Statement of Faith

 

 

•  We believe in one true God, consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

  •  Matthew 28:19  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  (also 2 Corinthians 13:14, Genesis 1:26, 1 Peter 1:2, & Matthew 3:16-17)

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•  We believe in the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God, constituted in Old and New Testaments, written by men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.  These scriptures are without error in their original autographs.

  • ​ 2 Peter 1:20-21  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.  For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  (Also, Matthew 5:18 & Romans 7:12)

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• We believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female. For these two distinct, biological, genders, God created two options for sexual fulfillment: Sexual union in a marriage between one man and one woman or sexual celibacy. Both are a gift from God. The Bible calls sexual activity outside of these boundaries an abomination and instructs His people to have no part in them. We further believe that confronting lifestyles and opinions that are in conflict with these boundaries may at times be our religious duty according to Scripture.

  • ​​​​ Genesis 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.​

  •  Genesis 2:21-24 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

  •  Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. 

  • Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

  • Ephesians 5:11  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

  • Matthew 19:12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

  • 1 Corinthians 7:7 I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

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• We believe that because of Adam’s fall, all mankind is born with a sin nature, except for the person of Jesus.  Because of this sin nature, Adam’s descendants can do nothing of their own volition to overcome their inherited depravity.

  • Romans 5:12  Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.

  • Colossians 2:9  For in Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form.

  • 2 Corinthians 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

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• We believe that salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone.  It is the regenerative work of God through His Holy Spirit, by which He calls, transforms, sanctifies, and seals believers to eternal security through faith.

  • Ephesians 2:8-9  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

  • John 14:6   Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

  • Jude 24  To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy.

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• We believe that in God’s eyes, sinners are justified only by God ascribing the righteousness of Christ as a substitution for the sinner’s own standing.

  • Romans 3:22-26  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.   He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.

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• We believe that good works are a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which every true believer has, working in us to make us more like Jesus Christ and to guide us in truth revealed in the inerrant Word of God.  However, when the believer sins, he has forgiveness of sins through confession with Jesus Christ as his high priest.

  • Romans 8:16  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

  • Galatians 4:6  Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

  • Galatians 5:16,18 & 22  So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature...But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law...But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.

  • Also, Hebrews 10:19-22 and 1 John 1:9

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• We believe that Jesus Christ will return to earth at the moment of God’s perfect timing and that all who serve Him should remain ever vigilant for that return.

  • Matthew 24:44  So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

  • 2 Peter 3:10-11  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.

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• We believe that the dead will rise and face a coming day of judgment. Those judged to be secure in Christ will live forever in the glory of heaven.  Those not secured by Christ's substitutionary payment will suffer eternal punishment in hell.

  • Revelation 20:11-13  Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.  Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead , great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the book of life.  The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

  • 2 Peter 3:13  But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

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• We believe that there is a personal devil, Satan, who is a being of great cunning who can exert vast power only so far as God allows him to do so. He shall ultimately be judged and condemned. 

  • Matthew 25:41  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

  • Revelation 20:10  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

  • 2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

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• We believe that God may sovereignly allow the believer, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, to be tested and oppressed by the devil, but that through repentance and standing (Ephesians 6) against the evil one in Jesus’ name, they can recover themselves out of his snare. Believers who see a brother or sister ensnared by the devil, should lovingly, gently, and prayerfully try to restore them to righteous living. 

  • 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12  The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

  • 2 Timothy 2:25-26  Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

  • James 4:7 & 6:19-20  Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you… My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

  • Galatians 6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

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• We believe Scripture teaches the following about health: With the Genesis fall, the creation was subjected to the death that sin brings and that by living in a fallen world, all mankind will be subject to illness. 

  • Romans 8:20-21  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

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• That God gives freedom to individuals to seek medical care and use pharmaceuticals and remedies but desires that His children seek His wisdom and guidance in so doing. However, God may block the effectiveness of such healthcare because of sin.

  • Jeremiah 8:22  Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

  • Jeremiah 46:11 “Go up to Gilead and get balm, Virgin Daughter Egypt. But you try many medicines in vain; there is no healing for you.

  • 2 Chronicles 16:12-13 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors.

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• God, a loving Father, may use illness as a tool of sanctification or discipline for His children.

  •  Romans 8:5-6, 12-13   Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace… Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:6-12  Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.