OUR BELIEFS
We are a local gathering of The Church, The Body Of Christ.
We are put into this body by faith in Jesus Christ’s finished work at Calvary
The Bible
The Bible (all 66 books) in its original writings is inerrant, verbally inspired of God and is of plenary authority being the enduring Word of God. It is the one and only authority on matters of Christian faith and practice. It is a progressive revelation, and must be studied in that light to correctly understand and apply it. Furthermore, God has promised to preserve His Word (Psalm 12:6-7). God has designed to preserve His Word through the existence of multiple copies and languages of the original texts. We believe that the King James Version is the proper translation of the proper source text and is God’s preserved word for English speaking people. The King James Version will be our text for all services. II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21; Matthew 24:35; I Peter 1:23; II Timothy 2:15
The Godhead
There is one God, eternally existing in three distinct manifestations. The three Persons are: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:4-6; John 10:30; Philippians 2:6; Deuteronomy 6:4; John 14:16; Acts 5:3-4; II Corinthians 13:14; Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9 Jesus Christ He is fully God and fully man in one Person. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and was, is, and always will be without sin. Philippians 2:6-9; John 8:58; Matthew 1:20-25; Luke 1:32, 35; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15, 7:26; I Peter 2:22; Romans 1:3-4; Colossians 2:9 The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is a Person of the Godhead. He convicts the world of sin. He regenerates, baptizes, indwells, enlightens, seals, and empowers all believers. I Corinthians 2:13; John 16:8; Titus 3:5; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30, 1:17-18; I Corinthians 6:19
Man & His Nature
We affirm that, because of the fall of Adam, every person inherits a nature inclined toward sin and that every person who is capable of moral action has and will sin. Before salvation, a person’s sin makes them spiritually dead, requiring reconciliation, needing life, brings the wrath of a holy God, ever-worsening selfishness and destructiveness, physical death, and condemnation to an eternity in hell. We deny that Adam’s sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person’s free will or rendered any person guilty before he has personally sinned. While no sinner is remotely capable of achieving salvation through any work of their own effort, we deny that any sinner is saved apart from a free response to the Holy Spirit’s drawing through the Gospel. Genesis 3:15-22; 6:5; Isaiah 6:5, 53:6; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 1:18-32; 3:9-18, 3:23, 5:12, 6:23, 8:7-8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 15:22; Ephesians 2:1-4; I John 2:15-16; Revelation 20:11-14
The Gospel
We affirm that the Gospel is the good news that God has made a way of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for any person. This is in keeping with God’s desire for every person to be saved. We affirm that all are capable of responding to the Gospel. We affirm that any person who responds to the Gospel with faith is a new creation in Christ and enters, at the moment he believes, into eternal life, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 1:16; 3:21-28; 4:4-5; 5:8; 6:4-11; 8:32; I Corinthians 15:1-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Colossians 1:20-22, 2:13; 1 Timothy 1:15; 2:3-4, Ephesians 1:13-14, 21
Election
We affirm that election speaks of God’s gracious and purposed plan to have a people who are His by faith. Election is those who are in Christ. In the dispensation of grace, God’s election refers to those who respond by faith to the gospel and are placed into Christ. Election is what God has purposed to do in Christ and will accomplish this in the fulness of times when he gathers together in one all things in Christ. Thus election refers to God’s purpose and not pre-determining certain individuals for salvation and others to condemnation apart from any decision of the will to believe the gospel. Romans 8:28-33; Ephesians 1:4-6, 10; 2:11-22; 3:1-11, 11:7; II Timothy 1:9; II Thessalonians 2:13
Security of the Believer
We affirm that all the saved are eternally secure in Christ. Being saved by faith in the gospel, after which the believer trusted, is then sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. This sealing of the Holy Spirit, will not be broken by God, and cannot be broken by death, man, nor any other creature. Romans 3:21-26, 8:29-30, 35-39; II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:4, 13-14; Philippians 1:6; Colossians 3:1-4; II Timothy 1:12
Resurrection
Jesus Christ was resurrected bodily from the dead. Believers will be raised from death to everlasting glory. Unbelievers will be raised in a separate resurrection unto everlasting condemnation. Luke 24:39; Romans 4:24-25; I Corinthians 6:14; 15:5-8, 22-24; Revelation 20:11-15
The Catching up of the Church
