Statement of Belief
1. THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as Originally written were God-breathed, both verbally and in every part. We believe God, Who is Truth, communicated through Spirit-controlled men so that the Scriptures are without error and therefore authoritative in all they teach and in all matters they touch. We believe the Bible is the supreme revelation of God's will for man and constitutes the only infallible guide for faith and life.
Matthew 5:18; 15:4,5 & 6 - Mark 12:36 - John 10:34 & 35 - Acts 1:16
Romans 3:1-4 Galatians 3:16 - II Timothy 3:16 - Hebrews 4:12 - I Peter 1:23
II Peter 1:19-21 - Revelation 22:18 & 19.
2. THE TRINITY
We believe there is one, and ONLY one, true and living God; that there is indivisible unity in the Godhead, yet existing in three separate persons - The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit - equal in every divine perfection of the same essence and executing distinct, but harmonious, offices in the great work of both creation and redemption.
Matthew 28:19; 3:16 & 17 - John 6:27 - Acts 5:3 & 4 - I Corinthians 1:9-14
II Corinthians 13,14 - Ephesians 4:6 - Hebrews 1:8.
3. GOD THE FATHER
We believe God, The Father, is a spirit infinite, eternal and unchangeable in all of His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. He is the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of the universe and Giver of all life in sovereign authority over all His created beings, The Keeper over the nation Israel, and the Father and Disciplinarian of His chose in Jesus Christ.
Psalms 139:7-10 - Isaiah 46:9 - Romans 11:33 - Revelation 19:6.
4. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary as no other man was ever, nor can be, born of a woman. He is very God of very God, being "God manifest in the flesh." He lived a life of absolute sinlessness and in His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins, dying not as a martyr, but as a voluntary substitute in the sinner's place. He rose bodily from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest, interceding and preparing a place for us. He shall appear in the air to rapture His saints, and after seven years, shall come again with the saints to set up the throne of David and establish His millennial kingdom.
Matthew 1:18-25; 28:6 - John 1:1; 14:3; 20:27 - Acts 15:16 - I Corinthians 15:4
I Thessalonians 4:16 - II Thessalonians 2:6-8 - Hebrews 7:25; 8:6; 12:2
I Peter 2:22; 3:18 - I John 2:1 - Revelation 3:21.
5. THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person possessing all the attributes of personality and of deity. He is equal with the Father and the Son and is of the same nature. His relation to the unbelieving world is that He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. He is the agent of the new birth and His work among believers includes His sealing, indwelling, infilling, guiding and teaching them the ways of righteousness. We believe there is a distinction between the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and His ministry in the New Testament. There is a new and unique work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Body of Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit endues believers with service gifts. We believe the Bible disavows the authenticity of the sign gifts such as prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, miracles and healing for today and repudiates the experience-oriented theology and ecumenically oriented practice of the charismatic movement.
John 7:39; 14:16,17 & 18 - Acts 1:5 - Romans 12:3-8
I Corinthians 12:8-13; 28-31; 13:8-12 - Ephesians 1:13 & 14; 4:7-11
Hebrews 9:14 - Revelation 22:18 & 19.
6. CREATION
We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of the Trinity without any evolutionary process.
Genesis 1 and 2 - Psalms 33:9 - John 1:3 - Colossians 1:16 & 17 - Hebrews 1:2.
7. MAN
We believe the Scriptures teach that man was created by a direct act of God and not from any previously existing form of life; and that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race. By voluntary transgression man fell from his sinless state, in consequence of which all men are now sinners by nature and by choice, utterly devoid of the holiness required by God's law, positively inclined to evil, and therefore under just condemnation to eternal judgment and everlasting existence separated from God without defense or excuse.
Genesis 1:27 - Isaiah 53:6 - Romans 3:23; 5:12-19.
8. SALVATION
We believe the Scriptures teach that Christ died for the whole world and that salvation of sinners is divinely initiated, wholly of grace, and accomplished only through the mediatorial work of the Son of God. It is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance. In order to be saved the sinner must be born again, personally receiving Christ as Savior, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God's Word and becoming the recipient of a new nature. The great gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification, that judicial act of God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness, not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer's blood. The believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of eternal life which is eternally secure.
John 1:11 & 12; 3:3-6,16; 10:28 & 29 - Acts 13:39 - Romans 2:4
II Corinthians 7:9 & 10 - Ephesians 2:8-10 - I Timothy 2:5 & 6
Hebrews 4:2 - I Peter 1:18-23 - II Peter 1:4; 2:1.
