DOCTRINE
Our Creed, Discipline, Rules of Order, and Doctrine is the Word of God as taught and revealed by the Holy Ghost (John 14:26; I Corinthians 2:9-13).”All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (II Timothy 3:16,17)
We believe that there is One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism, and that in order to escape the lake of fire, the eternal punishment of God, and to have the hope of enjoying the glory of eternal life with Christ, one must be baptized in Jesus’ name, filled with the Holy Ghost, and living a holy and sanctified life.
1. The Godhead
We fully believe in the mystery of the Godhead. We believe in the mystery of the One God manifesting
Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. He manifested Himself as Father in creation and in the person of His Son in redemption. He manifests Himself in the Church by the power of the Holy Ghost. (I Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 9:6; John 14:6-10; Psalms 132:11; Isaiah 44:6,8; Revelations 1:18; 22:16)
2. The New Birth
We believe that everyone must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). The new birth (“being born again”) includes a genuine repentance. In order to experience the new birth, one must be baptized in water in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by immersion, and be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Ghost) with the initial evidence of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of the Lord giveth utterance.
A. Repentance
The only grounds upon which God will accept a sinner is repentance from the heart for the sins he has
committed. “A broken and contrite heart…thou wilt not despise.” (Psalms 51:17). Jesus stated that
“repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47), and Peter fulfilled this commandment on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38).
B. Water Baptism
Water baptism was administered in the name of Jesus Christ, for this was the name given to our Savior
before his birth for the purpose of saving His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21); for there is salvation
in “none other name (Acts 4:12) whereby we must be saved.” The apostles always administered baptism in His name from the Day of Pentecost forward. There is no biblical record of one person ever being baptized, as some believers are today, using the formula “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19). In administering baptism in Jesus’ name our formula should include, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. We believe in baptism once in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins for persons who have reached the age of understanding, and no baptism of infants under any condition. (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; Acts 2:38).
C. Baptism of the Holy Ghost
We believe that all full believers receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, as promised by our Lord and as
witness to their scripturally based faith in Jesus (John 7:37-39); and that the new birth of the Spirit (John
3:5) is necessary to place the believer in the Kingdom of God or the Body of Christ, the Church (I
Corinthians 12:12- 13). We further believe that the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost marked a new era in the Spirit’s dealing with mankind as prophesied by Joel (Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 28:11), the Holy Ghost being the gift to every believer in this age of grace: hand-maidens, servants, sons and daughters. The Holy Ghost does not indwell the believer simply because he says”I believe” as many evangelicals teach. St. Paul shows that the Holy Ghost comes after believing (Ephesians 1:13), not synonymous with it.
The Holy Spirit is “the seal of the righteousness of the faith” which the believer has (Romans 4:11), as
circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Abraham. We believe that speaking with tongues as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4), is the initial evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit; not only on the Day of Pentecost for the one hundred and twenty, but for all believers for all time. Jesus told
Nicodemus “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8). Speaking
with tongues is the sound of the Spirit, heard by every believer. It is synonymous with the cry of the
newborn babe in the first birth (birth of the flesh); for God has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts in
the second birth (birth of the Spirit) crying Abba, Father (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
D. LGBTQ+
We believe in the sovereignty of God and the infallibility of His word. It is our belief that homosexuality goes against the word of God (Leviticus 18:22. Leviticus 20:13 and Romans 1; 27-28). We believe that marriage is an ordained union between a man and a woman (Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:4-6). We further believe that God does not ordain a union between two men or two women. As these unions are seen as an abomination in the sight of God, and goes against God’s direction to a man and woman to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22). It is also our belief that those who are transgendered, non-binary, or bisexual are in opposition to the word as God as well (Deuteronomy23:1 and Deuteronomy22:5). Therefore we do not support these life styles.
We do believe that God wants to redeem the souls of those who identify as LGBTQ+ (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, II Peter 3:9) and that these souls can be saved according to the scripture (Acts 2:38 and Isaiah 1:19).