Menu

Statement of Beliefs

We believe

  1. God the Father Almighty is Maker of sky and land;
  2. Jesus Christ is his only begotten Son, our Lord;
  3. The Holy Ghost conceived Him and the Virgin Mary birthed him;
  4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell;
  5. The third day He rose again from the dead;
  6. He went up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
  7. From whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead;
  8. The person of the Holy Spirit is a member of the Godhead;
  9. God’s people have fellowship of Jesus Christ’s blood having cleansed them from all guilt;
  10. Having forgiven them of all sins;
  11. Looking forward to the resurrection of the body;
  12. And the life everlasting.

And more particularly,

The Bible is true and reliable, in that it has proven irrefutable and its truthfulness stands; it provides—beyond all other books—first principles, which are the true measuring rods of all right behavior; it is the bedrock of all right government; it tells the hard truth about men; its teachings satisfy our deepest longings, giving us peace, strength, joy, rest, and confidence of overcoming the evil empire both now in life more abundant and also later in hope of the best life beyond this one.

Both the Older Testimony of 39 books and the Newer Testimony of 27 books are the unrefuted written record of Jesus Christ, fully persuading His people that Jesus Christ is God in the person of a man reduced, as it were, to a span; bringing clear the character of God to Adam's race. All our ideals of authority, strength, war, peace, rights, duties, righteousness, goodness, truth, law, love, compassion, righteous anger, tenderness, divine vengeance, and forgiveness—all good qualities and holy affections—are found perfected in Him by His deeds of both compassion and power, forgiveness and judgment. He makes men to become our brothers and sisters, inspires them to become His law keepers and not law breakers. In sum, to as many as receive him He gives authority to become sons of God through the new birth, thereby to enjoy His abundant provision, to overcome His enemies, and to rule in the government of His Kingdom.

Jesus Christ—son of David, son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Abraham—is our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, Savior, Brother, and Friend. All of history focuses on Him; all the future sums up in Him. He is the life and light of the world—the only perfect member of mankind—, stainless and sinless in every way: of body, soul, and spirit. Where those in conflict with one another each accept His teachings for their standard, whereby to govern their relationships, settlement and good order will follow them, banishing misery and woe. To sum up, Jesus Christ is what He claims He is: the perfect Son of God the Father and the sinless Son of Adam the man.

The following two poems are on the flyleaf of Brent Winters' "The Good Book Uncooked":

The Bible teaches that we all,
Are involved in Adam’s fall.
When man beholds himself within,
He feels the bite and curse of sin.
When gloom despair and terror seize,
Contrite he falls upon his knees.
Then breaks for him the light of day;
Then the Gospel may have sway;
Then sees he Christ, of God the Son,
Who for us all things has done—
The law fulfilled, the debt is paid,
Death o’ercome, the curse allayed,
Hell destroyed, the devil bound—
Grace for us with God has found.
For Christ the Lamb removes all sin.
By faith alone in Christ we win.

- Hans Sachs, 16th-Century Saxon Shoe Cobbler

Here is the spring where waters flow, To quench our heat of sin.
Here is the tree where truth doth grow, To lead our lives therein.
Here is the judge that stints the strife, When men’s devices fail.
Here is the bread that feeds the life, That death cannot assail.

The tidings of salvation dear, Comes to our ears from hence.
The fortress of our faith is here, And shield of our defense.
Then be not like the swine that hath, A pearl at his desire,
And takes more pleasure from the trough, And wallowing in the mire.

Read not this book in any case, But with a single eye.
Read not but first desire God’s grace, To understand thereby.
Pray still in faith with this respect: To bear good fruit therein,
That knowledge may bring this effect: To mortify thy sin.

Then happy you shall be in all your life, What so to you befalls.
Yes double happy you shall be, When God by death you calls.

- From Flyleaf: First Bible Printed in Scotland (1576)

God's true man is a word man. He attaches the greatest importance to distinguishing words. Why? Because the evidence of history stands incontrovertible: where men lose words' meanings or otherwise allow the obscuring of words' meanings, they lose also their property, their liberties, and their lives. Let him to whom God has given hearing ears, hear.