WE BELIEVE...
…in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writing and that they are of supreme and final authority in matters of faith and practice, the true center of Christian union (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19-21)
…in one God eternally existing in three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 7;14, 9:6; Matthew 1:23,28, 19:20; John 1:1)
…that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and that He is true God, and true man, and is the only sufficient Mediator between God and man; and in the Vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins, in the resurrection of His body, His ascension into Heaven, and His personal and visible future return to the earth; and that eternal salvation is received only through personal faith in Him – through receiving Christ as personal Savior (Luke 1:26-38, 24:39; I Timothy 2:3; John 3:16, 36, 14:3, 6; Acts 10:43; Revelation 1:7)
...in the personality of the Holy Spirit; and that His ministry is to convict men of sin, to reveal Christ, to indwell, sanctify, instruct, and empower each believer for worship and service (Luke 11:13; John 14:16,17, 15:26, 16:7-14; Acts 1:8)
…in the literal Genesis account of Creation. 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 since the fall are born with a sinful nature and, in the case of those who reach the age of moral responsibility, are sinners in thought, word, and deed (Genesis 1:26,27; Romans 3:23, 5:12)
…that the soul and spirit of the Christian leave the body at death and go immediately to be with the Lord (Luke 16:19-31; Philippians 1:21-23; II Corinthians 5:8)
…in the eternal security of the believer; that it is impossible for one born into the family of God ever to be lost (John 1:12, 10:27, 28; I John 5:9-13; I Peter 1:3-5; Jude 1)
…in the Priesthood of all Believers. A believer is once and for all saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:5-10), and has free access to God the Father through the one and only High Priest, Jesus Christ our Savior at any time for spiritual comfort and forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:11-28). With this principle of individual competency under God in all matters of religion, Baptists have opposed any distinction between clergy and laity that would suggest that the clergy are a continuation of the Old Testament priesthood. We believe that Christ has made every believer to become a priest under God (Revelation 1:6; I Peter 2:5; Hebrews 7:26,27, 10:10 and 12: I Timothy 2:5)
…that Spirit baptism is the immersion of the believer into the body of Christ and that this occurs for every believer at the time of salvation and is performed by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:5)
…that Christian baptism is immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, and the son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is only for those who already have been saved by receiving Christ. Through baptism the believer publicly professes his faith in Christ, and acts out his desire to be dead (buried) to sin and alive (resurrected) to walk in newness of life for his Savior (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 10:44-48, 16:31-34; Romans 6:1-6)
…in the observance of the Lord’s Supper in which the Lord commanded believers to take the Bread and the Cup (the fruit of the vine) in remembrance of His body which was broken for us, and His blood which was shed for our sins. Believers are to observe this service with self-examination, and with anticipation of the Lord’s return (I Corinthians 11:23-29)
…that a New Testament Church is a body of baptized believers with Scriptural offices of pastors and deacons; associated for worship, service, the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ locally and worldwide, and to observe the ordinances and carry out the principles, precepts and commission of Christ (Matthew 18:15-20, 28:19, 20; Acts 2:41, 42, and 47, 14-23; I Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 3:21, 4:11-16; I Timothy 3:15; Acts 1:8)
…in the autonomy (independence, self-government) of the local church; and in cooperating with and encouraging Baptist brethren who also believe in and stand for the fundamental doctrines of the faith. We believe that the Church is the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of the age of grace. We believe in the principle of Religious Liberty and the separation of Church and State (Romans 15:5,6; Ephesians 5:22-32; I Timothy 3:1-15; I Peter 5:1-4)
…in that blessed hope: the pre-tribulational, pre-millennial, personal and imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus when the Church will be “gathered unto Him” (Titus 2:13; Acts 1:10,11; I Thessalonians 4:13-19; I Corinthians 15:51-58)
...that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a day which commemorates the resurrection of Christ; and should be a day of worship, rest and spiritual strengthening (Matthew 12:1-12; Acts 20:7; I Corinthians 16:1,2; Colossians 2:16, 3:16)
…in this the Church Age, commonly known as the Dispensation of the Age of Grace, that the Holy Spirit indwells each and every believer from the moment he receives Christ as Savior. We believe this indwelling alone makes it possible to live a victorious Christian life. We believe that the speaking in tongues and divine exhaling movements are not related as outward evidence of the Spirit-filled life. We believe the Spirit-filled life is to be the normal experience of every born-again Christian that regardless of one’s place or station in life he is filled with the Spirit when he is yielded to the Holy Spirit and is occupied with Jesus Christ and the Word of God (I Corinthians 6:19, 20; Romans 8:1-14; John 14:16-18, 16:7-14; Ephesians 5:18, 6:17; Hebrews 4:12)
…that it is our desire to raise a standard of Biblical separation from worldliness, modernism, (new-evangelicalism, neo-orthodoxy, ultra-Calvinism, ecumenism) and all organizations and/or individuals who are not in full agreement with biblical separation (Acts 20:26-31; Romans 16:17; II Corinthians 6:14-18; Ephesians 5:11; Titus 3:10,11; II John 7-11; Jude 3; II Thessalonians 3:14, 15; John 3:16; II Peter 3:9)
“And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others, also.” II Timothy 2:2