We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men supernaturally inspired of God; that it is truth without any admixture of error for its matter, and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the age, the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man; the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and opinions should be tried.
By the “Holy Bible” we mean that collection of sixty-six books, from Genesis to Revelation, which as originally written does not only contain and convey the Word of God, but is the very Word of God.
By “inspiration” we mean that the books of the bible were written by bold men of old, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally and verbally inspired and fee from error, as no other writings have ever been or ever will be inspired.
We believe since there is one, and only one living, and true God and infinite, intelligent Spirit, the maker and supreme ruler of heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worth of all possible honor, confidence, and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. They are all equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
1. God the Father—
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
2. God the Son—
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ 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, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.
3. God the Holy Spirit—
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person; equal with God the Father, and God the Son and of the same nature. He was active in the creation and that in His relation to the unbelieving world that He restrains the Evil One until God’s purpose is fulfilled. He convicts of sin, of judgment and of righteousness. He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony and that He is the agent in the new birth that seals, endures, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer.
We believe that Satan was once holy and enjoyed heavenly honors. But through pride and ambition to be as the Almighty, he fell and drew after him a host of angels. He is now the malignant prince of the power of the air and the unholy god of this world. We hold him to be man’s great tempter, and the enemy of God and His Christ, the accuser of the saints and the author of all false religions. He is the chief power back of the present apostasy, the lord of the anti-christ and the author of all the powers of darkness destined however to final defeat at the hands of God’s own Son and to the judgment of an eternal justice in hell which is a place prepared for him and his angels.
We believe in the Genesis account of creation and that it is to be accepted literally, and not allegorically or figuratively. Man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness. Man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms. All animal and vegetable life was made directly and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only “after their own kind”.
We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state in consequence of which, all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint but by choice and therefore is under just condemnation without excuse or defense.
We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God, who by appointment of the Father freely took upon Himself our nature, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins. His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was the voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place – the Just dying for the unjust. Christ the Lord bearing our sins in His own body on the tree that having risen from the dead He is now enthroned in Heaven and uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfection. He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, compassionate and an all-sufficient Savior.
We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again. The new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus that is instantaneous and is not a process. In the new birth, the one dead in trespasses and in sin is made a partaker of the divine nature and received eternal life – the free gift of God. This new creation is brought about in a manner above our comprehension not by culture, not by character or by the will of man by wholly and solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the gospel; that its proper evidence appears in the Holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.
We believe that the great gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is Justification. Justification included the pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life on principles of righteousness and that it is bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood and His righteousness is imputed unto us.
We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations and also inseparable graces. They are wrought in our souls by the quickening Spirit of God thereby being deeply convicted of our guilt, danger and helplessness. By the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to god with unfeigned contrition, confession and supplication for mercy and at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and openly confessing Him as our only and all-sufficient Savior.
We believe and accept the sacred Scriptures upon these subjects of their face and full value. “That this same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven” bodily, personally and visibly that the “dead in Christ shall rise first” and that the living saints “shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump”. “That the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David” and that “Christ shall reign a thousand years in righteousness upon this earth until He hath put all enemies under His feet.”