We believe in the Holy Scripture, accepting the writings of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God, verbally inspired in all parts, infallible, inerrant, and wholly without error. We believe the Scriptures are altogether sufficient in themselves as our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice, and that God has faithfully preserved His Word for the English-speaking people in the authorized King James Version of the Bible.
We believe that God eternally exists in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and that these three are one God, possessing the same nature, attributes, and perfections, yet functioning in distinct offices. God the Father is the First Person of the Godhead, eternal, self-existent, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Godhead, the only begotten of the Father and the Savior of all who by faith receive Him; He is perfect God and perfect man, unchanging, born of a virgin, and became the Redeemer of sinners through His death and bodily resurrection. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, dwelling within every believer, and performing the work of regeneration, indwelling, baptizing, teaching, discernment, filling, and sealing.
We believe that man was the direct creation of God, made in His image and likeness, and that through personal disobedience to the revealed will of God he fell into sin. As a result of the Fall, man lost his spiritual life and became dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from the life and family of God, and placed under His righteous judgment and wrath. We believe that this fallen, sinful nature has been transmitted to the entire human race, so that all men are by nature and by choice sinful and lost, universally corrupt in both nature and practice, and apart from divine grace have within themselves no possible means of salvation.
We believe in salvation by grace through faith, that a person can be saved only by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is the free gift of God, neither merited nor secured in part or in whole by any virtue or work of man, but received through repentance toward God and personal faith in Jesus Christ. Through this faith the sinner receives the new birth and, having been born again, is saved for all eternity. Upon salvation, the believer is justified—the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous—sanctified, though not made perfect in this life, and eternally preserved. In Christ alone the believer possesses eternal life, perfect righteousness, deliverance and security from all condemnation, every spiritual resource needed for life and godliness, and the divine assurance that he shall never perish, for apart from Christ there is no possible salvation.
We believe in future life, bodily resurrection, and eternal judgment. The spirits of the saved at death go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven, the eternal abode of all believers, where they will forever rejoice in His presence. At the time when Christ comes for His own in the Rapture of the Church, the works of believers will be brought before the Judgment Seat of Christ for the determination of rewards. The Rapture is followed by the Tribulation, after which Christ will return to the Battle of Armageddon, ushering in His Millennial reign. The spirits of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hell, the eternal abode of all unbelievers, where they are consciously punished and separated from God until the final day of judgment, when their bodies will be raised, they will be judged, and cast into the lake of fire, the place of final and everlasting punishment.
We believe in the importance of the local church, which God has established to carry on His work in the world. A New Testament church is a congregation of baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges He has invested in them. Its officers are pastors and deacons, whose qualifications, duties, and responsibilities are clearly defined in Scripture. The pastor serves as the under-shepherd of Christ, feeding, guiding, warning, and leading the congregation, while the deacons assist him in his duties. The church has been charged with two ordinances, the Lord’s Supper and baptism, which are symbolic of Christ’s work and have no saving merit. The true mission of the church is found in the Great Commission: to make disciples, baptize converts, and teach them to obey all that Christ commanded. The local church maintains absolute self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy or outside authority, with Christ as its one and only superintendent through the Holy Spirit. While churches may cooperate with one another in contending for the faith and advancing the gospel, each church alone determines its membership, governance, discipline, benevolence, and methods of cooperation. As a Baptist institution, we hold firmly to the historic Baptist distinctives in all our doctrinal positions.
We believe in the doctrine of separation, which encompasses the believer’s responsibility in three areas. First, ecclesiastical separation: the local church must remain separate from all affiliation and fellowship with those who deny the verities of the faith once delivered to the saints, including liberal organizations, erring brethren, and those who do not take similar stands of separation, while maintaining the sovereignty of the church as an autonomous body under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Second, personal separation: the individual believer is to abstain from all worldly practices that would dishonor the Savior, being mindful of what we say, do, and where we go, and observing biblical principles of modesty and identification in appearance. Third, we believe in the separation of church and state, recognizing that the believer and the church are called to live under God’s authority rather than conform to worldly patterns and influences (Romans 12:1-2; 14:13; II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; II Timothy 3:1-5; II John 9-11).