Article I—The Scriptures

We believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which we understand the whole
Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God “were moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the
very words of Scripture. We believe that this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all
parts of the writings—historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical—as appeared in the original
manuscripts. We believe that the whole Bible in the originals is therefore without error. We
believe that all the Scriptures center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work in His
first and second coming, and hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read or
understood until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our
practical instruction. (Mark 12:26, 36; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; 16:13; Acts 1:106; 17:2–3;
18:28; 26:22–23; 28:23; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 2:13; 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21)
Article II—The Godhead
We believe that God is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of all things visible and invisible,
who eternally exists in three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these
three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of
precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. (Matt. 28:18–19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14;
Acts 5:3–4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 1:1–3; Rev. 1:4–6)
Article III—Angels, Fallen and Unfallen
We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless spiritual beings known as angels;
that one, “Lucifer, son of the morning”—the highest in rank—sinned through pride, thereby
becoming Satan; that a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of
whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy
purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the
judgment of the great day.” (Isa. 14:12–17; Ezek. 28:11–19; 1 Tim. 3:6; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6)
We believe that Satan is the originator of sin and that under the permission of God, he, through
subtlety, led our first parents into transgression, thereby accomplishing their moral fall and
subjecting them and their posterity to his own power; that he is the enemy of God and the people
of God, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped; and that
he who in the beginning said, “I will be like the most High,” in his warfare appears as an angel of
light, even counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and systems of
doctrine, which systems in every case are characterized by a denial of the efficacy of the blood of
Christ and of salvation by grace alone. (Gen. 3:1– 19; Rom. 5:12–14; 2 Cor. 4:3–4; 11:13–15;
Eph. 6:10–12; 2 Thess. 2:4; 1 Tim. 4:1–3)
We believe that Satan was judged at the Cross, though not then executed, and that he, a usurper,
now rules as the “god of this world”; that, at the second coming of Christ, Satan will be bound
and cast into the abyss for a thousand years; and after the thousand years he will be loosed for a
short season and then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” where he “shall be tormented day
and night for ever and ever.” (Col. 2:15; Rev. 20:1–3, 10)
We believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are before the throne of God,
from where they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation. (Luke 15:10; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 7:12)
We believe that humanity was made lower than the angels; and that, in His incarnation, Christ
took for a little time this lower place, that He might lift the believer to His own sphere above the
angels. (Heb. 2:6–10)
Article IV—Humanity, Created and Fallen
We believe that humanity was created in the image and after the likeness of God. God created
them male (man) and female (woman). Men and women are sexually different but have equal
personal dignity. Some men and women are called to remain single; some are called to marriage,
which is a “one flesh” union between one man and one woman intended to end only upon a
spouse’s death. This union allows for procreation as well as furtherance of the moral, spiritual,
and public good. Therefore, sexual acts outside of biblical marriage are prohibited by Scripture.
All humanity—male and female, whether married or single—are fallen beings. Through sin, and
as a consequence of that sin, all humanity lost their spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and
sins, and became subject to the power of the devil. We also believe that this spiritual death, or
total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race, the Man Christ
Jesus alone being excepted; and that as a result every child of Adam is born into the world with a
nature that not only possesses no spark of divine life, but also is essentially and unchangeably bad
apart from divine grace. (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:18–24; 3:7–8; Exod. 20:14; Lev. 18:7–23; 20:10–21;
Deut. 5:18; Matt. 5:27–28; 15:19; 19:4–9; Mark 10:5–9; Rom. 1:26–32; 8:8; 1 Cor. 6:9–13; 1 Cor
7:6–8; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 4:17–19; 5:25–27, 31–33; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 13:4; 21:2)
Article V—The Dispensations
We believe that the dispensations are stewardships by which God administers His purpose on the
earth through human beings under varying responsibilities. We believe that the changes in the
dispensational dealings of God with people depend on changed conditions or situations in which
they are successively found with relation to God, and that these changes are the result of human
failures and the judgments of God. We believe that different administrative responsibilities of this
character are manifest in the biblical record, that they span the entire history of humanity, and
that each ends in failure under the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from God. We
believe that three of these dispensations or rules of life are the subject of extended revelation in
the Scriptures—namely, the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of grace,
and the future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. We believe that these are distinct and are
not to be intermingled or confused, as they are chronologically successive.
