We believe that there is but one living and true God, who is Spirit, self-existent, infinite, all knowing, sovereign and perfect in all His attributes5.  We believe that this one living and true God has revealed to us in His Word that He exists eternally as three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that each is one in essence, equally deserving of worship and obedience.

We believe that God the Father is the first person of the Trinity. We believe that in His providence He ordains and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace7. We believe that He is the creator of all things and the omnipotent ruler of the universe8. As creator, He is Father to all men, but He is the spiritual Father only to believers9. We believe that God is neither the author nor approver of sin and holds all men accountable for their sin. We believe that God concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men and saves from sin all whom He draws to faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe that God the Son is the eternal second person of the Trinity and possesses all the divine attributes He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father11. We believe that God the Father created all things through His Son, Jesus Christ12. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born13, and that He accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity while surrendering only certain prerogatives of deity, but nothing of the divine essence. Thus, Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness – the perfect God-Man. We believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God to man, to provide redemption, and rule over God’s kingdom15. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood in His voluntary, sacrificial death as our substitute on the cross16. We believe in the literal, physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and His ascension to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our advocate and High Priest, the only mediator between God and man17. We believe that He is the Head of the church, which is His Body18, and that He will one day return to earth to judge all mankind, both the living and the dead.

We believe that God the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is a divine person who possesses all the attributes of deity and personality (such as omnipresence, intellect, emotions, and will) He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father and Son20. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the divine teacher who guided the apostles and prophets, using their unique personalities and backgrounds, into all truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible21. We believe that the work of the Holy Spirit in the church age began at Pentecost when He came from the Father as promised by Christ to initiate and complete the building of the Church, the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into that spiritual Body22.  His divine activity in this age includes glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment23. We believe that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation. We believe that, as the believer’s Comforter, the Holy Spirit sanctifies believers, instructs them, and empowers them for service, steadily transforming them into Christ’s image and sealing them unto the day of redemption24. We believe that God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in how He chooses to bestow His gifts to believers today, and that He does so with the purpose of edifying and maturing the saints as they serve one another25. We believe the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire is gift from God as promised by the Lord Jesus Christ to all believers in this dispensation and is received subsequent to the New Birth. This experience is accompanied by the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Holy Spirit Himself gives utterance.26 

We believe that angels are personal spirit beings created to worship and serve God. We believe that He sends them as messengers of His divine providence and that they are higher than men but should never be worshipped27. We believe that Satan is an angel who was perfect and held an exalted rank but fell into sin because of his conceit and rebellion. We believe that after his fall he introduced sin into this world by tempting Adam and Eve. We believe that Satan is now the god of this world and the enemy of God and believers, but his defeat was sealed at Calvary and his doom will eventually be realized in God’s perfect time28. We believe that demons are angels who fell with Satan; although they are organized and powerful, they cannot indwell believers, and can be resisted with spiritual discipline and prayer.29 

We believe that God created man as the culmination of His creation of the universe in six 24-hour days30. We believe that God created mankind as male and female, in the image and likeness of Himself, but that man does not possess the essence of deity. In contrast to other creatures, however, mankind possesses moral agency and the capacity for communion with God, along with a divine mandate for wise stewardship over creation31. We believe that God’s design in creating the first couple in a state of innocence and moral purity is that marriage is to be between one man and one woman and that sexual relations are to be confined to the bonds of marriage32. We believe that man is composed of a corruptible, material part that is temporary and an immaterial, spiritual part that will exist eternally33. We believe that Adam’s disobedience to the revealed will of God, by eating fruit from the only forbidden tree constituted the universal Fall of mankind and the introduction of sin and death into the world. We believe that a nature corrupted by Adam’s sin has been transmitted to all men of all ages, Jesus Christ being the only exception. Thus, we believe that all men are sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration. We believe that as a result of the Fall, all men are without any capacity to merit the favor of God. Therefore, we believe that man’s salvation is wholly of God’s grace through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ34.  