9. THE CHURCH
We believe the Scriptures teach that the church of Jesus Christ began at Pentecost and will be completed at the rapture. It must be considered in two aspects: the local church and the "church, which is His body."
The local church is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by a covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His word. It's Scriptural officers and pastors, sometimes called bishops or elders, and deacons, whose qualifications, claims and duties are defined in the epistles of Timothy and Titus. This definition of the local church leads to these Scriptural distinctives:
a. Sole authority of the Scriptures for faith and practice
b. Autonomy of the local church
c. Believers' baptism by immersion before church membership
d. Two officers, pastor (elder, bishop) and deacon
e. Two symbolic ordinances, baptism and the Lord's table
f. Individual priesthood of the believer and soul liberty
g. Separation of church and state
The "church which is His body" is the entire company of believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, regardless of denominational affiliation and present position in heaven or on earth.
Matthew 28:19 & 20 - Acts 1:5; 2:1-4, 41 & 42; 10:44 & 45; 11:15 & 16
I Corinthians 12:13 - Ephesians 1:22 & 23 - Titus 1 - Hebrews 12:23.
10. BAPTISM AND COMMUNION
We believe the Scriptures teach that Christian baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem his identification with the crucified, buried and risen Savior, thus illustrating the believer's death to sin and his resurrection to a new life. It is a prerequisite to membership and privileges in a local church. We believe that communion is the commemoration of His death until He comes and should be preceded by solemn self-examination and confession of known sin. Observance of communion is for baptized believers only. The ordinances of baptism and communion must be observed under the authority of the local church.
Acts 8:36-39 - Romans 6:3-5 - I Corinthians 11:23-28.
11. COMING EVENTS
A. The Righteous & The Wicked
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and sanctified by the Spirit of our God, are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked, and under the curse; and this distinction holds among men both in and after death, in the everlasting happiness of the saved and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost.
Genesis 18:23 - Proverbs 14:21 - Malachi 3:18 - John 8:21 - Matthew 25:34-41
Romans 6:17 & 18 - I John 5:19.
B. The Rapture of the Church
We believe in the "Blessed Hope", the personal, imminent pretribulation and premillennial appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His redeemed ones of the church.
I Corinthians 15:51 & 52 - I Thessalonians 4:13-18
II Thessalonians 2:1 & 2 - Titus 2:13 - I John 3:2.
C. The Judgment Seat of Christ
We believe that every saved person of the Church Age will appear before the "Judgment Seat" to be judged by the Lord in regard to his service and receive rewards according to his works.
Matthew 6:2 - Romans 14:10 - I Corinthians 3:11-15 - II Corinthians 5:10.
D. The Millennial Kingdom
We believe that Christ will return to earth after the tribulation with His saints to establish the Millennial Kingdom which literally will be on earth and will be ruled by Christ from the throne of David.
Isaiah 9:6 & 7 - Luke 1:32 - Acts 2:29 & 30
II Thessalonians 1:6-12 - Revelation 20:1-6; 12-14.
E. The Eternal State
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men; the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire. The souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when spirit, soul and new body are reunited to be forever glorified with the Lord. The souls of the unbelievers after death remain in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when spirit, soul and body are reunited they shall appear before the Great White Throne of Judgment and shall be cast in the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment.
Matthew 25:46 - Luke 16:19-26 - John 5:28 & 29
II Corinthians 5:8 & 10 - Philippians 1:23.
12. ISRAEL
We believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God's eternal covenant people, that she is now dispersed because of her disobedience and rejection of Christ, and that she will be re-gathered in the Holy Land and, after the completion of the Church, will be saved as a nation at the second advent of Christ.
Genesis 13:14-17 - Romans 11:1-32 - Ezekiel 37.
13. ANGELS
We believe in the personal existence of angels who were created by God to bring honor and glory to His name and to serve Him. Those angels who kept their first estate minister for them who are heirs of salvation. There were among the hosts those who fell with Satan, the angels who kept not their first estate, who are presently functioning in Satan's counterfeit system as rulers of darkness, to be resisted by the believer through the armor provided by God.
Isaiah 6 - Matthew 17:18 - Ephesians 6:11 & 12 - Colossians 1:16
I Timothy 4:1 & 2 - Hebrews 1:4 - I Peter 1:12 - Jude 6.
14. SATAN
We believe the Scriptures teach that there is a personal devil, a created angel who, through pride, became the enemy of his creator, who is "the god of this age" and "the prince of the power of the air," who is full of all subtlety, who seeks continually to frustrate the purposes of God and to ensnare the sons of men, and who was conquered by Christ on the cross and condemned to everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire.
