We believe God wrote the Bible through men without error.

1.1 The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.  The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. 

1.2 We believe that the Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible Word of God, verbally inspired by God,  and without error  in the original manuscripts.

The Bible is Holy Scriptures, and the Word of God written, consisting of all the books of the Old and New Testaments. These are:

THE OLD TESTAMENT:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

THE NEW TESTAMENT:  Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation.

All of these are given by the inspiration of God to be the standard of faith and life.

The books commonly called the Apocrypha were not given by divine inspiration and so are not part of the canon or standard of the Scriptures. Therefore, they have no authority for the church of God and are not to be recognized or used in any way different from other human writings. 

1.3 We believe that God’s intentions, revealed in the Bible, are the supreme and final authority in testing all claims about what is true and what is right. In matters not addressed by the Bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teachings of Scripture. 

The supreme judge for deciding all religious controversies and for evaluating all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, human teachings, and individual interpretations, and in whose judgment we are to rest, is nothing but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit. In this Scripture our faith finds its final word. 

1.4 We believe God’s intentions are revealed through the intentions of inspired human authors, even when the authors’ intention was to express divine meaning of which they were not fully aware, as, for example, in the case of some Old Testament prophecies.  Thus the meaning of Biblical texts is a fixed historical reality, rooted in the historical, unchangeable intentions of its divine and human authors. However, while meaning does not change, the application of that meaning may change in various situations. Nevertheless, it is not legitimate to infer a meaning from a Biblical text that is not demonstrably carried by the words which God inspired. 

1.5 Therefore, the process of discovering the intention of God in the Bible (which is its fullest meaning) is a humble and careful effort to find in the language of Scripture what the human authors intended to communicate. Limited abilities, traditional biases, personal sin, and cultural assumptions often obscure Biblical texts. Therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit is essential for right understanding of the Bible,  and prayer for His assistance belongs to a proper effort to understand and apply God’s Word.  

Some things in Scripture are clearer than others, and some people understand the teachings more clearly than others.    However, the things that must be known, believed, and obeyed for salvation are so clearly set forth and explained in one part of Scripture or another that both the educated and uneducated may achieve a sufficient understanding of them by properly using ordinary measures. 

1.6 We believe the authority of the Holy Scriptures obligates belief in them. This authority does not depend on the testimony of any person or church but on God the author alone, who is truth itself. Therefore, the Scriptures are to be received because they are the Word of God. 

1.7 We believe the whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for His own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inference contained in the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is ever to be added to the Scriptures, either by new revelation of the Spirit or by human traditions. 

Nevertheless, we acknowledge that the inward illumination of the Spirit of God is necessary for a saving understanding of what is revealed in the Word.  We recognize that some circumstances concerning the worship of God and government of the church are common to human actions and organizations and are to be ordered by the light of nature and Christian wisdom, following the general rules of the Word, which must always be observed. 

1.8 The infallible rule for interpreting Scripture is the Scripture itself. Therefore, when there is a question about the true and full meaning of any part of Scripture (and each passage has only one meaning, not many), it must be understood in light of other passages that speak more clearly. 

1.9 The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the native language of the ancient people of God.  The New Testament was written in Greek, which at the time it was written was most widely known to the nations. These Testaments were inspired directly by God and by his unique care and providence were kept pure down through the ages. All God’s people have a right to and a claim on the Scriptures and are commanded in the fear of God to read  and search them.   Not all of God’s people know these original languages, so the Scriptures are to be translated into the common language of every nation to which they come.   In this way the Word of God may dwell richly in all, so that they may worship Him in an acceptable manner and through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures may have hope. 

1.10 The light of nature and the works of creation and providence so clearly demonstrate the goodness, wisdom, and power of God that people are left without excuse; however, these demonstrations are not sufficient to give the knowledge of God and His will that is necessary for salvation.  Therefore, the Lord was pleased at different times and in various ways to reveal himself and to declare His will to His people.   To preserve and propagate the truth better and to establish and comfort the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the Lord put this revelation completely in writing. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary, because God’s former ways of revealing his will to his people have now ceased. 

