WHO WE ARE

The purpose of this church is as stated in the New Testament scriptures. This church exists for God’s pleasure and to bring glory and honor to His name and the name of His Son, Jesus Christ (1). This is done through the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of its members to attain unity of faith and true knowledge of Christ to spiritual maturity (2). Thus, we can be light in the midst of a dark world in word and in deed (3). The church shall be devoted to the equipping of the saints, worship of our God, watchful care of its members, and witnessing to the lost world of the grace and mercy of our God toward them (4).

(1) Col. 1:15-19 (2) Eph. 4:11-16 (3) Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, Eph. 5:7-8 (4) Matt. 28:19, Eph. 4:11-16

We teach that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction (2); that it has God for its author, salvation for its end,(3) and truth without any mixture of error for its matter (4); that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us (5); and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union (6), and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried (7).

A. God.

We teach that there is but one living and true God, an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (3), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (4) each equally deserving worship and obedience.

(1) Col. 1:18, 1 Pet. 5:1-4 (2) Acts 15:6-21, Heb. 13:17, 1 Tim. 5:17 (3) Deut. 6:4, Isa. 45:5-7, John 4:24, 1 Cor. 8:4 (4) Matt. 28:19,
2 Cor. 13:14

B. God the Father.

We teach that God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace (1). He is the Creator of all things (2). As the only absolute and omnipotent ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption (3). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (4), but He is Spiritual Father only to believers (5). He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass (6). He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events (7). In His sovereignty He is neither author nor approver of sin (8), nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures (9). He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own (10); He saves from sin all those who come to Him; and He becomes, upon adoption, Father to His own (11).

C. God the Son.

We teach that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellences, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (12).

We teach that God the Father created “the heavens and the earth and all that is in them” according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation (13).

We teach that in the incarnation (God becoming man) Christ surrendered only the prerogatives of deity but nothing of the divine essence, either in degree or kind. In His incarnation, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God- man (14).

(1) Ps. 145:8-9, 1 Cor. 8:6 (2) Gen. 1:1-31, Eph. 3:9 (3) Ps. 103:19,
Rom. 11:36 (4) Eph. 4:6 (5) Rom. 8:14, 2 Cor. 6:18 (6) Eph. 1:11
(7) 1 Chr. 29:11 (8) Hab. 1:13 (9) 1 Pet. 1:17 (10) Eph. 1:4-6 (11) John 1:12, Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:5, Heb. 12: 5-9 (12) John 10:30, 14:9 (13) John 1:3,
Col. 1:15-17, Heb. 1:2 (14) Phil. 2:5-8, Col. 2:9

We teach that Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness (1).

We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born (2); that He was God incarnate (3); and that the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom (4).

We teach that, in the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity laid aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God, and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes(5).

We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (6).

We teach that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (7).

We teach that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and that He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our Advocate and High Priest (8).

(1) Micah 5:2, John 5:23, 14:9-10, Col. 2:9 (2) Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23-25;

Luke 1:26-35 (3) John 1:1, 14 (4) Ps. 2:7-9, Isa. 9:6, John 1:29, Phil. 2:9-11, Heb. 7:25-26, 1 Pet. 1:18-19 (5) Phil. 2:5-8 (6) John 10:15, Rom. 3:24-25, 5:8, 1Pet. 2:24, 3:25, Rom. 5:8-9, 2 Cor. 5:14-15, 1 Pet. 2:24, 3:18 (7) Matt. 28:6, Luke 24:38-39, Acts 2:30-31, Rom. 4:25, 8:34, Heb. 7:25, 9:24, 1 John 2:1
(8) John 5:26-29, 14:19, Rom. 4:25, 6:5-10, 1 Cor. 15:20-23 5

We teach that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, God confirmed the deity of His Son and gave proof that God has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrection life for all believers (1).

We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one through whom God will judge all mankind(2):

a. Believers (3);
b. Living inhabitants of the earth at His glorious return (4); and c. Unbelieving dead at the Great White Throne (5).

As the mediator between God and man, the head of His body the church (6), to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given (7), He is the final judge of all who fail to place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior. (8)

D. God the Holy Spirit.

We teach that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is divine, eternal, nonderived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect, emotions, will, eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and truthfulness (9). In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son (10).

1) Acts 1:9-11, 1Thess. 4:13-18 (2) John 5:22-23 (3) 1 Cor. 3:10-15,
2 Cor. 5:10 (4) Matt. 25:31-46 (5) Rev. 20:11-15 (6) Eph. 1:22, 5:23, Col. 1:18,

1 Tim. 2:5 (7) Matt. 28:16-20 (8) Matt. 25:14-46,
Acts 17:30-31 (9) Psa. 139:7-10, Isa. 40:13-14, John 16:13, 1 Cor. 2:10-13, 12:11, Rom. 15:13, Eph. 4:30, Heb. 9:14 (10) Jer. 31:31-34, Matt. 28:19,
Acts. 5:3-4,1 Cor. 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, Heb. 10:15-17

We teach that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. We recognize His sovereign activity in the creation, the incarnation, the written revelation, and the work of salvation (1).

We teach that a unique work of the Holy Spirit in this age began at Pentecost when He came from the Father as promised by Christ (2) to initiate and complete the building of the body of Christ. His activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, and transforming believers into the image of Christ (3).

We teach that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (4).

We teach that the Holy Spirit is the divine teacher who guided the apostles and prophets into all truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible. Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit (5).

We teach that the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church. The Holy Spirit glorifies neither Himself nor His gifts by ostentatious displays, but He does glorify Christ by implementing His work of redeeming the lost and building up believers in the most holy faith (6).

(1) Gen. 1:2, Matt. 1:18, John 3:5-7, 2 Pet. 1:20-21 (2) John 14:16-17, 15:26 (3) John 16:7-9, Rom, 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18, Eph. 2:20-22 (4) Rom. 8:9-11,
1 Cor. 12:13, 2 Cor. 3.6, Eph. 1:13 (5) 2 Pet. 1:19-21, Rom. 8:9-11, Eph. 5:18, Rom. 8:9-11, 1 John 2:20, 27 (6) John 16:13- 14, Acts 1:18, 1 Cor. 12:4-11,
2 Cor. 3:18

We teach, in this respect, that God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of the saints today and that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church were for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers (1).