DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
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CONCERNING GOD AS TRINITY
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We believe that there is only one true and living God, who is indivisible as to His substance but three and individual as to subsistence, and this tri-unity of God is from eternity and essential to the Being of God; that the Person of God is now known through the revelation of the New Testament as Father, Son, and Holy Sprit, each having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and each worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience, in fact they three are the One True God.(Gen. 1:26-28; Deut. 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; Matt. 28:19; Mark 10:18; John 4:24; Acts 17:24-29; II Cor. 13:14.)
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The Father
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We believe that the first person of the Trinity is God the Father; that He rules the universe and has decreed all things that have and will come to pass; that He created all things out of nothing simply by the act of His will, and that He in all His activities has worked in conjunction with the Son and Holy Spirit; that in a manner of speaking the Father is God unknown, being really only understood through Jesus Christ His Son.(Gen. 1:1-31; I Chron. 29:11; Psalm 103:19; Isaiah 6:8: 46:9-11; John1:12-18: 3:16;Rom. 11:33; I Cor. 8:6; II Cor. 11:13; Eph. 1:11-12; Heb. 4:13; I Peter1:7; Rev. 4:11.)
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The Son
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We believe that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Triune God: that He, in His pre-existence, was the Word, sharing the glory of the Father, equal in essence and power with the Father and the Spirit; (Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1, 3, 18, 29; 10:36; I John 3) He, in His incarnation was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, took upon Himself manhood, but surrendered none of the divine essence, being one person with two natures, being a perfect man completely sinless in both nature and deed; that because of infinite love for mankind voluntarily gave Himself as a sacrificial lamb and took away the sin of the world; (Isaiah53:10; Matt. 11:2-6; 12:28: 28:6; Luke 1:31-33; John 1:14, 29: 5:27-29; 8:46; 14:19; Rom 3:23-26; 4:25; 6:5-10; I Cor. 15:20; II Cor. 5:19, 21;; Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18; 2:9; Phil. 2:5-11; I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 1-3; 4:15; 7:25-26; 10:5-10; I Pet. 2:21-24; I John 2:2; 4:10; Rev. 20:11-15); His death was substitutionary, bearing God’s judgment against sin; that on the third day, according to the Scriptures, He arose from the grave having the same body in which He died and was buried, though glorified, assuring resurrection for all those who die In Him; that He ascended to the Father’s right hand being High Priest over the household of faith and mediator between God and man.
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The Holy Spirit
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We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune God; that He is truly a person, since He possessed the characteristics of personality and is identified as equal with the other members of the Triune God; that He is also God, being called God, possessing the attributes of God, and doing the works of God; (Gen. 1:2; Matt. 1:18; John 3:5-7; II Peter 1:20-21);His ministry began on the day of Pentecost with reference to the Church and will end with the Church’s departure. He regenerates, baptizes into the body of Christ, indwells, instructs, empowers, sanctifies, seals, and preserves to the day of Christ those who have been born from above and trusted Christ as Savior; that His ministry to the world is to convict sin and to restrain evil. THIS IS NOT A LIST OF LIMITATIONS, but of common actions. It is by no means exhaustive. (John 3:5-7, 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-9, 14-15; Rom. 8:2; I Cor. 6:19; 12:4-13; II Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:13-14; II Thess. 2:13.)
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CONCERNING MAN
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We believe that man was created in a completed form by God without any prior evolution; that man was created a rational and moral creature having the ability to make choices for or against God; that man was intended to enjoy fellowship with God but fell into sin by a voluntary act of personal disobedience to the will of God; that man’s whole being is affected by sin (emotion, intellect, and will); that man at present is accountable for his sin and is under the wrath of God; that apart from the electing grace of God, all mankind would be forever lost. (Gen. 1:26-30; 2:15-25; 3:1-19; Isaiah 43:7; Psalm 14:1-3; Jer. 17:9; John 3:36; Rom. 3:23; 5:12-19, 6:23; I Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1-3; col. 1:16; I Thess. 5:23; I Tim. 2:13-14; James 2:10; 3:9; Rev. 4:11).
