We believe that the Father is God, the Source of all things and the One who sent the Son as His gift into the world. His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (Eph. 4:6), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (Romans 8:14; II Corinthians 6:18).

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Person and that He is God (Acts 5:3-4; 13:2). We believe that He is the One who “convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8), and that He is the supernatural Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption. This supernatural work of God is NOT the result of our “begging” for it but is the work of His sovereign grace and power at the very moment of our conversion (John 3:1-8; Romans 8:9; I Cor. 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:13-14). We believe that He is the divine Teacher who guides believers into all truth, and that it is the privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit (John 16:13; I Cor. 2:9-16; Ephesians 5:18). Again, we maintain that there is one baptism of the Holy Spirit that occurs at the time a person is born again, placing that one into the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:12-14). We also distinguish between spiritual gifts distributed to believers to equip them for ministry (Rom. 12:4-8) and the “sign gifts” which are understood to have been manifestations of the Holy Spirit to authenticate the messenger (specifically, the apostles and those who were commissioned by the apostles) and the gospel message during the foundational period of the church (I Cor. 12:8-11; II Cor. 12:12). Therefore, we hold that “sign gifts” are not normative for the church today (I Cor. 13:8-13). 

We believe in the direct creation of man in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27). We believe that, through Adam’s transgression, the whole human race became “dead in sin” so that every child of Adam is born into the world with a fallen nature devoid of spiritual life and without power to recover him/herself from this condition (Rom. 3:23; 5:12).
   

We believe that salvation is entirely of God, purely by grace, apart from works, merit, or foreseen faith, through the exercise of faith in the efficacy of the shed blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8-10) and that we are kept by the power of God (I Pet.1:5; John 10:27-29). We believe that believers are, at the very moment they believe, justified before God in that their sins are imputed to Christ on the cross and, in turn, His righteousness is imputed to them (Rom. 3:21-26; 4:1-8). We believe that the divine nature and divine life are communicated to believers by a supernatural work of the Spirit, and that all believers are sanctified positionally (before God) at the point of salvation and that they are sanctified progressively (before men) throughout this life as they grow and are brought close to conformity to the holiness of God and that this process culminates at the return of Christ in their glorification (I Cor. 1:2, 30; 6:11; Heb. 10:4, 10, 14; I John 3:2). We believe that all who are truly born again will produce works (fruit) that reflect the reality of salvation and will persevere in faith unto the day of redemption (II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; James 2:14-26; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). It’s not the PERFECTION, but the DIRECTION of a life that is evident before the eyes of a watching world that bears witness to the presence of the Holy Spirit and brings glory to God (Phil. 1:6; 3:12). 
 

We believe the local church was instituted under the direction of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of carrying out the commission given to the disciples by our Lord (Matt. 28:18; Mark 16:15). We believe that the formation of the church, the body of Christ, began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21, 38-47) and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His own at the rapture (I Cor. 15:51-52; I Thes. 4:13-18). We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the church (I Cor. 12:12-13), the bride of Christ (II Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 19:7-8), of which Christ is the head (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; Col. 1:18). We believe that the church is a unique spiritual organism designed by Christ, made up of all born-again believers in this present age (Eph. 2:11-3:6), and that the church is distinct from Israel (I Cor. 10:32), a mystery not revealed until this age (Eph. 3:1-6; 5:32).

We believe that angels are spirit beings created by God to serve and worship God, and are therefore not to be worshipped; that Satan, “Lucifer, son of the morning,” the highest in rank, sinned in rebellion through pride, and that a great company of the angels followed him in moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in carrying out his unholy purposes, while others who fell have been delivered “into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (Ezek. 28:11-19; I Tim. 3:6; II Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). We believe that Satan is the open and declared enemy of God and man (Isa. 14:13-14; Matt. 4:1-11; Rev. 12:9-10). We believe that Satan is the originator of sin, and that, under the permission of God, he, through subtlety, led our first parents into transgression, thereby accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting them and their posterity to his own power; that he opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; and that he who in the beginning said, “I will be like the most High,” in his warfare appears as an angel of light, even counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and systems of doctrine, which systems in every case are characterized by a denial of the Person of Christ (as God of very God who became flesh), the efficacy of the blood of Christ, and of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone (Gen. 3:1-19; Rom. 5:12-14; II Cor. 4:3-4; 11:13-15; Eph. 6:10-12; II Thess. 2:4; I Tim. 4:1-3). We believe that Satan is the current prince of this world who has been defeated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:20); and that he, at the second coming of Christ, will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years, and after the thousand years will be loosed for a season and then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” where he “shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Col. 2:15; Rev. 20:1-3, 10). We believe that an even greater number of angels confirmed their holy estate and are before the throne of God, from where they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister to believers (Luke 15:10; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 7:11-12). The Bible tells us to “not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Heb. 13:2).

We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring all things to their appropriate end and establish the new heaven and the new earth (Eph. 1:9-10; Rev. 21:1). The certain hope of the Christian is that Jesus Christ will return to the earth suddenly, personally and visibly in glory according to His promise (Titus 2:13; Rev. 1:7; 3:11; John 14:1-3). The dead will be raised, and Christ will judge mankind in righteousness (John 5:28-29). The unrighteous will be consigned to the everlasting punishment prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 20:10). The righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and dwell forever with the Lord (Phil. 3:20-21; II Cor. 5:10; I Thess. 4:13-18).

We believe that when a person dies physically, there is no loss of their immaterial consciousness (Rev. 6:9-11), and that their soul/spirit indeed survives the death of the body (Luke 23:43; II Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:23, etc); that the soul of the believer passes immediately into the presence of Christ (Luke 23:43; II Cor. 5:6-8; Phil. 1:23), and that, for the believer, such separation (from their earthly body) will continue until the Rapture (II Thess. 4:13-18), which initiates the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6), when the soul and body will be reunited to be glorified forever with our Lord (I Cor. 15:35-44, 50-54; Phil. 3:21). Until that time, the souls of the redeemed in Christ remain in joyful fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ (II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23).

We believe that the souls of the unsaved at death are bound in a place of torment called hades, until the second resurrection (Luke 16:19-26; Rev. 20:11-15), when the soul and the resurrection body will be reunited (John 5:28-29). They shall then appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death (Matt. 25:41-46; Rev. 20:11-15), cut off from the life of God forever (Dan. 12:2; Matt. 25:41-46; II Thess. 1:7-9).

Therefore, we believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life (John 6:39; Rom. 8:10-11,19-23; II Cor. 4:14), and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment (Dan. 12:2; John 5:29; Rev. 20:11-15).
We believe that God, after the first heaven and first earth have “passed away” (Matt. 24:35; I John 2:17; II Pet. 3:7, 10; Rev. 21:1), will establish a “new heaven and a new earth” where the holy city, “New Jerusalem”, will be, having come “down out of heaven from God”, and that from then throughout eternity the dwelling of God will be with His redeemed in that new heaven and new earth, the Paradise of God (Rev. 21:1-6, 9-22:5).