Our TImes to grow

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We believe in the plenary, verbal, Divine inspiration of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and that these Scriptures were consequently free from all error in the whole and in the part in the original autographs, and, therefore, infallible, sufficient, the sole, supreme and final authority in the church, faith and life. • NOTE: By inspiration, we mean that these books of the Bible were written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally inspired and free from error – the very Word of God, as no other writings ever have been or ever will be, and have been preserved in the extant of the manuscripts. • 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Samuel 23:2; Acts 1:16; Proverbs 30:5,6; Revelation 22:18,19; Acts 17:11; 1 Timothy 3:14, 15; 1 Corinthians 14:37; Isaiah 8:20  

We believe in the existence of one living and true God, an infinite, intelligent, self-existent, eternal Spirit, having a definite and distinctive personality, the Maker of and the Supreme Ruler of all things, inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy of all honor, confidence, adoration, allegiance, love and worship. • Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6-8; 45:5,6,21; Exodus 3:14; Revelation 1:4; Isaiah 40:18; 57:15; Genesis 21:33; John 4:23,24; 5:26; Acts 17:24,25,29; 7:48,49,50; Exodus 34:5-7; Isaiah 6:1-3  

We believe that in the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the Trinity), the same in essence, equal in attributes and in every Divine perfection, executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption and salvation. • Colossians 2:2; John 6:27; 1 Peter 1:2; John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; Micah 5:2; Acts 5:3,4; Hebrews 9:14; Matthew 3:16,17; Isaiah 48:16; 61:1; 63:10; Genesis 1:26; 1:2; 6:3  

We believe in the miraculous virgin birth, the perfect sinless humanity, and the absolute deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. • Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35; John 1:1,14; Isaiah 7:14; Genesis 3:15; Romans 1:3; Micah 5:2; Hebrews 10:5; John 6:33; 3:31; 6:38; 5:18; 1:4; 14:6,7; Acts 2:22; 1 Timothy 2:5; Matthew 4:2; 11:27; Luke 2:40,46-49; Hebrews 2:10,18; 1:6; Titus 2:13; Revelation 5:12-14  

We believe in His sacrificial, substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary to make atonement for sin by the shedding of His precious blood once for all. • 1 Peter 1:18-20; 3:18; Romans 3:25; 5:6,8; 8:32; Mark 10:45; John 1:29; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:5,6; Revelation 1:5; Galatians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Hebrews 2:9; 9:11-15,26-28; 10:10,12,14  

We believe in His literal bodily resurrection and ascension to heaven, and in His intercession for the saints at the right hand of the Father. • Acts 1:9-11; Luke 24:50,51; 24:36-43; Mark 16:19; Acts 2:31-33; 3:26; 1 Corinthians 15:4-8,20; acts 7:56; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 4:15,16; 10:21,22; 9:11,12,24  

We believe in His visible, bodily return to earth to reign over His creation and we are to live in preparation for the day He returns.   • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:15,52; I Thessalonians 5:8-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; 1:7-9; Zechariah 14:3,4; Revelation 20:1-6; 19:11-21; Isaiah 32:1; 11:1-10; Matthew 19:28; 2:37,38; Revelation 5:10; Ezekiel 21:27; Isaiah 66:15,16,8; 9:6; Daniel 2:37,38; 7:9-14; Luke 1:32,33; Jeremiah 3:17; Zechariah 14 

 We believe in the personality, deity and power of the Holy Spirit of God. And in the necessity and efficiency of His work in the enlightenment, regeneration, sanctification, enduement, resurrection and glorification of each believer. • Acts 5:3,4; John 16:14; 15:26; 16:7,8; Matthew 28:19; Jude 20,21; Acts 7:51; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19;12:4-6,13; Acts 2:1-4; Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:9,23,26,17; Galatians 5:22,23; 1 John 2:20,27; 1 Corinthians  2:11-14; Acts 13:1-3; 20:28; 16:6,7; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Ephesians 5:18,19; 6:18; John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Ephesians 1:13,14; Galatians 5:17; John 14:26; Luke 4:18  