We believe that the dispensations are not ways of salvation nor different methods of
administering the “Covenant of Grace.” They are not in themselves dependent on covenant
relationships but are ways of life and responsibility that test the submission of people to God’s
revealed will during a particular time. We believe that if people trust in their own efforts to gain
the favor of God or salvation under any dispensational test, because of inherent sin their failure to
satisfy fully the just requirements of God is inevitable and their condemnation sure.
We believe that according to the “eternal purpose” of God, salvation in the divine reckoning is
always by grace through faith and rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Christ. We believe
that God has always been gracious, regardless of the ruling dispensation, but that people have not
at all times been under an administration or stewardship of grace as is true in the present
dispensation. (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 2:8; 3:2; 3:9, 11; Col. 1:25; 1 Tim. 1:4)
We believe that it has always been true that “without faith it is impossible to please” God, and
that the principle of faith was prevalent in the lives of all the Old Testament saints. However, we
believe that it was historically impossible that they should have had as the conscious object of
their faith the incarnate, crucified Son, the Lamb of God, and that it is evident that they did not
comprehend as we do that the sacrifices depicted the person and work of Christ. We believe also
that they did not understand the redemptive significance of the prophecies or types concerning
the sufferings of Christ; therefore, we believe that their faith toward God was manifested in other
ways as is shown by the long record in Hebrews 11:1–40. We believe further that their faith thus
manifested was counted to them for righteousness. (John 1:29; Rom. 4:3 with Gen. 15:6; Rom.
4:5–8; 1 Pet. 1:10–12; Heb. 11:6– 7)
Article VI—The First Advent
We believe that, as provided and purposed by God and as preannounced in the prophecies of the
Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to humanity,
fulfill prophecy, and become the redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin
and received a human body and a sinless human nature.
We believe that the Son retained all the attributes of deity in His incarnation and that the
distinction between the human and divine natures was in no way annulled by the union. (Luke
1:30–35; 2:40 John 1:1–2, 18; 3:16; Phil. 2:5–8; Heb. 4:15)
We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy Jesus came first to Israel as her Messiah-King and that,
being rejected by that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a
ransom for all. (John 1:11; Acts 2:22–24; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2)
We believe that, in infinite love for the lost, Jesus voluntarily accepted His Father’s will and
became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world, bearing the
holy judgments against sin that the righteousness of God must impose. His death was therefore
substitutionary in the most absolute sense—the just for the unjust—and by His death He became
the Savior of the lost. (John 1:29; Rom. 3:25–26; 2 Cor. 5:14; Heb. 10:5– 14; 1 Pet. 3:18)
We believe that, according to the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead in the same
body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died, and that His resurrection body is the
pattern of the body that ultimately will be given to all believers. (John 20:20; Phil. 3:20–21)
We believe that, on departing from the earth, Jesus was accepted by His Father and that His
acceptance is a final assurance to believers that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished.
(Heb. 1:3)
We believe that Jesus became Head over all things to the church, which is His body, and in this
ministry He continually intercedes and advocates for the saved. (Eph. 1:22–23; Heb. 7:25; 1 John
2:1)
Article VII—Salvation Only through Christ
We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality
however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however
administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted
from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential to
salvation, and only those thus saved are children of God. We believe, also, that our redemption
has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and
was made a curse for us, dying in our place; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good
resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all
the churches that have existed since the days of the apostles can add in the very least degree to
the value of the blood or to the merit of the finished work wrought for us by Him who united in
His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity. (Lev. 17:11; Isa. 64:6; Matt.
