What We Believe

We believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we understand the whole of the Book called the Bible. We do not take the statement in the sense in which it is sometimes foolishly said that works of human genius are inspired, but in the sense that the Holy Ghost gave the very words of the sacred writings to holy men of old. His control is not in different degrees but extends equally and fully to all parts of these writings: historical, poetical, doctrinal and prophetical, and to the smallest word, and inflection of the word, provided such a word is found in the original manuscript.

2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 Cor. 2:13; Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11; Acts 1:16; 28:25; John 5:45-47; 17:17; Luke 24:44-45; Rom. 3:4; 15:4; 1 Peter 1:2-3; Rev. 22:19; Eph. 6:17; Ps. 119:105, 130, 160.

We believe that the Holy Spirit, not as an influence, but as a Divine Person, the source and power of all acceptable worship and service, is our abiding Comforter and Helper, that He never takes His departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy us with Him, and not with ourselves nor with our experiences.

John 7:38-39; 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13-14; Acts 1:8; 5:1-4, 30-32; 11:16; Phil. 3:3; Matt. 3:11; 28:19; Heb. 9:14; Gen. 1:1-3; Eph. 1:13-19; Rom. 8:9, 14, 16, 26-27; 1 Peter 1:2.

We believe 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. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the husband and wife the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the leadership of Christ. She has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve alongside of him in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Psalm 127:1-5; Proverbs 5:15-20; 12:4; 13:24; 18:22; Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-9; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 5:8; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1-7.

We believe that man was created in the image of God; that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also the spiritual death which is separation from God; that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word, and deed.

Gen. 3:6, 24; Eph. 2:1, 3; Rom. 1:18, 20, 28, 32; 3:10-19; 5:12, 19; Gal. 3:22.

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of Grace, through the office of the Son of God as mediator, who by the appointment of the Father, freely took upon Himself our nature (yet without sin); honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the just dying for the unjust.

Christ the Lord, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, having risen from the dead, is now enthroned in heaven and uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfection. He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, a compassionate and an all-sufficient Savior.

Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 15:11; Rom. 3:24-25; John 3:16; Matt. 18:11; Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:14; Isa. 53:4-7; 1 John 4:10; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21.

See full statement for additional clarification on atonement.

We believe that the souls that have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming, when soul and body reunited shall be forever with Him in glory; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final Judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the Millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15; 1 Peter 4:18; 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 1:17; 6:17-18, 23; 7:6; Matt. 25:34, 41.

We believe in the imminent coming of Christ for the Church, to be followed by a period called the Great Tribulation, after which He will return with His saints to this earth, where He will sit on the throne of David, and will subdue all enemies and reign in righteousness for a thousand years, and that after this shall be the Judgment of the Great White Throne when the wicked dead shall be raised and condemned to eternal punishment in the lake of fire which is the second death. The righteous shall then enjoy eternal glory with God.

See full statement for additional clarification on the Second Coming.

Listen to Pastor Doran explain how you can know you have eternal life.