Isaiah 14:12-15 - Luke 10:18 - II Corinthians 4:4; 11:13-15
Ephesians 2:2 - Hebrews 2:14 - Revelation 12:9.
15. PERSONAL SEPARATION
We believe the Scriptures teach that every believer should be separated unto God from the world, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit, should walk in Christian love and holiness, exhibiting qualities of honesty, integrity, forgiveness and loving-kindness. We further believe that any achievement in these characteristics will be evidenced by sincere humility and genuine zeal for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We also believe the Scriptures admonish every believer not to love the world or the things in the world, but rather to flee evil desires, avoid every kind of evil and refrain from questionable practices which destroy one's testimony, offend one's brother and fail to glorify God.
Proverbs 15:33 - Romans 14:19-21 - I Corinthians 6:18-20; 8:9-13; 10:23 & 33
II Corinthians 7:1 - Galatians 5:22-25 - Ephesians 4:32; 5:1 & 2, 7-10, 15-20
Philippians 4:8 - I Thessalonians 4:7 - I Peter 5:5 & 6.
16. ECCLESIASTICAL SEPARATION
We believe the Scriptures teach that the believer should be separated from apostasy as exemplified in ecclesiastical organizations, which include radicals, liberals and those who sanction theological compromise. This doctrine is based upon God's eternal principle of division between truth and error and His specific command to be separate from unbelievers and disobedient brethren. This truth is to be practiced with an attitude of devotion to God, humility, compassion and yet with conviction, to create the proper condition and atmosphere for the main objective, i.e. the salvation of the lost through the gospel of God. We believe ecumenical evangelism, which involves apostates, violates the principles taught in God's Word.
Matthew 10:34-39; 18:15 - Romans 16:17 - I Corinthians 5:7-13
II Corinthians 6:14; 11:4 - Galatians 1:8 & 9 - I Timothy 6:3-6
II Timothy 2:16-18 - Titus 3:10 & 11 - II John 9:11.
17. THE LORD'S DAY
We believe that the Scriptures teach that the first day of the week is to be set aside unto the Lord for worship, fellowship with others of like faith, instruction in the Word of God and rest from the cares of the world as a testimony both public and private. It is a day of rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord by giving of our time and resources to further our evangelistic outreach.
Acts 20:7 - I Corinthians 16:1 & 2 - Hebrews 10:25.
18. MARRIAGE AND THE HOME
We believe that the home was the first institution God provided for man, and that marriage is a sacred relationship and honorable for all. "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." Marriage is used as an emblem of the union of Christ and His Church.
Genesis 2:18-24 - Mark 10:9
I Corinthians 7:2 - Ephesians 5:21 & 23 - Hebrews 12:4.
19. CIVIL GOVERNMENT
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of human society. Those in authority are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience, and the coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Acts 5:29 - Romans 3:1-17; 13:1 - I Timothy 2:1-3 - I Peter 2:13-18 - Revelation 19:16.
20. SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE
We believe that all human life is sacred from fertilization throughout the human life continuum. We believe that human beings are created in His image and, as such, are to be protected. We believe the weak, vulnerable, infirm, handicapped, pre-born and needy deserve our respect and our care. Therefore, we oppose those practices, policies or procedures, which undermine or deny the God-given right to life of every human being. We reject the notion that there are some lives not worthy of living and embrace the belief that we should graciously receive and protect all human life God gives.
Genesis 1:26; 9:6 - Psalms 51:5; 82:3 & 4 - Isaiah 44:2 & 24
Jeremiah 1:5 - Luke 1:41.
21. HOMOSEXUALITY
We believe that homosexuality is NOT an acceptable "alternative" lifestyle. Throughout the Holy Scriptures it is God's practice to condemn and judge homosexuality as a pagan abomination. Homosexuality is a perversion of God's natural order of one man for one woman.
Genesis 18:20; 19:25 - Deuteronomy 23:17 & 18 - I Kings 14:21-24
Romans 1:18-27 - I Corinthians 6:9-11 - I Timothy 1:10 - II Peter 2:6-9 - Jude 7.
Upcoming Events
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Feb25
S.H.B.C. 400 Pit Party
Saturday, Feb 25, 2012
in the C.E. Building
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Feb26
V.B.S. Meeting-5:30 p.m.
Sunday, Feb 26, 2012
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Feb26
Communion Service
Sunday, Feb 26, 2012
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Feb28
Deacon's Meeting
Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012
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Mar 3
S.H.B.C. 400 Race day
Saturday, Mar 3, 2012
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