We believe that within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2.1 We believe in one living,  true,  self-existent,  sovereign,  and all-glorious  God, eternally existing in three infinitely excellent, perfect, and admirable Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each equally deserving worship and obedience. These three are united in nature, essence, mission, will, and being yet are distinguished by several distinctive characteristics and personal relations. This truth of the Trinity is the foundation of all our fellowship with God and of our comforting dependence on Him.

2.2 We believe that God is supremely joyful in the fellowship of the Trinity, each Person beholding and expressing His eternal and unsurpassed delight in the all-satisfying perfections of the triune God.

2.3 We believe that the three Persons of the Trinity have the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence without this essence being divided.   The Father is not derived from anyone, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.   The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.   All three are infinite and without beginning and are therefore only one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being. 

2.4 We believe that God, from all eternity,  in order to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever-increasing enjoyment of all who love Him,  did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His will,  freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass.  He did this without reference to anything outside Himself,   but by the perfectly wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeable. 

2.5 We believe that God by His decree upholds and governs all things-- and has perfect knowledge of all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures– from galaxies to subatomic particles,  from the forces of nature to the movements of nations,  and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons  – all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself, yet God did this in such a way that He is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin,   nor ever condemns a person unjustly;  but that His ordaining and governing all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image. This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes. On the contrary, these are established by God’s decree.   In this decree God’s wisdom is displayed in directing all things, and His power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing His decree. 

2.6 God knows everything that could happen under any given conditions.   However, His decree of anything is not based on foreseeing it in the future or foreseeing that it would occur under such conditions. 

We believe in God the Father Almighty.

3.1 We believe in God the Father,  fountain of all being and creator of all things;  He is a perfectly pure spirit.   He is invisible and has no body, parts, or changeable emotions, dwelling in light that no one can approach.   He is unchangeable,  immense,  eternal,  incomprehensible, almighty,  in every way infinite, absolutely holy,  perfectly wise, wholly free, completely absolute. He works all things according to the counsel of His own unchangeable and completely righteous will for His own glory.   

3.2 We believe as creator He is father to all mankind, but He is spiritual father only to believers.   He is most loving, gracious, merciful,  and patient.  He overflows with goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.  He rewards those who seek Him diligently.   At the same time, He is perfectly just and terrifying in His judgments.   He hates all sin and will certainly not clear the guilty. 

3.3 We believe that God has all life,  glory,  goodness,  and blessedness in and of Himself; He alone is all-sufficient in Himself. He does not need any creature He has made, nor does He derive any glory from them.   Instead, He demonstrates His own glory in them, by them, to them, and upon them. He alone is the source of all being, and everything is from Him, through Him, and to Him.   He has absolute sovereign rule over all creatures, to act through them, for them, or upon them as He pleases.   

3.4 We believe that in His sight everything is open and visible.   His knowledge is infinite and infallible. It does not depend upon any creature, so for Him nothing is contingent or uncertain.   He is absolutely holy in all His plans, in all His works,  and in all His commands. Angels and human beings owe to Him all the worship,  service, or obedience that creatures owe to the Creator and whatever else He is pleased to require of them.

We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, our Lord.

4.1 We believe in God the Son,  Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, eternally begotten,  not made, without beginning,  being of one essence with the Father, possessing all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father. 

4.2 We believe the Bible ascribes the characteristics of deity to Jesus Christ. He is described as eternal,  omnipresent,  all knowing,  all powerful,  and unchanging. 

4.3 We believe Jesus Christ is equal with God the Father. He is worshiped as God.   Christ performed works which only God can do. He is creator.  He is the upholder of all things.  He forgives sin.  He will raise the dead and execute judgment.  Jesus Christ Himself claimed deity. He taught His disciples to pray in His name.  He claimed that He and the Father were one and that He was the Son of God.  He claimed that to know Him was to know God, to see Him was to see God, to receive Him was to receive God, to believe Him was to believe in God and to honor Him was to honor God, while to hate Him was to hate God. 

4.4 We believe that in the incarnation (God becoming man) Christ laid aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God, assumed the place of a Son, and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes nor of the divine essence, either in degree or kind.  In His incarnation, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God–man.   Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without converting one into the other or mixing them together to produce a different or blended nature. Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness. 

This person is truly God and truly man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and humanity.   The purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom.  

