What We Believe

The following we firmly believe and hold to:

1. The Bible to be the unerring Word of God and His complete revelation to man. As written in the original language it is without error or contradiction and is our single rule of faith from which there is no appeal.
   (II Tim. 3:16; II Pet. 1:21; II Pet. 3:15, 16; Heb. 1:1,2; Jer. 30:1; Jer. 36:1,2;Ezra 1:1; Acts 2:16,17)
2. There is but one God. He subsists in a threefold personality. The personalities—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—are but one Person or one infinite Being.
   (Deut. 6:4; John 1:1,14; Col. 1:12-17; John 8:58; compare Isaiah 6:8-10 with Acts 28:25-27).
3. God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. He created all life and all species as we know them today.
   (Gen. 1:1; Gen. 2:7; Col. 2:20; Col. 1:6,17).
4. The Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, being born the son of the Virgin Mary. He lived a perfect sinless life, died a substitute death, was buried, and physically Resurrected from the tomb.  He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father.
   (Luke 1:30-35; John 8:46; I Cor. 15:3-8; Acts 1:9; Acts 7:55; Rom. 8:34; Heb. 9:24)
5. The blood of Jesus Christ was shed for the remission of man’s sins. An individual can only receive forgiveness for sins by receiving Jesus Christ as savior (sin-bearer). In the transaction, the guilt to the individual is placed upon Jesus Christ who satisfied God’s demands concerning sin, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ is placed upon the individual.
   (Heb. 9:11,12,26; Heb.10:5-10; II Cor. 5:21; I Pet. 2:24; John 1:12; Rom. 10:10; Eph. 2:8,9).
6. Satan was the highest rank of all of God’s creation. When he attempted to exalt himself above God, he, with a third of the lesser angels who joined with him, was cast out of heaven and marked for eternity in the Lake of Fire.
   (Ezek. 28:12-15; Isa. 14:12-14; Luke 10:18; Rev. 20:10; Matt. 25:41).
7. Man was the direct creation of God and was created in a state of innocence. With   only one restriction placed on him, man violated it and sinned against God.  All mankind sinned in that one act of disobedience and received from the first parents guilt and a sinful nature, therefore all of mankind is in need of salvation.
   (Gen. 2:7; Gen. 2:16,17; Gen. 3:6; Rom. 5:12; Rom. 3:23).
8. When an individual has experienced the second birth (is born again), he is saved for time and eternity through the keeping power of God.  Anyone who, by faith, receives Jesus Christ as Savior is delivered from death to life eternal.
   (John 3:1-36; I Pet. 1:23; John 10:27-29; Rom. 8:29-39; 1 John 5:10-20; Eph. 2:1).
9. The body of Christ is the church, all born again believers, those baptized by the Spirit into Christ. The local church in this sense is in the abstract; the specific is every local body of born again believers assembled to worship God and working toward the preaching of the gospel to every creature. The local church is made up of saved, baptized individuals. It is independent and autonomous with Christ as its head and a man called by God to be its pastor and to act as a shepherd to the flock.
   (Col. 1:18; Gal. 1:2; I Cor. 1:2; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 2:41; Acts 20:28; I Pet. 5:1-4; Matt. 16:15-18; Matt.18: 15-17; Acts 13:1,2).
10. The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day which is to be a time of worship and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
    (Matt. 28:1; John 20:19; Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10).
11. Jesus Christ will come to receive His bride, the church, unto Himself. It could happen at any time. Believer’s works will then be judged for which he will either receive a reward or lose a reward.
    (John 14:2,3; I Thess. 4:16,17; I Cor. 15:51-53; I Cor. 3: 13-15; II Cor. 5:10).
12. Seven years of tribulation will follow Christ’s receiving of the saints (dead or alive). When this period ends, then Christ will return to the earth to establish His earthly  reign from Jerusalem for 1,000 years.
    (Dan. 9:24-27; Rev. 20: 1-10).
13. After the 1,000 years, all of the unsaved since the creation will be resurrected, judged, and cast into the Lake of Fire to suffer eternally. The earth will be purged with fire and New Jerusalem will descend out of heaven to the new earth where the saints of all time (in their glorified bodies) will live forever in the presence of the Lord.
    (John 5:28,29; I Cor. 15:23,24; Rev. 20:7-21; Rev.14: 11; II Pet. 3:10).
14. There are two ordinances of the church. They are baptism and the Lord’s supper.
    (Matt. 28:19; I Cor. 11:23-26).
15. Baptism is to be administered only to born again believers upon public testimony of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The only method is by immersion, and the only purpose is to identify the believer with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and the resurrection; the believer having died to sin and been raised to newness of life.
    (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:41; Acts 8:36-38; Acts 10:44-48; Rom. 6:3-7).

16. The method of financing the work of the church is through tithes and offerings.
    (Lev. 27:32; Mal. 3:8-10; II Cor. 9:6-8; I Cor. 16:2; Heb. 7:4-9).

18. We believe that the Holy Spirit baptized the believer into the body of Christ at the moment of regeneration. The gifts of tongues, healing and miracles are sign gifts and have ceased with the present dispensation.
19. God created and sanctioned marriage to bring together man and woman, the complementary halves of humanity, by joining them in “one-flesh” unions. (Gen 2:18-25.) Marriage between one man and one woman for life uniquely reflects Christ’s relationship with His Church. (Eph 5:21-33.) Marriage also serves as the foundational unit of a stable society (1 Cor 7:2).

The following is a copy of the current constitution and by-laws.