TO KNOW HIM AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN

There is one God, infinite in all of His perfections, eternally existent in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God has given mankind two records of revelation of Himself: natural revelation and special revelation.  The natural revelation of God in creation is insufficient to lead us to a saving knowledge of the Lord, therefore, special revelation is needed.  God has given us His special revelation primarily in two ways:  He is perfectly revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ; and, He has revealed Himself in and through the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (the Holy Bible).  The inscripturated revelation of God was inspired by God, and inerrant as originally given.  This inerrancy extends to every part of the Bible (plenary) and to every word (verbal).  The Scriptures are a complete revelation of God's will for the salvation of the lost.  They constitute the divine and only authority for Christian faith and practice.

The second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, being conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit.  That One is Jesus Christ, who was manifest among us, fully God and fully man.  Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness on our behalf, and died upon the cross, offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice and paying the just penalty for all of our sins.  He was bodily raised from death on the third day.  He ascended into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God, ministering as our great High Priest.  He will come again to this earth, bodily and visibly, to judge unrighteousness, and to establish a kingdom of righteousness and justice in fulfillment of the promises of God.  Thus, we believe in the premillennial return of the Lord Jesus.

The third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is likewise fully God.  He is sent to glorify the Lord Jesus and to point men to Christ as the provision of God for our salvation.  He convicts the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.  He quickens the lost, causing them to be born again.  He indwells, seals, guides, teaches and empowers the believer.

Man was originally created in the image of God, and in innocence.  By disobedience, he fell from innocence and into sin, bringing the consequence of both physical and spiritual death.  All men since our first parents, except Jesus Christ, have been born with a sinful nature and are thus separated from God.  A man or woman may be reconciled to God only by the grace of God realized through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Those who by such personal faith in Jesus Christ are saved may have the confident expectation of a resurrection to everlasting life in the fellowship and presence of God (Heaven).  The eternal destiny of those who remain separated from God by their sin is an existence apart from God in a place of conscious torment (Hell).

It is God's will that His image be re-formed in the life of each of those who, through faith in Christ, have been born again as His children.  This process of having the image of God renewed in us is known as experiential sanctification.  By that term, we indicate that believers are to live lives which are separated from sin and the world, and which are separated to God.  God's provisions for our experiential sanctification are the indwelling Holy Spirit, the truth of His Word, the fellowship of believers, and the discipline of both conscience and the local church.

With respect to physical healing, the believer has the privilege to appeal to God as his/her Father.  We may do this through prayer, and/or through the Elders of the church and anointing with oil.  God is not obliged to heal us, but in His will, He may choose to do so.

The universal Church consists of all who have put their faith for their salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ Himself is the Head of His Church.  The local church is a body of disciples of Jesus who are joined together for the purpose of worship, for mutual edification through the Word of God, for prayer, for fellowship, for proclamation of the Gospel, and for the observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.  Christ has commissioned the universal Church to take the Gospel to all nations, which makes it incumbent upon the local church to be involved actively in that endeavor.