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1. GOD
We
believe that there is one, and only one, true and living God;
that He is absolute in nature, perfect in attributes, holy in
character, the maker and supreme ruler of heaven and earth; that
he is infinite in wisdom, marvelous in power and amazing in
love; that He is holy, righteous and true, worth of all
confidence and love; that He unites in Himself the infinite, the
eternal and the Almighty Three—God,
the Father, and
God,
the Son, and God, the Holy
Spirit; that the three persons of the God-head subsist in
the same divine nature, essence and being; and that they are
coexisting in every divine attribute, each one executing
distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
Genesis 1:1; Deuteronomy 4:39; Mark 12:29; Genesis 17:1; Matthew
5:48; Isaiah 6:3; I Chronicles 29:11-12; Psalm 103:19; Romans
11:33-34; Matthew 19:26; Psalm 19:9: Matthew 28:19; I Peter
1:2-3; I John 5:7; Exodus 3:14; Genesis 1:26; and Titus 3:3-7.
2. THE DIVINE TRINITY
1.
GOD, THE FATHER – We believe
that God, the Father, is the
first person set forth in the Divine Trinity; that He is
almighty, merciful and just; that He is holy, righteous and
true; that He is eternally existent, glorious in nature,
possessing the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience and
omnipresence; and that He, in harmony with His divine office,
loves, provides and protects, thus exercising providential watch
care over the sons of men and especially a fatherly care over
the children of God.
Mathew 28:19; Genesis 17:1; Matthew 19:26; Psalm 19:9; Isaiah
6:3; Psalm 100:5; Proverbs 15:3; Psalm 139:1-6; Psalm 139:13-14;
Psalm 103:13; Matthew 6:25-30: Matthew 10:29-31; and Matthew
7:11
2.
GOD, THE SON—VIRGIN BORN - We
believe that God, the Son, is
the second person set forth in the Divine Trinity; that He is
very God of very God; that He is almighty, merciful and just;
that He is holy, righteous and true; that He is eternally
existent, glorious in nature, possessing the attributes of
omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence; and that God, the
Father, through the Holy spirit, is actually and eternally His
divine Father and Mary the Virgin, is actually and innocently
His human mother; and that He, in harmony with His divine
office, mediates, seeks and saves, thus exercising the
mediatorial office of redemption.
Matthew 28:19; John 1:1-3, 14 and Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 28:18;
Titus 3:5-6; John 8:15-16; II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 13:8;
Philippians 2:6; John 2:24; Matthew 28:20; Luke 1:35 and 2:7-14;
I Timothy 2:5-6; Luke 19:10 and John 3:16.
3.
GOD, THE HOLY SPIRIT – We
believe that God, the Holy Spirit,
is the third person set forth in the Divine Trinity; that He is
almighty, merciful and just; that He is holy, righteous and
true; that He is eternally existent, glorious in nature,
possessing the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience and
omnipresence; that He restrains the world, the flesh and the
devil; that He witnesses to the Truth, convicts the lost, extols
the Christ and testifies to the righteous judgments of God; that
He, in harmony with His divine office, comforts, teaches,
testifies, preaches, guides, regenerates, empowers, sanctifies
and anoints, thus exercising the quickening role in the works of
saving the lost and the supervising role in the life of the
saved.
John 14:16-17 and 26; John 15:26; John 16:7-13; Hebrews 9:14; I
Peter 4:14; Isaiah 40:12-15; I Corinthian 2:10-12; Psalm
139:7-12; II Thessalonians 2:6-7; John 3:6 and 8; Ephesians
1:13-14; Acts 1:8; I Peter 1:2 and Isaiah 61:1.
3. THE DEVIL
We
believe that Satan is an actual person, and not an imaginary
influence; that he once enjoyed high heavenly honors and
glorious heavenly privileges; that he, through pride, ambition,
and self-will attempted to betray the Almighty and brought down
upon his head the judgment of God; that he operates today as the
god of this world and the prince of the power of the air; that
he is a diabolical inventor, an arch deceiver and the father of
all lies; that he is the greatest enemy, the mightiest tempter
and the most relentless accuser of the saints; that he shall one
day be incarnated in the person of the Antichrist and in that
role will finally meet the Christ in the Battle of the
Armageddon; that there “the seed of the woman shall bruise
the serpent’s head” and that he shall eventually be cast
into the lake of fire, the eternal place of punishment, prepared
for the devil and his angels.
