We Believe the Holy Bible is the Word of God
We accept fully the writings of the entire Old and New Testament as the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God. We believe the Bible is the final authority in all matters of doctrine, duty and decisions as individuals and as a New Testament church.
2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13
We Believe in the Trinity
We believe in the only true God, the Creator, who is eternal, loving, just, merciful, holy, unchanging. We believe that God is one although He is three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, equal in every attribute.
Colossians 2:9; Matthew 28:18
We Believe that Jesus Christ is God’s Only Begotten Son and Born of a Virgin
We believe that Jesus Christ pre-existed with God the Father before His birth in Bethlehem. That He was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit in the body of the Virgin Mary. He lived a totally sinless and perfect life. He died on the cross for past, present and future sins of the world. He was buried and then raised from the grave victorious over sin, death and hell. He is coming back to the earth and the dead in Christ will then be resurrected and every living believer will be carried to heaven with Him.
John 1:1-2, 3:16; Isaiah 7:14; 1 Peter 2:22-24; Romans 1:1-4; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
We Believe in the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person equal with God the Father and God the Son. We believe the Holy Spirit convicts and regenerates the sinner. He also indwells and seals the believer at the point of salvation. He fills and empowers the believer to enable them to live a holy and fruitful life. We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience that takes place at the time of Salvation and not separate from salvation.
John 14:16, 29; 15:26-27; 16:7-11; Romans 8:14
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. As God the Father revealed himself in human form as God the Son, Jesus Christ reveals himself in spiritual form as the Holy Spirit. There is but one God, but He bears three relationships to man.
The Holy Spirit is present in both the Old Testament and the New Testament but His work is more prominently set forth in the New Testament. He was present at Jesus’ baptism and temptation. In evangelism He convicts lost people with respect to sin, righteousness, and judgment. By His power repentant and believing souls are regenerated. In sanctification He indwells the Christian as he grows in the likeness of Christ. The moment a person is born again, the Holy Spirit takes up abode in their life.
We Believe that Man is a Sinner
We believe that Adam, the first man, was created in the image of God and in innocence; however, by his free will transgressed against the will and law of God. That man fell into sin and incurred not only physical death, but spiritual death, which is separation from God. Thus all humans are born with a sinful nature and are in need of redemption.
Psalm 51:5; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-5
Both the Hebrew and the Greek word for sin means “to miss the mark or target”. The target is God’s will and character. To miss it is to come short of the glory of God.
Romans:3:23
The tendency of man is to tone down sin. Psychology calls it maladjustment, disease, ethics, moral lapses. Philosophy calls it a stumbling in the upward progress of man. God just calls it sin. Man weighs or measures sin, but to God all crossing of His will is sin.
The Biblical account of the origin of sin is found in Genesis 3:1. There man’s free choice was confronted with God’s will and Satan’s will. The will of man obeyed Satan, hence transgression. The sin separated man from God.
Isaiah 59:2
The universality of sin is taught in Romans 1:18 to 3:23. Possessing knowledge of God, man sinned against it as he transgressed the written law of God and the law of conscience in his heart. Thus man is lost and needs a Savior. Infants and mentally incompetents are somehow embraced in God’s grace. All others upon reaching the age of accountability are responsible for their sins.
We Believe in Salvation
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, that is a free gift from God. We believe that man is saved by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We believe a person must repent of their sin and by faith receive and trust Jesus Christ as Lord to be saved. We believe that all who have been truly born again will be saved forever and cannot lose their salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 10:9-10,13; Hebrews 9:22; Romans 5:1-19; John 6:35-40; John 10:25-30
We Believe in Heaven
We believe that heaven in a real place. We believe the most important thing about heaven is the presence of the Lord Himself. We believe a person must receive Jesus Christ as one’s own Lord and Savior in order to go to heaven.
John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:10-17; 22:1-2
Heaven is a real place, but the location is not given in the Bible. It is where God and Christ are. It is a place of glory,. It is a place of perfect fellowship with God. Heaven will mean endless growth. With the hindrances of the flesh removed, we shall go on growing in grace and knowledge of Christ in eternity.
We Believe Hell Exists
We believe that hell is a real place and that all who die outside of Jesus Christ will spend eternity in hell. We believe that hell is a literal place of physical, mental, spiritual, and eternal suffering separated from God. We believe that every person will spend eternity either in heaven or hell.
Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 20:11-15; Matthew 13:41-46
The New Testament word for hell is Gehenna. It denotes a place of punishment and is referring to the vale of Hinnon, a valley located south and east of Jerusalem. In the Old Testament it was a place of human sacrifice to the pagan fire-god Molest (2 Kings 23:10). Its practice was abolished by Josiah. The place was so abhorred by the Jews that they made it a garbage dump. Into it they cast the refuse of Jerusalem, including dead animals and the unclaimed bodies of executed criminals. To consume garbage, fires burned day and night. Maggots worked constantly, and wild dogs howled and fought over the bodies. Jesus adopted this horrible scene to depict hell. (Matthew 8:12, 13, 42; 22:13; 25:30)
Revelation 20:10, 14-15 pictures hell as a lake of fire. Into it will be cast the devil and his angels and all whose names are not written in the book of life. While the location is not given in the Bible, hell is a place as heaven is a place.
Many people deny the existence of hell, yet Jesus said more about hell than he did about heaven. To say that a merciful God would not make a hell is to examine only one facet of God’s nature. He is love, but he is holiness and righteousness also. God sends no one to hell. Each person goes there of their own free will despite all that God in Christ has done to prevent it.
We Believe Satan Exists
We believe that Satan is real, that he was created, and that he originally lived in heaven, but was cast out of heaven when he rebelled against God. He is totally sinful, he is deceptive, he is powerful, and we believe that he is the leader of a vast host of evil spirits who seek to keep unsaved people lost, and seek to divide and deceive New Testament churches, and who seeks to devour and deceive individual Christians. We believe that Christ defeated Satan at the cross and that the Christian has authority and power over Satan through Jesus Christ. We also believe that Satan will ultimately be cast into the Lake of Fire at the end of age.
Isaiah 14:12-17; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Revelation 12:7-11; John 4:4
We Believe in the Christian Life
We believe the greatest privilege of the Christian is to live for Jesus. We believe the Christian life is a spiritual life. It is the Holy Spirit empowering and enabling us to be what God wants us to be. We believe the Christian life is one of separation from the ways of the world. It is a life of faith and surrender to Jesus Christ. It is a life of living by the promises of God and in obedience to the commands of God. It is a life of progress, spiritual growth, and maturity where we should become more and more like Jesus. It is a life where the Fruits of the Spirit are exhibited in the witness of our lives. We believe that witnessing is a necessary and normal part of the Christian life.
Galatians 2:20; 3:11; 5:17; 22-23; Ephesians 5:18-21; Acts 1:8; Titus 2:11-14
We Believe in the Local Church
We believe that the local church is God’s instrument and that all Christians should both belong to and be an active part of a local New Testament church. We believe the church is a body of baptized believers in whom the Holy Spirit lives and Jesus is Lord. The church is to live under the direction and discipline of the Bible. We are united together in the Holy Spirit for the purpose of evangelizing the lost, building up the saved, and glorifying the Lord. We believe the church belongs to Christ Jesus and that He purchased it with His own blood. That we the members of his church should love Him and all the members of the body and that we should be faithful to the church’s purposes. We believe the church is a God-governed body with the pastor serving as the spiritual leader of the body.
Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:21; Acts 2:41-47
In Baptist belief the church has autonomy, but this does not mean the church may do as it pleases, but as Christ wills. In the New Testament, local churches cooperated in matters of common interest. Local churches exercised discipline over their members (Matthew 18:17), excluding or receiving members, but always through the presence and under the guidance of Christ through the Holy Spirit
We Believe in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper as Church Ordinances
We believe that baptism does not save, but is an act of obedience and a testimony to the world of one’s faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that baptism identifies a believer with Jesus Christ and enters them into membership of the group that performed the baptism. We further believe that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic ordinance that pictures Christ’s body offered for our sins and His blood shed for our redemption. We do not believe it has saving power, but rather is symbolic. We believe that every born-again, baptized believer should take the Lord’s Supper as an act of worship, praise, remembrance, and gratitude to Jesus Christ for what He has done for us.
Romans 6:1-5; Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-24
We Believe in Stewardship
We believe that everything belongs to God and we are His stewards. We believe that every Christian should tithe of their income to the Lord through a local church. We believe the Christian’s time, ability, and money ought to be given back to God as an act of dedication and love to Jesus Christ and in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
Colossians 2:9; Matthew 28:18
We Believe in World Evangelism
We believe that it is the responsibility and privilege of every member of the local church to do everything they can to make the gospel of Jesus Christ available to as many people as possible. We believe it is the solemn responsibility of a church to do everything it can to fulfill the Great Commission
Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; john 2:21-23; Acts 1:8