We unashamedly stand for the following convictions:

THE WORD OF GOD, THE FINAL AUTHORITY IN ALL THINGS: We stand unashamedly for the complete and total inspiration of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments (Matthew 5:17-18). We believe that the same omnipotent God that inspired His Word through means of holy men in antiquity, has supernaturally, through the centuries, used His churches and people to preserve His Holy Word for our generation and for all future generations (2 Peter 1:20-21; I Timothy 3:15). We believe the supernaturally and divine preserved Bible of the English language is the Authorized King James Bible, which is based on the Greek Textus Receptus and the Hebrew Masoretic text. Our conviction is that the Bible alone is the only and ultimate rule of all faith and practice for the Christian life and for the Lord’s churches (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Matthew 4:4). All beliefs, traditions, customs and practices that are contrary to the Word of God, though good in men’s eyes, are against God’s holy and eternal will, and will not find any favor with Him (John 12:48). We also believe in the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures whereby we will never stand in need of more extensive revelation than that which God has given (2 Timothy 3:16-17). To add to the Scriptures by visions, dreams, new revelations, ex-cathedra, and the like, as well as change or alter the words of God, brings severe eternal consequences (Revelation 22:17-18). We believe that God’s Word is to be loved, studied, believed, memorized, assimilated, applied to the life, preached, taught, defended, prayed, obeyed, practiced, and proclaimed to the uttermost parts of the earth!

GOD, THE GREAT THREE-IN-ONE: We unashamedly believe that there is only one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10), infinite and perfect in all of His being. He is the invisible and unlimited spirit, unchangeable, incomprehensible, all-wise, eternal, all-powerful, thrice-holy, perfectly-just and sovereign One (John 4:24; Psalm 90:2; Revelation 4:8; I Timothy 1:17; James 1:17). God does all things in time and eternity according to His own good pleasure which He hath decreed from eternity past without instruction or counsel from men or angels (Ephesians 1:11-12). God—in all that he does—magnifies His own eternal glory (Isaiah 48:11; John 17:1,5). He is loving, kind, merciful, patient and abundantly good, pardoning the sin of the truly penitent and is the great Rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him (Exodus 34:6-7; Hebrews 11:6). The same God is a consuming fire, hating all sin, and cannot acquit the wicked (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). God in His purity, justice and holiness manifests His anger and wrath against sin punishing it in a literal-burning, tormenting lake of fire that has no end or escape (Revelation 21:8). God is one in essence, being, attribute, purpose, will, mind, method, and nature; but God is eternally diverse in His personality, namely: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (I John 5:7).

JESUS CHRIST, THE BELOVED ETERNAL SON OF GOD: We unashamedly believe that Christ, through the supernatural conception of the Holy Spirit in the womb of virgin, became the Son of Man (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35). However prior to His physical birth in Bethlehem, Christ eternally existed in equal glory and power with His Father (John 1:1-3). According to the eternal decree of the Father, Christ freely took upon Himself our nature (Hebrews 10:5; Philippians 2:5-8), being tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Having obeyed perfectly the law of God and without any guilt before His Father (Galatians 4:4-5; John 8:29), Christ laid down His life for His sheep, vicariously dying to make a full atonement for all the sins of all His elect (John 10:11, 15-18; Hebrews 9:12). Christ arose the third day for our justification (Romans 4:25). After forty days of showing Himself alive by many infallible proofs, He ascended to glory and sat down on the right hand of God the Father (Acts 1:3; Hebrews 10:12), where He ever liveth to make intercession for His elect before the Father (John 17:9; Hebrews 4:14-16, 7:25, 9:24-28). Christ will one day return to establish His kingdom and will judge all men (John 5:26-27). God the Father has ordained that Christ be exalted and worshipped equally with Himself throughout eternity (Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 5:8-14). Christ is to have the preeminence in all things including preeminence over, but not limited to, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, the saints, a religious denomination, the Baptist church, etc. (Colossians 1:18; John 16:14).

