what we believe (Part 3)

 (1) We Believe in that Blessed Hope, the personal imminent return of Christ, who will rapture his church prior to the seven-year tribulation period. (1st Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1st Corinthians 15:51-54)  

(2) At the end of the tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return to the earth with his saints, to establish his earthly messianic Kingdom, which was promised to the nation of Israel. (Daniel 2:44; Psalm 89:3-4; Zechariah 14:4-11; Matthew 19:28) 

 (1) We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. (Matthew 25:46; John5:28-29; 11:25-26; Revelation 20:5-6, 12-13)  

(2) We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, in this present age of grace, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await resurrection, when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord. (2nd Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:21; 1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)  

(3) We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited, they shall appear at the great white throne judgment, and she'll be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment and torment. (Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26; 2nd Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Revelation 20:11-15) 

 We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the fall of man; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire. (Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-17; Matthew 4:2-11; 25:41; Revelation 20:10) 

 We believe that the Genesis account of creation is neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical account of God's creation of the universe in six literal 24 hour periods. We reject evolution, the Day Age Theory, and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin. (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 20:11) 

 We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions; number one the home, number two the church,  and number three the state. Every person is subject to these authorities, but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by his Word. God has given each institution specific biblical responsibilities and balance those responsibilities with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other. The home, the church, and the state are equal and sovereign in their respective Biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God. We believe that we must obey the state unless it requires us to act contrary to our faith at which time we must obey God rather than the state. (Matthew 22:15-22; Acts 5:29; Romans 13:1-7; Ephesians 5:22-24; Titus 3:1-2; Hebrews 13:1-7; 1st Peter 2:13-14)