Fundemental Beliefs
Inspiration of the Scripture
The scripture is the Word of God expressed in man’s written languages. It is inspired by God and written down by a human author. All scripture is God inspired but takes on the flavor of the author’s personality and observations (2 Peter 1:21; 1 Thess 2:13). The scripture is appropriate for the use of establishing doctrine (Tim 3:16).
Person of God
God is one God (Duet 6:4) who exists and has made Himself known to us as three Persons. These Persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). They are in perfect unity with one another (Isa 48:16; John 17:11).
Man, his fall and his redemption
Man, comprising of both male and female, was created of the same body by God to be in His likeness (Gen 1:26). We are like Him in many ways including the following: we are three part beings, Adam and Eve were without sin, and were created to live eternally from the time of creation onward (Gen 3:22). God put before man a test of obedience and of choosing to love God above himself. For Adam and Eve that test was not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17). Upon eating that fruit and therefore failing the test of obedience a curse of death was brought on all of the creation. For man it meant that he immediately became dead spiritually and thereby losing his communion and unity to God (Gen 3:8), and also then man would eventually experience death in is body (Gen 3:19). When God dealt with Adam and Eve He revealed His plan to redeem man from his fallen nature (Gen 3:15). That plan was that a man without a sin nature would be born of God, and that innocent One would be judged for our sin nature and commission of sin. The man who was that innocent One was Jesus Christ, who was put to death by the hands of man by God’s will. Therefore just as death came to all men through one man, life would be freely available and given to all men who ask for it comes through one Man (Rom 5:15).
Salvation and obtaining it
Salvation is the free gift of God available to everyone through faith (Eph 2:8). We realize salvation through these things: 1) believing that Jesus is the Son of God, 2) that He died on the cross and was resurrected three days later, 3) and with our mouths we must confess that He is our Lord (Rom 10:9,10). Salvation is only available through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
Water Baptism
Jesus set the example for us by He Himself submitting to the baptism of John (Matt 3:13). John’s baptism was done while confessing one’s sin (Matt 3:6) and the fact that Jesus had no sin meant there was another purpose why He was baptized. We believe it was in obedience and that baptism is a sign that we are a disciple of the one whom we call our teacher (John 4:1,2). Paul tells us water baptism is a visual picture of our sin nature being put to death, our being buried, and then being resurrected into a new life with Jesus (Rom 6:3-11). The apostles understood the importance of being baptized in water after accepting the gift of salvation (Acts 8:36-38; 10:47).
Communion
This rite is given to us by our Lord to be a reminder to us of what His death on the cross meant for us (1 Cor 11:24,25). The wine represents His blood poured out for us establishing the new covenant God gave us for the forgiveness of sin (Lu 22:20). The bread represents His body that was given for us (Lu 22:19), and also is representative of the church. The Lord’s Supper is a solemn rite that is to be taken with the highest regard for Him and each other in the body of Christ (1 Cor 11:27-29).
Baptism into the Holy Spirit
The baptism into the Holy Spirit is given to each believer that elects to be obedient to the Lord’s desire and command to receive it (Acts 1:4,5). Jesus told us that we would be given power to aid us in the fulfilling of His commission to us to “make disciples of all men” if we would wait upon Him to give us this power (Lu 24:49).
Sanctification
Sanctification is the state of and the process of being set apart from the world for the purpose of being used by our Lord for His work (Heb 9:14). The work of sanctification begins at the time of salvation in that we are cleansed by the Lord of sin and our sin nature is atoned for (Eph 5;25-27) We ourselves then become accountable to the Lord for our activity and staying in a place of continually being forgiven for acts of sin (1 John1 :7-9; 2 Cor 7:1). We are commanded to be holy although any attempt to do so outside of the Lord’s help is completely useless and without value (Titus 3:5-8).
The universal Church and local Church
The universal church is comprised of the entire body of saints both in heaven and on earth (Matt 27:52; Heb 12;22). The Lord Himself is the Chief Cornerstone upon which everyone else is then fitted into His spiritual body (Eph 1:22-23; 1 Pet 2:5-8).
The local church is a group of believers formed together to perform the work of the commission in an earthly community. There are many local churches who are in turn a part of the entire universal church. Each person is called to be a part of the local church (1 Pet 2:5) and is an important part of it with their gifting and callings (1 Pet 4:10).
Ministry and evangelism
The work of the ministry is the calling of every Christian and every Christian has a call to evangelize (1 Pet 3:15). Within each church and group of churches there are those called to the ministry of serving the body as divinely appointed leadership. The purpose of this leadership is instruct and direct the body of believers they are called to shepherd in the work of the ministry. (Eph 4:11-16)
Divine healing
The Lord has provided for the healing of His people as a part of His work on the cross. His blood was shed for our spiritual healing (1 Pet 2:24), and then provides for the healing of physical sickness. The scripture teaches us that healing comes through the prayer of faith (Jam 5:14,15) and the "gifts of healing,' which is one of the nine expressions of the Holy Spirit's power shown through His people (1 Cor 12:9).
The resurrection
The great hope of everyone who has put their trust in the Lord is that we will be raised from the dead at His coming to gather His saints. There are two resurrections, the first is for the people have put their faith in Jesus and is a resurrection for eternal life (Rev 20:6). This resurrection began at the raising of the Lord and then those who had died before His first coming were raised (Matt 27:52). The first resurrection will end when every person who has died in faith of Jesus’ salvation has been raised (Rev 20:5). The second resurrection is for those who are not saved and they are being raised to be judged for their unbelief in Jesus’ work of salvation ( Rev 20:12).
The millennial reign of Christ, hell, the lake of fire, and eternal damnation
God has ordained a time after the great tribulation ends with the battle of Armageddon (Rev 16:16) that our Lord will return to this earth and rule the earth from the city of Jerusalem. This dispensation will last 1,000 years during which peace will be sustained on all the earth. At the end of this time Satan will be allowed to influence those who are on the earth to try to destroy Jesus and His saints in the city of Jerusalem (Rev 20:7). Jesus will utterly destroy everyone involved in this battle. At this time the second resurrection will take place. Everyone who is resurrected at this time will be judged by what is written in the books of their life’s work. All will be sentenced to an eternal separation from the presence of God and be cast into the lake of fire (Rev 20:11-15).
The new heaven and earth
When the judgment is finished God will recreate the earth and the heavens (Rev 21:1,5). Then He will set His new city of Jerusalem in the place that old Jerusalem was located (Rev 21:10). He will reside with us forever and be the light of the city and of the earth (Rev 21:23).