Articles of Faith
1. The Holy Scriptures
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God; verbally inspired by God and inerrant in the original writings and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and practice. [II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21].
2. The Trinity of the Godhead
We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections. [Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 12:29; John 1:1-4; II Corinthians 13:14].
3. The Fall of Man
We believe that man was created in the image of God and that he sinned, thereby incurring not only physical death but also spiritual death which is separation from God, which separation has been transmitted to the entire race of man, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted; hence every child of Adam is born into the world with a sinful nature. [Genesis 2:7; 6:5; Isaiah 64:6; John 5:40; Romans 3:23; 5:12; Hebrews 9:27-28].
4. The Virgin Birth of Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin, Mary--true God and true man. [Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:35].
5. The Atonement
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary Savior and that men are justified on the ground of the shed blood of the Son of God. All such are born again by the Spirit of God and thereby become children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. [Leviticus 17:11; John 1:29; 5:24; Romans 5:6-9; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Ephesians 1:7; Titus 3:5-7; I Peter 3:18; Hebrews 9:22].
6. The Believer's Security
We believe that it is the privilege of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ, and as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation, and that he or she thus regenerated is eternally secure. [John 10:27-29; Romans 8:33-39; Philippians 1:6; II Timothy 1:12; I John 5:13].
7. Sanctification
We believe that the members of the Body of Christ are sanctified by God the Father, and as sanctified ones, are perfected as to their standing forever by the one offering of the blood of Christ and are one with Him in sanctification. As to their state, they may be sanctified with the constant washing with water by the Word, by the blood of Christ, and by the in-working presence and power of the Holy Spirit. [Romans 15:16; Galatians 5:16-25; Ephesians 4:22-24; 5:25-27; Hebrews 2:11; 10:10; 13:12; I John 1:7-9; Jude 1].
8. Separation
We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord; and, that separation from all religious apostasy, all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices and associations is commanded of God. [II Timothy 3:1-5; Romans 12:1-2; 14:13; I John 2:15-17; II John 9-11; II Corinthians 6:14 - 7:1].
9. Ordinances
We believe that our Lord and Savior clearly prescribed for His believing disciples the rites of Baptism by immersion and the Lord's Table; the one as a symbol and proclamation of the sinner's death to sin and his resurrection in newness of life in Christ Jesus; the other as a memorial of the Lord's death to be kept by His disciples until He comes again, according to His promise and the Father's revealed plan. [Matthew 28:19-20; I Corinthians 11:23-26].
10. The Blessed Hope
We believe in that "Blessed Hope," which is the personal, premillenial and imminent return of the Lord. [Acts 1:9-11; I Thessalonians 1:9-10; Titus 2:11-14; Revelation 22:20].
11. The Resurrection of the Body
We believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead according to the Scriptures in bodily form, and thus became the first-fruits of them that sleep; that He ascended into the Heavens as our High Priest and Advocate; that upon His return He will raise out from among the dead those that have died in Christ, this being the first resurrection; and that after the 1,000 years, He will raise them that have died in unbelief from their graves to receive their sentence. [Luke 34:36-45; Acts 1:9; Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:24-27; 9:24-26; 10:11-12; John 5:28-29; I Corinthians 15; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I John 2:1].
12. The Eternal State
We believe in the eternal blessedness of the saved and the eternal punishment of the lost. We believe that the attitude either of reconciliation or enmity toward God is eternally fixed at death and that the saints of all the ages will be forever with the Lord and will become joint-heirs with Him as their Redeemer in His inheritance. We further believe that there is an appointed day for the judgment of the wicked when they will be cast into the Lake of Fire, there to remain for ever and ever, in varying degrees of torment according to their works. [Daniel 12:3; 7:26-27; Romans 8:17; I Thessalonians 4:17; II Peter 2:9; Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8; 22:11].
13. The Personality of Satan
We believe that Satan is a person, the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning and the great deceiver of all the nations; that he will be finally overcome by the Lord Jesus Christ as the seed of the woman and cast into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years and finally committed to the Lake of Fire with all his angels to be tormented forever and ever. [Job 1:6-12; John 8:44; II Corinthians 11:13-15; Ephesians 6:12-16; Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10].
14. Divine or Bodily Healing
We believe that sickness together with every other disorder and evil in human life and the world are the effect of sin, and that since according to the clear teaching of the New Testament, Christ "died for our sins" and that "He was made sin for us," divine healing is not in the atonement made by Christ in the sense that salvation and forgiveness of sins are in His atonement. The suffering and death of Christ, in every form, according to the New Testament, was substitutionary, penal and vicarious. [Romans 4:25; I Corinthians 15:3; II Corinthians 5:21; I Peter 2:24; I Peter 3:18].