We believe that salvation is the act of God whereby He rescues man from judgment and spiritual death and delivers him to eternal life. Salvation is based on God’s grace alone, through faith in the sacrificial death and shed blood of Jesus Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, and not on any human merit or works35. We believe that God, before the foundation of the world, graciously chose in Jesus Christ for salvation all those He foreknew36. We believe that He graciously saves anyone who, by faith, repents of his sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ37. We believe that at salvation God instantaneously imparts divine life to the new believer (a spiritual reality known as regeneration or the new birth)38. We believe that God declares the new believer completely righteous (a spiritual reality known as justification) based on faith in Christ alone39. We believe that God restores His favor to the repentant sinner, abolishes the penalty of sin (which is death), and imputes Christ’s righteousness to the new believer40. We believe that the gift of salvation, once received, is forever and cannot be lost41, and that genuine believers persevere to the end, thus evidencing that they possess eternal life42. We believe that at salvation God sets the new believer apart unto Himself and declares him holy (a spiritual reality known as sanctification) irrespective of his spiritual attainments43. We believe that sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit that gradually transforms the believer’s life, empowering him to become more and more like Jesus Christ — a continual process in which holiness and righteousness are increased and in which sinful attitudes and practices are decreased. Sanctification is characterized by the believer’s refusal to conform to this world and by the renewal of his mind as he reads and obeys the revealed will of God44. We believe that because sanctification is a lifelong process, the believer will continue to struggle with sin every day of his earthly life45. 

We believe that the church is a spiritual organism made up of all true born-again believers in this present age and can refer to a local assembly of believers or to all believers worldwide46. We believe that every person who believes in Christ as Savior is immediately placed (baptized) into the church, which represents Jesus Christ on earth as His Body47. We believe that the purpose of the church is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, edify believers, and evangelize the world48. We believe that Christ commanded the observance of two church ordinances: the baptism of believers by immersion in water and the Lord’s Supper49, neither of which is efficacious for salvation. Because the authority of the church rests solely in the authority of Jesus Christ, we believe in the autonomy of the local church, free from any external authority or control, with the right of self-government independent from any hierarchy of individuals or organizations50. We believe that each local church is responsible for its own doctrinal purity and practice, unity51, discipline of members52, appointing of officers, ordaining men into the Gospel ministry, and determining the extent and method of inter-church cooperation53. We believe that the congregation is to participate in the work of the ministry while in submission to the godly rule of its leaders54 

We believe that physical death is the separation of a person’s immaterial soul and spirit from their material body55, and when that separation occurs, even though the body is dead, there is no loss of immaterial consciousness, whether the person is a believer or an unbeliever56. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all people, believers to eternal life and unbelievers to judgment and eternal punishment57. We believe that the soul and spirit of the New Testament believer passes immediately into the presence of Christ and remains separated from his body until Christ returns, at which time the believer’s body is resurrected a glorified body and reunited with his soul and spirit to be forever with the Lord58. We believe that at death the soul and spirit of the unbeliever is kept in a state of conscious punishment and torment in hell until resurrected for judgment, at which time the unbeliever’s resurrected body will be reunited with his soul and spirit and be punished forever, cut off from life with God, a just retribution for his sinful deeds59. 

We believe in the literal, personal and bodily return of Jesus Christ to the earth in two events60. We believe He will return to remove His church from the earth to meet Him in the air in an event called the rapture, at which time He will receive to Himself the resurrected bodies of all those who have “died in Christ” and will also translate (change from mortal into immortal) the bodies of all those who are “alive in Christ”61. We believe that in the last days, during a period  of time called the tribulation, God will pour out His righteous judgments on an unbelieving world that will bring death to most, but eternal life to many who will finally embrace the good news of the Gospel62. We believe that Christ will physically return to the earth’s surface (an event known as His second coming), at which time He will judge the living and the dead63, and that He will reign over the entire earth for a literal 1,000-year period, known as the millennium, after which He will execute another, final judgment64. We believe that the elements of this present heaven and earth will be dissolved and replaced with a new heaven and new earth where only righteousness dwells, and that the saints of all ages will dwell there and forever enjoy fellowship with God and one another, while unbelievers of all ages will suffer eternal punishment in the lake of fire65.