Job 1:6-12 and Job 2:1-7; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Isaiah 14:12-27 and
Genesis 3:14; II Corinthians 4:4 and Ephesians 2:2; Matthew
24:11 and II Thessalonians 2:7-11 and John 8:44 and I Peter 5:8
and Genesis 3:1-6 and Revelation 12:10; Daniel 7:8 and
Revelation 13:1-10 and Revelation 19:20; Genesis 3:15; II
Corinthians 11:13-15; John 14:30; and Ephesians 2:2.
4. THE HOLY BIBLE
We
believe that the Holy Bible is a supernatural book; that it is
the very Word of God; that it is the full, the final and the
complete revelation of God’s will to man; that it has
God, the Holy Spirit, for its
author, salvation for its end and truth in the original without
any admixture of error for its matter; that it was written by
holy men of old under the immediate and direct dictation of the
Holy Spirit; that it is verbally inspired and a perfect treasure
of holy instruction; and that it reveals the principles by which
God will judge us and is, therefore, the true center of
Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creed and opinions shall be tried.
Psalm 119:89; II Timothy 3:16-17; Revelation 22:18-19; John
17:17; John 3:32-34; II Peter 1:20-21; I Peter 1:10-12;
Zephaniah 1:1; Psalm 19:7-11; Exodus 20:3-17; Psalm 1:2; and
John 12:48.
5. CREATION
We
believe that the Genesis record of creation is literal and not
allegorical or figurative; that God personally created the
heaven and the earth; that He miraculously brought forth all
original matter out of nothing; that He actually fashioned all
organic forms as specific creations subject to limited changes
within the specie; that He definitely ordained each specie to
bring forth after its kind; that He finally formed man out of
the dust of the ground, not by any process of evolution but by
instant action and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became immediately a living soul; that He created man in
the image and likeness of God; that His every creative act was
complete and perfect in itself; and that not one of His
creations was conditioned upon antecedent changes naturally
wrought during interminable periods of time.
Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-3, 14 and Hebrews 11:3; Genesis 1:21,
24-27 and Genesis 2:7; and Colossians 1:16.
6. THE FALL OF MAN
We
believe that man, originally created in holiness and actually
associated with God in innocence under His law, did by voluntary
transgression of the Lord’s command, fall from the high and
happy state in which he was created and, as a consequence,
became a sinner alienated from God and brought upon himself and
all mankind just condemnation; and that he is now, by virtue of
his fallen nature, utterly void of holiness, positively inclined
to evil and actually condemned to eternal ruin, without defense
or excuse.
Genesis 1:26-27 and Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 3:6; Genesis
3:23-24; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 5:12 Romans 1:21-23 and Romans
3:10-18; and Revelation 21:8.
7. THE BLOOD ATONEMENT
We
believe that the lost sinner is guilty and already under just
condemnation; that he is by nature alien to God and because of
sin condemned to die; that atonement for sin was effected
through the mediatorial office of the Son, who by divine
appointment freely took upon Himself our nature, yet without
sin; that He, through obedience during His earthly walk,
personally honored the divine law by keeping it, and, through
His death on the cross, actually satisfied the penalty of the
offended law by suffering in the sinner’s stead; that He,
through His obedience and sacrificial death, made full and
vicarious atonement for all sin; that He died, the just for the
unjust, bearing our sins in His body on the tree; and that He,
through the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary,
evidenced eternal provision for cleansing, for pardon, for peace
and for rest.
Isaiah 53:6; Romans 6:7 and Romans 8:23; I Timothy 2:5-6 and
Hebrews 2:17 and II Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 5:17-18 and I
Peter 2:24; Hebrews 10:10-12; I Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:5;
Isaiah 55:7; John 14:27; Matthew 11:28; I John 1:7; Ephesians
1:7; and Hebrews 9:22.
8. REPENTANCE AND FAITH
We
believe that repentance and faith are solemn and inseparable
prerequisites of salvation; that they are inseparable graces
wrought in the heart by the quickening Holy Spirit; that the
alien sinner, being deeply convicted of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment to come by the personal ministry of the Holy
Spirit, and by Him having his understanding enlightened so that
he can see the way of salvation through Christ, does actually
repent, turning to God with unfeigned contrition, confession and
supplication and does actually believe, surrendering himself
wholeheartedly to the Lord Jesus, immediately receiving Him as
personal and all-sufficient Savior and opening confessing Him
before all men.
