Doctrinal Statement
I. The Scriptures
The sixty-six canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely inspired, infallible Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts, and God’s complete written revelation to humankind, authored by men moved by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a perfect treasure of divine instruction, sufficient and trustworthy for life, faith, conduct, and practice, and is the supreme and final authority in all matters to which it speaks. It reveals the principles by which God saves and judges us, and therefore is, and will remain until the consummation of the ages, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Jesus Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with coequal but distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. God created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, Man being created on the sixth day.
God the Father
God as Father is an infinite, personal Spirit who reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. God’s knowledge is exhaustive: He fully knows the past, present, and future independent of human decisions and actions. He does everything in accordance with His perfect will, though His sovereignty neither eliminates nor minimizes our personal responsibility. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of humanity; He hears and answers prayer; and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, adopting them as His children. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
God the Son
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God’s eternal Son. God the Son has precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator and High Priest, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return bodily in power and glory to judge the world, renovate Creation, and consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and of Christ, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. He empowered the earthly ministry of Jesus. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth, and He convicts them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. His ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, to implement Christ’s work of redemption. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the seal, or mark, by which God bears witness that the believer belongs to Him. His indwelling presence in a believer is the guarantee of the future “redemption of the body” (resurrection) and of the believer’s inheritance in the coming Kingdom of God. He comforts the believer, cultivates Christian character, transforms the mind, enables obedience, and empowers the believer for godly living and service. He bestows the spiritual gifts by which believers serve God through His church. No gift signifies His baptism or filling, nor does any gift provide authoritative revelation beyond what has already been revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. God created mankind male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin, but by his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence. His posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. All people are sinners by nature and by choice. As soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and come under God’s condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. Those who repent of sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s salvation. On the cross Christ took on Himself the sins of all mankind, and died in our place as a substitutionary sacrifice. Eternal salvation is the free gracious gift of God, apart from works, and is possessed by all who through faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The assurance of salvation as a present possession is the privilege of every believer in Christ. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.
Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. The believer’s faith is accounted to him as righteousness before God. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace must continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. It will be accomplished upon the return of Christ, when “this mortal will put on immortality.”
V. The New Covenant
Christians participate in the “New Covenant” which Old Testament prophets foretold would come. The Law of Moses (that is, the Old Covenant) is no longer the rule of life for the believer. Law is unable to impart the righteousness God requires. In former times it served as a God-given “tutor” or “schoolmaster” to direct us to Christ, declaring all men to be guilty of violating God’s righteousness, and pointing out the need for deliverance from condemnation. Upon regeneration by faith in Christ, the believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God, dying to the Law, and thus being forever freed from the Law’s power and condemnation. The New Covenant was ratified and sealed by the blood of Christ. The Law of Moses is now rendered obsolete, fulfilled, and set aside, and the Christian is given a better, much more glorious way, by which we draw near to God. The way of life for the Christian is the guidance of and continuing transformation by the power of the Spirit of God. Any kind of return to Moses’ Law, legalistic regulation-keeping, or mixture of Old and New Covenants is antithetical to the good news of God’s grace extended to us in Christ, and spoils our salvation.
VI. The Church
The Church of Jesus Christ is the universal company of God’s redeemed people, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, all who are “the seed of Abraham” by faith. It is the body of which Christ is the head, His bride whom He loves infinitely, and His temple in which He dwells. In the New Covenant era, this Body expresses itself in local assemblies of baptized believers, who associate themselves for worship, fellowship, instruction, spiritual formation, evangelism, and service. The local congregation is the God-ordained avenue of discipline and accountability for its members. There is no structure ordained of God for His churches beyond the local level, therefore local assemblies ought to be self-governing and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. However, inter-congregational cooperation may take place to carry forward missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom, if such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word.
Elders (pastors) and deacons are the only offices of the local church. “Pastor” means “shepherd,” and is not a distinct office apart from elder. The function of elders is to serve as overseers and shepherds of Jesus’ local flock, responsible for doctrine (teaching), spiritual formation, and discipline, being accountable to Christ the Chief Shepherd. The biblical model is to have a plurality of elders in a local congregation. The function of deacons is to conduct the caring and benevolence ministry of the church, freeing the pastor(s) to focus on prayer and the teaching of the Word. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of elder/pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
VII. Church Ordinances
The ordinances of the local church are believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the rising again to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is also a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience and fellowship, whereby believers, through a communal partaking of bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of Jesus Christ, recognize their participation in the New Covenant, and anticipate His second coming.
