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We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only
infallible, authoritative Word of God.
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We believe that there is one God, eternally existent
in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, in
the conception of His body by the Holy Spirit and His birth by the virgin
Mary, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning
death, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of
the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
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We believe that salvation is wholly of grace, but
conditioned solely on repentance toward God and acceptance of Christ by
faith. When the sinner has met these requirements, God justifies and
regenerates him. Justification is a judicial act absolving from punishment
and restoring to divine favor. Regeneration is the impartation of divine
life effecting a change in the believer's nature. By the operation of the
Holy Spirit through the Word, he is given a disposition to obey God. The
Holy Spirit witnesses to this experience.
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We believe in the power and presence of the Holy
Spirit, that He personally dwells within and guides those who are true
believers, and empowers them for service, giving to them various gifts and
producing within their lives the fruits of Christian character. We believe
that the Holy Spirit simultaneously baptizes all believers into Christ, at
the moment they are regenerated, and also at that moment He comes to dwell
within the believer. The filling of the Holy Spirit should be a continuous
and repeated action. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is clearly spelled out
in 1 Corinthians 12:13. Any teaching contrary to this statement is not
acceptable.
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We believe sanctification is the work of grace begun
by the Holy Spirit at the moment of regeneration and continues
progressively until physical death. We believe it is not instantaneous or
subsequent to salvation in our daily experience. We believe the old nature
is not eradicated until after death, but that we must constantly guard
against its influence in our lives.
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We believe that at the return of the Lord the bodies
of the righteous dead will be raised and the living believers will be
changed so that both will have literal, spiritual and immortal bodies like
to Christ's own glorious body.
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Man, His Creation: We believe that man was created
by God and not by an accidental, spontaneous, or self-propagated
occurrence action, method, or process; that he was created in the image
and likeness of God, possessing personality and holiness, and that he is a
free moral agent possessing the power of choice, and that the purpose of
his creation was to glorify God.
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We believe in the oneness of the church of Christ,
composed of all Spirit-regenerated believers, and that these believers
both living and dead, shall be caught up together at His second coming.
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We believe the Christian ordinances are outward
rites appointed by Christ to be administered in each church, not as means
to salvation, but as visible signs of the facts and realities of
salvation. We believe in water baptism and that it is to be administered
to believers only. We recommend immersion as the mode of baptism, but
grant our pastors permission to use other modes when requested by the
candidates. The Lord's Supper in an ordinance instituted for observance by
His followers until He returns. It consists in partaking of the
consecrated emblems of bread and wine, and symbolizes the death and
suffering of Christ for the remission of our sins and our continual
dependence upon Him for our sustenance. The Lord's table should be open to
all that are in right relationship with God, regardless of denomination.
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We believe that marriage is a sacred institution
ordained of God in the time of man's innocence and that it is the mutual
union of one man and one woman and morally binding so long as both shall
live, and that therefore it cannot be dissolved by a decree of a civil
tribunal, except on evidence that one party is guilty of adultery. On
positive evidence of such guilt, the innocent party is free from further
matrimonial obligations and justly entitled to marry again, but the guilty
party has no such right. We deny the right of marriage to both parties who
have been divorced for caused other than adultery. Any person sustaining a
marriage relation contrary to that above recognized as justifiable shall
be ineligible to enter into the office of the ministry of The Christian
Union.
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We believe that the Scriptural teaching concerning
the financing of the Lord's work is through tithes and offering of God's
people.
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