4.5 We believe that in the fullness of time, He took upon himself human nature, with all the essential properties and common weaknesses of it  but without sin.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary.  Thus, He was born of a woman from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of Abraham and David in fulfillment of the Scriptures.  His life was governed by His Father’s providence with a view to fulfilling all Old Testament prophecies concerning the One who was to come,  such as the Seed of the woman,  the Prophet like Moses,  the Priest after the order of Melchizedek,  the Son of David,  and the Suffering Servant.  

4.6 We believe that Jesus of Nazareth was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit beyond measure.   He had in Himself all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.   The Father was pleased to make all fullness dwell in Him so that—being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth. 

4.7 We believe that Jesus Christ lived without sin, though He endured the common infirmities and temptations of human life.  He preached and taught with truth and authority unparalleled in human history.  He worked miracles, demonstrating His divine right and power over all creation: dispatching demons,  healing the sick,  raising the dead,  stilling the storm,  walking on water,  multiplying loaves,  and foreknowing what would befall Him and His disciples,  including the betrayal of Judas.  

4.8  We believe that Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily in fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan,  that He was crucified under Pontius Pilate,  that He died,  was buried and on the third day rose from the dead to vindicate the saving work of His life and death and to take His place as the invincible, everlasting Lord of glory.  During forty days after His resurrection, He gave many compelling evidences of His bodily resurrection and then ascended bodily into heaven,  where He is seated at the right hand of the Father,  interceding for His people on the basis of His all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and reigning until He puts all His enemies under His feet.  

We believe in the Holy Spirt who indwells all believers.

5.1 We believe in God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, proceeding in the full, divine essence,  as a Person,  eternally from the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son and is of the same essence. Yet He is also distinct from them.  Thus, each Person in the Godhead is fully and completely God.

5.2 We believe Scripture describes the Holy Spirit in personal terms, not as an impersonal force, when it says that He teaches, guides, comforts and intercedes.  He possesses emotions, intellect and will.  The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip and gave counsel to the church at Jerusalem.  He was sinned against and lied to.   The Scriptures also attest to the deity of the Holy Spirit. He is spoken of as God and is identified with the title of Jehovah.  The Christian who is indwelt by the Spirit is indwelt by God.  The Holy Spirit possesses the attributes of deity, such as omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and eternality.  He does works only God can do, such as creating, regenerating and sanctifying.  He is equally associated with the other members of the Trinity. 

5.3 The Holy Spirit today plays a major role in the application of salvation to the individual. It is the Spirit who brings conviction to the unbeliever and causes him to see the truth of the gospel in a clear light.  Those who respond to this conviction and place their faith in Jesus Christ receive eternal life and a new nature.  The Holy Spirit unites the believer with Christ and places him in the body of Christ, the church.  This is the one baptism of the Holy Spirit that occurs at the time a person is born again.   He also unites the believer with Christ in His death, enabling him to live victoriously over sin.  The Holy Spirit controls the believer who yields to God and submits himself to God's Word.  When these conditions are met, the believer lives in the power of the Spirit and produces the fruit of the Spirit. 

5.4 The Holy Spirit indwells the believer permanently.  While the child of God may sin and grieve the Spirit, the Spirit will never leave the true believer.  Absence of the Holy Spirit is the mark of the unsaved.  The Holy Spirit seals the believer.  This ministry guarantees the security of the believer "until the day of redemption." 

5.5 We believe that the Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts or abilities for service to every believer.   These gifts are for the edification of the church and for the common good.   We distinguish between spiritual gifts and the sign gifts which are understood to have been manifestations of the Holy Spirit to authenticate the messenger and the gospel message during the foundational period of the church.  Therefore, we hold that sign gifts are not normative for the church today. 

5.6 We believe that the Holy Spirit restrains evil in the world today, but His restraint will cease with the rapture.    He will continue to be present in the earth.  In the tribulation period the Spirit will be involved in salvation and filling.   In the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Spirit will be in God's people and the Spirit will be upon the King. 

We believe all people are made in the image of God but have fallen into sin.

7.1 We believe that God created every person equally in his own image. As divine image-bearers, all people have inestimable value and dignity before God and deserve honor, respect, and protection. Everyone has been created by God and for God.  No person’s age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, sex or physical condition, family position, or any other property of a person either negates or contributes to that individual’s worth as an image-bearer of God. 