Acts 20:21-22 and Mark 1:15; Acts 11:18 and Ephesians 2:8 and
John 6:44; John 16:8-11; Matthew 3:1-2, 8; Acts 3:19; Luke 13:3;
and Luke 18:9-14; Acts 9:6 and Romans 10:10.
9. SALVATION BY GRACE
We
believe that grace is elective and saving; that it embraces the
personal triune and redemptive ministry of
God, the Father, and God, the Son,
and God, the Holy Spirit; that
it comprehends all of the labors put forth by the Almighty in
the interest of perfect righteousness and the salvation of the
lost souls; that it encompasses foreknowledge, foreordination
and predestination; that it and it alone, saves even unto the
uttermost all who repent toward God and believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ; and that salvation thus wrought is wholly by
grace, “The free gift of God,” requiring neither culture
nor works in any form to secure it or to keep it.
II Timothy 1:8-9 and Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:3-7 and I Peter
1:2-5; Matthew 23:37; Romans 8:28-30; Hebrews 7:25 and Acts
20:21-21; Romans 6:23; Romans 11:6; Romans 5:20; Isaiah 1:18 and
Isaiah 55:1.
10. REGENERATION
We
believe that in order to be saved lost sinners must be
regenerated, or born again; that regeneration is a recreative
act, far beyond comprehension, wrought in the believer’s heart
by the direct personal ministry of the Holy Spirit; that it is
instantaneous, miraculous and non-evolutionary or cultural; that
it embraces the divine acts of cleansing the heart from all
inward sins and of pardoning the soul of all outward guilt, in
connection with the work of begetting a new creature in Christ
Jesus; that the dead sinner is made to live through the new
birth, becoming thereby a regenerated spirit, possessing eternal
life, the gift of God; that the new birth comes after the Holy
Spirit secures voluntary repentance and belief in the gospel;
that it is the actual impartation of the divine life, not a mere
transformation of the human life; and that the proper evidence
of regeneration appears in the holy fruits of the obedient and
willing faith of the followers of the Lord Jesus.
John 3:3-5 and 7; II Corinthians 5:17; John 3:8 and John 3:16;
John 1:12-13; Isaiah 1:18 and Titus 3:5-7; Ephesians 2:1, 5 and
Romans 6:23; John 16:8-11; Matthew 7:16-18 and James 2:17-20.
11. JUSTIFICATION
We
believe that justification is one of the great gospel blessings
secured through Christ for all who trust Him; that it is a legal
and divine decree, declaring the believing sinner just; that it
is thus a state of being free from condemnation, including
forgiveness for inward sins and pardon for outward sins; that it
secures through faith freedom from legal bondage, exemption from
the wrath of God and possession of peace which passes all
understanding; that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any
works of righteousness which we have done, but solely upon the
evidence of faith in God and the Redeemer’s blood; and that it
brings us into a state of unchanging peace and favor with God
and secures every other blessing needful for time and for
eternity.
Romans 3:24-25; Romans 3:28; Romans 8:33; Romans 8:1 and John
5:24 and Romans 4:3-8; Romans 6:6; Romans 5:9; Romans 5:1 and
Philippians 4:7; Romans 8:31-33; Genesis 15:6 and Hebrews 2:4.
12. THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
We
believe that salvation wrought by grace is everlasting; that the
saved soul journeying through the valley of the shad of death
need fear no evil; that the Holy Spirit – begotten and born are
kept by the power of God; that the believer in Christ Jesus
shall not be brought into judgment; that no one can lay anything
to the charge of God’s elect; that they are securely held in
both the hand of the Father and the Son; and that the age-old
Baptist doctrine. “Once in grace, always in grace,” is
heavenly and gloriously true.
John 3:16; John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6; Psalm 23:4; Isaiah
37:23-24; Philippians 1:6 and I Peter 3:5; John 5:24 and Romans
8:1; John 10:27-29 and Romans 8:31-33 and Romans 8:35-39 and II
Timothy 1:12.
13. SANCTIFICATION
We
believe that sanctification is a divine work of grace; that it
is not a state of sinless perfection attained through a “second
blessing” or through a special “Baptism of the Holy
Ghost;” that it is an act of grace by which the believer is
separated unto God and dedicated unto His righteous purpose;
that by it we enter into divinely appointed privileges and thus
become larger partakers of His holiness; that it is a
progressive work, begun in regeneration and carried on in the
life of every believer by the presence and the power of the Holy
Spirit and the Word of God; and that it is nurtured only by
Heaven’s appointed means, especially by the Holy Spirit, the
Word of God and the saved through his self-examination,
obedience, self-denial, watchfulness and prayer.
