Doctrinal Statement
Using the Authorized King James Version
GOD IS TRINITY We believe God is the One who is revealed in the Scriptures as eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and manifested in three persons; as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 6:4; Psalm 147:5; Jeremiah 23:23-24; John 4:24; John 10:30; II Corinthians 13:14)
THE BIBLE We believe that the Bible needs to be studied according to God's method as ordained. (II Timothy 2:15; Philippians 1: 10) We believe in verbal and plenary (full, complete, and accurate) inspiration by the Holy Spirit of both the Old and New Testaments; that they were inerrant in the original writings; that God has preserved the majority text to this day through the King James Version; and that the Scriptures are of supreme and final authority in doctrine and practice. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 3:15-16)
MAN We believe that man was created in the image of God; that he sinned, and thereby incurred, not only physical death, but also spiritual death which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word, and deed. Man is therefore totally depraved, and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. Therefore, only the completed work of Calvary is able to save man and remedy his lost and depraved condition. (Genesis 1:26-27; 3:6; Psalm 51:5; Romans 3:10; 3:22-23; 5:12)
SATAN We believe in the personality and subtlety (mental keenness, craftiness, artful, ingeniousness) of Satan; that he is the devil and is the adversary of God and man. (Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-14; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 Peter 5:8)
SIN We believe that sin is anything foreign to God or His will, whether disobedience, error, or unbelief; that it is universal and fatal, and can only be remedied by the faith of Christ in us. (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 7:20; 14:23; James 4:17)
VIRGIN BIRTH We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:35; Romans 1:3-4; Galatians 4:4-5)
BLOOD ATONEMENT, RECONCILIATION, AND JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH We believe that all who have been saved and all who ever will be saved are, and will be, accepted by God the Father totally on the basis of Christ's shed blood on the cross. The blood sacrifices before the cross were required "instrumentally" by God as an atonement for (or covering of) sins until the work of Calvary would be accomplished in a future time. The blood of animals before Calvary, spoke of, proved, and showed a believer's faith in action, which was indeed instrumentally required by God for their salvation. It was God the Father, who by the faith and faithfulness of His son, who at the time applied the future blood of Christ (Revelation 13:8) to the sins and the sin nature of God's Old Testament saints. Today we are under grace, the message, and the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) Christ died for the sins of the whole world according to the scriptures and was raised again for man's justification. He was and is man's representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and all who will believe on Him will be and are justified on the single ground of faith in His work on Calvary. (1 Corinthians 15:3; Romans 3:23-26; 6:23; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:8) Therefore, we believe in the vicarious, substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ; that our redemption from sin has been accomplished solely by His death upon the cross and by His literal physical resurrection out of the grave, so eternal salvation is ours by grace, through faith. (Ephesians 2:8- 9)
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION We believe in the resurrection of the physical crucified body of Jesus Christ, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there for us, as mediator and advocate between God and men. (Luke 24:36-43; Acts 1:9-11; I Corinthians 15:4; Ephesians 1:19-23; Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:25-28; 1 John 2:12)
THE HOLY SPIRIT We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, and who regenerates, baptizes, seals, indwells, infills, enlightens, and guides the believer. (John 3:1-6; 16:8-15; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13-14; 5:18)
ETERNAL SECURITY AND ASSURANCE OF BELIEVERS We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God's power and are thus secure in Christ forever. (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1; 8:38-39; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8; 1 Peter 1:5) We believe that it is the privilege of believers to have assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God's Word; which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh. (Romans 13:13-14; 14:13; Galatians 5:13; Titus 2:11-15)
THE LORD'S SUPPER The communion service, or the Lord's Supper, with its elements of bread and wine (grape juice) is a New Testament grace celebration and a memorial to the church of the broken body and blood of Christ. It is to be observed by the church until Christ returns for the Church; it may be practiced as often as the Lord leads. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
THE RAPTURE AND SECOND COMING OF CHRIST We believe that His coming to the earth is a different event than that of the rapture for the church of today, and that these two events are separated by a seven-year period called "The Great Tribulation.” (I Corinthians 15:51-58; I Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Philippians 3:20-21) We believe in the personal, bodily, visible, imminent, and pre-millennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:29-31; 25:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 1:7; 20:6)
HEAVEN AND HELL We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, in the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved, and in the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost. (Matthew 25:4; Mark 9:43-48; John 3:36; 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Revelation 14:13; 20:11-15; 21:8; 22:3-5)
