I Believe...

The sole basis of my beliefs is the Bible, God's inerrant written Word. The Bible is the inspired and only infallible and authoritative written Word of God.

1. I believe there is one true God, eternally existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

2. I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His atoning death on the cross, His resurrection from the dead on the third day, His ascension to the right hand of God, and His future return to earth to rule and reign one thousand years.

3. I believe in the blessed hope, the Rapture of the Church, where Jesus will call all saints, living and dead, to meet Him in the air in the twinkling of an eye. We believe this event will happen before the Great Tribulation period, that God has not appointed us to endure His wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ. This event is separate from the Second Coming of Jesus where He returns to earth with His saints to establish the millennial kingdom.

4. I believe that man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator. That fall brought all mankind under divine condemnation. Man's nature is sinful, and he is thus totally unable to please God through his own works. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. The salvation of man is entirely a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works, goodness, religious ceremony or tradition. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justifies them in His sight.

5. I believe the Father sent the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer's life by faith.

6. I believe that the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking with other tongues is a separate event from the Spirit's indwelling of a believer at spiritual birth (Acts 2:4; 19:1-6) He is given to all believers who ask to be filled.

7. I believe every Christian is called to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit so that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God. Believers are not to continue in sin, but being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. Sanctification and a life set apart from the world is God's will for all believers. We strongly feel that believers should engage in regular times of Bible study, prayer and fasting.

8. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ commanded all saints to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple people of every nation. The fulfillment of the Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us."

9. I believe that Christians should assemble themselves together and that they should observe certain ordinances. Christians should be baptized by immersion in water as a statement of one's conversion. Believers should regularly observe, after examining their heart, the Lord's Supper or Communion to remember Christ's suffering and death. We do not believe, however, that these ordinances are necessary for one's salvation, for we are saved by faith and not by any works we do.

10. I believe in divine healing and prayer for the sick, for provision for our healing was made at Calvary ("by His stripes we are healed").

11. I believe in the resurrection of the saved and the lost: the saved to life everlasting in the presence of God, the lost to eternal damnation in Hell.