The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin -- Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man
Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience to Jesus' teaching which symbolically pictures the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior; and the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Jesus Christ and look forward to His second coming through drinking the fruit of the vine and eating bread.
Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations, to take the opportunities provided by God to show and explain to others near and far about God's love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace He freely offers in the good news of salvation found in Jesus Christ. The showing and explaining of God's love and His good news of salvation is to be under-girded by a lifestyle of loving God and others more than self, while aimed at walking in the teachings of God's Word.
The Lord's Day
The first day of the week, Sunday, is the Lord's Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead on that day of the week. Focal points of each Lord's Day should be worship, spiritual devotion, and fellowship with believers.
Last Things
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. All resources we are given we are also entrusted with. We are therefore under obligation to serve Him and others with our time, talents, health, money, and material possessions. The use of these and other provisions from God are to be used according to His wisdom, His love, and His will -- taking care so as to be neither selfish nor wasteful with them. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to God and the world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions.
Cooperation
Christ's people should make unity a priority -- being one with Christ and each other. Doing so in this world requires organizing such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. Unity and cooperation in service of God and growth of His Kingdom should be a desired aim between churches and Christian denominations.
Religious Liberty
The Christian & the Social Order
Family
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin -- Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man
Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. It is an act of obedience to Jesus' teaching which symbolically pictures the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior; and the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Jesus Christ and look forward to His second coming through drinking the fruit of the vine and eating bread.
Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations, to take the opportunities provided by God to show and explain to others near and far about God's love, mercy, forgiveness, and grace He freely offers in the good news of salvation found in Jesus Christ. The showing and explaining of God's love and His good news of salvation is to be under-girded by a lifestyle of loving God and others more than self, while aimed at walking in the teachings of God's Word.
The Lord's Day
The first day of the week, Sunday, is the Lord's Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead on that day of the week. Focal points of each Lord's Day should be worship, spiritual devotion, and fellowship with believers.
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. Only those who are righteous in God's eyes as an end result of their decision to place their faith-believing-trust in His Son and live according to his teachings will receive reward and dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. All resources we are given we are also entrusted with. We are therefore under obligation to serve Him and others with our time, talents, health, money, and material possessions. The use of these and other provisions from God are to be used according to His wisdom, His love, and His will -- taking care so as to be neither selfish nor wasteful with them. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to God and the world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions.
Cooperation
Christ's people should make unity a priority -- being one with Christ and each other. Doing so in this world requires organizing such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. Unity and cooperation in service of God and growth of His Kingdom should be a desired aim between churches and Christian denominations.
Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
The Christian & the Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. In the spirit of Christ and the teachings of the Word, Christians are to love, pray for, accept, and do good to all people – for we all fail to live in perfect obedience to all of God’s Word. At the same time and without contradiction, we are not to accept or condone as ‘right’ that which runs incongruent with God’s Word, such as racism, injustice, cruel harm, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including pornography, adultery, homosexuality, and incest. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. And in the carrying out of these ideals we are to always to genuinely love the sinner, yet hate the sin.
Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. A husband is to love his wife as strongly as Christ loved the Church, and not to treat his wife harshly. Husbands have the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead their family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband as he simultaneously submits himself to the Lord, while loving his wife as much as Christ loves His Church. She, who is also in the image of God just as is her husband and thus is equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband, to work with him as helper in managing the family and in nurturing the next generation. The biblical New Testament model of marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents should demonstrate to their children God's love, God's ways, and God's pattern for family and marriage; but should not exasperate their children. Children are to love, honor, and obey their parents.
