We
believe that each individual is saved when he believes that Jesus Christ died as a substitute for his sin, was buried and raised from the dead on the third day, to give him eternal life. (1 John 5:11-13; Ephesians
2:8-9; John 3:16,18,36; 11:25-27; 1:12; Acts 16:30-31; Romans
1:16; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
WHAT
A BELIEVER RECEIVES AT SALVATION
We
believe that every believer receives at least 50 permanent
imputations, by grace at the moment of salvation. A few
of which include regeneration, baptism and indwelling of
the Holy Spirit, sealing, a spiritual gift, sanctification,
removal of all alienation from God, freedom from slavery
to sin, justification, propitiation, forgiveness, cleansing,
holiness, righteousness, election, assured victory in the
angelic conflict, adoption as a child of God, membership
in God’s royal family, object of God’s maximum love, heir
to all God’s promises, ambassadorship, priest, slavery to
Christ, and citizenship in Heaven. (John
3:3-7; 7:37-39; Romans 3:22-26; 5:1,8-9,18; 6:6-8; 8:11,14-17,29;
15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 6:19; 12:13; 15:20-26,54-57; 2
Corinthians 1:21-22; 5:17,20; Galatians 1:10; 4:4-7; 3:26-27;
Ephesians 1:4,7,13,14; 2:19; 4:7,32; 5:25-27; 6:6-8; Philippian's
3:9,20; Colossians 1:21-22; 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:13;
Hebrews 10:10; 1 Peter 1:1-2; 2:5,9).
We
believe that the salvation of all believers is secure forever
through our position in Jesus Christ (Romans
8:1; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 2:6-7), through
possession of eternal life imputed at salvation (John
3:16; 5:24; 1 John 5:13), because of protection by
the sovereignty and power of God (Romans
8:38-39; John 10:27-30; Jude 24-25), due to being
sealed forever by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians
1:13-14), and because of our family status as beloved
children of God (2 Timothy 2:13; Ephesians
1:4-6), all based on grace and not on our own merit.
We
believe the Bible, in its 66 canonical books, in their original
languages to be the inspired Word of God, authoritative,
inerrant, and God-authored (2 Timothy
3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:17-18; Psalm 119:11-40;
Proverbs 30:5).
We
believe that spirituality, or the ability to understand
and operate in God’s plan and strength, is a direct function
of allowing the Holy Spirit to control one’s life; that
such a decision must be made habitually and constantly;
that the Spirit’s control is lost temporarily by decision
to commit a sin, whether the individual realizes it or not;
that the Spirit’s control can be immediately restored by
simple confession of one’s personal sin to God the Father (1 John 1:9); that the Holy
Spirit, when in control, supernaturally produces good fruits
in the believer’s soul that reflect the attitudes of Jesus
Christ (Galatians 5:16-25)
and both teaches and recalls Bible doctrine to the believer
as he needs it in application to life.
We
believe that spiritual maturity is a measure of the believer’s
ability to apply God’s thinking and perform His will under
both stress and blessing situations of life; that the believer
grows more spiritually mature as he learns and believes
Bible doctrine, storing it in his soul through the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, and applies doctrine from his soul under
the filling of the Holy Spirit to life situations; and that
God is glorified when the believer uses His three power
systems (filling of the Holy Spirit, knowledge of Bible
doctrine, and spiritual gift function), even under maximum
stress situations, and when He is able to fulfill His promises
and to bless the mature believer. (Galatians 5:16-25; Matt.4:4; 2 Tim.2;15; 1 Pet.2:2; 3:18; Heb.5:12-14 )
We
believe in one Triune God, existing in three persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, eternal in being, identical in nature,
equal in power and glory, each having the same attributes
and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4;
Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 44:6; John 10:30; 13:31-32; 14:1-2,6-7,9-13,16-21,26-31;
17:1-26; 2 Corinthians 13:14).
We
believe that God the Father, although equal in essence to
the other two members of the Godhead, is the primary planner
and first among equals of the Trinity; that He is the One
who judged the sins of the world on Jesus Christ on the
cross; that He is the object of our prayer directives; that
we are to seek an intimate relationship with Him as exemplified
by Jesus during His earthly ministry (Matthew
27:46,54; Luke 11:2; 23:46; John 6:35-46; 8:42,49,54; 10:38;
11:41; 12:49-50; 14:9-31; 15; 16; 17).
We
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God,
became man, without ceasing to be God, being the only visible
member of the Godhead, having been conceived of the Holy
Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might
reveal God and redeem sinful man; that He accomplished our
redemption through His death on the cross as the substitutionary
sacrifice for the sins of the entire world; that our redemption
is made sure to us by His literal resurrection from the
dead; that the Lord Jesus is now in Heaven, still as undiminished
deity and true humanity in His resurrection body, exalted
at the right hand of God the Father, where as our High Priest
He serves as representative, intercessor and advocate for
His people (John 1:12,14,29,34; Luke
1:35; Romans 3:24-25; 8:34; 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 9:24;
1 John 2:1-2).
We
believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead,
has the most active role with believers during the Church
Age, in that He convicts the world of sin, indwells all
believers in the present age, baptizes them into the body
of Christ, seals them unto the day of redemption, and offers
spiritual power for them to walk in dependence on Him (Romans
8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 5:16-18, 22-23; Ephesians1:13-14;
5:18).