DISPENSATIONALISM We believe that the Scriptures, interpreted in their natural and literal sense, reveal divinely determined dispensations or rules of life, which define man's responsibilities in successive households within the ages. These dispensations (households) are not ways of salvation, but rather divinely ordered stewardship by which God directs man according to His purpose. These were requirements set forth for believers then as the acts of faith which were simply "instrumentally" required for salvation and which pointed to the coming Christ and his work on Calvary. Three of these, the household of law, the household of the church, and the household of the kingdom, are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture. (John 1:17; 1 Corinthians 9:17; 2 Corinthians 3:9-18; Galatians 1:11-17; 2:6-9; 3:13-25; Ephesians 1:10; 3:2-10; Colossians 1:24-2:2; Hebrews 7:19; Revelation 20:2-6; Romans 16:25-26; Acts 20:24)
THE CHURCH We believe that the Church of the Mystery is the Body of Christ, which began historically with the salvation of Paul the apostle in Acts 9. It is composed of members of the present dispensation who have received Him as their Savior, and its boundaries know neither color nor creed, and it will be taken away at the rapture. We believe it is a spiritual organism and not a political organization. Also, with Israel's being set aside due to her blasphemy of God's Holy Spirit, the Church was raised up by her fall. (Romans 11:7-27; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 3:1-7; 5:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Galatians 3:27-29)
MISSIONS We believe that it is the obligation of the believer to witness by deed and word, testifying that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable, and that we are to be under grace and to be ambassadors for Christ; urging all mankind to be reconciled to God and to name the name of Christ where He is not yet named. We encourage support of those missions, who have a knowledge of the mystery and willingly proclaim God's free gift and the gospel of the Grace of God. (Ephesians 3:1-9; Acts 20:24; II Corinthians 5:16-21; Romans 15:20; 16:25-26; Colossians 1:24; 2:2; Titus 2:11-13)
SEPARATION We believe that all believers are called into a life of separation from all sinful and all worldly practices. God calls believers to obey God's Word and to be yielded to the Lord. All believers are called into a missionary outreach, to be prayer warriors, and givers and sharers of God's message of the Mystery of God's Grace. The Mystery is God's message of reconciliation to a lost world and is entrusted to the church to fulfill the grace commission. (2 Corinthians 6:14; 10:16; Ephesians 3:1-9; Colossians 3:1-17; Romans 12:1-2; 6:11,13,19; Romans 15:20, 1 John 2:14-17)
DIVINE HEALING AND THE GIFTS God often has divinely healed those in His Church. (Romans 4:21; 2 Corinthians 9:8) We believe that God is able to heal and to do "...exceeding abundantly above all that we may ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." (Ephesians 3:20)
Prayer for such healing should and must be made by a yielded believer, knowing that God is able to do as we may ask. Prayer should be in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and it must be according to God's will (perfect or permissive). We believe in a God who hears and answers prayer for the sick in body and/or mind. We believe in a God, who in His sovereignty may answer, "Yes, No, or Wait" according to God's will.
It seems clear empirically today and from Scripture (properly handled and rightly divided (2 Timothy 2:15), that after 60 AD even the most spiritual of saints cannot (by their hands) duplicate any of the sign gifts and/or miracles done by Christ on earth or, by His apostles, or by His earthly followers. The gifts of prophecy, knowledge, and wisdom also ceased when they were no longer needed, with the completion of the last book of scripture. (Revelation 22:18-19; Matthew 10:5-8; Mark 16:16-18; Romans 8:18-30; Ephesians 3:20; 4:7-16; Philippians 2:25-30; 4:6-9; II Timothy 4:20)
CREATION We believe in the creation of all things, by God in six 24-hour days and that evolution, both theistic and atheistic, is a false philosophy - therefore, we reject evolution, the Gap Theory, The Day Age Theory, and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural hypotheses of origin. (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 20:11)
CIVIL GOVERNMENT We believe that God has ordained all authority consisting of three basic institutions: 1) the home; 2) the church; and 3) the state. Every person is subject to those authorities, but all are answerable to God. God has given each institution specific responsibilities and balanced that grant of authority with the understanding that none of these three institutions has the right to infringe upon the other; to do so would be to violate scriptural principles and would be against the truth of God's Word. The home, the church, and the state are equal and sovereign in their respective assigned spheres of responsibilities under God. (Ephesians 5:22-24; Hebrews 13;17; 1 Peter 2:13-14; Romans 13:1-7)
HUMAN SEXUALITY According to God's Holy Word, we believe that God clearly commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of marriage between a man and a woman, therefore we reject homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography as 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; 19:5, 13; 26:8-9; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; 1 Corinthians 5:1, 6:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4)
We believe that the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman. (Genesis 2:24; Romans 7:2; 1 Corinthians 7:10; Ephesians 5:22-23)
We reject abortion as being sinful and wrong according to God’s Word. All abortion is murder in the eyes of God. (Psalm 139:12-16)