We believe in the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; and that they are the final authority on faith, salvation, and morals; and shall take as our rule of conduct the Bible, known as the Old and New Testaments, including sixty-six books; and shall conform to its simple teachings, inwardly as well as outwardly, in our daily walk, conversation, and testimony (2 Timothy 3:14–17; Galatians 6:16).
We believe there is but one living and true God, everlasting, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in the unity of this Godhead, there are three Persons of one substance, of eternal being, and equal in holiness, justice, wisdom, power, and dignity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
We believe that the Son, Who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and perfect man, Who actually suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile us to the Father, and to make atonement, not only for our actual guilt, but also for the power of original sin.
We believe that Christ did truly rise again from the dead, and took again His body, with all things appertaining to the perfections of man’s nature, and ascended into heaven and there sitteth until He shall return to judge all men at the last day.
We believe the Holy Ghost, proceeding from both the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.
We believe in a Trinitarian Monotheism, as opposed to Unitarianism. We do not believe in “three gods” as the Unitarian or “Jesus Only” teaching maintains; but we believe there are three persons, of one substance, of eternal being, equal in holiness, justice, wisdom, power, and dignity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We do not believe in three gods, but One God, subsisting in Three Persons, the Trinity in Unity (Matthew 3:16, 17; 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 5:7).
We believe that eternal life with God in heaven is a portion of the reward of the finally righteous; and that everlasting banishment from the presence of the Lord and unending torture in hell are the wages of the persistently wicked (Matthew 25:46; Psalm 9:17; Revelation 21:7, 8).
We believe Jesus had a real material human body, the same as all other human beings on earth, yet above all human beings on earth. His Body was incorruptible; ours is corruptible. Jesus was born of a [mortal] woman, who descended from King David, through his son, Nathan, a full brother of Solomon; therefore, he was born of the “Seed of David according to the flesh.” Also of the “Seed of Abraham,” and the “Seed of Adam,” through whom “death passed upon all the human race.” All the seed of Adam proceeded from him after he had fallen in sin, under death. Therefore, Christ lived in a mortal body subject to suffering and death, and yet without the possibility of corruption of that very same body. Jesus is truly the Self of God.
We believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood for the remission of sins that are past; and for the regeneration of penitent sinners, and for salvation from sin and from sinning (Romans 3:25; 1 John 3:5–10; Ephesians 2:1–10).
We believe, teach, and firmly maintain the Scriptural doctrine of justification by faith alone (Romans 5:1).
We believe that Jesus Christ shed His blood for the complete cleansing of the justified believer from the power of indwelling sin and from its Adamic pollution; and that the experiential outworking in our lives is through a crisis experience leading to the process and quest of holiness.
We believe there is a distinction between being born of the Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. We believe that this great pentecostal blessing, which is the enduement of power to witness for Christ, is available for all believers whose hearts are cleansed from sin by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Bible teaches that our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20), and that the temple of God is holy, which temples believers are (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17), we do not believe that God desires to fill and/or anoint an unclean temple or vessel with His Holy Spirit. We believe, because the Bible teaches and requires it, that a person, in order to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit, must have a clean heart and life as a prerequisite for this great promise. In typology, we must remember, the blood of cleansing precedes the anointing oil (Leviticus 14:14, 17). Moreover, we believe that, in order to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power and possession, one must continue to make holiness a quest and live a clean and consecrated life, free from the power of sin, strife, worldliness, pride, and any other impediment, and avoid attitudes, motives, and actions which tend to “grieve” or “quench” the Holy Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:29–32; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). This is one and the same as walking in the Spirit and living daily in communion with God. Though there is a crisis infilling there are many subsequent infillings of the Holy Spirit in the succeeding life of the Christian; and the Gospels and the Book of Acts reveal that difference. And the Christian should hunger for constant anointing of the Holy Spirit through all the compartments of life. This is to be evidenced by sane, sound, sensible accompanying communion with God as a privilege of worship and praise to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Other evidences are the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, 23), power to witness for Christ, power to endure the testings of faith and the oppositions of the world, as well as the illumination of the reading and hearing of the Holy Word of God.
We believe that the testimony of the Christian, to a lost and dying world, demands one which commends us to the character of Christ. There are two areas in which this testimony is set forth: (1) The Corporate Testimony to the world, (2) The Individual Testimony of our influence.
Therefore, there is a fundamental testimony of biblical truth, and there is the distinctive testimony of biblical truth. There is a difference between our belief in certain essential biblical fundamentals, and our conscience in certain personal biblical distinctives.
With regard to the fundamental testimony, we would set forth the following and must include the Trinity, the incarnation, virgin birth, substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, ascension, and second coming, the new birth, resurrection of the saints, and the resurrection of the ungodly to judgment and eternal death.
“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 1:13).
“But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:14, 15).
With regard to the distinctive testimony, we would set forth the following and could include drugs, tobacco, intoxicants, immodesty, the evils of divorce, rock music, fellowship with the disorderly believer, fornication, evil philosophies, trends, etc.
