Our Beliefs

OUR DOCTRINAL BELIEFS

SCRIPTURE – We believe the entire canon of Scripture (Genesis – Malachi, Matthew – Revelation), to be: That divinely inspired and preserved, complete, accurate, inerrant, supremely authoritative, revealed will and Word of God. It serves as the solitary measure of all other teachings, sayings, writings or works. It is the rule, instruction and judge concerning our actions and attitudes in righteousness, and is God’s divine revelation of his salvation plan for mankind through Jesus Christ. (II Pet 1:16-21, Ps. 138:2, Josh. 1:8-9, Isa. 40:8, John 6:68, 1 Tim. 6:3-4, 2 Peter 1:3-4, 2 Tim. 3:16-17, Matt 5:18, Rom. 1:16-17)

GOD – We believe in the one true God of the Scriptures. That He is that self-existent Spirit who within His undivided substance triunely exists as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to and from all eternity as the infinite, loving, merciful, just, gracious, holy, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign creator and sustainer of all things. (Deut. 4:39, 6:4, Psalm 90:2, John 5:26-27, 4:24, Matt 3:16-17, 28:19, 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, 1 Pet 1:2, 1 Tim. 1:17, Ps. 136:1, Deut. 32:4, James 1:17, Rev. 4:8, Mal. 3:6, Jer. 32:27, Rev. 19:6, Ps, 147:5, Ps. 139:7-12, Dan. 4:34, Gen. 1:1, Col 1:12-17)

JESUS CHRIST – We believe that the second person of the eternal Trinity, The Son, is the only mediator between God and man. That He became incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth. That He was born of the virgin Mary, lived without inward and outward sin, was crucified for the sins of all whom the Father gave to Him from every age, tribe, tongue, and nation. Jesus exhibited perfect faith and trust in His Father, thus fulfilling the just requirements of God’s righteous law on behalf of His own. That He was buried and arose again the third day. That He ascended to his throne at the right hand of God the Father, and there remains as very man and very God, interceding for His Church until the appointed time of his bodily return to earth to gather His Church, establish his kingdom and execute judgment against his enemies. (John 1:1-4, 1 Tim 2:5, Luke 1:26-35; Heb. 7:26, 1 Cor. 15:3-7, John 20:17, 1 Pet 3:22, Acts 1:11, Heb. 4:14-16, John 14:2-4, I Cor. 15:24, Rev. 12:10, 2 Tim. 4:1)

THE HOLY SPIRIT – We believe that the third person of the eternal Trinity, The Holy Spirit, is that member of the godhead by whose direct agency the work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice is applied to the individual believer. That He indwells each true believer and according to His being given by the Father at the pleading of Christ is the presence and power of God among His people to fill each believer’s heart with the true love of God. That He empowers the believer for effective witness and holiness, and governs the individual’s heart in holiness and thus the Church at large, and leads believers into all truth through the opening of the scriptures. That baptizing the believer into Christ, He bestows all giftings and graces individually and corporately to bless and sanctify as the Father personally deems fit, and to preserve and bring each believer to that final conformity to the image of Christ. (Matt 28:19, Acts 5:3-4, Eph. 4:30, Heb. 10:29,1 Pet 1:2, Rom. 8:9, John 14:16-17, Gal. 4:6, Rom. 5:5, Acts 1:8, Rom. 1:4, Rom. 8:1-16, John 16:13, 1 Cor. 12:1-13, 2 Cor. 3:18)

SATAN – We believe that Satan, (the Devil or Lucifer), is that angel who was once the chief among the created angels who fell irretrievably into sin through pride, That he led a certain company of angels (called demons in the Bible, who are also irretrievably lost) in open rebellion against God; was the tempter and enticer of our first parents (Adam & Eve) to commit sin in disobedience to God; Was totally and completely defeated by Jesus Christ at Calvary. He yet remains the active adversary of all righteousness, the Church and every redeemed man in it, and that his final disposition will be cast into a literal lake of fire to suffer it’s agonies with his demons and followers among men for all eternity. (Rev. 20:2, Ezek. 28:12-19, Isa. 14:12-15, Rev. 12:3-4, Jude 6, Gen. 3:1-19, Heb. 2:14, 1 Pet 5:8, Rev. 20:10-15)