HOLY SPIRIT, THE HEAVEN-SENT VICAR OF CHRIST ON THE EARTH: We unashamedly believe that the Holy Spirit is a co-equal and co-eternal person within the Godhead, one with the Father and the Son (I John 5:7). He is not a mere influence or an impersonal force (Mathew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 3:17, 13:14). The Spirit, along with the Father and Son, was active in creation (Genesis 1:2). Likewise, was the Spirit of God active in the eternal covenant of grace and the redemption of man. The Spirit of God proceeds from the Father and Son (John 14:16017, 26, 16:7; Acts 2:32-33) for the accomplishing of His divine mission to be the vicar of Christ on the earth. The Spirit of God convicts of sin (Acts 2:37), illumines and gives spiritual understanding (John 16:7), effectually draws to Christ (John 16:13-14) and regenerates the hearts of God’s elect (John 3:7-8, 6:63). In the life of the redeemed, the Spirit of God seals (Ephesians 1:13), testifies that we are children of God (Romans 8:16; I John 4:13), instructs, counsels and teaches us the Word (John 14:26), consoles and comforts us (John 14:16), and sanctifies—conforming us to the image of God’s dear Son (I Corinthians 6:11). The Holy Spirit empowers His servants for service and witnessing (Acts 1:8). Opposite of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements of today, the Spirit of God always points men to Christ and makes Him the preeminent One not drawing attention to Himself (John 16:13-14).

MAN, THE BELOVED CREATION OF GOD: We unashamedly believe that Adam, created in innocence by God on the sixth day of creation in His image (Genesis 1:26-31), willfully disobeyed God plunging all of the human race into the same spiritual condition and condemnation (Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21). Man, by nature and by choice, is a depraved sinner (Isaiah 1:4-6). His depravity is complete, sin having invaded every aspect of man: his heart, his affections, his mind, his conscience, his speech, his motives, his actions, etc. Man, being completely ruined by sin, cannot subject himself to the law of God, cannot please God, is blind unable to comprehend spiritual things, and is dead in trespasses and sins (Romans 8:7; I Corinthians 2:12-14; Ephesians 2:1-3). Because of his fall into sin, man’s free will is in complete bondage to his heart’s nature which the Bible states is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Hence man is incapable of pleasing God or choosing God by his own free will (Romans 8:8). Therefore man must be chosen of God, taught of God and quickened by His Spirit to be able to Biblically and experiencially turn from his sin in repentance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 15:16; John 6:37,44-45). Man, born from above, is a new creation in Christ, living in and by faith, conforming himself to the image of Christ and living for the glory of God (2 Corinthians 5:17).

SOVEREIGN GRACE, THE FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF GOD’S DEALINGS WITH MAN: We unashamedly believe in the absolute sovereignty of God in all things, including the salvation of man (Psalm 115:3). God is sovereign in the disposing and exercise of all of His attributes, hence we speak of His sovereign power, sovereign wisdom, sovereign mercy, sovereign wrath, etc. However, the term “sovereign grace” is a distinguishing term whereby we believe that God deals with man and saves him, not according to family blood, the will or desire of the flesh, or by the free will of man, but according to God’s own good pleasure and eternal purpose (John 1:13; Ephesians 1:5,9,11). God has mercy on whom He WILL and hardens whom He WILL (Romans 9:15-18; Luke 10:21). The term “sovereign grace” manifests that we believe the five points commonly known as “Calvinism”. We believe in the total depravity of man, in the unconditional election of God of His people, in the particular redemption of Christ of the elect on Calvary, in the effectual calling of God’s Spirit of the elect, and in the perseverance of God’s elect in holiness, love and the Word of God. “Sovereign Grace” is the rendering of absolute and complete praise to God for the salvation of man and the utter abasement and the humiliation of man as an unworthy, undeserving, unmerited recipient of God’s most tender and inexplicable kindnesses, love, compassion and mercies in the blessed person of His Son Jesus Christ.

