Doctrines

We believe that the Holy Scriptures were supernaturally inspired by God and written by men of God. They are true, without error in all their content, and remain true forever. We believe that the Holy Scriptures are the complete and final revelation of the will of God to mankind, and the supreme standard by which all human thought, conduct and opinions are to be judged.

1. By the Holy Scriptures we mean the canonized collection of 66 books, from Genesis to Revelation, which does not merely contain the Word of God, but is the very Word of the living God.
2. By inspiration we mean that the men of God wrote the books of the Holy Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Spirit – by His direct and supernatural influence – so precisely that the Word they wrote was verbally inspired by God and stands unshaken like no other writing in human history, past or future.
3. The devil has an unrestrained hatred of the Word of God, and his attacks grew especially fierce in the second half of the last century, notably through the influence of modernist teaching on modern translations of the Bible. Clear examples of this can be found in many recent translations.

We use the Synodal translation in Russian, the Ohienko translation in Ukrainian, and the Authorized King James Version of 1611 (KJV) in English. Where these three translations differ, the KJV takes precedence.

2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:19–21; Acts 1:16; Acts 28:25; Psalm 119:160, 130, 89; Luke 24:25–27, 44–45; John 17:17; Proverbs 30:5–6; Romans 3:4; 1 Peter 1:23; Revelation 22:19; John 12:48; Isaiah 8:20; Ephesians 6:17; Romans 15:4; Luke 16:31; Psalm 19:7–11; John 5:39, 45–47

We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God – an infinite, intelligent Spirit with a definite, personal nature, the Maker, Ruler and Supreme Lord of heaven and earth. His holiness is inexpressibly glorious, and He is worthy of all honor, trust, hope, love, admiration, worship and devotion. We believe in the unity of God in three Persons – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – equal in divine essence, who together carry out the harmonious purpose of God’s salvation.

We believe in the supernatural virgin birth and the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; in His sacrificial, atoning death on Calvary to cleanse from sin through the shedding of His precious blood once for all; in His literal bodily resurrection and His ascension from the Mount of Olives; in His intercession for the saints at the right hand of the Father; and in His bodily, visible return before the Millennium.

Exodus 20:2–3; Genesis 17:1; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6; John 4:24; Psalm 147:5; Psalm 83:18; Psalm 91:2; Jeremiah 10:10; Exodus 15:11; Revelation 4:11; 1 Timothy 1:17; Romans 11:33; Mark 12:30; Matthew 28:19; John 15:26; 1 Corinthians 12:4–6; 1 John 5:7; John 10:30; John 17:5; Acts 5:3–4; 1 Corinthians 2:10–11; Philippians 2:5–6; Ephesians 2:18; 2 Corinthians 13:14

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of one essence with Them. The Holy Spirit took part in the creation of the world; He reproves the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and bears witness to the truth of the Gospel through preaching and Christian testimony. The new birth comes from Him. It is the Holy Spirit who seals believers and fills them with Himself, who guides, teaches, sanctifies and comforts them, and who raises them up and glorifies them.

John 14:16–17; Matthew 28:19; Hebrews 9:14; John 14:26; Luke 1:35; Genesis 1:1–3; 2 Thessalonians 2:7; John 16:8–11; John 15:26–27; Acts 5:30–32; John 3:3–6; Ephesians 1:13–14; Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 11:16; Luke 24:49; John 16:13; Romans 8:14, 16, 26–27; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2

We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, who was created holy by the Lord, as the anointed cherub, and enjoyed heavenly privileges, but through pride and the ambition to be as the Almighty he fell and drew a host of angels after him. He is now the prince of evil, the spirit who rules in the air and now works in the children of disobedience, blinding and deceiving people and stirring them up to rebel against God and to reject salvation in Jesus Christ.

He is the unrighteous god of this world, the great tempter of man, the chief enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ and the driving force behind all apostasy, the accuser of the brethren, the author of all false religions, the master of the Antichrist and the source of every power of darkness. Yet he is destined to complete defeat at the hands of the Son of God and to just judgment – eternal perdition in the lake of fire prepared for him and his angels.

Isaiah 14:12–15; Ezekiel 28:14, 17; Revelation 12:9; Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 14:30; 1 Thessalonians 3:5; Matthew 4:1–3; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 3:8; Matthew 13:25, 37–39; Luke 22:3–4; Revelation 12:10; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15; Mark 13:21–22; 1 John 2:22; Revelation 13:13–14; 2 Thessalonians 2:8–11; Revelation 12:7–9; 19:11, 16, 20; 20:1–3, 10; Matthew 25:41

We believe that the biblical account of creation in the book of Genesis is to be understood literally, not figuratively or symbolically. Man was created in holiness, directly in the image and likeness of God, by God Himself. The creation of man was not the result of evolution, mutation or gradual development from lower forms of life to higher ones.

We believe that all forms of life – animals and plants – were created directly by God, and that the law God established declares that each must reproduce only “after his kind.”

