DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
1. We believe that love one for another as Jesus loves the believer partially manifests our discipleship, proves our love for God and symbolizes our authority as New Testament churches. Love is therefore the great commandment of the LORD Jesus Christ upon which all others are dependent (Matt. 22:35-40; John 13:34-35; John 15:12; I John 4:7-21; I John 5:1-3 and Rev. 2:4-5).
2. We believe in the verbal inspiration and infallibility of the whole Bible as originally written and that the Bible is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice (Psalm 119:160; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21).
3. We believe in the personal triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, coequal in divine perfection (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:32-35; John 14:16; Hebrews 1:7-8).
4. We believe in the Genesis account of Creation (Gen. 1; 2).
5. We believe that Satan is a fallen angel, the archenemy of God and man, the unholy god of this world, and that his destiny is the eternal lake of fire (Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:11-19; Matt. 25:41; II Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:10-17; Rev. 20:10).
6. We believe in the virgin birth and sinless humanity of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:18-20; II Cor. 5:21; I Peter 2:22).
7. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ (John 10:30; John 1:1, 14; II Cor. 5:19).
8. We believe the Holy Spirit is the divine Administrator for Jesus Christ in His churches (Luke 24:49; John 14:16-17; Acts 1:4-5, 8; Acts 2:1-4).
9. We believe that miraculous spiritual manifestation gifts were done away when the Bible was completed. Faith, Hope, and Love are the vital abiding Spiritual Gifts (I Corinthians 12; 13; 14; Micah 7:15).
10. We believe that Man was created in the image of God and lived in innocency until he fell by voluntary transgression from his sinless state, the result being that all mankind are sinners (Gen. 1:26; Gen. 3:6-24; Rom. 5:12,19).
11. We believe that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ was substitutionary for all mankind and is efficacious only to those who believe (Isa. 53:6; Heb. 2:9; I Peter 2:24; I Peter 3:18; II Peter 3:9; I John 2:2).
12. We believe in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ and the bodily resurrection of His saints (Matt. 28: 1-7; Acts 1:9-11; I Cor. 15:42-58; I Thess. 4:13-18).
13. We believe in the premillennial, personal, bodily return of Christ as the crowning event of the Gentile age. This event will include the resurrection of the righteous to the Millennium and to then eternal heaven which will be followed by the resurrection of the unrighteous unto eternal punishment in the lake of fire and that the righteous shall enter into the heaven age (Matthew 25:46; John 14:1-6; I Thess. 4:13-18; II Thess. 2:8; Rev. 19; Rev. 20:4-6; Rev. 20:11-15; Rev. 21:8).
14. We believe that the depraved sinner is saved wholly by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the requisites to regeneration are repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 13:3-5; John 3:16-18; Acts 20:21; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9).
15. We believe that the moment a person repents of his sin and places his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior; he is born again, becomes a child of God, is personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit, receives forgiveness of all his sins and receives eternal life. He is also assured that from the moment of his physical death he will forever be in the presence of Christ, that he will be in the first resurrection and that he will not suffer any punishment in Hell or the Lake of Fire, regardless of the degree of his faithfulness to God. This is because he is saved and kept wholly by God’s Grace, apart from works. (John 3:36; John 5:24; John 10:27-30; Romans 8:35-39; Hebrews 10:39; I Peter 1:5; John 3:6; John 16:8-9; Romans 8:9-11; I Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 2:8-9; Ephesians 4:30; Titus 3:5).
16. We believe that God deals with believers as His children, that He chastises the disobedient, and that He rewards the obedient (Matt. 16:27; Matt. 25:14-23; John 1:12; Heb. 12:5-11; II John 8; Rev. 22:12).
17. We believe that Jesus Christ established His church, the Body of Christ, during His ministry on earth and that it is always a local, visible assembly of scripturally baptized believers in covenant relationship to carry out the Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, and each church is an independent, self-governing body, and no other ecclesiastical body may exercise authority over it. We believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission to the New Testament churches only, and that there has been a succession of true churches adhering to the doctrines and practices of the New Testament from the time of Christ to this day, and that the churches of this Association are so identified. (Matt. 4:18-22; Matt. 16:18; Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 1:14-20; John 1:35-51; Eph. 3:21).
18. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will choose His Bride from the faithful members of His New Testament Churches. (II Corinthians 11:1-3; Revelation 19:7-8)
19. We believe that there are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord’s churches: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Scriptural baptism is the immersion of penitent believers in water, administered by the authority of a New Testament church in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial ordinance, restricted to the members of that local church observing the ordinance (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 8:12, 38; Rom. 6:4; I Cor. 5:11-13; I Cor. 11:1-2, 17-20, 26).
20. We believe that there are two divinely appointed offices in a church, Pastors and Deacons, to be filled by men whose qualifications are set forth in (Titus 1:6-9 and I Timothy 3:1-13).
21. We believe that all associations, fellowships, and committees are, and properly should be, servants of, and under control of the churches (Matt.20: 25-28).
22. We believe in freedom of worship without interference from the government and affirm our belief in civil obedience, unless the laws and regulations of civil government run contrary to the Holy Scriptures (Rom. 13:1-7; I Peter 2: 13-15).
23. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex. We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one’s gender by surgery or appearance. (Genesis 2:24; Genesis 19:5, 13; Genesis 26:8-9; Leviticus 18:1-30;Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; I Corinthians 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4).
24. We believe that the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman. (Genesis 2:24; Romans 7:2; I Corinthians 7:10; Ephesians 5:22-23).