Church Doctrine

A. Repentance
The only grounds upon which God will accept a sinner is repentance from the heart for the sins he has committed. “A broken and contrite heart…thou wilt not despise.” (Psalms 51:17). Jesus stated that                “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47), and Peter fulfilled this commandment on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38).

B. Water Baptism
Water baptism was administered in the name of Jesus Christ, for this was the name given to our Savior before his birth for the purpose of saving His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21); for there is salvation in “none other name (Acts 4:12) whereby we must be saved.” The apostles always administered baptism in His name from the Day of Pentecost forward. There is no biblical record of one person ever being baptized, as some believers are today, using the formula “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matthew 28:19). In administering baptism in Jesus’ name our formula should include, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. We believe in baptism once in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins for persons who have reached the age of understanding, and no baptism of infants under any condition.

C. Baptism of the Holy Ghost
We believe that all full believers receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, as promised by our Lord and as
witness to their scripturally based faith in Jesus (John 7:37-39); and that the new birth of the Spirit (John 3:5) is necessary to place the believer in the Kingdom of God or the Body of Christ, the Church (I Corinthians 12:12- 13). We further believe that the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost marked a new era in the Spirit’s dealing with mankind as prophesied by Joel (Joel 2:28-29; Isaiah 28:11), the Holy Ghost being the gift to every believer in this age of grace: hand-maidens, servants, sons and daughters. The Holy Ghost does not indwell the believer simply because he says”I believe” as many evangelicals teach. St. Paul shows that the Holy Ghost comes after believing (Ephesians 1:13), not  synonymous with it. The Holy Spirit is “the seal of the righteousness of the faith” which the believer has (Romans 4:11), as circumcision was the seal of the righteousness of Abraham. We believe that speaking with tongues as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4), is the initial evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit; not only on the Day of Pentecost for the one hundred and twenty, but for all believers for all time. Jesus told Nicodemus “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8). Speaking with tongues is the sound of the Spirit, heard by every believer. It is synonymous with the cry of the newborn babe in the first birth (birth of the flesh); for God has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts in the second birth (birth of the Spirit) crying Abba, Father (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).