26:28; John 3:7–18; Rom. 5:6–9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 6:15; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:4–9; Titus 3:5;
James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:18–19, 23)
We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ and that
repentance is a vital part of believing and is in no way, in itself, a separate and independent
condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful
service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. (John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29;
Acts 13:39; 16:31; Rom. 1:16–17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Gal. 3:22)
Article VIII—The Extent of Salvation
We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises the faith in Christ that is illustrated and
described as such in the New Testament, that person passes immediately out of spiritual death
into spiritual life, and from the old creation into the new being justified from all things, accepted
before the Father as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having their place and
portion linked to Him and one with Him forever. Though saved individuals may have occasion to
grow in the realization of their blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through
yielding their lives more fully to God, they are, as soon as they are saved, in possession of every
spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and are therefore in no way required by God
to seek a “second blessing” or “second work of grace.” (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1;
1 Cor. 3:21–23; Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10; 1 John 4:17; 5:11–12)
Article IX—Sanctification
We believe that sanctification, which is a setting-apart for God, is threefold: It is already
complete for every saved person because the position of each toward God is the same as Christ’s
position. Since believers are in Christ, they are set apart for God in the measure in which Christ is
set apart for God. We believe, however, that they retain their sin nature, which cannot be
eradicated in this life. Therefore, while the standing of believers in Christ is perfect, their present
state is no more perfect than their experience in daily life. There is, therefore, a progressive
sanctification wherein Christians are to “grow in grace” and to “be changed” by the unhindered
power of the Spirit. We believe also that the children of God will yet be fully sanctified in their
state as they are now sanctified in their standing in Christ when they shall see their Lord and shall
be “like Him.” (John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; Eph. 4:24; 5:25–27; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 10:10, 14;
12:10)
Article X—Eternal Security
We believe that because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of
His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of
Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and
unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the
unchangeable covenants of God, and because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy
Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, all true believers everywhere, once saved, shall be kept
saved forever. We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father, because He cannot
overlook the sin of His children. Thus, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and
correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart
from all human merit, He who cannot fail will in the end present every one of them faultless
before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. (John 5:24; 10:28; 13:1;
14:16–17; 17:11; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 6:19; Heb. 7:25; 12:4–11; 1 John 2:1–2; 5:13; Jude 24)
Article XI—Assurance
We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit
through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very
day they take Christ to be their Savior and that this assurance is not founded on any fancied
discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written
Word, prompting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience. (Luke 10:20; 22:32; 2
Cor. 5:1, 6–8; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 10:22; 1 John 5:13)
Article XII—The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from
all eternity, took up residence in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to
the divine promise, dwells in every believer, and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body,
and that He, as the Indwelling One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and
service. We believe that the Spirit never departs from the church, nor from the feeblest of the
saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy believers with Christ and not with
themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His presence in the world in this special
sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the church. (John
14:16–17; 16:7–15; 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:22; 2 Thess. 2:7)
We believe that, in this age, certain well-defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit, and
that it is the duty of all Christians to understand them and to be adjusted to them in their own life
and experience. These ministries are the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the
divine will; the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment; the
regenerating of all believers; the indwelling and anointing of all who are saved, thereby sealing
them for the day of redemption; the baptizing into the one body of Christ of all who are saved;
and the continued filling for power, teaching, and service of those among the saved who are
yielded to Him and who are subject to His will. (John 3:6; 16:7–11; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph.
