Theology
Click here to download this Doctrinal Statement in PDF.
To these basic tenants of the true, Christian faith I unwaveringly adhere:
God:
I believe in the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each while being a separate and distinct person, also being the same God. I believe in one God and one Lord who is over all and is totally sovereign and in full control of all human existence. Without God, nothing would be able to function.
Jesus Christ:
I believe that Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever. He lived a perfect and sinless life, voluntarily atoning for sin by dying on the cross as our substitute. He rose from the grave and ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father.
Holy Spirit:
I believe that the Holy Spirit is God, the Counselor, Who dwells in each Christian. I believe that being baptized in the Spirit as Charismatic/Pentecostal denominations see it is in gross error. I believe that one receives the Holy Spirit at the initial moment of salvation. The Spirit is our guarantee of eternal life, convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Spirit guides our steps, conforms us to the image of Christ, and enlightens us in worship, study and evangelism.
The Word of God:
I believe that the Bible is God’s special revelation of Himself to man and is the final authority for all matters of the faith. Tradition and experience can and never will take the place of the Word of God. As such, the Bible should be the authority from which tradition is derived and experience should always be backed up with Scripture to determine its validity.
I believe in the plenary, verbal inspiration of all 66 books of the Old & New Testaments. Every single word of every single book is inspired by the Holy Spirit. No error is contained within any of the original copies of the Scriptures, even though they were penned by human authors. The Holy Spirit superintended the writing process, thereby producing exactly what God intended to say. Though translations of the originals can never be perfect, I believe that Bibles translated off of the Nestle-Aland/United Bible Society manuscripts to be the most accurate. I endorse the Holman Christian Standard Bible, the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Version Updated Edition as the three best translations on the market for thorough and accurate Bible study.
I believe the Bible to contain every single piece of information necessary to come into an intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior. It is living and active, able to convict the Believer of sin in his life and powerful through the Holy Spirit to draw men unto Christ.
Man:
I believe that man was originally intended to be in perfect communion with God. However, sin entered the world through Adam. And because of this man is in a radically depraved state, void of any righteousness whatsoever within himself. I affirm that any moral “good” that people do is not “good” in the truest sense. Until one comes to Christ, true “good” deeds can never be done because outside of doing them for the glory of God, they are not good. I believe that man is, therefore, devoid of ability to seek after God on his own, and as such, the Lord must intervene in his life for the man to be saved. This is what the Bible means by declaring that man is spiritually dead.
Salvation:
I believe that salvation is totally by grace alone through faith as Ephesians 2:8-10 declares. Salvation is a total gift of God,. Man is in such a depraved state that he cannot even look to God on his own. As such, without God’s intervention in his life, man could not be saved. No man can come unto salvation unless the Holy Spirit draws him to the Son (John 6). I affirm that repentance and faith in Christ alone are necessary components of true salvation (Mark 1:15). I further affirm that as Jesus declared, if any man would come to Christ for salvation, he must be willing to deny self, take up the cross daily and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). Any person not willing to pay this high cost of becoming a Christian shows that God is not at work in him at the present time, drawing Him to Christ.
Eternal Security:
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Because he has been changed, he can never become “unchanged”. I believe that all true believers shall retain their salvation to the end. If one, however, walks away from the faith, it serves only to show that there was no true salvation to begin with. That person was not a changed being. I, therefore, deny that a total backslidden condition is ever possible for the true believer in Christ. While it is possible to sin, the true believer will never walk away from the faith for good.
Evangelism:
I believe that it is the Church’s responsibility to spread the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone who lives on the earth. Acts 1:8 are the Church’s marching orders and as such, it is top priority to spread the news about Christ to everyone with the view that, through the preaching of the Word of God, the Father will call to salvation, through the Holy Spirit’s convicting work, all of those whom He will lead to eternal life.
I affirm that modern evangelism methods are lacking the necessary components of the Gospel. In order for the Gospel to be rightly presented, repentance and faith must be accurately communicated. Saving faith is always combined with repentance in a sinner for true salvation to occur. I further affirm that the Church needs to get back to doing evangelism as our Lord Jesus did in the Gospels if this generation is ever to see a revival occur.
The Church:
I believe in the absolute autonomy of the local church. The Bible clearly shows how each local congregation was autonomous. Neither state/national conventions nor local associations shall have any power over the authority of the members of a local congregation. The congregational vote is the authority in all matters of church government. I disavow the plural-elder model of church governance in favor of the Biblical view of a single-elder led congregation. Furthermore, I firmly believe that a single church should never grow past several hundred members, as the priority for the church is church planting. A fully mature church with a more than adequate number of members should seek to use some of its members as a core group in new plants in unreached areas.
Baptism:
I believe that baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is symbolic of the believer’s death to sin and new life in Christ. Furthermore, it symbolically portrays the death and resurrection of Christ. The Bible clearly states that baptism is for believers only because of its symbolic nature. Because it is for believers only, the Bible rules out the possibility of infant baptism.
Lord’s Supper:
I believe that the Lord’s Supper is the ordinance given to the Church by Jesus Christ to symbolically portray His glorious atonement on the cross of calvary to believers as often as it is partook of. It is not the actual body and blood of Christ, as some denominations see it, but rather a memorial to the Lord to remind us of His death and to anticipate His Second Coming.
The End Times:
I believe that Christ will return in a bodily return to earth at the end of time. I believe in the rapture of the Church; the literal seven year Great Tribulation where God will judge Israel for its rejection of Christ; that Christ will return at the Second Coming to judge the world and bring an end to the devil’s power; that the Millennial Kingdom is a literal, thousand year reign of Christ on this earth; and that a new Jerusalem will come down to a new earth, which will be our eternal state after time has ended.