15. ADOPTION. We believe that adoption is the gracious act whereby the Father, for the sake of Christ, places new believers into the honored position of mature sons, in contrast with regeneration whereby the believer receives the nature of God and becomes a child of God. The full benefit of the position accorded by adoption as the sons of God awaits the glorification of the believer at the coming of the Lord.
(Eph. 1:5; Gal. 4:1-7; Eph. 1:13,14; I John 3:1)
16. THE SECURITY OF THE SAINTS. We believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the Father for Jesus Christ.
(Phil. 1:6; John 10:28,29; Rom. 8:35-39; Eph. 1:13 & 4:30)
17. THE CHURCH. We believe in the unity of all true believers in the Body of Christ, which was completed on the Day of Pentecost, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to this Body by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As a church this body is known only in Heaven. Heb. 12:23. We believe that the Church is manifested through the local church which is a congregation of immersed believers associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word; and that its officers are pastors and deacons, whose qualification, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scripture. We believe the true mission of the church is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; that it is scriptural for true churches to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the gospel; that each local church is the sole judge of the measure and method of its cooperation; and that on all matters of membership, of polity, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final.
(Eph. 3:1-6; I Cor. 12:12, 13: Acts 2:41, 42; I Cor. 11:2; Eph. 1:22, 23; 4:11; Acts 20: 17-28; I Tim. 3:1-7; Col. 1:18; Eph. 5:23, 24; Acts 15:13-18)
18. BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, under the authority of the local church, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership. We believe that the Lord's Supper is the commemoration of His death until He come, and should be preceded always by solemn self-examination. We believe that the Biblical order of the ordinances is baptism and the Lord's Supper, and that participants should be immersed believers.
(Acts 8:36, 38, 39; John 3:23; Rom. 6: 3-5; Matt. 3:16; Col. 2:12; I Cor. 11:23-28; Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 2:41, 42)
19. SEPARATION. We believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate entirely from worldliness and ecclesiastical apostasy unto God.
(2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; I Thess. 1:9, 10; I Tim. 6:3-5; Rom. 16-17; 2 John 9-11)