I Thessalonians 4:3 and I Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 15:16 and
Jeremiah 1:5; Proverbs 4:18 and John 17:17 and II Corinthians
3:18; I John 2:29 and Romans 8:5: I Timothy 4:5; Luke 9:23;
Matthew 24:42 and Matthew 7:7-11.
14. THE LORD’S RETURN
We
believe our Lord’s coming is imminent and that He will come back
suddenly, visibly and bodily; that the order of events
surrounding the second coming are these: The Rapture of the
Church, the Judgment Seat of Christ in Heaven, the Great
Tribulation on Earth (these two begin concurrently), Christ’s
coming back to Earth and setting up His throne upon the throne
of His father, David and reigning 1000 years.
Job 18:25-26 and Isaiah 9:6-7 and Zechariah 14:4 and Malachi 4:2
and Luke 1:31-33 and Matthew 25:31-34; Revelation 19:11-21 and
Acts 1:11 and I Thessalonians 4:16-17 and Revelation 1:7; II
Peter 3:10; Revelation 20:4-6; Revelation 19:20 and Revelation
20:1-3 and Revelation 20:10; Isaiah 9:7; I Corinthians
15:25-27; Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 12:5 and Revelation 19:15; I
John 3:8 and Psalm 72:1-20.
15. RESURRECTION
We
believe that Christ Jesus arose bodily from the grave on the
first day of the week, which day we now observe as the Lord’s
Day, a day of worship; that His miraculous emergence from the
tomb forecasted a like bodily resurrection for every member of
the Adamic race; that the dead in Christ shall rise first and in
glorified bodies like His; that they shall be caught up to meet
the Lord in the air; that the dead in trespasses and sins, or
the dead out of Christ, shall rise at the close of the
millennium and that they shall be brought before the Great White
Throne Judgment and there face the Judge of the quick and dead.
Matthew 28:6; and Luke 24:1-12; I Corinthians 15:12-22; I
Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:5-6; Revelation 11:15;
Daniel 12:3; I Samuel 2:6; Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14 and Isaiah
25:6-8.
16. INDIVIDUAL REWARDS
We
believe that reward and salvation are not one and the same
thing. We believe that the Lord shall reward His own; that He
Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout; that the dead in
Christ shall rise first; that a solemn separation shall take
place; that the blood-washed and Holy Spirit-begotten shall be
caught up to meet Him in the air and there be rewarded according
to the deeds done in the body and that the place called the New
Heaven and the New Earth is ordained the everlasting dwelling
place of the children of God. We believe that the wicked are
children of the devil; that they are rebels against God; that
they reject the free offer of salvation through Christ; that
they ignore the wooings of the Holy Spirit and that they, as a
consequence, are hell bound, being under a death sentence; that
they shall spend eternity in the Lake of Fire which burneth with
fire and brimstone where the Dragon, the Beast and the False
Prophet shall ever be.
I Corinthians 3:11-15; I Thessalonians 4:16-18 and Matthew
24:40-41 and Matthew 13:47-50; I Corinthians 3:8 and Revelation
21:1-8; John 8:44; Romans 8:7; John 3:18; Revelation 20:10-15
and Romans 6:23.
17. THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED
We
believe that there is a radical and essential difference between
the righteous and the wicked. We believe that the righteous are
they who believe in Christ Jesus, the justified by faith, and
the sanctified by the Holy Spirit and the Word; that the
righteous are heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus
Christ; and that eternal life, the gift of God, is the matchless
possession of the just. We believe that the wicked are they who
do not believe in Christ Jesus; the condemned because of
unbelief and the corrupted by the god of this world; that the
unjust spurn the privileges of God’s grace, choosing the life of
sin and rebellion; and that eternal damnation is the inescapable
portion of the unjust.
Malachi 3:16-18 and John 3:6; Romans 3:22, 24 and Romans 4:3 and
Romans 1:17; Romans 8:1-17 and Acts 20:32 and John 15:3; Romans
8:17; Romans 6:23; II Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 21:8 and
Matthew 23:37 and Proverbs 29:1 and Matthew 25:41.
