Part 1. 

“And the things that thou hast heard of me [the apostle Paul] among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to to teacher others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 3:2)

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Part 2.

Part 4.
Our Statement of Faith.

“Holding fast the faithful Word as (you) have been taught, that (you) may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” (Titus 1:9)

(When’s the last time you looked at your church constitution? Your statement of faith or belief? Where do you stand - or better, where does the Bible stand - on the material given in that statement? Know what you believe and why, else you will be carried about with every wind of doctrine. Ephesians 4:14.)

Concerning the True God. We believe in one God, the Creator of heaven and earth; that in the unity of the Godhead, there are three equal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory, and executing distinct and harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

Concerning the Scriptures. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally written were God-breathed, both verbally and in every part. We believe God, Who is Truth, communicated through Spirit-controlled men so that the Scriptures are without error and therefore authoritative in all they teach and in all matters they touch. We believe the Bible is the supreme revelation of God’s will for man and constitutes the only infallible guide for faith and life. We believe that God has preserved and will continue to preserve the Bible as His Word. We further believe that the King James Version is the preserved Word of God in the English language.

Concerning the Trinity. There are three Persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. That man, in his finite being, cannot comprehend the Trinity does not preclude his acceptance of it, even as he must accept much of God’s revelation through faith and in the comfort of the Scriptures, allowing at the same time to be filled by the Holy Spirit who will lead him into all truth.

Concerning the Savior. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary as no other man was ever nor can be born of a woman. He is the God of every god, being “God manifest in the flesh.” He lived a life of absolute sinlessness and in His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; dying not as a martyr, but as a voluntary substitute in the sinner’s place. He rose from the dead on the third day and ascended bodily into heaven. He is coming again to rapture His saints, and to set up the throne of David and establish His kingdom. The rapture coming is imminent and will be personal, pre-tribulational, and pre-millennial.

Concerning God the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person possessing all the attributes of personality and deity. He is equal to the Father and the Son and is of the same nature. His relationship to the unbelieving world is that He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He is the agent of the new birth, and His work among believers is that He seals, indwells, fills, guides, and teaches them the ways of righteousness. We believe there is a distinction between the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and His ministry in the New Testament. There is a new and unique work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Body of Christ. We believe the Bible disavows the authenticity of the sign gifts of prophecy, speaking in tongues, miracles, and healing for today; and repudiates the experience-oriented theology and ecumenically oriented practice of the charismatic movement.

Concerning Repentance and Faith. We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the quickening Spirit of God; thereby being deeply convicted of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turned to God with unfeigned contrition, confession and supplication for mercy; at the same time, heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and openly confessing Him as our only and all-sufficient Savior.

Concerning the Creation. We believe in the Genesis account of creation and that it is to be accepted literally, and not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness; that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species, or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only “after their kind.”

Concerning the Fall of Man. We believe that man was created in holiness under the law of his Maker but by voluntary transgression fell from that holy and happy state, in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint but by choice, being by nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil, and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin without defense or excuse.

Concerning Sin. We believe that sin is at its root man’s transgression of God’s holy law and his disobedience toward the will, way, and Word of God. The Biblical account of the origin of sin points to man, having a free choice, confronted with God’s will and Satan’s will. The will of man obeyed Satan and disobeyed God, and thereby came the transgression. Thus, sin separated man from God, yet man is accountable to God for the sins he commits in life. All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and man is wholly helpless to save himself from his sin. Jesus Christ was manifested to destroy both the power and the penalty of sin, and was laden with man‘s sins as He - Himself sinless - suffered and died as the ultimate, only, and final sacrifice for man’s sin, a sacrifice wholly acceptable to God.

Concerning Righteousness and Wickedness. We believe there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctified by the Spirit of our God, are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked, and under the curse, and this distinction holds among men both in and after death, in the everlasting felicity of the saved, and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost.

Concerning Salvation. The Bible teaches that God saves men. Men are lost in their sin and they need a Savior. They have no hope without Christ. The only thing that awaits sinful men is death and hell and forever. The Lord Jesus suffered our death in hell for us. He paid our debt with his precious blood on the cross of Calvary. He bled and died, was buried, and rose triumphantly from the grave alive forevermore. Those who ask Him to forgive their sin and by faith receive Him as Savior have His full, free, and forever promise that their sins are forgiven and forgotten and cast behind God’s back (Isaiah 38:17). Heaven is their home. That is based on no merit of their own, but entirely on the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Concerning the Atonement for Sin. We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace; through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God, who by appointment of the Father, freely took upon Him our nature, yet without sin, honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was the voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust, Christ the Lord, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree; that, having risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in heaven and uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfection. He is every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Savior.

Concerning Grace. We believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God; that the new creation is brought about in a manner above our comprehension, not by culture, not by character, nor by the will of man, but wholly and solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel; that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.