The catching up of the church “which is His body”, also known as the rapture, will occur in the pre-tribulation return of Christ in the air, coming to receive the members of His Body to Himself. I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Philippians 3:20-21; I Corinthians 15:51-53
The Second Coming
The second coming of Christ to the earth will be pre-millennial. In this coming, He will set up His millennial kingdom, a literal, physical, kingdom upon this earth, over which He will reign for one thousand years. Zechariah 14:4, 9; Acts 1:10-11; Revelation 19:11-16; 20:4-6
The Church
The word ‘church’ in the Bible never applies to a physical building (Acts 11:26). A church is a called out assembly (Romans 1:5-6). There was an Old Testament church (Acts 7:38). There was a Messianic church (Luke 1:16-17; Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:46-47). There will be a church of the believing remnant of Israel in the future (I Peter 2:9-10). In this present dispensation of grace there is only one true Church, which is called the Body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18-25). This one church is comprised of individuals who have trusted the gospel and are in Christ (I Corinthians 1:2; 12:12-13, 27). Groups of believers who gather together in a location comprise a local church, which is a local manifestation of the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 1:2; Romans 16:1; Acts 20:7). The local church assembles together to do the work of the ministry, which purpose is to: (1) Evangelize – by preaching the gospel of the grace of God and the ministry of reconciliation (I Timothy 2:4; Acts 14:21-22; II Corinthians 5:14-21; Philippians 1:5, 27-29); (2) Edify – by preaching Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery (I Timothy 2:4; Acts 14:21-22; Romans 16:25; I Timothy 3:15; I Corinthians 4:17; II Timothy 2:1-2; Ephesians 3:8-9, 4:11-16; Titus 2:4; Colossians 1:24-29); (3) Essence - The purpose of the local church is to be a visible manifestation of the spiritual church, which is his Body (and to manifest the Body life – the life of Christ). (Ephesians 4:14-16, 4:1-6; Romans 12:3-10; Galatians 6:2; 5:13-14; I Corinthians 12:12-27); (4) Expansion – The hope is that our evangelization would lead to expansion and the taking of the gospel to not only our local community, but to the whole world. (II Corinthians 5:18-21)
Ordinances
There are no ordinances or sacraments to be observed by the church during the dispensation of grace. Colossians 2:14-17; Galatians 5:1
Communion
The communion as revealed through the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 11 is for members of the Body of Christ. This is the church coming together around a meal in fellowship around their common union in Christ. Communion is not partaking the literal flesh and blood of Christ.
Baptism
All saved persons have been made members of the Body of Christ by One divine baptism (this is baptism into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit). By that ONE BAPTISM, every member of the Body of Christ is identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. In light of the statement concerning the “ONE BAPTISM” in Ephesians 4:5 and the statement in I Corinthians 1:17 that “Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel”, we affirm that water baptism has no place in God’s spiritual program for the Body of Christ in this day of grace. Ephesians 4:5; I Corinthians 1:17, 12:13
The Giving
Before the dispensation of grace, the nation of Israel was instructed and required to tithe. Part of the tithe was to support the Levitical priesthood. In the age of grace, Israel is fallen, there is no priesthood. The tithe as outlined in the old testament is no longer in place. In the current dispensation the believer is encouraged by God to give according to how they purpose in their own heart. God encourages us to be cheerful givers knowing that the “The labourer is worthy of his reward” and that financial funds are sometimes necessary to accomplish the work of the ministry and the edification of the saints. II Corinthians 9:6-8; I Timothy 5:18
Spiritual Gifts
The gifts necessary for the ministry of the Body of Christ are those enumerated in Ephesians 4:7-16. These gifts were in place for the church until the Word of God was completed. These gifts were testifying to the revelation of God as the scripture was being written. All the sign gifts of the Acts period such as tongues, prophesy, and healing, being temporary in nature, have ceased. The Word remains. I Corinthians 12:1-31, 13:8-11, 14:19; II Timothy 3:16-17
The Believers Walk and Service
All Christians are called with a holy calling, and are to walk after the spirit, not after the flesh. We are to live in the power of the indwelling spirit so as not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. The sin nature of the flesh is never eradicated in this life, but can be kept in subjection by the enabling power of the Lord in the life of the yielded believer. Heavenly rewards are promised for all faithful service and holy living. All good works come from Christ’s life being manifest in us. Romans 6:12-13, 8:4, chapters 12-14; Galatians 2:20, 5:16, 25, 6:7-10; Ephesians 4, 6:10; Colossians 1:10, 2:6, 3:1-17
OUR MISSION
“Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:4
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25