We believe that every born-again believer should be filled with the Spirit in order to effectively witness for Christ, but we repudiate many claims of the modern signs and wonders movement. • Ephesians 5:18; Luke 11-13; Romans 6:4; Ephesians 1:19-21; 3:16; Luke 4:18,19; Acts 4:31; 5:32; 1 Corinthians 12:29,30; 14:39,21,22; Isaiah 29:11,12; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 13:8-13  

We believe in the creation of man in holiness, by a direct act of God and not by an evolutionary process. • Matthew 19:4; Genesis 1:26,27; Genesis 2:7,21-23; Genesis 5:1; 1 Corinthians 15:38,39,45a; Psalms 94:9; 8:4-6; Acts 17:24-26; Ecclesiastes 7:29 

We believe in the terrible reality of the fall of man, and in the total, universal depravity of all mankind which has rendered him helpless and hopeless of salvation from sin by his own efforts. • Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 5:12,19; 1 Timothy 2:14; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Romans 3:10-12,23; Romans 3:13-18; 7:18a; 6:23; Galatians 5:19-21; Mark 7:20-23; Matthew 12:34; Ephesians 2:2,3; James 1:14; Ephesians 2:1,8,9; Jeremiah 13:23; 2:22; Romans 8:7,8; John 3:19,20; 5:42; 2 Timothy 3:4  

We believe in the redemption and salvation of sinners by grace alone, through the mediatorial office of the Son of God, who by shedding His blood made a complete atonement for sins, once for all. • Ephesians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:11-14,28; Hebrews 10:10-18; 1 Peter 1:18,19; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Romans 3:25; Romans 5:6,8; 1 Corinthians 15:3,4; 1 John 2:2; Galatians 2:21  

We believe in the full and free forgiveness of all the sins of any and all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior. • Acts 13:38,39; 10:42,43; Luke 24:47; 1 John 2:12; Romans 4:6-8; 3:28; Hebrews 10:15-18; Romans 4:5; 5:1,16; Galatians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21 

 We believe in the absolute necessity of repentance and regeneration in salvation, that is, that sinners must be born again in order to be saved; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth one dead in trespasses and sins is made a partaker of the Divine nature and receives eternal life, the gift of God; that the new birth is accomplished, not by water baptism or by any other act of men or of a church, but by a Divine work of the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, so as to secure the individual’s voluntary obedience to the Gospel; that, at the new birth, the life received at natural physical birth is, by a Divine legal transaction, accounted dead in Christ on the cross; that, at the new birth, Christ comes to dwell in the believer by the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the believer being miraculously united to Him, thus imparting to the believer a new life, making him the righteousness of God in Christ; that the proper evidence of the new birth appears in the holy fruits of continuous repentance, faith and newness of life. • John 3:3-7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10; 1 John 5:11,12; John 1:12; Ephesians 2:1; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:23b; John 1:13;3:8; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 4:15 cf. 1:14-17; John 6:37a; Colossians 3:3; Galatians 2:19,20; Romans 8:9; Colossians 1:27; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 Corinthians 6:17,19; Colossians 3:3,4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 5:4,5; Matthew 7:20:21  

We believe in the final and ultimate preservation in eternal life, through the grace of God, of all who are truly born again. • 1 Peter 1:3-5; John 6:37b; 10:28,29; 6:47; 5:24; 1 Corinthians 11:30-32; Romans 8:29,30  We believe that the souls of believers are, at death, made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory; that the bodies of believers rest in the graves until their resurrection; we believe in a bodily resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. • 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:21,23; Acts 7:55,56,59; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; John 5:28,29; Luke 14:14; 1 Corinthians 15:52  

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the believing righteous and the unbelieving wicked; that only those who through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are truly righteous and shall be taken with Him in heavenly glory; We believe that all such as continue in impenitence and wicked unbelief shall be cast into hell and finally into the lake of fire, a place of everlasting conscious punishment prepared for the devil and his angels. • John 3:18; Romans 5:11; John 3:36; Revelation 20:4-6,11-15; 21:8; 14:10,11; Matthew 11:20-24; 25:41; Luke 16:19-26  

