that man was holy in his original state but that all men are
guilty of Adam’s sin and are by nature sinful and lost and that for
salvation, Holy Spirit regeneration is absolutely essential. We believe
that the Bible does not teach that God created any man or men for the
purpose of condemnation. We believe that men are justified on the single
ground of the blood of Christ, and on the sole condition of faith in Christ
and that the message to be believed is that Christ died for our sins, that
He was buried, and that He rose again the third day. We believe in the
eternal security of the believer.
Genesis
1:31;
Romans 5:12;
3:9-23; John 3:1-7; I
Timothy 2:4; II Peter 3:9; Acts
16:30-31;
SANCTIFICATION -
We believe that scripture teaches four aspects of sanctification.
Preparatory sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit wherein He
moves in a special, sovereign way in the life of an unbeliever, the result
of which is that the person believes the gospel and trusts Christ unto
salvation. Positional sanctification is that act of God whereby
believers are, at the time of regeneration, eternally set apart as belonging
to Him thereby being placed in the family of God as children.
Progressive sanctification is the process by which we are made partakers
of His holiness; it progresses as the believer is yielded to the Spirit’s
control; it is carried on in the life of believers by the presence and power
of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, self-examination, watchfulness
and prayer. Perfect, ultimate sanctification will be realized when
every believer is in the presence of the Lord, with redeemed soul and
resurrection body united, free from every trace of sin and rebellion.
I Peter 1:1-2; II
Thessalonians 2:13; John 6:44; I John 3:1; Romans 8:14-17; I
Corinthians 1:2;
THE CHURCH -
We believe in the local church, as a group of immersed believers, observing
the ordinances of believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper and organized for
the purpose of worship, edification, fellowship and evangelism.
The local church has the right of self-government and the will of the
local church is final in all matters. We believe in the unity of all
believers of this dispensation in the church which is the body of Christ.
We believe that God’s promises and program for the church are
distinct from His promises and program for the nation of Israel.
Philippians 1:1; Matthew
28:18-21; Acts 2:41-42;
10:47-48;
I Corinthians 11:23-24; Ephesians 4:11-12;
FINAL DESTINIES -
We believe that the souls of believers in Christ do at death immediately
pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until
the resurrection of the body at His coming, when soul and body reunited
shall stand before Christ for judgment of their Christian works and the
giving of rewards and they shall then be associated with Him forever in
glory. The soul of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until
the final resurrection at the end of the millennium for judgment. The
result of this judgment will be that all will be cast into the lake of fire,
not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
II Corinthians 5:8;
Philippians 1;23; II Corinthians
5:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15; I
Thessalonians 4:13-18;
SEPARATION -
We believe that separation is a doctrine as well as a practice and that the
separation principle runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We
believe that there are four aspects of Biblical separation:
A. Political
separation - the separation of the church from the state.
B. Personal
separation - the separation of the believer from the world and sin. This
involves a separation from acts of sin, the world system, the unbeliever,
heretics and false teachers.
C. Pre-latical
separation - the separation of the church from apostasy. We believe we are
to reprove apostates rather than to recognize them, to rebuke rather than to
reason with them, to reject rather than to receive or unite with them.
This includes but is not limited to the World and National Council of
Churches and the Baptist World Alliance. We believe that loyalty to Christ
also demands separation from those groups content to walk with or tolerate
religious unbelief such as the National Association of Evangelicals and the
Southern Baptist Convention.
D. Practical
separation - the separation of the believer from an erring brother. We
believe that we must separate from those who continue in disobedience to the
Word of God. This includes the troublemaker, the disorderly and the immoral
brother. We believe we can associate only with those of like precious faith
and practice.
I Corinthians 15:20; Acts 1:11; Hebrews 7:25; I Thessalonians 4:13-18;
Revelation 19:11-16; 20:1-6
Ephesians 1:13; Acts 4:31; Ephesians 5:18; I Corinthians 12-14; Romans
12:4-8; Ephesians 4:12
Revelation 20:10; Matthew 25:41
Romans 5:1, 9; I Corinthians 15: 3-4; John 10: 28-29
Hebrews 10:10-24; I Thessalonians 4:3; Proverbs 4:18; I John 2:29;
Philippians 2:12-13;
Ephesians 5:18; 6:18; Galatians 5:16-24; John 17:17; I Corinthians 15:52-53;
Ephesians 4:30; 5:27;
I John 3:2;
Philippians 3:20-21; I Peter 1:9
Acts 6:1-6; I Corinthians 5:1-13; Ephesians 1:22-23; John 17:23; Genesis
12:1-3; Romans 11:25-26;
Acts 15:14-18
Luke 16:19-26; II Thessalonians 1:6-9; Revelation 20:11-15
Luke
20:25; John 17:12-16; 18:36; Philippians 3:20
I Thessalonians 5:21-22; Ephesians 5:15-18; II Corinthians 10:5; Colossians
3:17; Romans 14:7, 13, 15, 21;
I Timothy 6:3-5; Romans 16:17
Ephesians 5:8-11; II Timothy 4:2-4; Titus 1:9-16; II John 10:11; II
Corinthians 6:14; 7:1; Galatians 1:6-9
I Corinthians 6:12; Romans 14:7, 13; I Corinthians 5:11; I Timothy 6:3-4; II
Thessalonians 3:6, 14
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