4:30; 5:18; 2 Thess. 2:7; 1 John 2:20–27)
Article XIII—The Church, A Unity of Believers
We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God are members of the
church, which is the body and bride of Christ, began at Pentecost, and is distinct from Israel. The
church’s members are constituted as such regardless of membership or nonmembership in the
organized churches of earth. We believe that by the same Spirit all believers in this age, whether
Jews or Gentiles, are baptized into, and thus become, one body that is Christ’s. And having
become members one of another, they are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace, rising above all sectarian differences, and loving one another with a pure heart
fervently. (Matt. 16:16–18; Acts 2:42–47; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12–27; Eph. 1:20–23; 4:3–10;
Col. 3:14–15)
Article XIV—The Sacraments or Ordinances
We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the sacraments/ordinances of the
church, and that they are a scriptural means of testimony for the church in this age. (Matt. 28:19;
Luke 22:19–20; Acts 10:47–48; 16:32–33; 18:7–8; 1 Cor. 11:26)
Article XV—The Christian Walk
We believe that all believers are called with a holy calling to walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit, that we will not fulfill the lust of the
flesh. But the flesh with its fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being
with us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly in
subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to the dishonor of our
Lord. (Rom. 6:11–13; 8:2, 5–14; Gal. 5:16–23; Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 2:1–10; 1 Pet. 1:14–16; 1 John
1:4–7; 3:5–9)
Article XVI—The Christian’s Service
We believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit upon all who are
saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is energized by the same Spirit, and each
is called to divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church there were
certain gifted people—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—who were
appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints for their work of the ministry. We believe also
that today some are especially called of God to be evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is
to the fulfilling of His will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and encouraged
in their service for God. (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4–11; Eph. 4:11)
We believe that wholly apart from salvation benefits, which are bestowed equally upon all who
believe, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer’s service to the Lord,
and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to receive
His own to Himself. (1 Cor. 3:9–15; 9:18–27; 2 Cor. 5:10) We believe that some miraculous
manifestations of the Holy Spirit were unique to the apostolic period for the provision of new
revelation and the establishment of the authority of the apostles and prophets. Such abilities and
confirmatory signs, wonders, and miracles, which centered on individual apostles and prophets,
ceased with the passing of these foundational offices and the closing of the era of authoritative
New Testament revelation. Even at that time, prophesying and speaking in tongues as signs and
sources of revelation were never the common or necessary mark of the baptism nor of the filling
of the Spirit. While God may perform miracles in every age as He wills, the ultimate promise of
deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the
resurrection. (Acts 4:8, 31; Rom. 8:18–25; 1 Cor. 12:28, 30; 13:8; 14:22; 2 Cor. 12:12; Eph 2:20;
Heb. 2:3–4; Rev. 21:3–4)
Article XVII—The Great Commission
We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved
that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth by His Father into the
world. We believe that, after salvation, Christians are divinely reckoned to be related to this world
as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life
should be to make Christ known to the whole world. (Matt. 28:18–19; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2
Cor. 5:18–20; 1 Pet. 1:17; 2:11)
Article XVIII—The Blessed Hope
We believe that, according to the Word of God, the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy
will be the coming of the Lord in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are
alive and remain until His coming and also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus. This event is the
blessed hope described in Scripture, and for this we should be constantly looking. (John 14:1–3; 1
Cor. 15:51–52; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Titus 2:11–14)
Article XIX—The Tribulation
We believe that the translation of the church will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel’s
seventieth week, during which the church, the body of Christ, will be in heaven. The whole
period of Israel’s seventieth week will be a time of judgment on the whole earth, at the end of
which the times of the Gentiles will be brought to a close. The latter half of this period will be the
time of Jacob’s trouble, which our Lord called the great tribulation. We believe that universal
righteousness will not be realized prior to the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day
by day ripening for judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy. (Jer. 30:7; Dan.
9:27; Matt. 24:15–21; Rev. 6:1–19:21)
Article XX—The Second Coming of Christ
We believe that the period of great tribulation on the earth will climax in the return of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He will return to the earth as He went—in person on the clouds of heaven—and
with power and great glory. He will thus introduce the millennial age; bind Satan and place him
in the abyss; lift the curse that now rests on the whole creation; restore Israel to her own land and
give her the realization of God’s covenant promises; and bring the whole world to the knowledge
of God. (Deut. 30:1–10; Isa. 11:9; Ezek. 37:21–28; Matt. 24:15–25:46; Acts 15:16–17; Rom.
8:19–23; 11:25–27; 1 Tim. 4:1–3; 2 Tim. 3:1–5; Rev. 20:1–3)
Article XXI—The Eternal State
We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation pass immediately into His presence. There they remain in conscious bliss until the
resurrection of the glorified body given when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and
body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. But after their deaths the spirits and
souls of unbelievers remain conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment of
the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast
into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19–26; 23:42–43; 2 Cor. 5:8;
Phil. 1: 23; 2 Thess. 1:7–9; Jude 6–7; Rev. 20:11–15)