We believe in the reality and personality of the devil, who together with a great multitude of other angels, fell from his first estate to become the enemy of God, mankind and all righteousness; that the devil is the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, tempting, deceiving and enticing them in order to lead them to follow him in his rebellion against God and to reject the salvation which is offered through Jesus Christ; that the devil and his angels will ultimately be cast into the lake of fire. • Luke 4:1-13; Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Job 1:6-12; 1 Peter 5:8; Luke 22:31; Revelation 20:10; Genesis 3:1-6; 2 Corinthians 11:3; John 13:2; Acts 5:3; Matthew 25:41  

We believe that all believers declare their faith in the Lord in water baptism by immersion, and that baptism is credal; that baptism has no saving efficacy, but rather is an act of loving obedience towards God whereby the believer recognizes and acknowledges to God and before his fellowmen, the reality of his own death with Christ at the new birth together with his responsibility to fully, entirely and continually yield his body to the control of the indwelling Spirit Savior, acknowledging Christ’s absolute Lordship in every sphere of life. • Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:36-39a; 2:38; Mark 16:15,16; 1 Corinthians 1:14-17 cf. 4:15; Luke 23:40-43; 6:46; Romans 6:1-4; Ephesians 5:18,19 

 We believe in the fullness of the Holy Spirit as absolutely essential for effective Christian service, while repudiating the claims of the many modern tongues and healing movement(s). • Ephesians 5:18,19; Acts 1:8; 4:31,33,8; 13:9; Luke 11:13; 1 Corinthians 12:30; 13:8-13  

We believe in the privilege and responsibility which each baptized believer has of partaking of the communion service with others of God’s people who are walking in the light and in obedience to the Word of God; that the bread and wine are symbols only; that partaking of these has no saving efficacy, but rather is a commemoration of the death of Christ to assist the believer to meditate on His sufferings and death while examining himself in the light of these, thus being led to greater lives, praise, worship, adoration, obedience and holiness. That the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper should be preceded by a time of self-examination, with the individual believer responsible, before God, for their choice in partaking or abstaining from the elements. • 1 Corinthians 11:28  

We believe that a church is a congregation of believers who have been baptized by immersion, voluntarily associated together in fellowship for the purpose of edifying one another and preaching the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His Word, being otherwise entirely self-governing and self-supporting, completely free from the hierarchy of individuals and organizations, acknowledging only one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and being free to cooperate and associate or withhold from cooperation and association with other similarly Scriptural local churches as it may see fit; we believe that the church is a New Testament organization. • Acts 2:41,42; 6:5a; Hebrews 10:24,25; 1 Timothy 3:14,15; 2 Timothy 3:16,17; Matthew 28:19; 16:18; Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Corinthians 16:12; Revelation 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7,14  

We believe in personal separation, namely that every believer ought to be separated from worldly and sinful practices unto a life of Christian influence and service; that it is the obligation and duty of every believer to abstain from all appearance of evil, to avoid all things whereby a brother is made weak or made to stumble, to give no offence in any thing, but by love to serve one another; in the necessity of maintaining, according to the Word of God, the purity of the church in life and doctrine. • Romans 12:1,2; Ephesians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 10:23,29-33; 6:19,20; Romans 13:14; 14:13-21; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22  

We believe in ecclesiastical separation, namely the Biblically revealed principles given by God for the preservation and propagation of His people; we believe in separation from all unbiblical associations, denominations, and fellowships who tolerate deviation from essential doctrine and practice. • 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Romans 16:17,18; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8,9; 1 Thessalonians 3:6,14; 1 Timothy 5:22b; Titus 3:10; 2 John 7-11; Revelation 2:14-16  

We believe and celebrate marriage as the spiritual, physical, and legal union of one man with one woman in a one-flesh covenant under God and with His blessing; we believe that marriage is a sacred picture of Christ and the Church. We also attest to the biblical roles in marriage, holding a classic complementarian position, both in the home and in the church.  • Ephesians 5:22-33; Genesis 1:27, 28; Hebrews 13:4