VIII. Christian Conduct and Spiritual Formation
The supreme task of the believer is to glorify God before the world, as a testimony to Him. The goal of the Christian’s life is to be conformed into the likeness of Christ under the influence of the Holy Spirit. God expects every believer to live a life of willing obedience, in which every area of life (thought, feelings, will, body, relationships, worldview) is brought under the lordship of Christ, and in which the fruit of the Spirit becomes increasingly evident. This is characterized supremely by self-giving love for God and for others. The life and character of Christ, which grows through the Holy Spirit, is noticeably distinct from the life of the world. A believer who resists the gracious working of the Spirit and fails to mature in Christ is chastened in love by his Heavenly Father so he may learn obedience.
IX. Marriage and Family
The gift of gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation. Male and female are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. God established marriage to be a lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Marriage so defined is the only permissible context for intimate sexual expression and is the foundation for the human family. It is the unique gift by which God symbolizes the union between Christ and His church. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, giving Himself up for her. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
X. The Last Things
At God’s appointed time, “when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,” Jesus will return bodily to the earth, in power and glory, after the period referred to as the Great Tribulation, in which an Antichrist will bring heavy persecution against the saints. Christ is coming to raise the dead saints to everlasting life, to gather his beloved ones to himself, to complete the Church through the salvation of the remnant of Israel, to remove wickedness from the world, to destroy His enemies, to be glorified in His saints, and to reign forever as King. A “rapture” prior to the Tribulation is not to be expected. (Our position is denoted as post-tribulational, pre-millennial.)
Both the righteous and the unrighteous will experience a bodily resurrection. At death, the spirits of those who are justified by faith in Christ depart the body to be at rest with the Lord in heaven until the resurrection, while those of the unrighteous are consigned to a place of darkness and punishment to await judgment. Upon Jesus’ second coming to earth, the departed saints will be raised to eternal life in incorruptible bodies, and those yet living will be likewise changed. At that time, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, all those who belong to Him will be examined and rewarded according to their works, receiving an eternal inheritance in the coming Kingdom of Christ on the restored earth. The resurrection of the unrighteous will take place “when the thousand years are finished.” At the Great White Throne, they will be raised, judged by their deeds, and condemned to the second death in the lake of fire. God will then be all in all, and the company of His redeemed with live with Him in the glorious kingdom of His Son forever.
July 2011/March 2013
I. The Scriptures
The sixty-six canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are the divinely inspired, infallible Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts, and God’s complete written revelation to humankind, authored by men moved by the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a perfect treasure of divine instruction, sufficient and trustworthy for life, faith, conduct, and practice, and is the supreme and final authority in all matters to which it speaks. It reveals the principles by which God saves and judges us, and therefore is, and will remain until the consummation of the ages, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Jesus Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with coequal but distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. God created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, Man being created on the sixth day.
God the Father
God as Father is an infinite, personal Spirit who reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. God’s knowledge is exhaustive: He fully knows the past, present, and future independent of human decisions and actions. He does everything in accordance with His perfect will, though His sovereignty neither eliminates nor minimizes our personal responsibility. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of humanity; He hears and answers prayer; and He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, adopting them as His children. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
God the Son
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God’s eternal Son. God the Son has precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. In His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator and High Priest, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return bodily in power and glory to judge the world, renovate Creation, and consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and of Christ, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. He empowered the earthly ministry of Jesus. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth, and He convicts them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. His ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, to implement Christ’s work of redemption. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the seal, or mark, by which God bears witness that the believer belongs to Him. His indwelling presence in a believer is the guarantee of the future “redemption of the body” (resurrection) and of the believer’s inheritance in the coming Kingdom of God. He comforts the believer, cultivates Christian character, transforms the mind, enables obedience, and empowers the believer for godly living and service. He bestows the spiritual gifts by which believers serve God through His church. No gift signifies His baptism or filling, nor does any gift provide authoritative revelation beyond what has already been revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. God created mankind male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin, but by his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence. His posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. All people are sinners by nature and by choice. As soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and come under God’s condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. Those who repent of sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation
Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for man’s salvation. On the cross Christ took on Himself the sins of all mankind, and died in our place as a substitutionary sacrifice. Eternal salvation is the free gracious gift of God, apart from works, and is possessed by all who through faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The assurance of salvation as a present possession is the privilege of every believer in Christ. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.
Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. The believer’s faith is accounted to him as righteousness before God. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace must continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. It will be accomplished upon the return of Christ, when “this mortal will put on immortality.”
