We Believe

1 THE GREAT COMMANDMENT

We believe that love one for another as Jesus loves the believer

manifests our discipleship,

proves our love for God and symbolizes our authority as New Testament churches.

Love is therefore the great commandment of the LORD Jesus Christ

upon which all other are dependent.

Matthew 22.35-40 John 13.34-35 John 15.12 1 John 4.7-21 1 John 5.1-3 Revelation 2.4-5

2 THE BIBLE

We believe in the infallible, verbal inspiration of the whole Bible

and that the Bible is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice.

Psalm 119.160 2 Timothy 3.16-17

3 THE TRINITY

We believe in the personal triune God:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

equal in divine perfection.

Matthew 28.19

4 CREATION

We believe in the Genesis account of Creation.

Genesis 1 Genesis 2

5 SATAN

We believe that Satan is a fallen angel,

the archenemy of God and man,

the unholy god of this world,

and that his destiny is the eternal lake of fire.

Isaiah 14.12-15 Ezekiel 28.11-19 Matthew 25.41 2 Corinthians 4.4 Ephesians 6.10-17 Revelation 20.10

6 VIRGIN BIRTH

We believe in the virgin birth and sinless humanity of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 1.18-20 2 Corinthians 5.21 1 Peter 2.22

7 DEITY OF JESUS

We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.

John 10.30 John 1.1 John 1.14 2 Corinthians 5.19

8 HOLY SPIRIT

We believe the Holy Spirit is the divine Administrator for Jesus Christ in His churches.

Luke 24.49 John 14.16-17 Acts 1.4-5 Acts 1.8 Acts 2.1-4

9 SPIRITUAL GIFTS

We believe that miraculous spiritual manifestation gifts

were done away when the Bible was completed.

Faith, Hope, and Love are the vital abiding Spiritual Gifts.

1 Corinthians 12-14

10 MAN

We believe that Man was created in the image of God

and lived in innocency until he fell

by voluntary transgression from his sinless state,

the result being that all mankind are sinners.

Genesis 1.26 Genesis 3.6-24 Romans 5.12 Romans 5.19

11 SUFFERING OF JESUS

We believe that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ

was substitutionary for all mankind

and is efficacious only to those who believe.

Isaiah 53.6 Hebrews 2.9 1 Peter 2.24 1 Peter 3.18 2 Peter 3.9 1 John 2.2

12 RESURRECTION

We believe in the bodily resurrection and ascension of Christ

and the bodily resurrection of His saints.

Matthew 28.1-7 Acts 1.9-11 1 Corinthians 15.42-58 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18

13 RETURN OF CHRIST

We believe in the premillennial, personal, bodily return of Christ

as the crowning event of the Gentile age.

This event will include the resurrection of the righteous to eternal heaven,

and the Millennium will be followed

by the resurrection of the unrighteous

unto eternal punishment in the lake of fire

and that the righteous shall enter into the heaven age.

John 14.1-6 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18 2 Thessalonians 2.8 Revelation 19 Revelation 20.4-6 Revelation 20.11-15 Revelation 21.8

14 SALVATION

We believe that the depraved sinner is saved

wholly by grace through faith in Jesus Christ,

and the requisites to regeneration are repentance toward God

and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

and that the Holy Spirit

convicts sinners, regenerates, seals, secures, and indwells every believer.

Luke 13.3-5 John 3.6 John 3.16-18 John 16.8,9 Acts 20.21 Romans 6.23 Romans 8.9-11 1 Corinthians 6.19-20 Ephesians 2.8,9 Ephesians 4.30 Titus 3.5

15 ETERNAL SECURITY

We believe that all who trust Jesus Christ for salvation

are eternally secure in Him and shall not perish.

John 3.36 John 5.24 John 10.27-30 Romans 8.35-39 Hebrews 10.39 1 Peter 1.5

16 GOD'S CHILDREN

We believe that God deals with believers as His children,

that He chastises the disobedient,

and that He rewards the obedient.