MAN – We believe that mankind was created in the image of God and continues to bear His image, although marred by sin. That through the willful disobedience to God the first man Adam lost his sinless union with the Father and plunged the entire human race into enmity with God. That (as descendants of Adam) every child born to man with the sole exception of Jesus Christ, is born a partaker of this fallen nature and sinful state. That the nature of this depravity is such as to render man incapable of rendering any acceptable work of righteousness unto God. Mankind is therefore left with such wickedness and contempt for God so as to fall short of God’s glory and perfect union with the Father, apart from a divine and sovereign work initiated and performed by God in the fallen soul of man. (Gen. 1:26-27, 3:8-9, Rom. 3:10-18, 5:12, 9:16, Gal. 3:22, James 2:10)

SALVATION BY GRACE – We believe that, salvation is a pure work of unmerited grace alone. That it is that permanent, sovereign work of God without which no man shall see God, and wherein; the Holy Spirit convicts the individual of his sinful nature and lost state, convinces them of God’s judgment of sin and sinners and reveals the righteousness and deity of Christ. The will being renewed, the repentant sinner is enabled to respond to God and find forgiveness from his sins. The substitutionary sacrifice of Christ is applied to the fallen soul and cleanses the elect sinner by the blood of Christ. The believer is then indwelt by God the Holy Spirit and made a partaker of the divine nature of Christ, inclining the believer toward holiness and away from sin. This act called the “new birth”, continues in the life of the individual in sanctification, unerringly bringing them into conformity to the image of Jesus Christ until that work is perfected in death or Christ’s return. (John 6:37-44, John 3:7, Gal. 3:22, Rom. 3:25, 8:15-17, Heb. 3:14, 1 John 3:2, Eph. 2:2-10, Rom. 9:1-25)

THE CHURCH – We believe that The Church as seen by man is that body comprised of all those professing a saving faith in Jesus Christ and their children. The Church as seen by God is the body of Christ, all those truly possessing saving faith in Christ (as explained in SALVATION above), regardless of organizational or denominational affiliation or non-affiliation; That The Church appears in society as individual churches, assemblies, fellowships and congregations gathered together for Biblical worship, instruction in God’s Word and the life of holy service, fellowship and evangelization. (Col. 1:24, 1 Cor. l:2, Mark 16:15, Titus l:5, 1 Pet. 2:5-9, Acts 2:42, 20:28)

SACRAMENTS – We believe that Jesus Christ instituted and directly commanded the perpetual practice of only two official sacraments for the Church to obey and employ as specific testimonies of his person and work: The Lord’s Supper, and Water Baptism. Concerning the Lord’s Supper, we deny the doctrine of transubstantiation (the doctrine that the elements of bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ). Concerning Water Baptism, we affirm it to be a sign and seal of God’s promise of salvation to believers and their children. (Matt 28:18-20, Acts 2:38-39; Rom. 6:4, 1 Cor. 11:23-29)

END TIMES -We believe in the imminent, literal and physical return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his glorified body to: complete his kingdom, render final judgment on all Creatures and creation, casting the lost into a literal and eternal torment in the same lake of fire into which Satan and his angels were cast; while perfecting all of the elect and gathering them into his unveiled presence for all eternity, thus destroying and re-creating the heavens and the earth. (Acts 1:11, 2 Cor. 5:8, 1 Thess. 4:13-18, Rev. 14:9-11, 19:11-21:22)

SECULAR GOVERNMENT -We believe that governments among men and their accordant authority were ordained by God and are sustained by him for the purpose of maintaining an orderly society through the enactment and enforcement of laws. That it is the role of the Church and individual Christians to abide under, pray for and cooperate with those governments, as much as it is in our power to do so, and in as much as they neither require us as citizens to do anything God expressly forbids in his Word, or forbid us as citizens to do anything God requires in his Word. (Rom. 13:1-8, 1 Tim. 2:1-5, Mark 12:13, Dan. 3, Acts 4:19-21)

OUR CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS

As a church we ascribe to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed tradition: