STATEMENT OF FAITH


THE DOCTRINE OF THE SCRIPTURES

WE BELIEVE that the Bible consists of, and is complete in those sixty-six Books that have been measured, tried, found satisfactory, and considered to be the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God;  that, not just the concepts, but the very words themselves are inspired;  and, that it is plenarily (completely) and equally inspired in all its parts;

WE BELIEVE that God breathed the Original Manuscripts (Autographs) of the Holy Scriptures into existence, and that He has supernaturally and miraculously preserved the Word of God ; that He has seen fit to preserve His Holy Word in the English language in the King James Version of the Holy Scriptures; and that we hold in our hands the very inspired Word of God;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that God’s Holy Word is our only authority for faith, doctrine and conduct; that it is God’s complete and only Revelation to man; that, when the Book of Revelation was completed, nothing was ever to be added to it or taken away from it (Which precludes the possibility of modern-day prophecies, “words from God”, visions, appearances of angels and revelations).

II Timothy 2:15; John 17:17; II Peter 1:19-21; II Timothy 3:16-17; Titus 1:9; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 119: 11, 105; I Corinthians 13:8-10; Revelation 22:18-19

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD

WE BELIEVE that there is only One True and Living God; that He is eternally existent in three Persons:  God The Father, God The Son and God the Holy Spirit;  that They are co-equal in every perfection, yet possessing distinct and complementary offices in relation to man;  that He created all things in six literal 24-hour days;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that God is Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Immutable and Omniscient in His absolute or natural attributes;  and that He is Holy, Just, Loving, Good, Merciful and Faithful in His moral attributes.

Hebrews 11:6; Genesis 1:1-2:7; 17:1; Psalms 90:2, 139:1-12; Isaiah 6:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:4; John 3:16; I John 4:8, 1:9; Romans 9:15-19; I Corinthians 10:13; Lamentations 3:22-23; John 4:24; Matthew 3:16.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE SON

WE BELIEVE that The Lord Jesus Christ is Very God Of Very God, yet all man – One Person with two Natures, each separate and distinct from the other;  that He condescended from Heaven; took upon Himself the form of human flesh, choosing not to exercise His absolute attributes in His sojourn on earth; that Christ in His Office is the Divine Fulfillment of Prophet, Priest, King and Judge;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that Christ was born of a virgin; that He lived a sinlessly-perfect life;  that He shed His blood and died on the cross of Calvary to pay man’s penalty for sin, being his Ransom and Substitute; that, after three days and three nights in the tomb, He came alive from the dead and rose bodily from the tomb, sealing our justification and assurance of future resurrection;  that He ascended into Heaven, taking His precious blood to the eternal mercy seat to satisfy the demands of a Holy God for our sins;  and that He sat down on the Right Hand of God The Father, there to make intercession for His own.

John 10:30; 8:58; 1:1-14; I Timothy 2:5; Philippians 2:5-7; Matthew 1:18-23; Hebrews 4:15; John 17:1-26; Hebrews 9:11-12; I John 2:1-2; Revelation 19:16; II Timothy 4:7-8; Matthew 20:28; Isaiah 53:1-12; Romans 4:25; I Corinthians 15:20.

THE DOCTRINE OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit is God Himself, possessing all the Attributes of God;  that He is a Person;  that He can be resisted, grieved and quenched by natural and carnal men;  that He was active in the Old Testament, descending upon Saints for a temporary time for a particular task, to endue with skill or to endue with power;

WE BELIEVE that He is active in the process of the salvation of souls:  that He convicts and convinces the sinner of his sin;  that He regenerates the unsaved heart; and that He baptizes the newborn believer into the family of God;  that, at the instant of salvation, He comes to dwell in the heart of believers, and that He will never leave us or forsake us;  that He is the One Who seals the eternity of the believer until the rapture; that His ministry to the believer is to fill, sanctify, teach, guide into truth, help, comfort, and anoint for service;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Giver of spiritual gifts – that He gave uniquely to the apostles the sign gifts of prophecy, healing, speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues; that the purpose of these gifts was that God’s chosen people, the Jews might see, hear and believe that Jesus truly was the Christ and Messiah for Whom they had so long awaited;  that these sign gifts ended when the Word of God was completed; and that in the age of Grace, the Holy Spirit today bestows the gifts of evangelist and pastor along with those of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.

Matthew 28:14, 20; Isaiah 6:8-9 with II Corinthians 6:16-18; 13:14; Psalms 139:7-13;  Genesis 1:2; Luke 11:13; Hebrews 9:14;  Acts 7:51; Ephesians 4:30; I Thessalonians 5:19; Job 32:8; Exodus 31:3 & 35:31; Judges 14:6; John 16:7-14: 3:3-5; 1:33; Acts 11:16; I Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 1:13; Romans 15:16; John 14:26 & 16:13; Romans 8:26; Acts 1:8; I Corinthians, Chapters 12-14; Revelation 22:18-19; Ephesians 4:11-12; Galatians 5:22-23.

THE DOCTRINE OF SATAN AND DEMONS

WE BELIEVE that Satan is a person – a fallen angel, the author of sin, and the cause of the fall of man;  that he is the open and declared arch-enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire;  that he is the prince and god of this world; the prince of the power of the air and the prince of demons;  that he is the adversary, the slanderer, the accuser and the tempter of the believer; that his army is that multitude of fallen angels who aid him in his wicked devices; that they are brutish, and violent; that their numbers are great, and that they are active on earth today; that we do not need to fear Satan and his host, but we need to recognize their power, submit ourselves to God, arm against them and resist them; and that he and his host are conquered enemies who shall receive eternal punishment in hell.

Matthew 4:1-9, 12:24; Revelation 12:7-10; I Timothy 3:6; Job 1:8-11; John 14:30; Matthew 12:22-24; I Peter 5:8; Genesis 3:1-5; Luke 8:26-33; 9:28-43; I Timothy 4:1;  Ephesians 6:10-18; Psalms 23:4; James 4:7; I Corinthians 10:13; Genesis 3:15; John 16:11; Revelation 20:10.

THE DOCTRINE OF MAN

WE BELIEVE that man was created by God, instantaneously, and without the necessity of any evolutionary process whatsoever;  that he was created perfect, in the image of God; but that in Adam’s fall, sin passed on the entire human race, and man became totally depraved, and dead in sin – by nature and by choice; and, that the only remedy for his lost condition is repentance toward God and complete trust in the shed blood and death of Christ on the cross and in His bodily resurrection from the tomb.

Genesis 1:26-27, 31; 2:7; Romans 5:12; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Isaiah 64:6; John 3:5; Romans 10:8- 13; John 1:12; Romans 8:23.

THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION

WE BELIEVE that man, an unregenerate sinner, has no merit to save himself, and that he can do nothing to merit the grace of God for salvation and eternal life; that he may, of his own volition, realize, and forsake his sinful condition, and repent and turn to God;  that he must call on the Lord for salvation from sin and hell to eternal life in heaven;  that salvation is all by the grace of God through faith in His death, burial and resurrection.

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that, when God saves us, He regenerates us, justifies us, adopts us and sanctifies us to Himself; and that we are saved eternally.

Romans 3:10, 23; 6:23; 10:9-10, 13; John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6; Romans 5:12; John 10:28-29; Galatians 4:4-5; I Corinthians 6:11.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

WE BELIEVE that the local church is God’s channel of outreach and blessing in this church age;  that the local church is a body of born-again believers, baptized by immersion, and ordained of the Lord for mutual fellowship and building up in the faith, and for the propagation of the gospel at home and around the globe;

WE BELIEVE that the only two Scripturally-ordained offices in the local church are those of pastor and deacon; that these two offices are to be administered by men meeting the qualifications outlined in I Timothy, chapter 3; that the only two ordinances given to the local church are those of baptism by immersion, (one time backwards,  picturing the death, burial and resurrection of Christ) and the Lord’s Supper; that baptism is to be administered only to those professing saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;  that the Lord’s Supper is only for those walking in fellowship with Christ (a determination made by self-examination); that these two ordinances are symbolic in nature, and possess no power to bestow grace.  We believe that tithes  and free-will offerings are God’s only biblically-outlined means of financial support for the local church;

WE ALSO BELIEVE that the church, as a body, is to be separate from any ecclesiastical tie which would yoke it organically with an organization or individual which is cultic, modernistic (liberal), neo-orthodox,  neo-evangelical, charismatic, pentecostal, or otherwise unscriptural in doctrine or practice;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that the Church in Prospect – The Bride of Christ – is a spiritual organism made up of all believers of this present age, built upon Christ, with Christ as its Foundation, Cornerstone and Head, and will meet for the first time in Heaven at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Matthew 28:19-20; I Corinthians 3:11; 11:23-26; 13:8-10; 16:1; Ephesians 5:23-27; Acts 20:28; I Timothy 3:1-16; Titus 1:5-9; Acts 6:1-3; Romans 6:1-5; Ephesians 4:11;  II Corinthians 6:14, II Thessalonians 3:6; Matthew 28:19-20; Malachi 3: 8-10.

THE DOCTRINE OF LAST THINGS

WE BELIEVE that the next event in the life of the believer is the pre-millennial, pre-tribulational rapture of the Church; that it is imminent, and that nothing else has to happen before Christ’s coming for His Bride; that, at the rapture, those saved during the age of Grace shall stand before the Bema Judgment Seat of Christ, that our works may be tried, and that we may receive reward for those things done for Christ; that we shall be present at the Marriage Supper of The Lamb, where we shall be united with our Lord, never to be separated again; and that, after seven years, we shall return to earth to reign with Him in His kingdom;

WE BELIEVE that the seven years on earth following the rapture will be that designated by God as the Great Tribulation, at which time the antichrist will reign as head of a religio-political, one-world church; that he will establish a universal worship of himself; that 144,000 Jewish evangelists will be sealed, who will win multitudes from every tribe and nation;  that the beast will demand that his mark be engraved on everyone on earth; that anyone refusing the mark will be beheaded; that anyone who had refused God’s plan of salvation in the age of Grace will receive the mark of the beast to his own damnation; that the tribulation will culminate in the Battle of Armageddon; that Satan and his hosts will be defeated; and that God and right shall prevail;

WE BELIEVE that, at the end of Christ’s millennial reign, Satan, the beast and the antichrist will be cast into hell to be tormented eternally; that, at that time, all unbelievers of all time shall stand before God’s Great White Judgment Throne to be judged; that Satan’s demons and all who have rejected Christ and His salvation will be sentenced to an eternity of hell and damnation;

WE FURTHER BELIEVE that all who have been saved by the blood  will serve and love Christ, dwelling with Him throughout eternity, and that He shall reign as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS for ever and ever!

I Thessalonians 1:10; 5:2; 4:14-17; Revelation 3:10; Acts 1:11; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 19:7-9; Matthew 24:3-28; Revelation 6:16-17; II Thessalonians 2:3-12; Revelation 13:1-18; 7:4-10; 16:16-21; 19:11-21; 20:1-6; Matthew 25:31-46; Isaiah 11:6-16; Revelation, Chapters 21-22.