In any gathering of believers, it is important that we can walk together in agreement. Unity is a prerequisite for God’s will to be fulfilled in any Church. It provides a wonderful climate for spiritual growth and ministry.
In presenting a statement of our faith, we believe that it will help establish truth in the believer’s life. It is the knowledge of the truth that sets us free!
We receive the Bible as the inspired Word of God, inerrantly expressing the revealed Will of God (2 Timothy 3:15-17; I Thess 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21), and set forth these statements as Fundamental Truth and Doctrine for fellowship among our body.
Remember that all established doctrine is to include people with one another, never to exclude. We rejoice with all that call on the name of Jesus for salvation in His precious blood!
No claim is held that these statements contain all Bible truth; but these
TENETS OF FAITH AND DOCTRINE
set forth are held to be essential to a full Gospel ministry.
Our Statement of Faith
There is one true GOD, Creator and Sustainer of all, divinely revealed in three separate and individual personalities, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, (Deut 6:4; Isaiah 43:10,11; Matthew 28:19; Luke 3:22).
Man was created in God's image and likeness, given full right and authority over the Earth, and commanded to have dominion and subdue it, (Genesis 1:26,27; Psalms 8:3-6).
By voluntary transgression Man fell from his first estate, and by this act of Treason turned all God-given authority over to a fallen angel, Satan the Deceiver, who became the god of this world. Therefore man incurred upon himself sin, sickness, and death, which is the curse of the law, and was separated from God, his Maker. This is the basis of the depravity of man, (Genesis 2:17; Luke 4:3-6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Deut 28; Romans 5:12-19.)
The only means of redemption is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the shedding of His blood for the remission of sins; who has been raised from the dead, and is gone into heaven, seated and exalted at the right hand of the Father, (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; I Peter 1:18,19; Hebrews 1:3).
The new birth, a supernatural recreation of the spirit of man, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, is freely offered to all men through the preaching of the Gospel, and is acquired by all who believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confess with their mouth Jesus as Lord; establishing man with the very righteousness of God, holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight, (2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Titus 3:5-7; I Timothy 2:4; Mark 16:15,16; Romans 10:9,10; Colossians 1:23).
The inward evidence of the new birth is the direct witness of the Holy Spirit, and the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit (Romans 8:16; Galatians 5:22,23; Romans 5:1-5; I John 3:14). The outward evidence of the new birth is a life of righteousness and true holiness, maintained through obedience of the scriptures, (Ephesians 4:17-24).
Salvation, through the new birth, is inclusive of all rights, authorities, and possessions held prior to the fall of man, as well as those spiritual blessings given by the resurrected and exalted Lord, (Ephesians 1:3). All believers are entitled to and should earnestly seek these blessings as they were the experience and norm of the early Christian Church; including the right of the individual believer to the baptism with the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking with other tongues, as the Spirit gives the utterance; the right of the individual believer to walk in divine health, free of all sickness; the right of authority over all devils and the works of evil; the right of answered prayer; the right to minister healing to the oppressed; the right of spiritual, mental, physical, social, and financial prosperity; as well as any and all accompanying signs, wonders, and supernatural testimonies the Lord desires to show forth, through faith in the Name of Jesus and the operation of the supernatural Gifts of the Spirit, (Mark 16:17-20; Luke 9:1,2; Acts 2:1-4; 8:5-18; 9:17; 10:44-49; 19:1-7; I John 5:14,15; III John 2; Hebrews 2:4; I Corinthians 12:1-11).
The Call of the Church, the Body of Christ, and the work of the ministry, is to be an express agency of God for the evangelization of the world, to seek and to save that which was lost, drawing all into union within the Body; and establishing within that Body a proper worship of the Godhead in the unity of faith, (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 19:10; Acts 1:8; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:11-13).
The ordinances of the Church include; the ordinance of baptism by immersion of all who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, declaring to the world that they have died with Christ, and that they also have been raised with Him from death, to walk in newness of life, (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 10:47; Romans 6:4); the ordinance of Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper, consisting of the elements, bread and wine, symbolically representing the believer sharing in the divine nature of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in memory of His death, and blessed hope of His soon return, (2 Peter 1:4; I Corinthians 11:26).
The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the Church, (I Thessalonians 4:16,17; Romans 8:23; Titus 2:13; I Corinthians 15:51,52.)
The Second Coming of Christ includes the rapture, which is our blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with His saints to reign on earth for one thousand years, (Zechariah 14:5; Matthew 24:27,30; Revelation 1:7; 19:11-14; 20:1-6).
There will be a final judgment in which the wicked dead will be raised and judged according to their words. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, will be consigned to everlasting punishment in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, (Matthew 25:46; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 19:20; 20:11-15; 21:8).
"We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," (2 Pt 3:13; Rev 21,22).