Genesis 1:1, 11, 24, 26–27; Genesis 2:21–23; Exodus 20:11; Acts 4:24; Colossians 1:16–17; Hebrews 11:3; John 1:3; Revelation 10:6; Romans 1:20; Acts 17:23–26; Jeremiah 10:12; Nehemiah 9:6

We believe in the reality of the fall of man and in the total, universal sinfulness of mankind, which has left man helpless and without hope of being saved by his own efforts.

Genesis 3:6; Romans 5:12, 19; Romans 3:10–19; Ephesians 2:1, 3; Romans 1:18, 20, 28, 32; Ezekiel 18:19–20; Galatians 3:22

We believe that there is an essential and fundamental difference between the righteous who have believed and the wicked who do not believe; that only those who are justified through faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are truly righteous and will be taken to Heaven to be with Him, while all who obstinately remain unrepentant and in conscious sin will go to hell and will at last be cast into “the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” – a place of eternal, conscious punishment prepared for the devil and his angels.

We believe, as the Holy Scriptures teach, that the Lord Jesus Christ was miraculously conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, pure and chaste, in a way that no other human being has ever been born on the earth. No other man can ever be born of a woman in this way.

Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18–25; Luke 1:35; Mark 1:1; John 1:14; Psalm 2:7; Galatians 4:4; 1 John 5:20; 1 Corinthians 15:47

We believe that the salvation of sinners is accomplished by the grace of God and solely through the mediatorial work of the Son of God, who by the will of the Father freely took upon Himself human nature, yet remained without sin. He honored the divine Law by His perfect obedience, and by His death made a full, substitutionary atonement for our sins. The atonement He made is not merely an example of martyrdom, but a voluntary sacrifice for the sinner, offered for our salvation: the Just One who died for the unjust, Christ the Lord, who bore our sins in His own body on the tree, gloriously rose from the dead and sat down on the throne at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. In His wonderful Person the tenderest sympathies are joined with divine perfections beyond our reach – He alone is a compassionate and all-sufficient Savior.

Ephesians 2:8; Acts 15:11; Romans 3:24; John 3:16; Matthew 18:11; Philippians 2:7; Hebrews 2:14; Isaiah 53:4–7; Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:10; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; John 10:18; Philippians 2:8; Galatians 1:4; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; Isaiah 53:11; Hebrews 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Isaiah 53:12; Hebrews 9:12–15; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:2

We believe that sinners must be born again in order to be saved. The new birth is a new creation in Christ. It takes place instantly: it is not a gradual process but a single act. The one who is born again passes from death in sins to life, becoming a partaker of the divine nature by receiving eternal salvation, the gift of God. God’s new creation is beyond the grasp of our limited understanding and cannot be confined to any earthly framework – of culture, character or human will. It is brought about solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the truth of God’s Word, which subdues our stony hearts to the Gospel. God’s new creation is evident in the fruits of holy repentance and of trust in the finished salvation in Christ Jesus alone, the Lord who gives new life.

John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Luke 5:27; 1 John 5:1; John 3:6–7; Acts 2:41; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 2:13; John 1:12–13; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 5:9

We believe in the redemption and salvation of sinners by grace alone, through the mediatorial ministry of the Son of God, who by shedding His blood accomplished the redemption of sins once for all; and in the full and freely given forgiveness of all sins, available to all people and granted to everyone who receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

We believe in the absolute necessity of the new birth, that is, that sinners must be born again in order to be saved; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus and is an instantaneous event, not a lengthy process; that in the new birth one who was dead in trespasses and sins becomes a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God.

We believe that the new birth is brought about not by water baptism or by any other human or church rite, but solely by the divine work of the Holy Spirit – directly or indirectly, through the inspired Word – so as to bring a person to willing obedience to the Gospel.

We believe that in the new birth the life received in natural, physical birth is reckoned to have died with Christ on the cross of Calvary, by a divinely lawful transaction. We believe that in the new birth Christ begins to live in the believer through the Holy Spirit, the believer’s spirit is supernaturally united with Him, and the believer is thus endowed with a new, perfect and sinless life, which makes him the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

The true evidence of the new birth is seen in holy fruits – repentance, faith and newness of life.

1 Thessalonians 1:4; Colossians 3:12; 1 Peter 1:2; Titus 1:1; Romans 8:29–30; Matthew 11:28; Isaiah 55:1; Revelation 22:17; Romans 10:13; John 6:37; Isaiah 55:6; Acts 2:38; Isaiah 55:7; John 3:15–16; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 2:4–5; John 5:40; John 3:18; John 3:36

We believe, according to the Scriptures, that the great Gospel blessing which Christ bestows on those who believe in Him is justification. Justification includes the pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life, founded on the righteousness of the Savior. Sinners are justified not by any works of their own righteousness, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood. On the ground of this faith God the Father imputes to us the righteousness of His only begotten Son – a righteousness without spot or blemish – and declares us justified in Him.