SALVATION, THE ETERNAL GIFT OF GOD: We unashamedly believe that salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). We believe that divine salvation is completely apart from all works, secular, personal, religious, good or denominational (Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation is wholly of God’s eternal, unmerited grace (John 1:17; Acts 15:11; 2 Corinthians 8:9). God plans it, works it, effects it, seals it, and perfects it through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14; Romans 8:29-34). Through the preaching of the cross, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit draws with a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9), the Father teaches (John 6:44), the Word convicts of sin producing repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:8-11; Acts 2:37). The sinner, appropriating the death of Christ to himself by God-given faith, is declared just and holy before God, partaker of the divine nature, and walks in newness of life, not after the flesh but after the Sprit, manifesting the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit in his everyday life (Romans 10-17; Galatians 2:16; Romans 8:8-13). True Bible salvation is eternal and impossible to lose because it is the work of God—nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it; God does it that men should fear before Him (Ecclesiastes 3:14; Ephesians 1; John 17). The grace of God that saves the sinner, is the same grace that sustains the saint throughout his earthly pilgrimage (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). The child of God, though conscious of many failures, flaws, sins and weaknesses, lives dependant on the person of Christ and His eternal mercy, persevering by grace through his afflictions, his temptations, his persecutions, and his weaknesses toward the eternal purpose of God to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is impossible for a true child of God to totally depart from genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29).

THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH: We unashamedly believe that the church is a local-only, living, Spirit-indwelt body, the first church having been started, founded and built by Christ during His earthly ministry (Matthew 16:18; I Corinthians 12:29; Luke 6:12-13). A true church according to the New Testament, is a local, organized, visible assembly of believers born of the Lord Jesus Christ, buried with Him in scriptural baptism, associated together in a common faith for worship, fellowship, and the fulfilling of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Every church is to be completely free and independent under the authority of its only head, Jesus Christ, and the manifestation of His will in the Scriptures (Ephesians 5:23-24). It is unscriptural for a church to unite with another secular, religious or ecclesiastical organization for whatever reason that seems to be appealing to man. The declaration of our Lord that no man can serve two masters applies to the life of a man, as well as to the life of a church (Matthew 6:24; Galatians 1:10). Any church that hinders her autonomy by aligning herself with a denomination, board, fellowship or convention is not following the plan of the New Testament. Christ promised His church perpetuity to bring glory to Himself through her (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:20). This perpetuity is the result of the Bible principle that like kind begets like kind, hence the mother-church principle. New churches are birthed out of existing churches whereby the authority for preaching, evangelizing, baptizing and doing mission work is extended throughout the centuries and Christ’s church is preserved world without end (Matthew 28:18-20).

CHURCH ORDINANCES, THE GUARDIANS OF THE PURITY OF CHRIST’S CHURCHES: We unashamedly believe that the only two ordinances ordained by Christ are church ordinances—supervised, administered and partaken exclusively by the Lord’s churches. Baptism to be valid must be scriptural with a Biblical candidate, a Biblical mode, a Biblical motive and a Biblical authority—a New Testament Baptist church. We believe that baptism is immersion in much water (John 3:23; Acts 8:38) of a believing disciple of Christ (John 4:1; Acts 8:37) by the authority of a New Testament church in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). Baptism is not to obtain the remission of sins (Acts 10:43), but to declare the Gospel (death, burial and resurrection of Christ) unto which we are baptized (acts 19:3), to publically and unashamedly identify ourselves with Christ (Matthew 10:32-33; John 7:4; Acts 19:18), to show forth emblematically our death to sin and our resurrection to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4), and to fulfill the prerequisite to church membership (Acts 2:41-42; I Corinthians 12:13). Scriptural baptism and the rejection of alien immersion (those baptisms that do not meet the Biblical requirements) preserve the purity and unity of Christ’s church in that all that unite with her have submitted to the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” of the New Testament (Ephesians 4:5). The Lord’s Supper is a closed, memorial supper restricted to only the members of that particular New Testament church that is assembled (I Corinthians 11:18,20,33-34). According to the Lord Jesus Christ’s institution of His Supper, the elements of unleavened bread and wine symbolize the purity and sinlessness of Jesus’ body and blood (Matthew 26:26-30). The one loaf and one cup from which all partake, show the unity of Christ, how that all must eat and drink of the same Christ, and also manifests the unity of the church body which is observing it (I Corinthians 10:16-17; Matthew 26:26-27). The purpose of the Lord’s supper is multiple: to obey the Lord (I Corinthians 11:24-25), to remember His atoning, subsitutionary death (I Corinthians 11:24-25), to have a time of self-examination, self-humbling and confession of sin (I Corinthians 11:28-29), to show the Lord’s death (I Corinthians 11:26), and to relish the prospect of His soon return (I Corinthians 11:26). These sanctifying purposes obviously make the Lord’s Supper a guardian of the purity of the membership of the Lord’s churches as it causes us to maintain a life of purity in public and in the secret place of our own hearts.