It is nowhere taught in Scripture that Christ died for the effects of sin but FOR SIN; the effects of sin did not need a satisfactory penalty meted out, but sin did because it is an offense to God's holiness and an infringement of His Law and Will. Christ therefore bore the penalty of sin in His suffering and death.
We further believe when Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sickness," it was not that He took them in the sense that He died for them and put them away as He did the sins of the believer, but as the context clearly reveals by bearing them in the sense of sympathetically bearing them, so that He took them away by healing the sick.
The passage clearly refers to what took place during our Lord's public ministry and not what took place in His death. In His vicarious death Christ bore the penalty of sin and accomplished a redemption which covers every possible effect of sin and will therefore, when He brings in full and eternal redemption, put an end to all sin and sickness, as well as to every other disorder in the world because of sin. During the present dispensation the Lord heals the body in answer to believing prayer, but only according to His own Sovereign will and for His Glory, and not because He is bound to do so because of what He has accomplished by His death on the Cross.
The present dispensation is distinctly and pre-eminently the time of spiritual salvation and of spiritual blessing in the Heavenlies. When the Lord Jesus returns, according to His own promise [John 14:3] and the revelation of a great mystery through Paul [I Corinthians 15:51-53] as well as the special word from the Lord through Paul [I Thessalonians 4:13-18], the saints of the present dispensation will receive glorified bodies and shall then possess and enjoy the full benefits of an accomplished redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until then they carry about with them a sinful nature and a mortal body which is subject to pain, sickness and death. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns and triumphs over His enemies, subduing them and putting an end to them all, He will bring in the eternal day of God, when heaven and earth and the existing nations shall know and enjoy the full eternal benefits of redemption accomplished by His death upon the Cross. [II Peter 3:10-13; I Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 21 and 22]. The healings and deliverances of Christ in connection with His earthly ministry were but the evidences and manifestations of His power as the Son of God and Servant of Jehovah, as well as illustrations and forecasts of the power that shall be manifest in His earthly Kingdom when He will reign over restored Israel and the nations of the earth. [Isaiah 11:1-9].
15. The Baptism with (in) the Holy Spirit
We believe when the Holy Spirit came upon the whole body of believers on the Day of Pentecost, it was the fulfillment of announcement made by John the Baptist and the promises of Christ to His own during His earthly ministry, and that then the disciples were individually endued with power to witness concerning Christ and collectively baptized into one body which was the formation of the Church and which is His Body. [Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; 14:16-17, 26; 15:26-27; I6:7-15; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:4-5, 8; 2:1-4, 47].
We further believe since the time the Gospel went to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius and the believing Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, without delay, tarrying, praying, laying on of hands, or any other condition save faith, all who believe in Christ are born of the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit, anointed by the spirit, indwelt by the Spirit, and by (in) the Holy Spirit, baptized into the Body of Christ. [Ephesians 4:30; Acts 10:44-48; 11:18; John 5:1; Ephesians 1:13; II Corinthians 1:21-22; I John 2:20, 27; I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19-20; Romans 8:9-15; Galatians 4:6; I Corinthians 12:12-13].
And we also believe that the New Testament distinguishes being indwelt by the Spirit which is true of all believers, and being filled with the Spirit which is the believer's privilege and duty (compare Acts 2:4 with 4:8, 31, and Ephesians 1:13 with 5:18). There is one baptism with (in) the Spirit and it is into the Body of Christ, but there are many fillings. Pentecost is an historical event and is not repeated.
16. Tongues
We believe that speaking in tongues was one of the visible signs which accompanied the advent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost [Acts 2:4]; that it was one of the signs of an apostle [II Corinthians 12:12]; performed to convince the Gentiles [Romans 15:18-19]; and to confirm a great salvation [Hebrews 2:3-4]. When the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius, they spoke in tongues, but the coming of the Spirit was not here accompanied by the other signs of Pentecost. Tongues, as is also true of the other signs and wonders, was a special manifestation for a special purpose, given by Him who is sovereign in the giving of signs, to credential the opening of the dispensation of grace rather than its continuance. That the sign gifts were retired completely after they had served their purpose is quite evident, for no hint of their exercise is made mention of after the close of the Book of Acts.
17. The Church and Missions
We believe the purpose of the church involves the preaching of the Gospel to every creature and the edification of the individual members of the Body of Christ. [Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 4:11-14].
18. The Spirit-filled Life
We believe in witnessing to the saving and keeping power of our Lord in the power of the Spirit-filled life, by which we mean, not the erroneous teaching of total eradication, but a life of yieldedness in which the Spirit of God controls, giving victory over operations of the flesh which remain in every believer as long as he is the body. [Luke 24:46-48 ;Romans 6:8-13; Romans 12:1; Ephesians 5:18].