Doctrinal Statement
I. Scripture
We believe the Bible is the Word of God, comprising the totality of Holy Scripture, is verbally inerrant in the original text, and remains inerrant, inspired, infallible, and sufficient in all its substance for salvation, sanctification, life, and practice. Therefore, it is the supreme, final, and authoritative standard for faith, theology, and moral decisions. (Sovereign and Good affirms the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy)
II. Historicity
We believe in the full historicity and comprehensibility of the biblical record of primeval history, including the literal existence of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all people, the literal fall in the Garden of Eden and resultant divine curse on creation, the worldwide cataclysmic deluge, and the origin of the nations and languages at the tower of Babel. Therefore, Scriptures should be understood in a historical context, in an authentic view. We take a historical-grammatical, literal (historically true) hermeneutic (interpretation) to the Word. Where allegorical, symbolic, or other creative literary forms are given for expression (e.g., similes, metaphors, parables), they are clearly such and stand in congruence with the literal interpretation of the Word.
III. God
We believe that the triune God eternally exists in one essence and three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that He is essentially Spirit, personal, transcendent, sovereign, life, love, truth, almighty, simple (i.e., essentially one without parts). He is the Sovereign, Good Sustainer: omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, unchanging, impassable, limitless, eternal (outside space and time). He is immanent in that He has full access to His creation any and all the time.
IV. Creation
God is the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and of every basic form of life according to the six historic days described in the book of Genesis (Gen. 1:1-2:3). The creation account is factual, historical, and is the foundation of our understanding of the created universe, God’s power, and his glory (Psa. 19:1). Further, God exercises providential care for every life form in His creation (Mt. 6:25-33). And Christ is the conserving Cause of all things (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:17). We reject theistic and naturalistic macroevolution as unbiblical, unjustifiable, and based on naturalistic assumptions. Further, by its denial of the biblical teaching on creation, it undermines many essential doctrines of the Christian Faith (cf. Gen. 1:27; Mt. 19:4-6; Rom. 5:12-14; 1 Cor. 11:8-9; 15:45). We also believe in a literal, worldwide flood that destroyed the earth, animal life, and the human race, except for Noah and those he took in the ark with him (Gen. 6-9; Mt. 24:37-39; 1 Pet. 3:20).
V. Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, possessing two distinct natures which are co-joined in one person; that He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless and miraculous life, provided for the atonement of our sins by His vicarious substitutionary death on the Cross, was physically resurrected in the same body that was buried in the tomb by the power of the Holy Spirit; that Jesus Christ physically ascended back to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and ever lives to make intercession for us. After Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared by all believers today.
VI. Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead who seals, indwells, sanctifies, teaches and guides the believer into all truth. The Holy Spirit is not expressed differently than how He is described in the Word, and such contradictory claims are false and evidence of sorcery practice (e.g., spirit slaying, drunk in the spirit). Since God cannot be divided in essence (one nature), having the wrong Holy Spirit essentially means one also has the wrong Jesus and to that regard, having the wrong Jesus (i.e., false christ) means one has the wrong father.
VII. Mankind
We believe that man is created in the image of God; however, after the fall of Adam and Eve, all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are offered as a free gift of grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin and receives Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
VIII. Salvation
Salvation is initiated, attained, and procured by God through the death of Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead. The salvation Christ offers is a free gift of grace and received by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, apart from good works, thereby justifying and sealing the believer by the Holy Spirit.
IX. The Church
The universal Church is an organic body composed of all believers, both living and dead, who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. The church has the responsibility to worship the Lord and share the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection to the world, making disciples, baptizing believers, and teaching them to observe sound doctrine and live a morally pure life.
X. Worship
We believe worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our gatherings are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of the Word of God that He might instruct us how He should be worshiped. We believe the worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we have been truly worshiping God in spirit and truth. The words in worship should reflect God’s nature as revealed in the Scriptures, and be in accordance with how God has said to worship him (e.g., pagan mantra repetitions is rejected as it eastern and corresponds to an eastern god, not the God of the Bible). We reject all pantheistic/panentheistic descriptions of God as they are contrary to His nature revealed in His Word, i.e., contrary to the biblical, classical theistic view of God.
XI. Christ’s Return
We await the imminent rapture of the church and the second coming of Christ which will be physical, personal, visible, and premillennial. This motivates us to evangelism, holy living, heart-felt worship, committed service, diligent study of God’s Word, and regular fellowship.
XII. Eternity
We believe those who are saved by Jesus Christ will spend eternity with Christ in heaven in a conscious state of blessedness, reward, and satisfaction; that those who do not personally receive the finished work of Christ by faith will spend eternity in hell separated from God in a state of conscious torment.
XIII. Satan
We believe he is real, a great malevolence, cunning and power, who seeks to deceive, tempt, kill, steal and destroy, yet his power is limited by God to only what God permits him to do; that the devil has been defeated positionally at the cross of Christ, and will be defeated practically at Christ’s glorious second coming which will eventuate in the permanent quarantine and punishment of the Devil, Beast, and False Prophet, in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
XIV. Marriage and Sexuality
We believe marriage is between one biological man and one biological woman only, and the marriage bed is undefiled. Sexual relationships outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage are both unbiblical and immoral. We also believe that the intentional confusion/blurring of genders and functions/manners naturally and uniquely given to men and women distort God’s established order.
