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The Bible | Translations | God | Man | Angels | Satan | Salvation | Resurrection |
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The Bible is unique as the Word of God. No other book compares to it. We believe that the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God, totally without error in the original manuscripts as given by God. It is completely sufficient as our only infallible rule of faith and practice. We deny that any other books are inspired by God in the same manner as the books of the Bible were. God is the Author of the Bible. We recognize the divine-human aspect of Scripture, that God used human authors and utilized their personalities writing styles and vocabularies in the process of inspiration. God alone, however, is the ultimate Author of Scripture. He is the source of inspiration, the initiator of inspiration, and communicates His absolute truth through inspiration. What the Bible says is what God says. We accept the Bible as our only guide in faith and practice. Our response to reading and studying the Bible is belief in and obedience to the revealed will and way of God. The Bible alone is the deposit of God’s eternal truth. |
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| Being committed to the view of the verbal inspiration of the Bible, we believe that the task of translation is to translate accurately the message, which God chose to communicate in the original languages. The standard of translation should be fidelity to texts and not accommodation to changing contemporary societal, political or theological trends. Translations should be understandable by the common person. God communicated to the Biblical authors in the languages of their day and so we should take the same care to insure that God’s word is communicated to mankind in a language and manner that they can understand. | ||||
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| We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (To put it another way, God is one what and three who’s) God is unique in the universe in that there is nothing and no one that we can compare Him to in an attempt to define Him. God is the sole creator of the universe and is sovereign in all his activities. Among his many attributes, He is omnipotent. omniscient, and omnipresent. God is immutable, infallible, and righteous. | ||||
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| We believe that man was created innocent. He was tempted by Satan and sinned; because of this men have been born in sin since that time and are by nature the children of wrath. Moreover man was without any way to remedy this separation from God and was and is powerless to work out his own salvation. | ||||
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| We believe that angels are messengers of God. They are mentioned in the Bible several times and are a different order of creature than man. They are spirit beings. We also believe that there is in society today an inordinate amount of attention is given to angels. This takes the focus off of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. We would admonish Christians to keep their eyes on Jesus and not focus so much on the creation. | ||||
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| We believe that Satan is a personal being who is a fallen angel. He with his army of fallen angels known as demons carry on the work of sin and rebellion against God in this world. Sin is basically rebellion against God, and the end result of sin is eternal separation from God. Again with so much emphasis on the occult and Satanism we would remind the Christian to be wary of those whose sole purpose and ministry seems to center of the things of Satan and demons. Jesus is the message we must preach and teach. | ||||
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| We believe that Jesus Christ is the only Savior from sin. He atoned for our sins on the cross and rose again on the third day for our salvation. Apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation. All men are under condemnation through personal sin, and escape from condemnation comes only through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This righteousness is imputed to the believer by grace through faith. The Holy Spirit regenerates the one who makes the life commitment to Jesus. | ||||
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| Just as we believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus, we believe in the final resurrection of all men, just and unjust. We believe that those who commit their lives to Jesus Christ during this life will be raised to everlasting life, but those who are not committed to Jesus Christ in this life will be raised to everlasting condemnation. | ||||
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| We believe that a New Testament church is a voluntary association of baptized believers in Christ who have made a covenant together to follow the teachings of the New Testament in doctrine, worship, and practice. We believe that the only two church ordinances are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. | ||||
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| We believe that God established civil government. As Jesus taught in Matthew22:21 to render to Caesar what was Caesars and to God what is God’s. Christian should be active in their churches first but should be active in other areas such as community and schools. We also believe in the complete separation of church and state. | ||||