Concerning Personal Separation. We believe the Scriptures teach that every believer should be separated unto God from the world and, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, should walk in Christian love and holiness, exhibiting qualities of honesty, integrity, forgiveness, and loving-kindness. We further believe that any achievement in the characteristics will be evident by sincere humility and genuine zeal for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We also believe the Scriptures admonish every believer not to love the world of the things of the world, but rather to flee desires, avoid every kind of evil, and refrain from questionable practices which destroy one’s testimony, offend one’s brother, and fail to glorify God.

Concerning the Eternal State. We believe that the Scriptures teach the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust. All those who, through faith, are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will spend eternity in full enjoyment of god’s presence. And those who through unbelief refuse to accept God’s offer of mercy will spend eternity in everlasting punishment.

Concerning the Security of the Believer. This is a Biblical teaching that those who are saved will continue in that state. The phrase itself does not appear in Scripture, but the principle appears at such places as Romans 8:38,39 and Philippians 1:6. Security of the believer is wholly God’s effort and not human. This principle is not to be used as an excuse to be rebellious against God - to willfully sin and/or to ignore His presence. All of us regularly see abuses by people whom we view (believingly) as being saved. When this happens, we almost unconsciously evaluate (and perhaps even fear for) the real eternal state of that person. However, the very nature of eternal life (or life everlasting) forbids the thought of it not being permanent and eternal.

Concerning Satan. We believe the Scriptures teach that there is a personal devil who is “the god of this age” and “the prince of the air,” who is full of all subtlety, who seeks continually to frustrate the purposes of God and to ensnare the sons of men, and who was conquered by Christ on the cross and condemned to everlasting punishment.

Concerning The Church. We believe the Scriptures teach that the church of Jesus Christ was inaugurated during the early ministry of our Lord. We reject the theory that there is a universal, invisible church. The churches of the New Testament were always local and visible. The church is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by a covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word. Its Scriptural officers are: pastors, sometimes called bishops, or elders, and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are defined in the epistles 2 Timothy and Titus.

Concerning Ordinances. We believe that the Scriptures teach that Christian baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to show forth a solemn and beautiful emblem his identification with the crucified, buried, risen Savior; thus illustrating the believer’s death to sin and His resurrection to a new life. It is prerequisite to membership and privileges in a local church. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is for believers of like faith only. The ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper must be observed under the discipline of the local church.

Concerning Ecclesiastical Separation. We believe the Scriptures teach that the believer should be separated from apostasy as exemplified in ecclesiastical organizations which include radicals, liberals, and those who sanction theological compromise. This doctrine is based upon God’s eternal principle of division between truth and error and His specific command to be separate from unbelievers and disobedient brethren. The truth is to be practiced with an attitude of devotion to God, humility, compassion, and yet with conviction, to create the proper condition and atmosphere for the main objective, the salvation of the lost through the Gospel of God. We believe ecumenical evangelism, which involves apostates, violates the principle taught in God’s Word.

Concerning the Resurrection and Return of Christ and Related Events. We believe in and accept the sacred Scriptures upon these subjects at their face and full value. Of the resurrection, we believe that Christ rose bodily “the third day according to the Scriptures;” that He alone is our merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God;” “that this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven,” bodily, personally and visible; that “the dead in Christ shall rise first,” that the living saints “shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump;” that the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David;” and that “Christ shall reign a thousand years in righteousness until He hath put all enemies under His feet.”

Concerning the Virgin Birth. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit, in a miraculous manner; born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever born or can ever be born of woman, and that He is both the Son of God, and God the Son.

Concerning Missions. The commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel is a clear and unmistakable Biblical command, by order of God, to the churches.

Concerning Civil Government. We believe that civil government is of divine appointment, for the interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed; except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ; who is the only Lord of the conscience, and the coming Prince of the kings of the earth.

Concerning Sexual Orientation. We believe that God created two sexes, male and female, and that the Bible defines a marriage as one man joined to one woman, thus becoming one until the death of the man or the woman. We further believe that homosexuality is an abomination to God and a scourge to any society. The Bible additionally condemns cross-dressing and effeminacy. Being “gay” or “lesbian” is not a lifestyle. It is a sin. A person in not born homosexual, but rather becomes one by giving into the perverseness that is in his or her heart. Furthermore, we hold that we are to loathe this sin as God does, however we are to love those sinners who practice this sin and try to reach them for Christ.

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for Jesus' sake 
don, minister,
Unashamed, Gospel preaching, independent, fundamentalist, soul-winning, Baptist, King James, separated, unafraid to correct error and rebuke sinful conduct, standing against liberalism, modernism, humanism, Neo-evangelicalism, emergent church, and all forms of seeker-sensitive accommodation, local church, Hell damning, sin damning, radically patriotic. No apologies.

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