Matthew 16.27 Matthew 25.14-23 John 1.12 Hebrews 12.5-11 2 John 8 Revelation 22.12

17 THE CHURCH

We believe that Jesus Christ established His church

during His ministry on earth

and that it is always a local, visible assembly

of scripturally baptized believers

in covenant relationship to carry out the Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ,

and each church is an independent, self-governing body,

and no other ecclesiastical body may exercise authority over it.

We believe that Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission

to the New Testament churches only,

and that He promised the perpetuity of His churches.

Matthew 4.18-22 Matthew 16.18 Matthew 28.19-20 Mark 1.14-20 John 1.35-51 Ephesians 3.21

18 CHURCH ORDINANCES

We believe that there are two pictorial ordinances in the Lord's churches:

Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Scriptural baptism is the immersion of penitent believers in water,

administered by the authority of a New Testament church

in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Lord's Supper is a memorial ordinance,

restricted to the members of the church observing the ordinance.

Matthew 28.19-20 Acts 8.12, 38 Romans 6.4 1 Corinthians 5.11-13 1 Corinthians 11.1-2 17-20, 26

19 CHURCH OFFICES

We believe that there are two divinely appointed offices in a church,

pastors and deacons,

to be filled by men whose qualifications are set forth in Titus and 1 Timothy.

20 ASSOCIATIONS

We believe that all associations, fellowships, and committees are,

and properly should be, servants of, and under control of the churches.

Matthew 20.25-28

21 FREEDOM OF WORSHIP

We believe in freedom of worship without interference from the government

and affirm our belief in civil obedience,

unless the laws and regulations of civil government run contrary to the Holy Scriptures.

Romans 13.1-7 1 Peter 2.13-15

22 MARRIAGE

We believe the Biblical definition of marriage is the union between a man and a woman.

Genesis 2.21-24 Matthew 19.4-6 Mark 10.6-9 1 Corinthians 7.2-4 Ephesians 5.22-31

23 GENDER IDENTITY

We believe God designates each individual their gender.

God ordained two genders, male and female.

Mankind does not possess the authority

to identify themselves differently than their biological sex assigned by God,

and any attempt to alter one's gender is sin.

Genesis 1.27 Genesis 5.2 Matthew 19.4 Mark 10.6 Job 40.8 Jeremiah 13.23

local church autonomy, rejection of alien baptism,

and the practice of restricting the ordinance of communion to the members of the local church.

mission work being done directly through the authority of a local church rather than through the authority of a mission board system.

1. Church succession of an unbroken lineage of authority and doctrine

from the time of the founding of the first church by Jesus Christ

when He called the disciples in Galilee to the present age.

2. The local, visible assembly of saved, baptized believer,

covenanted together to carry out the work of the Lord is the only type of church.

There is no universal body of believers, invisible church

and scriptural authority is only given to local bodies,

each congregation being recognized as the body of Christ.

3. Baptism, administered by scriptural authority (a local church)

to a scriptural candidate (a person professing faith in Christ)

by a scriptural mode (immersion in water).

This rules out pedobaptism, sprinkling,

and any baptism administered by a denomination or congregation

that is not of like faith and practice.

Set apart from Protestant Baptist groups

is the practice of closed communion, also known as "Restricted Lord's Supper,"

in which the ordinance of communion is restricted to members

of the local church body observing the ordinance.

This practice precludes both non-believers and non-members

from partaking in the ordinance.

Closed communion is closely linked with church discipline as found in 1 Corinthians 5.11.

We do not ordain women.

"James Berry stated 'Christian civilization

for 1900 years prior to this century

held that segregation of the races in social, religious, and marital life

is a divine command'."

"Dr. Albert Garner, president of the Florida Baptist Institute and Seminary

told president John F. Kennedy that

'we have deep moral and religious convictions

that integration of the races is morally wrong and should be resisted'."

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