The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. God so superintended the writers of Scripture that they wrote what He wanted them to write and were kept from error in doing so. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth for all its matter. It reveals the principles by which God judges us; and therefore, is and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal being, the creator, redeemer, preserver, and ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In his incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy
Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the Person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the nature of God and man, and in whose person is affected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables men to understand the truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer to the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
 

Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning, man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence; whereby his posterity inherits a nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable men to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every man possesses dignity and is worthy of Christian love.

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption of the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through the conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

God’s determination, as revealed by the Holy Scriptures, is displayed by the ordering of events, things, and men in the fulfillment of His purpose, and the accomplishment of good.

This is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. His determination is consistent with the free agency of man and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is a glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.
 
All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God accepted in Christ, and sanctified in His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect, and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they will be kept by the power of God through faith to salvation.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and resurrection to walk in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby baptized believers in Jesus Christ, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
 

We observe the first day of the week as the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution for the regular observance and commemoration of the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.
 

The kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which people enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promises, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and dwell forever in heaven with the Lord. 

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all this rises upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to share Christ with the lost by personal effort and by all other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are, we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debt to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possession. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. As directed by the Scriptures, Christians should contribute their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally as God has commanded.

Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in their own life and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. The Christian should oppose in the Spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice. He should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. To promote these ends, Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

This church receives the Scriptures as its authority in all matters of faith and practice.

The government of this church is vested in the body of believers who compose it. It is subject to the control of no other ecclesiastical body.