The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is
a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the
Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the
creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world
He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose
is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth
of the gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is
the Agent in the new birth; that He seals, endues, guides,
teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, and helps the believer.
Every true believer receives the baptism of the Holy
Spirit at the time of salvation (I Cor. 12:13; John
14:16-17; Matt. 28:19; Heb. 9:14; John 14:26; Luke 1:35;
Gen. 1:1-3; John 16:8-11; Acts 5:30-32; John 3:5-6;
Eph. 1:13-14; Mark 1:8; John 1:33; Acts 11:16; Luke
24:49; Rom. 8:14, 16, 26,27).
We believe that the Holy Spirit equips believers for
service by bestowing upon them spiritual gifts. Some
gifts listed in the New Testament, however, (such as
tongues and healing) were temporary in nature, were
intended for the infancy of the Church, and are no longer
being received (I Cor. 12:4-11; Heb. 2:4).
The Devil or Satan
We believe in the reality and personality
of Satan, the Devil; that he was created by God as an
angel but through pride and rebellion became the enemy
of his Creator; that he became the unholy god of this
age, the ruler of all the powers of darkness and is
destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the
lake of fire (Matt. 4:1-11; II Cor. 4:4; Rev. 20:10).
Creation
We believe the biblical account of
the creation of the physical universe, angels, and man;
that this account is neither allegory nor myth, but
a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate,
creative acts of God without any evolutionary process;
that man was created by a direct work of God and not
from previously existing forms of life; and that all
men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve,
first parents of the entire human race (Gen. 1,2; Col.
1:16-17; John 1:3).
The Fall of
Man
We believe that man was created in
innocence (in the image and likeness of God) under the
law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression Adam
fell from his sinless and happy state, and all men sinned
in him, in consequence of which all men are totally
depraved, are partakers of Adam’s fallen nature,
and are sinners by nature and by conduct, and therefore
are under just condemnation without defense or excuse
(Gen. 3:1-6; Rom. 3:10-19,5:12, 19; 1:18,32).
Grace and
the New Birth
We believe that in order to be saved
sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a
new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous
and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead
in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the
divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift
of God; that the new creation is brought about by our
sovereign God in a manner above our comprehension, solely
by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine
truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the
gospel, and that its proper evidence appears in the
holy fruits of repentance, faith, and newness of life
(John 3:3; II Cor. 5:17; I John 5:1; Acts 16:20-33;
II Pet. 1:4; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13; John
3:8).
Continued
on next page