7.2 We believe that God has endowed human will with natural liberty and power to act on choices so that it is neither forced nor inherently bound by nature to do good or evil. 

7.3 We believe that, although God created man morally upright, Adam was led astray from God’s Word and wisdom by the subtlety of Satan’s deceit,  and chose to take what was forbidden,  and thus declare his independence from, distrust for, and disobedience toward his all-good and gracious Creator. Thus, our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original innocence and communion with God.  

7.4 We believe that all people are connected to Adam, as the head of the human race, both naturally and federally. Therefore, Adam’s fall became the fall of all his posterity and because of original sin everyone is born under the curse of God’s law and all break His commandments through sin. All persons are thus corrupt by nature,  enslaved to sin,  and morally unable to delight in God and overcome their own proud preference for the fleeting pleasures of self-rule. There is no difference in the condition of sinners due to age, ethnicity, or sex. All are depraved in all their faculties and all stand condemned before God’s law in such a way that corruption, guilt, death, and condemnation belong properly to every person.  All human relationships, systems, and institutions have been affected by sin. 

7.5 We believe that, other than the previously stated connection to Adam, no person is morally culpable for another person’s sin. Although families, groups, and nations can sin collectively, and cultures can be predisposed to particular sins , subsequent generations share the collective guilt of their ancestors only if they approve and embrace (or attempt to justify) those sins.  Before God each person must repent and confess his or her own sins in order to receive forgiveness. 

7.6 We believe God has subjected the creation to futility,  and the entire human family is made justly liable to untold miseries of sickness,  decay,  calamity,  and loss.  Thus all the adversity and suffering in the world is an echo and a witness of the exceedingly great evil of moral depravity in the heart of mankind; and every new day of life is a God-given, merciful reprieve from imminent judgment, pointing to repentance.  

7.7 We believe that God has given all mankind common grace as He is the creator and sustainer of all.   God’s gracious provision is seen in His restraint of evil,  His care for all of creation,  His divine control over human governments,  and His blessings to all mankind human by way of human intellect and technological advancements that lead to human flourishing.  This common grace, giving to all, does not lift the curse of sin on mankind but should stir the hearts of man to thanksgiving towards God and individuals to saving faith. 

We believe that sinners are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

8.1 We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of his shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or effort. 

Election

8.2 We believe that election is the gracious purpose of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in His Son, Christ Jesus. God does this, not on account of any foreseen merit in the elect, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure.  This is a comfort to God’s people,  a reason to praise God,  and is an encouragement to evangelize the lost.   Those chosen by God are known as the elect. 

Atonement

8.3 We believe that God’s just wrath against sin must be satisfied and His love for sinners must be expressed.  Therefore Jesus Christ propitiated the wrath of God that is rightly due to sinners, by bearing in His body the sins of the elect in His life and especially in His death upon the cross.   The cross is the perfect joining of the just wrath of God against sin and the perfect love of God for the sinner.   The atonement is the work Christ did in His life and death to earn the believer’s salvation.   

The Gospel Call

8.4 We believe that in God’s appointed and acceptable time, He is pleased to call effectually,  by His Word and Spirit the elect, those He has predestined to life. He calls them out of their natural state of sin and death to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ.   This effectual call flows from God’s free and special grace alone, yet He does all this in such a way that they come completely freely, since they are made willing by His grace. 

8.5 We believe that the gospel call to sinners includes at least the fact that all people have sinned,  the penalty for sin is death and Jesus Christ died to atone for sin.   The gospel call also includes an invitation for the sinner to respond to Christ personally in repentance and faith. 

8.6 We believe that the gospel call, that salvation is to be found in Jesus Christ alone, is good news for the world and that we are obligated under Christ, by command and compulsion,  to share the gospel of Christ with our kindred, acquaintances, and with all people to the ends of the Earth.   It must be shared with zeal and urgency by the church’s corporate efforts and by personal testimony. 

