DOCTRINE OF GOD
a) God is an eternal personal Spirit being, who created all things in the spiritual and physical worlds. (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 90:2, John 1:1-3, Romans 1:19-20)
b) God exists in three co-equal, yet distinct, persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and being worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience. (Deuteronomy 6:4, I Corinthians 8:4-6, Matthew 28:19, John 1:1-3, 6:27, Acts 5:3-4)
c) God is unchanging in his essential being. However, the methods by which He administers His plan for the world may change. He is perfect and complete in all His attributes including knowledge, holiness, righteousness, love, power, wisdom, authority, and presence. (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6, Psalm 19:9, 139: 1-8, I Peter 1:15-16, Colossians 1:16-17, I John 4:8, I Timothy 1:17, I Corinthians 1:25)
DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE
a) The words of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and are without error in the original manuscripts. Men of God were moved by the Holy Spirit to record precisely the words that God intended. The Bible, therefore, is the final authority in all matters about which it speaks.
b) The Bible is to be interpreted in a normal and literal way. This means that history, grammar, and context are the guidelines for proper interpretation. (II Timothy 3:16-17, II Peter 1:21, John 10:35)
c) God’s revelation ceased with the completion of the sixty-six books of the Bible.
DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST
a) Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He is both fully God and fully man. He came into the world to manifest God to men, fulfill Old Testament prophecy, and become the Savior of a lost world. While He was fully human, He had a sinless human nature and lived a perfect life.
b) In infinite love He became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb to take away the sin of the world. By his death on the cross He bore the judgments that a holy God must impose.
c) He rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and intercedes for the saints before the Father.
DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
1. Every person who has lived, with the exception of Jesus Christ, is in need of personal deliverance from God’s eternal judgment for his sinfulness, that is, his violation of God’s will and falling short of God’s perfect standards. (Romans 3:9-23, Ephesians 2:1-3)
2. Christ died as a full and sufficient payment for the sins of the entire world, and as a substitute for all men. Christ’s shed blood is the only provision by which an individual may be delivered from the wrath of God. (Hebrews 10:1-14, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 3:24, II Corinthians 5:18-21)
3. Salvation is a free gift of God that must be received by each individual through faith and trust in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross alone, and not through self-effort or human merit. (Acts 13:38-39, 16:3 1, Romans 3:19-28, Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:1-10)
4. The person who trusts in Christ’s death on the cross to save him can be assured of his destiny in heaven because of his position in Christ and possession of eternal life. (John 3:16, 5:24, 10:27-29, Hebrews 13:5, I John 5:11-13)
5. God’s purpose for each of His children is to conform them to the image of Christ which is a progressive process in which the Christian should respond in obedience to God’s word and cooperate with the Spirit’s leading. Complete sanctification will not be attained in this life, but is received at the believer’s death or rapture. (Colossians 2:6-7, John 17:17, II Corinthians 3:18, 7:1, I Thessalonians 5:23, I John 3:2-3)
6. Every Christian will stand for evaluation at the judgment seat of Christ to determine eternal rewards based on faithfulness in obedience to God subsequent to salvation. (I Corinthians 3:10-15, II Corinthians 5:9-10)
DOCTRINE OF FUTURE THINGS
- All Christians, living and dead, will meet the Lord in the air at the rapture and will forever be with Him. (I Thessalonians 4:16-17)
2. In the future, Christ will return bodily to the earth in power and glory to set up His kingdom. (Matthew 24:15-3 1, Revelation 20:1-10)
3. All unbelievers and fallen angels will be judged and condemned to hell forever. All believers will enter into the presence of God in the eternal kingdom of the new heaven and the new earth. (Revelation 20:10 - 21:5)
DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
- All who are by faith united to the risen Christ are members of the true universal church which is the body and bride of Christ. Membership in the universal church is without regard of membership or non-membership in the organized churches or denominations of earth. Every believer is baptized by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, thereby placing him into the one body of Christ.
- 2. The local church is God’s primary means of bringing His saints to spiritual maturity and equipping them for the work of the ministry. Every believer is a priest, and there is no justification for a clergy-laity distinction
- 3. The local church provides the opportunity for believers to obey God’s command by observing water baptism and the Lord ’s Supper until He comes.
DOCTRINE OF MAN
- Man is created in the image of God. Because of sin his perfect fellowship with God was broken and he experienced physical and spiritual death (separation from God).
2. The consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve affect the entire human race. All human beings are born with a sinful human nature and commit sins.
DOCTRINE OF ANGELS
1. Angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve and worship Him and to minister to people.
2. Lucifer, the angel of highest rank, sinned through pride and thereby became Satan. He is the active enemy of God and of God’s people, opposing and exalting himself above God. Many angels followed Satan, some of whom became demons and are active as Satan’s agents in the world.