18. THE LOCAL CHURCH
We
believe that a New testament Church, according to divine purpose
and plan, is a visible, local, organized body; that it is
composed of baptized believers associated together by a covenant
of faith and fellowship in the gospel; that New Testament
validity flows from strict obedience to essential principles of
New Testament Law; that it is a sovereign, independent,
democratic and militant body; that its ministry is gloriously
blessed with the presence and leadership of the Holy Spirit and
the light and revelation of the written Word; that its work
should ever be from within to without and never from without to
within; that it is a self-governing body and is the sole judge,
under the limitations of the Scriptures, of the measure and
method of co-operation; that it is the only ecclesiastical
tribunal the Lord has on earth; that its judgment concerning
membership, missions, benevolence, co-operative alignments and
support is final; that it was personally founded by Christ Jesus
during His ministry on Earth; that it is subject to His laws and
is the custodian of His ordinances; that the perpetuity of our
faith, our doctrines and practices, ordinances and ordinations,
has been effected through the Holy Spirit personally planting
and preserving local Baptist churches of like faith and order
down through the centuries even until now.
Matthew 28:19-20; I Corinthians 1:1-3; Acts 2:41-42; II
Corinthians 8:5; Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:15-17 and John
14:16-17, 26; Acts 1:8 and Acts 1:8 and Acts 13:1-4; Matthew
18:17-18; Matthew 16:18-19; Matthew 26:26-29 and Matthew
28:19-20; I Timothy 3:15; Mark 3:13-14 and Luke 6:12-13.
19. ORDINANCES
We
believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances
personally set in the Church of the living God by the Lord Jesus
Christ. We believe that Baptism is the burial of a believer in
water by the authority and instruction of the local Baptist
Church; that it symbolizes the death and the burial and the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; that it also typifies the
believer’s death to sin, the burial of his old nature and his
resurrection unto a new life; and that it is administered in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We
believe the Lord’s Supper is a memorial spread and administered
by the authority and instruction of the local Baptist Church;
that it symbolizes the broken body and the shed blood of the Son
of God; that its observance points backward to the crucified
Lord on Calvary and forward to the returning Lord in glory. We
believe that these ordinances are not sacraments, but are sacred
symbols, pointing to the world’s only Saviour and bidding the
sons of men to look unto an everlasting fellowship with the King
of kings and the Lord of lords when He shall return to take over
the reins of all government.
Matthew 26:26-29 and Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3-5 and Matthew
16:19; Acts 10:47; I Corinthians 11:23-24; I Corinthians
11:24-25; and I Corinthians 11:26.
20. CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
We
believe that the Churches of God and the state should be kept
completely separate; that civil officers should be prayed for,
conscientiously honored and obeyed; that diligence should be had
in seeking the will of God in all Church matters; that
missionary endeavor should ever be executed from within the
local Church to without; that pastors and deacons, the only
divinely appointed Church officers, should be duly ordained and
brought to understand the sacred duties devolving upon them;
that the Lord’s day, the first day of the week, should be
honored both by saint and sinner; that Bible teachings should be
constantly and consistently fostered by local Church bodies;
that members should be deliberately and prayerfully voted into
the fellowship of the local body; that unruly Church members
should be prayerfully and Scripturally disciplined by the local
Church; and that Church letters should be granted to sister
local Churches of the same faith and practice.
Acts 1:8 and Acts 13:1-35; Romans 13:1-7; Acts 14:23 and Acts
6:1-6; Acts 2:42; Revelation 1:10; Matthew 16:19 and Acts 10:47;
Matthew 18:15-17; Acts 15:19-27 and Acts 18:27 and Romans 16:1-2
and Matthew 28:19-20.
21. CHURCH CO-OPERATION
We
believe that it is the privilege and the right of local churches
to co-operate with each other in carrying out the commission of
the Lord; that such co-operation is righteously effected only
when the principles of Christ are preserved in the work fostered
and that all associated endeavor of local Churches should be
carried on in such a way as to preserve the sovereign integrity
of each local body in all matters of faith and practice.
II Corinthians 8:1-6, 16-24; II John 1-4; Matthew 16:18-19 and
Acts 15:19-27.
22. THE LORD’S DAY
We
believe that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day; that
it is a Christian institution for regular observance. It
commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should
be employed in exercise of worship and Spiritual devotion, both
public and private and that it is a resting from secular
employment; works of necessity and mercy only excepted.
Mathew 28:1-6; John 20:1 and Acts 20:7.
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