Regeneration

8.7 We believe that regeneration is the act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life to the elect.  This is sometimes called being born again.   Regeneration is totally a work of the Triune God. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God.  He takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh.   He makes them a new creation.   He raises them to new life.   He renews their wills and by His almighty power turns them to good and effectually draws them to Jesus Christ.  Therefore, regeneration is an instantaneous event. It happens only once. At one moment the believer is spiritually dead and the next moment the believer has new spiritual life from God.  Genuine regeneration will result in a changed life that is evident over time. 

Conversion

8.8 We believe that all those whom God regenerates are converted.  Conversion is the willing response to the gospel call in which the elect sincerely repents of sins and places their trust in Christ for salvation.  Knowledge and approval of God and His saving work are not enough for saving faith.   Placing our trust in Christ alone for salvation is saving faith. Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.   Always accompanying saving faith is repentance.   Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.

Justification

8.9 We believe that justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He; thinks of the sins of the elect as forgiven and Christ’s imputed righteousness as belonging to them, and declares the elect to be righteous in His sight.  In response to faith, God fulfills His promise  to deliver the elect from sin by legally declaring their sins forgiven and that we are no longer liable to punishment for them.   Justification comes after faith in and through Jesus Christ.   No person is able to attain justification by their own works, merit, position, good intentions, knowledge, or obedience to the law, or by any other action and belief of man, but it is a free gift and pardon from God as He extended grace, that is unmerited favor, and imputed (credited) righteousness of Christ to the elect. 

8.10 We believe justification is sufficient for salvation without the need for the once for all time work of Christ to be aided or supplemented by meritorious works by man.   Justification is full and complete therefore the elect will suffer no punishment or period of purification after the death of the body.   We deny the existence of purgatory, limbo, the treasury of merit, prayers for the dead, prayers to any person or created thing, and the differentiation between mortal and venial sins.

Adoption

8.11 We believe adoption is the act of God whereby He makes the elect members of His family.  Believers become the children of God.   Those who do not believe in Christ are not children of God nor adopted into His family but are children of wrath and of their father, the Devil.   Adoption follows conversion and is an outcome of saving faith.   Children of God relate  to God as a good and loving father.  They are given a great inheritance in heaven because they have become joint heirs with Christ.   All the children of God are members of one family. 

Sanctification

8.12 We believe that sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes the believer more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.  Sanctification differs from justification in that sanctification is an internal condition, continuous throughout life.   The believer cooperates with God in the work of sanctification, and that while some believers attain greater sanctification than others, no one is fully perfected in this life.   Sanctification is primarily a work of God,  whereby the Father disciplines His children and gives us both the will and power to be sanctified.   The Son is our example of the perfect life.   The Holy Spirit works within the believer to change us and give us greater holiness of life. 

8.13 We believe that the believer plays a role in their sanctification.  The believer yields to the will of God by trusting and depending on God to sanctify.   The believer’s active role in sanctification is by seeking to end sin’s influence in their lives,  and to make every effort to grow in godliness.   Although slavery to sin is broken,  and sinful desires are progressively weakened by the power of a superior satisfaction in the glory of Christ, yet there remain remnants of corruption in every heart that give rise to irreconcilable war,  and call for vigilance in the lifelong fight of faith.  

8.14 We believe that God uses means to accomplish the believer’s sanctification.  Faith is awakened and sustained by the Holy Spirit through His Word and prayer.  The good fight of faith is fought mainly by meditating on the Scriptures and praying that God would apply them to the believer’s souls.  

8.15 We believe that the promises of God recorded in the Scriptures are suited to save us from the deception of sin by displaying for us, and holding out to us, superior pleasures in the protection, provision, and presence of God.   Therefore, reading,  understanding,  pondering,  memorizing,  and savoring the promises of all that God will be for us in Jesus are primary means of the Holy Spirit to break the power of sin’s deceitful promises in our lives. Therefore, it is needful that we give ourselves to such meditation day and night.  

8.16 We believe that God has ordained to bless  and use  His people for His glory through the means of prayer, offered in Jesus’  name by faith.  All prayer should seek ultimately that God’s name be hallowed, and that His kingdom come, and that His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.  God’s sovereignty over all things is not a hindrance to prayer, but a reason for hope that our prayers will succeed.  

Perseverance

8.17 We believe that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere as Christians until the end of their lives,  and that only those who persevere until the end have been truly born again and have eternal security.  Those who fall away from belief in Christ show that they did not have saving faith from the beginning.   

