What We Believe
THE BIBLE
We believe the Bible, both Old and New Testaments to be
inspired, the only infallible, authoritive Work of God. We believe the Bible is
the complete revelation of God's plan for the salvation of man and the divine
and final authority for all Christian Belief and practice.
GOD
We believe that God is an Eternal Personal Being of absolute
knowledge, power , and goodness, eternally existent in three persons; Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
JESUS CHRIST
We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth,
free from moral taint of nature, perfect in life conduct, in His miracles, and
in His vicarious death. We believe in His atonement for the whole human race,
in His bodily resurrection from the dead, in His ascension into heaven where at
the right hand of God He is now our High Priest and Advocate, and in His bodily
return to earth in His second coming.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person in the triune
God, is a person and an agent in creation, preservation, revelation, and
redemption.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
We believe in the conscious existence of the dead, the resurrection of the body,
the final judgment, the everlasting life of the saved, and the everlasting
punishment of the wicked.
MAN
We believe that man was created by God, that he did not evolve
from matter or from lower forms of life, that because of willful disobedience he
brought upon himself both physical and spiritual death, and that eh passed on to
all posterity a sinful nature for which he becomes personally responsible to God
at the age of accountability.
THE WAY OF SALVATION
We believe that man's return to God is only through the
enabling of the Holy Spirit. We believe that both repentance and faith are
conditions for obtaining the new birth. We believe that born-again Christians
are called to be cleansed from a remaining sinful nature and filled with the
Holy Spirit through a definite confession of inward sinfulness, a presentation
of oneself as a living sacrifice, and an obedient faith in the promised
cleansing through the atoning blood. It is not, however, the teaching of the
church that this cleansing delivers from infirmities, from ignorance, or from
mistakes which are common to man. We believe that the Holy Spirit bears witness
to both the new birth, as the first work of grace, and also to heart cleansing
and Spirit fullness, as the second work of grace, all of which are retained by
daily obedience and faith. We believe that evidence of the Spirit's fullness is
not the possession of spiritual gifts but rather a life of inward and outward
righteousness. We believe that man's return to God from a fallen state is
completed in the redemption of the corruptible body at the resurrection.
THE CHURCH
We believe that the church is God's ordained institution composed of all who
believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, among whom the Word of God is preached,
worship of God is exercised, the means of grace are duly administered, the
attitudes toward God and man as exemplified in Jesus Christ are fostered, and
the solemn obligation of a world-wide gospel witness is faithfully fulfilled.
THE PRACTICE OF GODLY LIVING AND SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD
We believe the Bible expressly calls the Christian to a life of
righteousness and good works and to a separation from such practices, pleasures,
and pursuits, and plans as will harm the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit,
weaken the mind, hinder the testimony for Christ, and hurt the church. We
believe that no-use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages; non -membership in
secret oath -bound societies; modesty, neatness and simplicity of attire;
absence of superfluous adornment; honesty in business practices; the refraining
from uncharitable, unprofitable, and unchristian conversation; proper observance
of the Lord's Day; and chaste and prudent conduct in all the social and moral
areas of life are reasonable and consistent applications of the Bible teaching
of separation and Godly living and are based upon scriptural principles.
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