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CONCERNING THE BIBLE
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We believe that God revealed Himself and His plan for the ages by means of the Holy Scriptures; that the entire sixty-six books of the Bible are God-breathed and written by human authors with their individual personalities intertwined, resulting in a perfect work of harmony in which there is nothing false, and no error; that the Scriptures are then inerrant, infallible, literal truth, and authoritative as representations of the original manuscripts; that this inspiration of God extends to each and every word of Scripture; that the Scripture perfectly reveals all facts we need to know concerning salvation, history, revelation, etc.; that Scripture is complete since God has given no new revelation of any sort; that it is our sole authority for faith and practice. (Psalm 119:160; Mat. 5:18; Mark 14:49; John 10:35: 17:17; I Cor. 14:37-38;I Thess. 2:13; II Tim. 3:15-17; Heb. 1:1-2: 4:12; II Pet 1:19-21) The Holy Spirit gives insight into the meaning and application of the Scriptures to believers (only) who have properly prepared themselves for instruction through study and prayer; that the Scriptures have only one true interpretation, although several possible applications, and that this can only come through the application of the literal-historical-grammatical method of interpretation, giving due consideration to literary devices; that a believer should be humble before His God and fellow-believers when interpreting God’s Word. (Psalm 19:7; John 7:17; 16:12-13; Rom. 15:4; I Cor. 2:14-16; II Tim. 2:15; II Peter 3:16; I John 2:20, 27.)
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CONCERNING THE CHURCH
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We believe that all who have placed their faith in Christ are immediately baptized into the spiritual body of Christ, thus being united with Christ who is the head; that this body began on the Day of Pentecost and will be completed at the rapture; that the church is seen in the New Testament as consisting of local assemblies carrying on the work of God; that the local assembly of believers are independent of any external church authority but governed by the headship of Christ through the Spirit; that its officers are pastors and elders/deacons; that its mission is to glorify God, build itself up by the instruction of the Word, observe the ordinances, and communicate the gospel to unbelievers; that its ordinances are immersion of the believers in water in the name of the Triune God, and the Lord’s Supper commemorating the Lord’s death until He comes. (Matt. 16:18; 18:15-18; 22:15-22; 28:16-20; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 1:4-5; 2:41-42, 46-47; 6:1-6; 10:47-48; 11:15; Rom. 12:4-21; 13:1-7; 15:6, 9; I Cor. 11:23-29; 12:13; 14:40; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:4-6, 10; 4:11-16; 5:25-27; Co. 1:18; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9; Heb. 10:25; I Peter 2:5-9, 13-17; 5:1-5; Rev. 1:6.)
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CONCERNING SALVATION
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| We believe that salvation is completely the work of God and is exercised toward sinners, these have no merit in themselves or ability to attain such either by reformation or morality; that its elements include the satisfaction of divine justice, the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, the gift of eternal life, and the seal of the Spirit which assures that those who are once truly saved will never perish but will persevere in faith to the end; that its basis is in the electing grace of God, whereby apart from any human merit or foreseen faith, God chooses some of condemned mankind to receive divine favor and eternal salvation so they might be holy before Him and be conformed to the image of His Son, and in the atonement in which He died for the sins of all men potentially giving a general call of salvation but His death is applied to the elect since they respond to the special call in their hearts; that salvation is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit when He regenerates the spirit of the elect sinner and applies the Word of God to that sinner’s heart at which time the person places faith in Christ.(Isaiah 53:6, 10; John 1:12, 3-16; 10:27-29; Acts 16:31; Rom. 3:24; 5:8:29-30, 38-39; 9:14-24; 10:8-13; II Cor. 5:18, 19, 21; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 1:4-5; 2:8-10; Phil. 2:12-13; II Thess. 2:13-14; Heb. 11:6; I John 2:1.2.) |
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