8.18 We believe external signs of conversion and sanctification, while always present in those with saving faith, are not themselves signs of the presence of true saving faith.   Among the signs of true saving faith are continued faith,  a present trust in Christ for salvation,  evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual,  love for fellow believers and the church,  repentance of sin,  love for God,  hunger for God’s Word,  separation from the world,  and a pattern of spiritual growth. 

Death

8.19 We believe, should the Lord tarry in His return, all persons will experience physical death.  Death is not a punishment for Christians but is the final outcome of living in a fallen world.   God uses the experience of death to complete our sanctification,  and complete our union with Christ.   The obedience of the believer to God is more important than preserving his or her own life.   The time of death is a part of God’s sovereign will,  therefore the believer does not view his or her own death with fear but with joy at the prospect of going to be with Christ who has conquered death by His resurrection. 

Glorification

8.20 We believe that glorification is the final step in the application of redemption.   It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at that time perfect resurrection bodies like His own.   Eternal life with the Lord is the blessed hope of the believer. 

We believe that meaningful and enduring fellowship in a local congregation is absolutely essential to the Christian’s life and ministry.

9.1 We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body,  the church,  the bride of Christ,  of which Christ is the head.   We believe that the formation of the church, the body of Christ, began on the day of Pentecost and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His own at the Rapture.   We believe that the church is thus a unique spiritual organism designed by Christ, made up of all born-again believers in this present age.  The church is distinct from Israel,  a mystery not revealed until this age. 

9.2 We teach that the purpose of the church is to glorify God by building itself up in the faith,  by instruction of the Word by fellowship,  by keeping the ordinances,  and by advancing and communicating the gospel to the entire world. 

9.3 We believe that the establishment and continuity of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures and that the members of the one spiritual body are directed to associate themselves together in local assemblies. 

9.4 We believe that the New Testament church is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers. Church government or leadership is congregational in context.  Therefore, the final word in matters pertaining to the congregation must come from the congregation itself.  The congregation must be committed to the Lordship of Christ under the full authority of Scripture. 

9.5 We believe that the one supreme authority for the church is Christ and that church leadership, gifts, order, discipline, and worship are all appointed through His sovereignty as found in the Scriptures.  Christ leads His church by the teachings of Holy Scripture as the church’s final authority.  

9.6 We believe that each local church is led by a plurality of godly, qualified men called elders.  Elders (males, who are also called overseers, shepherds, bishops, pastors, and pastor-teachers ) feed God’s sheep God’s word,  guide the sheep,  protect the sheep,  and oversee the work of the church.  Elders exercise authority over the church only to the degree that they teach and lead according to the Scriptures.   Elders primary task is to prayer and the ministry of the Word.   

9.7 We believe that elders are prepared, gifted, and call by the Holy Spirit to the office of elder and confirmed by the local assembly in accordance with the Scriptural qualifications of an elder.   He is set apart by fasting and prayer and the laying on of hands. 

9.8 We believe that the local church is served by deacons.  The task of a deacon is primarily that of meeting the physical and material needs of individual believers and the congregation as a whole.    Deacons are prepared, gifted, and called by the Holy Spirit to the office of deacon and confirmed by the local assembly in accordance with the Scriptural qualifications of an deacon.   He is set apart by and prayer and the laying on of hands.   If the deacon serves faithfully, he obtains for himself a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. 

9.9 We believe that every Christian in the local congregation without exception has been given spiritual gifts,   material possessions,  talents, skills, and wisdom which they are commanded to employ for the edification of the entire congregation and the furtherance of the Kingdom.   The administration of such gifts by every member is necessary for the proper growth and ministry of the church. 

9.10 We believe in the autonomy of the local church, free from any external authority or control, with the right of self-government and freedom from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations.  We teach that it is scriptural for true churches to cooperate with each other for the presentation and propagation of the faith. Local churches, however, through their elders and their interpretation and application of Scripture, should be the sole judges of the measure and method of their cooperation. 

9.11 We believe in the importance of discipleship,  mutual accountability of all believers to each other,   as well as the need for discipline for sinning members of the congregation in accord with the standards of Scripture.