DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

We are Protestants holding the historic positions of the Reformation as set forth in the various Reformed Confessions of that period (Baptist Confession of 1689, Westminster Confession of Faith, Belgic Confession). 

We believe this is the system of Doctrine taught in the Scriptures, and as missionaries we receive great encouragement in the Work as we contemplate election and the related doctrines.  In fact, all Christians who understand that God in eternity past elected a people for Himself should be most zealouswith regard to personal witnessing and the missionary enterprise, for we know our success is guaranteed; Christ will build His church, He shall see of the travail of His soul, and He shall be satisfied.  We sow and water ever so feebly; He gives the increase by giving spiritual life to all those whom the Father gave Him in eternity past; not one shall be lost, but all of them shall believe.  How thankful we are that the work does not depend upon our ability to persuade men to "accept Christ as their personal Savior";  it depends on God the Father honoring thepromise He made to His Son, that all the elect shall believe and be saved, for He is not willing that any of them should perish.

In our understanding of God's sovereignty, we believe He has not only ordained those who will be saved, and the means by which He would save them ( the work of His Son), but He has ordained the instrumentality to effect their salvation: the proclamation of the gospel message "by the foolishness of preaching", usingmen who have this treasure in earthen vessels.  Both the message and instruments are ordained by God. 

We believe the Old and New Testaments were inspired by God and have been preserved by Him, and that they alone are the infallible Word of God, given for all rules of faith and practice.

We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe God the Father created all things by His Son in six 24 hour days as recorded in Genesis 1 and 2, and that He elected in eternity past a people for His Son.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who became man, being true God and true man, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His vicarious and atoning death on the cross, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His present advocacy, and in His personal, bodily, visible future return.

We believe in the fall of the entire human race in the man Adam as recorded in Genesis 3, resulting in the universal sinfulness and guilt of all mankind, rendering each and every one subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.

We believe that for lost and sinful men to be saved,  they must, by the calling and regenerating work of God the Holy Spirit, come to faith inthe Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Savior of sinners.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is true God, and that He by personal indwelling, seals all whom He has drawn to Christ, so that none who are truly saved can ever be lost, but during their life enjoy His personal, livingministry which consists in His assuring them that they are truly saved,  helping them in their weaknesses, and sanctifying them so that they die more and more unto sin, and live more and more unto righteousness.  This sanctification is progressive throughout their lives, and is evident to other people.

We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost:   those who are saved unto the resurrection of eternal life in Heaven with the Triune God, and those who are lost unto the resurrection of eternal death in Hell, with the devil and his hosts.

We believe in the spiritual unity of all who savingly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ;  they comprise the Church universal, His Body, His Bride, who will live eternally with Him in Heaven.

We believe the Church in total, and each Christian individually, is responsible to faithfully fulfill the Great Commission, and that this commission specifically directs us to areas where people have not yet heard the gospel ("where Christ is not named"), and that reaching these fields which are "ripe unto harvest" is the primary way God intends for His kingdom to increase, and thereby hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus (II Peter 3:12).

These statements of our Doctrine are not meant to be exhaustive, but are meant to set forth our basic position.