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Statement of Faith
We believe the Bible, composed of the Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God, a divine, supernatural revelation. We believe in the plenary, verbal inspiration of the original writings of the Scriptures, and that as thus given they were wholly without error of any kind. We believe in one Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (I Peter 1:2; Mathew 28:19). We believe that they are coequal in power and glory, identical in their essential natures, attributes, and perfections and that they are coeternal (Genesis 1:2; John 17:5). In His essential nature. God is spirit as opposed to material (John 4:24); as to His essential attribute God is absolutely holy, embracing the sum of all moral perfections (I Peter 1:16); as to His essential character, God is love (I John 4:16; John 3:16). We believe that Jesus Christ "being the eternal Son of God, became man" (Hebrews 2:16; John 1:14; Luke 1:35), and that He continueth to be the God-Man, in two distinct natures, and one person forever (John 1:14; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 13:8). We believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, thus being True God and True Man. We believe that He died upon the cross a vicarious substitutionary death, thereby making atonement for the sin of the world (John 1:29). We believe that He is the only Redeemer (Acts 4:12), and that His atonement is sufficient for the sins of all the world (Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:2), and efficient for all who believe (John 3:16, 36; Isaiah 45:22). We believe that He bodily arose from the dead, that He ascended into Heaven; that there in His state of glorification He is now the interceding High Priest, Intercessor, and Advocate for all believers (I Corinthians 15:20; Luke 24; Acts 1:3; Hebrews 7:25, 4:15; I John 2:1). We believe that as in His first advent He became incarnate and dwelt on earth personally, bodily, visibly, in an earthly tabernacle of flesh, the body of His humiliation, even so in His second advent He will return personally, bodily, visibly, but in the body of His glorification, to set up His Kingdom and to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 1:9, 11; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:31-46;Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15). We believe that man, created in the image of God, fell into sin through the sin of the first Adam and thereby brought upon himself death both physical and spiritual; and that all human beings share this guilt and inherit this sin-nature from the first Adam. In order to secure salvation and restoration, man must be born again. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (I Peter 2:24). The punishment of the wicked and unbelieving, and the reward of the righteous· are everlasting, and as the reward is conscious, so is the punishment (Genesis 1:26-28; Romans 3:10, 22-23; John 3:16; Acts 4:12, 13:38-39; Matthew 25:46; II Corinthians 5:1; II Thessalonians 1:10). We believe that there is a personal devil, a being of great cunning who can exert vast power only so far as God suffers him to do so, and who shall ultimately be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (I Peter 5:8; Revelation 20:10; Ephesians 6:11). We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead, indwells all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 6:19), baptizes them into the body of Christ, and seals them unto the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit convinces and "reproves the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment" (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13-14, 5:18-20; John 16:8-11). We believe that the church is the body of Christ, a spiritual organism composed of all born again persons in this present age. The primary mission of the church is to witness concerning the Head, Jesus Christ. and to preach the gospel among all nations. The church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air prior to His appearing to set up His Kingdom (Ephesians 1:3-6, 22-23; I Corinthians 12:12-14; Matthew 28:19-20; I Thessalonians 4:16-18).
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