What We Believe

January 5th, 2008

What’s Our Denomination:

  • We don’t really have one. We’re not really part of any major denominations and our Church is fairly autonomous from other churches in the area. But, since that is not usually very helpful to the understanding of who we are and what we do. We believe in preaching the Gospel so each of us are very involved in that respect individually and corporately. We actively focus on preaching directly from the Bible. We follow the Plymouth Brethren tradition, we’re usually Pre-millennial and also usually Dispensational (though not always). We have no single pastor but a plurality of elders—but these things don’t define us! They’re just what people see.

What Defines Us:

  • The Bible. The Bible is inspired by God. By inspiration we mean that as the writers of Scripture wrote, God Himself was working to ensure that His specific message came through in the text. This does not mean that God dictated what He wanted written (the writers used their own styles, after all) but it does mean that God’s message is clearly recorded and preserved in what is documented in Scripture. The Bible describes our spiritual need and God’s revelation toward us and is accurate in all it teaches—even if it uses literary forms (metaphor, analogy, etc) to communicate.
  • The Trinity. God the Father, The Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are each three persons all of the same essence in complete unity. In other words, we believe in One God: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and this God is three distinct Persons.
  • The Person of Jesus Christ. The Deity (that He is God), Incarnation (that God became Human), Virgin Birth (that He was born from a virgin) and sinless humanity(that although He was tempted like any of us, He didn’t sin like all of us) of the Lord Jesus Christ; His substitutionary death (that is dying in our place) on the cross for the atonement of man’s sin (or for the covering and purging and satisfaction of man’s sin); His bodily resurrection from the tomb; His ascension into Heaven to sit at the Father’s right hand; the imminent taking-up of the church, and the personal, visible and pre-millennial return of Christ in power and great glory. These things are recorded in Scripture but we do not merely believe them only because they are written in Scripture but because they historically occurred and are confirmed by various witnesses, most of which are recorded in Scripture.
  • The Need for A Savior. The creation of man by the direct act of God, and his subsequent fall as revealed in the Genesis account, and his repeated sinning as evidenced throughout Scripture, and subsequently in our lives, underscore our need for a savior.
  • Salvation. The power of Christ to save men eternally from the penalty of sin through faith in His shed blood, and the gift of eternal life by the grace of God makes us rely completely on God to keep us and save us to the uttermost.
  • Sanctification. There is a sanctification (or cleaning from all sin) of the believer by the Holy Spirit through His the indwelling Holy Spirit, through the direction of God’s Word, and based on God’s promise to perfect that which He has started. We do not believe that this process will ever be completed here on earth, but we do believe that at the End, God will ensure us to be glorified and perfected. Therefore, we can strive and conform (fit the mold) of that image that God has prepared for us.
  • A Future Judgment. There will be a final judgment of the wicked (that is all those who have rejected God’s revelation and have not believed on the Lord Jesus), and Satan’s doom with the wicked in the lake of fire. As such, we are motivated to preach the Gospel as often as possible so that people may be saved.
  • The Glorious Consummation. The eternal existence of the righteous in the presence of the Lord, and the ushering in of eternal righteousness in the new Heaven and the new Earth gives us a heavenly goal which we desire and wish to be available to all people. This is made possible through the power of God, by the means of Christ’s death on the Cross and by the fact that He is then made ruler over all.


How Do We Conduct Ourselves:

  • In the World. Giving to the poor. Preaching the gospel. Working with children.
  • In The Church.Teaching the Word. Remembering the Lord with the pictorial meal of the bread and the cup. In an orderly fashion with a multiplicity of elders. In reverence; with men praising openly and women praising silently. Respecting each other.
  • In Our Collections. Collecting only during the first day of the week and only from those during the Lord’s Supper and only as the Lord has moved each heart.
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