We
believe that God, existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
is sovereign and exercises supreme and absolute rule over
all creation as a part of and consistent with the essence
and attributes of deity (1 Chronicles
29:11-12; Daniel 4:35; Psalms 24:1; Ephesians 1:11; 1 Timothy
6:15); but that He allows His creatures great freedom
of volition, particularly about what they think of Jesus
Christ and their obedience to His will
(Genesis 2:16-17; John 3:16,36; Romans 5:8-10,32-33, 16:24-25;
1 Timothy 2:4-6).
We
believe that man was created in the image and likeness of
God but that, in Adam’s sin, the race fell, inherited a
sinful nature and is therefore alienated from God, helpless
to retrieve his lost condition (Genesis
1:26-27; Romans 5:12-21; Ephesians 2:12).
We
believe in the existence of Satan (also called Lucifer and
the devil), the rebellious fallen angel, open and declared
enemy of God and man, who throughout human history leads
demonic warfare against God and against man’s understanding
of and submission to His plan (Job
1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-17; Matthew 4:2-11); that he
and his followers, both fallen angels and unbelieving humans,
will be sentenced for eternity to torment in the Lake of
Fire.
We
believe that God has divided human history in five periods
characterized by different methods He uses to communicate
to man, specifically the Age of Innocence (in the Garden
of Eden), the Gentile Age (Adam to Abraham), the Jewish
Age (Abraham to Jesus Christ, plus the Tribulation), the
Church Age (50 days after Christ’s ascension to the Rapture),
and the Millennium (Christ’s second coming plus 1,000 years).
We
believe that the Church, which is now the body and shall
be the bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up
of all who believe in Jesus Christ during the Church Age,
irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations
(Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians
12:12-14).
We
believe that the next great event in the fulfillment of
prophecy will be the coming of Jesus Christ in the air to
receive to Himself both the dead in Christ and believers
who are alive at His coming, otherwise known as the "Rapture"
or "Translation" of the Church, and that all Church
Age believers will receive a resurrection body like that
of Christ at that time (1 Corinthians
15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14).
We
believe that the Rapture of the Church will immediately
be followed by seven years of great evil on earth, the fulfillment
of Israel’s seventieth week, the latter half of which is
the time of Jacob’s trouble, the great tribulation (Daniel
9:27; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-21; Revelation 6-18),
and during which some individuals will believe in Christ
for their salvation (Revelation 14:1;
Matthew 24:31).
We
believe that the great tribulation will be climaxed by the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to remove all unbelievers
and rescue believers (Zechariah 14:3-11;
Matthew 24:15-31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 19).
We
believe that the soul and human spirit of those who have
believed in Christ for salvation do at the moment of physical
death pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious
bliss until the resurrection of the body at the Rapture,
when soul and human spirit unite with a new glorious resurrection
body, to be associated with Him forever in Heaven; but the
souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery
until the final judgment at the close of the Millennium,
when the soul in an everlasting body shall be cast into
the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished
with everlasting destruction (Luke
16:19-26; 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippian's 1:23; 2
Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Revelation 20:11-15).
We
believe that all believers should walk in a manner to bring
honor to their Lord and Savior; that we do this by employing
His power in our lives through faith, not through our own
effort or ingenuity; that the mechanics of glorifying Jesus
Christ is walking constantly in the power of the Holy Spirit
(filling of the Spirit), learning and applying to life the
promises, principles and doctrines contained in the Bible
about God and His plan, identifying and functioning in service
to others under the abilities of our spiritual gift, to
love others as Christ loved us, and to obey authorities
under divine establishment (Romans
12:1-21; 13:1-14; Galatians 5:16-26; Ephesians 5:1-6:18;
1 Timothy 2:4; 6:11-12; 2 Timothy 1:8,13-14; 2:15; 1 Peter
2:2; 2 Peter 1:5-11; 3:18).
We
believe that the Holy Spirit, in grace and apart from human
merit, administers a spiritual gift to each believer in
the Church Age; that the nine spiritual gifts active in
the Church today include pastor-teacher, evangelist, administrator,
helper, giving, mercy, exhortation, service ministry and
leadership (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians
12-14; Ephesians 4:7-12); that ten other spiritual
gifts, provided temporarily for completion of the Canon
of scripture and establishment of the Church in the first
century A.D., are no longer active, including apostle, prophet,
healing, miracles, discerning spirits, faith,
tongues, interpretation of tongues, word of wisdom and word of knowledge. (1
Corinthians 13:4-7). We believe that God still works
miracles, healings and other supernatural interventions
in the world, not through the spiritual gifts of individual
believers, but through response to the spiritual growth
and prayers of believers.
We
believe that Jesus Christ instituted one ritual, or ordinance,
for the Church, that of the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper,
to be performed in remembrance of Him (1
Corinthians 11:23-36). We believe that the ritual
of water baptism is suggested as an aid to teach young believers
about their entry into the body of Christ and position in
Him, not a commanded ordinance for the Church to observe
in public worship. (Matthew 28:19)