“Let not then your good be evil spoken of” (Romans 14:16).
“Abstain from the very appearance of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
Therefore, we believe, that in every generation there are certain sins which manifest themselves from certain philosophies and presuppositions of the age which must be condemned and set forth from the principles of the Word of God. Although there are definitely differences between prejudices, scruples, principles, and convictions, yet we must take a separatist’s view against those evils of any generation which destroy the purity and consecration of the church and the believer. We are called upon to not only distinguish between the good and evil, but the preference of the best of the good. We will be called upon, by the pure Word of God, to take a stand against certain apostasies, sins, heresies, and personalities which are clearly identified with those powers which are antichrist and ungodly. But as we set forth our militant testimony against these apostasies, we must also be sure we are setting forth our magnificent testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe there is a provision in the Atonement for the physical needs of God’s people as they live in the will of God in order that they may enjoy providential endurance for the completion of their work on earth. We believe the believer is immortal until God is through with his testimony on earth. Therefore, in view of the promises of God and the provision for answered prayers, divine healing may come to the believer in his life without it being construed that God has given him divine health. This is also true for the other physical necessities which God provides for our lives. Some are definitely appointed to physical sufferings, which may be endured triumphantly by grace; others receive physical sustenance by grace.
We believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which is initiated in the Divine Depositum of the New Birth; that there is a distinction between being born of the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit; and, that there is one Baptism of the Holy Spirit, many infillings of the Holy Spirit, with the longing of the Believer for the constant anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the Christian Life. Whereas the New Birth is accompanied with the peace of pardon and Sanctification is accompanied with the purity of heart, the Infilling of the Holy Spirit is accompanied with the praise and power of Christ. The Power of the Holy Spirit is primarily for the Believer’s Life to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in worship, communion, soul-winning, Bible reading, prayer, edification of the saints, and all other aspects of the entire life of the one professing and possessing Christ.
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).
We believe that the precious doctrine of Sanctification goes no further than the present tense in the Christian’s Life, and that the Bible teaches this in a sane, sound, sensible, and balanced manner; that Sanctification is only by the grace of the Lord Jesus; and, that the Blood of Christ is the only element to save men from personal sins, to sanctify men from the power of sin, and to separate men from the reputation of sin.
“For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers....Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?” (Job 8:8, 10).
We believe that the Bible teaches that subsequent to Justification by Faith, a Crisis Work of Sanctification, bringing purity of heart, through the Blood of Christ, is urged by God for us that we should reckon, yield, and obey the Word for the process of Sanctification unto the perfection of the Believer, which means the Believer, by the power of the grace of God, will proceed on to maturity in Christ. Although the Scriptures do not teach Sinless Perfection, yet there is this Christian perfection of maturity and character which is a part of the normal, spiritual growth of the Believer in his walk in the Spirit through all his pilgrim days.
“If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?” (Jeremiah 12:5).
“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3b).
We believe in the Study of the Holy Scriptures, through the biblical encouragement of Expository Exegesis, leading to an understanding of the Context; with an overall plenary view which comes only from an appreciation and an emphasis upon Biblical Theology itself. Biblical Theology extends to the Believer a threefold benefit: first, to understand the Bible in the very manner God intended through the unfolding of each Divine Disclosure from Genesis to Revelation; second, having profited from each step of the Divine Disclosures to then confirm each contextual interpretation with the harmony of the entire Bible; and, third, that the whole Bible is for the whole world and every generation, and that God desires to unfold His Word to each individual as He does for the world.
“Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Matthew 16:13b).
“But whom say ye that I am?” (Matthew 15:b).
“And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things?” (Acts 14:15a).
“For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3).
“But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.” (Romans 3:5–8).
“What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?” (1 Corinthians 14:36).
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).
“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).
We believe in the Pre-Millennial View of Prophecy concerning the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and the two stages of that Coming: first, His Coming for the saints in the Rapture to the clouds; second, His Coming with the saints to the earth before the Millennium. Be it also known that it is not necessary for every Believer to accept this Eschatological View, and its detailed order of events, for acceptance of fellowship with us. For Fellowship, we must agree in the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith, the biblical test of the fruit of the Christian Life, and the Scriptural Separation from sin, error, and the Apostasy.
“For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred?” (Esther 8:6).
“Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.” (Ezekiel 22:14).
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).
We believe in the doctrine of Justification by Faith completed in this present world, the doctrine of Sanctification, potentially, positionally, experientially, expansionally, and perfectionally completed in this present world, by the grace of God; but that Sanctification will only be completed finally after the glorificational work and the eternal work have been done in the Eternal Golden Age. The Work of Christ will only be completed in the Believer after the Consummation of the present Age, yet the Glory of Christ will continue to lay hold upon the Believer throughout a never-ending Eternity. The Glory of Christ is so infinite, and we shall always remain a finite creature, so the Glory of Christ will be unfolded forevermore, but never to its exhaustion.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).
“And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” (Daniel 12:8).
“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3).
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” (Revelation 22:13).