MISSIONS, THE FINAL AND FOREMOST WORK OF THE LORD’S CHURCHES: We unashamedly believe that it is the responsibility of God’s children, through God-ordained, scriptural churches, that the work of world evangelism must be carried on (June 20:21; Luke 24:46-48). The Great Commission given by the Lord Jesus Christ was given to His church, not to para-church organizations, conventions or mission boards (Matthew 28:18-20). God’s churches, living by faith and by leadership and faculty of the Holy Spirit, are fully capable to carry out God’s orders in just the way He gave them (Acts 13:1-4). God’s churches have been authorized to make disciples in all nations, baptize them, instruct them, congregate them and commend them to God. The chief means of evangelism is through the preaching and the ministry of the Word of God (Romans 10:14-15; I Corinthians 1:17-18,21-25). Though we recognize that many will not be saved (Matthew 7:13-14), it is our divine duty to preach the Gospel to every creature without distinction of race, color, education, economics, religion, or physical location (Mark 16:15). God’s people plant and water, but it is God that gives the increase (I Corinthians 3:6-8). We believe that it is the God-given privilege and responsibility of every New Testament church to pray for laborers for the harvest (Matthew 9:36-38), to trust God for divinely-called men to the ministry and train them (Ephesians 4:11-16), to give themselves to the Lord including all that they are and all that they possess (2 Corinthians 8:1-5), to send forth, sponsor, and support missionaries supervising their labors and disciplining them if such need should arise (Acts 13:1-4). In obedience to His command, we can count on the Lord’s power, His provision, His protection, and His presence in this divine, unrescinded responsibility, as He promised, “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, THE BELIEVER’S BLESSED HOPE: We unashamedly believe that according to the promise of Jesus Christ, He will return the second time to judge and to establish His kingdom (John 14:1-3). Our eschatological position is the result of what we believe are sound hermeneutical principles of Bible interpretation, namely the literal, historical and grammatical interpretation of the Scriptures. Hence, we believe that our Lord’s return will be premillenial (Revelations 20:1-4), bodily (Acts 1:11), and visible (Revelation 1:7). His return will consists of two phases or stages, the rapture or translation of His living and dead saints in His return in the clouds (I Thessalonians 4:16-17) and then His coming with His saints to the earth to make war with the nations and the antichrist and to establish His millennial reign on the earth (Revelations 19:11-16, 20:6). The two phases of His coming will be separated by a seven year period of time during which the woes depicted in the book of Revelation will be poured out upon the earth. This period will be marked by the revelation of the man of sin or the beast, who will hold sway over the whole world by the power of Satan and will finally gather the armies of the nations together for the Battle of Armageddon (Revelations 16:13-16, 19:17-19). The importance of loving the second coming of our Lord (2 Timothy 4:8) is manifested in the Scriptures to be a blessed hope in our tribulation (Titus 2:13; I Peter 1:7), a motive to watch and pray (Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:37), a motive to be faithful stewards (Matthew 25:14-34), and a motive for sanctification and holiness (I John 3:1-2).