OUR BELIEFS
THE BIBLE
1. We believe the entire Bible, consisting of the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, is the “God-breathed” Word of God and that holy men of God “were moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of God in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is, therefore, inerrant in all its teachings in its original autographs and is the sole authority for saving faith and the Christian life (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Psalm 19; Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 40:8). No translation is perfect, but the best are those who more closely adhere to the verbal, plenary view of inspiration.
GOD
2. We believe there is only one true and living God, eternally existent, who has revealed Himself to human kind in three distinct Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom is fully and equally God.
THE HOLY TRINITY
3. We believe that each Person in the Godhead has an indispensable and distinctive role in human redemption: God the Father planned redemption in eternity past, God the Son has provided salvation in His cross, His resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, and that God the Holy Spirit applies redemption in the new birth, the baptism, the infilling, and the bestowal of spiritual gifts upon the people of God (Ephesians 1:1-21).
MAN
4. We believe that all human kind was created in the “image of God” (The Imago Dei) by direct action of God at a point in time and did not evolve as the result of evolution. Man was created to be “comformed to the image of Christ” in order to be true Christ-followers in his personal life, his home, his church, his business, and his world (Genesis 1:27; Romans 8:29).
FALL OF MAN
5. We believe that all human kind willfully sinned in the Garden by willfully disobeying God, fell from his holy estate, is alienated from God in his natural estate, thus utterly “lost”, “dead in trespasses and sins” and totally incapable of saving himself in this life and destined to separation from God in hell at death unless he trust Jesus Christ and Him alone for his salvation (Genesis 3; Ephesians 2:1-2).
SALVATION
6. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Virgin born, sinless Son of God, died on the cross for every human being who has or who ever will be born, and by true repentance and true saving faith any person will be forgiven of all sins, experience the new birth, become a new creation, and possess eternal life. Repentance is a turning away from all sins to Christ, and faith is trusting or surrendering to Jesus Christ, both as Lord and Savior. We reject “No Lordship” salvation as unscriptural, antithetical to the teaching of Jesus, and giving multitudes a false hope of heaven (Romans 10:9-10; Luke 6:46; Matthew 7:21-22). We strongly reject “Easy Believism”, which teaches that all the lost need to do to be saved is to believe in their hearts that Christ died for them, say a prayer expressing this belief, be baptized and join the church. We believe this wide-spread practice has filled our church rolls with millions of unsaved or unregenerate members destined for hell unless they repent.
SALVATION: EVENT AND PROCESS
7. We believe that true salvation is both an event and a process. One who has truly turned from sin and surrendered to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can say He is saved, but the evidence of salvation is showing in continuance in the faith. A saved person was saved in the past (justification) but if truly saved he is being saved in the present, (sanctification), and will finally be saved in the future in the resurrection (glorification). The Apostle Paul wrote, “I am confident that He who began a good work in you (justification), will continue it (sanctification) until the day of Jesus Christ (glorification)” – Phillippians 1:6. Jesus Himself declared “The one who endures to the end the same shall be saved” – Matthew 24:13
ETERNAL SALVATION
8. We believe that all those who truly repent and trust Jesus with all their lives both as Lord and Savior have eternal life and will never be lost (John 10:28-29). We believe the best way to express this reality is not to say, “Once saved, always saved”, which may leave the impression that the believer is saved no matter how he lives beyond this point without any evidence of change. Eternal security is best expressed in this phrase, “Once saved, always persevering”, because the Bible clearly teaches that God preserves His people and His true people will persevere to the end. One of the oldest Christian confessions states this concerning the truly regenerate, “Their persevering attachment to Christ is the mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors” (1 John 2:19; Matthew 24:13; Romans 8:35-39; JOhn 10:28-30).
SATAN
9. We believe that Satan is a real person, not simply a personification of evil. He was created by God as Lucifer in heaven (Light Bearer), but rebelled against God and became Satan or the Devil and was cast out of heaven where he has been given temporary ruler-ship under God’s permission. He “walks around the earth as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8) but also as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), seeking whom he may devour.” But Jesus came in the flesh “to destroy his works” (1 John 4:4b; Matthew 4:4). One day he will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20:10).
