Our Essentials Beliefs
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We believe that God is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of all things visible and invisible, who eternally exists in three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience.
(Matt. 28:18–19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3–4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 1:1–3; Rev. 1:4–6)
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We believe that, as provided and purposed by God and as preannounced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to humanity, fulfill prophecy, and become the redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin and received a human body and a sinless human nature.
(Luke 1:30–35; John 1:18; 3:16; Heb. 4:15)
We believe that the Son retained all the attributes of deity in His incarnation and that the distinction between the human and divine natures was in no way annulled by the union.
(Luke 1:30–35; 2:40 John 1:1–2, 18; 3:16; Phil. 2:5–8; Heb. 4:15)
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We believe that humanity was created in the image and after the likeness of God. All humanity are fallen beings. Through sin, and as a consequence of that sin, all humanity lost their spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and became subject to the power of the devil.
We also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race, the Man Christ Jesus alone being excepted; and that as a result every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature that not only possesses no spark of divine life, but also is essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace.
(Gen. 1:26; 2:17; 6:5; Pss. 14:1–3; 51:5; Jer. 17:9; John 3:6; 5:40; 6:35; Rom. 3:10–19; 8:6–7; Eph. 2:1–3; 1 Tim. 5:6; 1 John 3:8)
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We believe that, in infinite love for the lost, Jesus voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world, bearing the holy judgments against sin that the righteousness of God must impose. His death was therefore substitutionary in the most absolute sense—the just for the unjust—and by His death He became the Savior of the lost.
(John 1:29; Rom. 3:25–26; 2 Cor. 5:14; Heb. 10:5– 14; 1 Pet. 3:18)
We believe that, according to the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died, and that His resurrection body is the pattern of the body that ultimately will be given to all believers.
(John 20:20; Phil. 3:20–21)
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We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are children of God.
We believe, also, that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying in our place; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood or to the merit of the finished work wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity.
(Lev. 17:11; Isa. 64:6; Matt. 26:28; John 3:7–18; Rom. 5:6–9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 6:15; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:4–9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:18–19, 23)
We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing and is in no way, in itself, a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation.
(John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts 13:39; 16:31; Rom. 1:16–17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Gal. 3:22)
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We believe in the future return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will return to the earth as He went—in person on the clouds of heaven—and with power and great glory. He will bind Satan and place him in the abyss; lift the curse that now rests on the whole creation; and bring the whole world to the knowledge of God.
(Matt. 24:15–25:46; Rom. 8:19–23; Rev. 20:1–3)
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We believe that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," by which we understand the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God "were moved by the Holy Spirit" to write the very words of Scripture. We believe that this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the writings—historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical—as appeared in the original manuscripts.
We believe that the whole Bible in the originals is therefore without error. We believe that all the Scriptures center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work in His first and second coming, and hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read or understood until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our practical instruction.
(Mark 12:26, 36; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; 16:13; Acts 1:16; 17:2–3; 18:28; 26:22–23; 28:23; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 2:13; 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21)