Pas. Joe and Bro. Vince met recently to discuss posting a doctrinal statement of faith on our website. This week, we begin to both present those statements to you, and provide further explanation.

The church’s statement of faith is broken into three sections: a list of our 11 fundamental beliefs (meaning, foundational and never negotiable); a list of 13 emphatic beliefs(meaning, doctrines we particularly emphasize); and a short list of helpful confessions noting the exceptions we take. Due to space limitation, we only present the first 11 fundamental beliefs. In subsequent weeks, we will explore the nuances.

“Among other equally biblical truths, we believe and maintain the following:

1. The verbal, plenary divine inspiration and preservation of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and, as the Word of God, the supreme and final authority in faith and life;
2. The Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
3. The essential, absolute, eternal deity, and the real and proper, but sinless, humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ;
4. His birth of the Virgin Mary;
5. His substitutionary, propitiatory death, in that He gave His life "a ransom for many";
6. His resurrection from among the dead in the same body in which He was crucified, and the second coming of this same Jesus in power and great glory;
7. The total depravity of man through the Fall;
8. Salvation, the effect of regeneration by the Spirit and the Word, not by works, but by grace through faith;
9. The everlasting bliss of the saved, and the everlasting torment of the wicked in hell;
10. The real spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood;
11. The necessity of maintaining, according to the Word of God, the purity of the Church in doctrine and life.”