V. The New Covenant
Christians participate in the “New Covenant” which Old Testament prophets foretold would come. The Law of Moses (that is, the Old Covenant) is no longer the rule of life for the believer. Law is unable to impart the righteousness God requires. In former times it served as a God-given “tutor” or “schoolmaster” to direct us to Christ, declaring all men to be guilty of violating God’s righteousness, and pointing out the need for deliverance from condemnation. Upon regeneration by faith in Christ, the believer is indwelt by the Spirit of God, dying to the Law, and thus being forever freed from the Law’s power and condemnation. The New Covenant was ratified and sealed by the blood of Christ. The Law of Moses is now rendered obsolete, fulfilled, and set aside, and the Christian is given a better, much more glorious way, by which we draw near to God. The way of life for the Christian is the guidance of and continuing transformation by the power of the Spirit of God. Any kind of return to Moses’ Law, legalistic regulation-keeping, or mixture of Old and New Covenants is antithetical to the good news of God’s grace extended to us in Christ, and spoils our salvation.
VI. The Church
The Church of Jesus Christ is the universal company of God’s redeemed people, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, all who are “the seed of Abraham” by faith. It is the body of which Christ is the head, His bride whom He loves infinitely, and His temple in which He dwells. In the New Covenant era, this Body expresses itself in local assemblies of baptized believers, who associate themselves for worship, fellowship, instruction, spiritual formation, evangelism, and service. The local congregation is the God-ordained avenue of discipline and accountability for its members. There is no structure ordained of God for His churches beyond the local level, therefore local assemblies ought to be self-governing and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority. However, inter-congregational cooperation may take place to carry forward missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom, if such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word.
Elders (pastors) and deacons are the only offices of the local church. “Pastor” means “shepherd,” and is not a distinct office apart from elder. The function of elders is to serve as overseers and shepherds of Jesus’ local flock, responsible for doctrine (teaching), spiritual formation, and discipline, being accountable to Christ the Chief Shepherd. The biblical model is to have a plurality of elders in a local congregation. The function of deacons is to conduct the caring and benevolence ministry of the church, freeing the pastor(s) to focus on prayer and the teaching of the Word. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of elder/pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
VII. Church Ordinances
The ordinances of the local church are believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the rising again to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is also a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience and fellowship, whereby believers, through a communal partaking of bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of Jesus Christ, recognize their participation in the New Covenant, and anticipate His second coming.
VIII. Christian Conduct and Spiritual Formation
The supreme task of the believer is to glorify God before the world, as a testimony to Him. The goal of the Christian’s life is to be conformed into the likeness of Christ under the influence of the Holy Spirit. God expects every believer to live a life of willing obedience, in which every area of life (thought, feelings, will, body, relationships, worldview) is brought under the lordship of Christ, and in which the fruit of the Spirit becomes increasingly evident. This is characterized supremely by self-giving love for God and for others. The life and character of Christ, which grows through the Holy Spirit, is noticeably distinct from the life of the world. A believer who resists the gracious working of the Spirit and fails to mature in Christ is chastened in love by his Heavenly Father so he may learn obedience.
IX. Marriage and Family
The gift of gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation. Male and female are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. God established marriage to be a lifelong covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Marriage so defined is the only permissible context for intimate sexual expression and is the foundation for the human family. It is the unique gift by which God symbolizes the union between Christ and His church. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, giving Himself up for her. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
X. The Last Things
At God’s appointed time, “when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,” Jesus will return bodily to the earth, in power and glory, after the period referred to as the Great Tribulation, in which an Antichrist will bring heavy persecution against the saints. Christ is coming to raise the dead saints to everlasting life, to gather his beloved ones to himself, to complete the Church through the salvation of the remnant of Israel, to remove wickedness from the world, to destroy His enemies, to be glorified in His saints, and to reign forever as King. A “rapture” prior to the Tribulation is not to be expected. (Our position is denoted as post-tribulational, pre-millennial.)
Both the righteous and the unrighteous will experience a bodily resurrection. At death, the spirits of those who are justified by faith in Christ depart the body to be at rest with the Lord in heaven until the resurrection, while those of the unrighteous are consigned to a place of darkness and punishment to await judgment. Upon Jesus’ second coming to earth, the departed saints will be raised to eternal life in incorruptible bodies, and those yet living will be likewise changed. At that time, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, all those who belong to Him will be examined and rewarded according to their works, receiving an eternal inheritance in the coming Kingdom of Christ on the restored earth. The resurrection of the unrighteous will take place “when the thousand years are finished.” At the Great White Throne, they will be raised, judged by their deeds, and condemned to the second death in the lake of fire. God will then be all in all, and the company of His redeemed with live with Him in the glorious kingdom of His Son forever.
July 2011/March 2013