THE CHURCH
10. We believe the church is “a body of baptized believers”, but far more than an assemblage of individuals. The church is the very body of Christ in the world, a new and miraculous creation through the new birth, the indwelling, the baptism, and infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the bestowal of spiritual gifts on individuals whereby each member of the body can serve Jesus acceptably and also His fellow man. Jesus Himself is the Founder and Owner of the church (Matthew 16:18). He formed the basis of the church in choosing the 12 on earth, and He completed the church as His Body on the Day of Pentecost when He sent the Holy Spirit upon His people to indwell, baptize and infill them and to bestow spiritual gifts, enabling the church to do the works He did on the earth (John 14:12; Luke 4:18).
TWO EXPRESSIONS OF THE CHURCH
11. The Greek word for church, used in the New Testament, is ekklesia, which means “the called out ones” or “the assembly”. The word is used in the New Testament in two ways. First, it is used to speak of individual local congregations (1 Corinthians 1:2). Second, it is used to speak of all Christians in the world who form the church universal (Matthew 16:18).
The universal church, or the whole of all saved people, is the body which one was incorporated automatically when he got saved. He became a member of God’s family. He was baptized into his body by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). All Christians everywhere instantly became ones brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
It is the command and responsibility of every saved person to join, support, and serve in a local church (Acts 2:47; Hebrews 10:25).
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
12. We believe that the will and command of God for every truly saved person is “to conform to the image of Christ” until he is a true Christ follower in every area of his life, beginning with himself and his home (Romans 8:29). We believe this transformation of life becomes a reality only through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit, and that God’s Word must not just be read and studied but internalized within one’s life. Therefore, to internalize the Word, we must KNOW the Word in our head by diligent study (2 Timothy 2:15), we must STOW the Word in our heart and life by memorization and meditation, we must SHOW the Word of God in our lives by obeying its teaching, and then we can SOW the Word of God in our world through witnessing (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:1-3; James 1:18-25; Jeremiah 15:16).
HEAVEN AND HELL
13. We believe that there are only two destinies of human kind after death:
a. Heaven, which is a real place of indescribable and eternal joy in the presence of Jesus, the final home of every truly saved person who is and has lived on the earth.
b. Hell, which is also a real place of everlasting separation and indescribably torment apart from God, prepared only for the “devils and his angels”, (Matthew 25:41) but where those who refuse to repent and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior will be consigned for all eternity (Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 21:8). We do not believe God sends anyone to hell until after a man chooses to go there by refusing to submit to Christ (Joshua 25:15; John 3:36).
RESURRECTION
14. We believe that Jesus Christ arose literally in the body in which He lived on earth and in which He was crucified and died. We also believe that both the saved and lost will be resurrected in the bodies they had on earth, the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment (John 5:25; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; Revelation 20:11-15).
THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST
15. We believe that no true believer will appear in judgement to determine if he is saved, but that all believers will stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ that “each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body”. (2 Corinthians 5:10) Some will receive great rewards, others will experience great loss (1 Corinthians 3:11-15). Human kind is not saved by works, but will be rewarded according to his works (Revelation 22:12).
EVANGELISM
16. We believe that every believer is under the orders of the Risen Christ to share his or her faith, and that the church and all organizations who call themselves Christian should equip and train their people to witness effectively (Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesian 4:11-12). “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread” (Philemon 1:6 NIV).
MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY
17. We believe God instigated and ordained marriage to be the union of one man and one woman for life for the highest happiness on this earth, the procreation of the human race and the rearing of children in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Genesis 2:24-25; Ephesians 6:4).
STEWARDSHIP
18. We believe that God owns everything, that we as individuals own nothing, but that God has entrusted to each of us some of His rich blessings and we are to honor Him by returning back to Him the tithe which is His through our local church and to use all the rest for His honor and glory, the result being that He will bless us abundantly and above measure in this life and the life to come (Matthew 3:8ff; 2 Corinthians 9:6-11; Luke 6:8; Luke 16:9ff; Proverbs 11:24-25). We reject the “slot machine” approach to the gospel, which says, “You put in so much, and you will receive so much back.” The amount you receive and the way you receive it is entirely in the hands of the Lord. If you give for pay, giving will not pay.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
20. We believe that Jesus Christ is coming again. We would not dare set the date of His coming in violation of the clear teaching of Jesus (Matthew 24:36), but We believe that His return in Our life time is more probable than at any other time in the history of mankind. His coming will be in two phases. First, Jesus will resurrect the dead in Christ” and take up the living believers at the same instant. Both will join Jesus in heaven to live with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). This is the “Blessed Hope” of the church (Titus 2:13); Secondly, He will return to the earth seven years after the rapture to establish His millinial reign on earth. After His thousand year reign, He will usher in the new heavens and the new earth. (Revelations 19:11-21; 20:1-6).