COVENANT
Having
been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the
Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour
and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we do
now, in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most
solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as
one body in Christ.
We
engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk
together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of
this church, in its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its
worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute
cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the
expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread
of the gospel through all nations.
We also
engage to maintain family and secret devotion; to religiously
educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and
acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in
our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our
deportment; to avoid all tattling,
backbiting, and excessive anger; to abstain from the sale
and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, and to be zealous
in our efforts to advance the kingdom of our
Saviour.
We
further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to
remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and
distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and
courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready
for reconciliation and, mindful of the rules of our
Saviour, to secure it without
delay.
We
moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, as
soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can
carry out the spirit of the Covenant and the principles of God's
Word.
DECLARATION OF FAITH
This
Church holds the following declaration of faith as being a
summary of Christian doctrine whose authority consists only in
its agreement with the Word of God.
I.
THE SCRIPTURES
The
Holy Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, was
written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God's
revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine
instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end,
and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. It is
inerrant and infallible in
its original manuscript which is to be taken as verbally
inspired. The Bible is perfectly preserved in the text known as
Textus
Receptus, Received, or
Majority Text from which the Authorized King James Version of
the Bible is translated. It reveals the principles by which God
judges us; and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the
world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme
standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious
opinions should be tried. The criterion by which the Bible is to
be interpreted is Jesus Christ. (II Tim. 3:16;
Prov. 30:5;
Heb. 4:12)
II.
GOD
There
is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent,
spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver,
and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all
other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence and
obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without
division of nature, essence, or being. (John 4:24; Psalm 83:18)
A.
God the Father
God
as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His
creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according
to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all loving,
and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become
children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (Matt. 6:9; John
16:28)
B.
God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. Jesus Christ is God of very
God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the
Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly
revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself the
demands and necessities of human nature and identifying Himself
completely with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine
law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross He
made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised
from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His
disciples as the person who was with them before His
crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the
right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, partaking of the
nature of God and of man, and in whose Person is effected the
reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and
glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive
mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever
present Lord. (Heb. 18:8;
John 14:6; Acts 4:12)
C.
God the Holy Spirit
The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He inspired holy men of old to
write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables men to
understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the
Saviour, and effects
regeneration. He cultivates Christian character, comforts
believers, and bestows the
spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He
seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His
presence in the Christian is the assurance of God to bring the
believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He
enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship,
evangelism, and service. (John 16:13; John 16:8)
III.
MAN
Man
was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is
the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man was
innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of
choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought
sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man
transgressed the command of God and fell from his original
innocence, whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an
environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable
of moral action become transgressors and are under condemnation.
Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and
enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The
sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created
man in His own image and in that Christ died for man; therefore,
every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and
Christian love. (Gen. 1:27;
Gen. 3:6-24;
Rom. 5:12;
Rom. 5:19)
IV.
SALVATION
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is
offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and
Saviour, who by His own blood
obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest
sense, salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and
glorification. (Heb. 9:14,22)
A.
Regeneration or the new birth
A
work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in
Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit
through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in
repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is
the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire
personality to Him as Lord and
Savior. Justification brings the believer into a
relationship of peace and favor with God. (Luke 13:3,5;
Rom. 4:5;
Rom. 3:24,25)
B.
Sanctification
The
experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is
set apart to God's purposes and is enabled to progress toward
moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of
the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue
throughout the regenerate person's life. (I
Cor. 1:30)
C.
Glorification
The
culmination of salvation and the final blessed and abiding state
of the redeemed.
V.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
All
true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in
Christ and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall away from
the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers
may fall into sin through neglect and temptation whereby they
grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring
reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on
themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation. (II Tim. 1:8-9; John 6:37; Psalm 89:30-34)
VI.
THE CHURCH
A New
Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of
baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith
and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of
Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts,
rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking
to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. This church is an
autonomous body, operating through democratic processes under
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In such a congregation, members
are equally responsible. Its Scriptural officers are pastors and
deacons. The church, which is
Christ's body, includes the redeemed, blood-washed ones
and will be called out when Christ comes again for His own. (I
Tim. 3:15; Heb. 12:23)
VII.
BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act
of obedience, symbolizing the
believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen
Saviour, the
believer's death to sin, the
burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness
of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the
final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is
prerequisite to the privileges of church
membership
and to the Lord's Supper. (Rom.
6:3-6) The Lord's Supper is a symbolic
act of obedience whereby members of the church, through
partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine,
memorialize the death of the
Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (I
Cor. 11:24-28)
VIII.
THE LORD'S DAY
The
first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian
institution for regular observance. It commemorates the
resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in
exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and
private, and by refraining from worldly amusements and resting
from secular employments, work of necessity and mercy only being
excepted. (Heb. 10:25; Acts.
20:7)
IX.
THE KINGDOM
The
Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the
universe and His particular kingship
over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly,
the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by
trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians ought
to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God's will be
done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the
return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age. (John 3:3; Matt.
6:10)
X.
LAST THINGS
According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally
and visibly in glory to the earth. The dead in Christ will rise
first, then we who are alive and remain until the coming of the
Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. After the judgments of God upon this sinful
world in the Great Tribulation, Jesus our Lord will come with
His saints to establish His
millennial kingdom. Christ will judge all men in
righteousness. The redeemed of Christ, in their resurrected and
glorified bodies, will receive their rewards and will dwell in
Heaven forever with their Saviour.
The unsaved will be separated from the Kingdom of God and will
be consigned forever to a place of everlasting perdition. (I
Thes. 4:16-18; I
Cor. 15:51-52)
XI.
EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS
It is
the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every
church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of
all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit
means the birth of love for others. Missionary efforts on the
part of all rests, thus, upon a spiritual necessity of the
regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in
the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to
seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort and
by all other methods in harmony with the Gospel of Christ. (John
4:35; Matt. 28: 18-20)