Acts 13:39; Isaiah 53:11; Zechariah 13:1; Romans 8:1; Romans 5:9; Romans 5:1; Titus 3:5–7; Romans 1:17; Habakkuk 2:4; Galatians 3:11; Romans 4:1–8; Hebrews 10:38

We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations, and also two inseparable graces wrought in our souls by the quickening Holy Spirit of God. He convicts us and gives us a deep sense of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation in Christ. We turn to God with sincere contrition, confess our sins and plead for mercy, and at the same time wholeheartedly receive the Lord Jesus Christ, openly confessing Him as the only Savior able to save such as we are.

Acts 20:21; Mark 1:15; Acts 2:37–38; Luke 18:13; Romans 10:13; Psalm 51:1–4, 7; Isaiah 55:6–7; Luke 12:8; Romans 10:9–11

We believe that, according to the Scriptures, a true church is an assembly of born-again believers who have been baptized by complete immersion in water, bound together by a covenant of faith, and voluntarily gathered for fellowship, mutual edification, the preaching of the Gospel and the observance of the ordinances of Christ, governed by His Word. The church is the stronghold and bearer of divine and eternal grace. The church is to keep the ordinances of Christ, be governed by His laws, and exercise the gifts, rights and privileges granted through His Word.

We believe that “the church, which is his body” is the whole company of those who believe in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles, whether they are in heaven or on earth. The leaders of the local church are pastors (elders), whose duties and qualifications are clearly defined in the Scriptures. We believe that the only Head of the church is Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

We believe that the Scriptures allow true churches to cooperate in contending for the faith and in spreading the Gospel, but each local church decides for itself the extent and manner of such cooperation. We believe that the local church has the full right of self-government, free from interference by any outside hierarchy or organization. In all matters of membership, internal order, discipline and benevolence, the decision of the local church is final.

Acts 2:41–42; 1 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22–23; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:4, 8–11; Acts 14:23; Acts 6:5–6; Acts 15:23; Acts 20:17–28; 1 Timothy 3:1–13; Matthew 28:19–20; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23–24; 1 Peter 5:1–4; Acts 15:22; Jude 3–4; 2 Corinthians 8:23–24; 1 Corinthians 16:1; Malachi 3:10; Leviticus 27:32; 1 Corinthians 16:2; 1 Corinthians 6:1–3; 1 Corinthians 5:11–13

Our church, as an independent local assembly, declares its desire for fellowship and cooperation with all true believers of the same precious faith, wherever such fellowship and cooperation do not lead to compromise on the fundamental truths of God’s Word. At the same time, our church firmly separates itself from unbelievers in spiritual matters and opposes union and cooperation in the spiritual realm with liberals, modernists or false teachers.

Our church desires to be identified as wholly and exclusively Baptist, because we believe in:

1. Salvation by grace, not by the works of the law.
2. A born-again church membership. The new birth of the believer is a change wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit after a person has believed in Jesus Christ. Every member of the church must be born again.
3. The priesthood of all believers. Every believer is a priest who offers spiritual sacrifices to God.
4. The independence and autonomy of the local church. This means the separation of church and state and complete freedom from any outside interference by state authorities, governments, other churches, religious organizations or individuals.
5. The ordinances given to the local church:
   • A. Baptism by immersion in water. We reject every form of infant baptism.
   • B. The Lord’s Supper, which consists in partaking of unleavened bread and grape juice, which symbolize the body and blood of the Lord.
6. The return of Jesus Christ before the Millennium. Christ will reign for a thousand years on the earth, in Jerusalem.

Believers are to separate themselves from worldly and sinful habits and to devote themselves to Christian influence and service; every believer is bound to avoid all evil, to do nothing that could become a temptation or a stumbling block to a brother, to offend no one, and to serve one another in love. The church is to maintain, according to the Word of God, purity both of life and of doctrine.

We believe that Christian baptism is the believer’s submission to the Lord by immersion in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Only believers who have been born again may be baptized. Baptism has no saving power; it is a sign of obedience and love toward God, in which the believer acknowledges and affirms before God and the brethren that he has truly died with Christ in his new birth, and accepts his responsibility to yield his body fully and without reservation to the control of the Savior who dwells in him, acknowledging His absolute lordship in every area of life, while seeking the filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit, so that through His fullness this sanctification may become a reality.

Water baptism is administered only by ordained ministers of the local church. In baptism the believer solemnly declares the beautiful testimony of our faith in a crucified, buried and risen Savior. It pictures the believer’s death to sin and resurrection to a new life. Baptism is the defining mark of membership in the local church and gives the right to take part in the Lord’s Supper, in which the members of the Body of Christ together, in prayer, through the breaking of bread and the cup of the fruit of the vine, remember the love of the dying Savior. The Lord’s Supper is always preceded by solemn self-examination.

We believe in the privilege and duty of every believer to take part in the Lord’s Supper together with other people of God who walk in the light and obey God’s Word. The bread and the grape juice are only symbols – the Lord’s Supper has no saving power, but it is needed to help the believer remember the sufferings and death of Christ, examining himself in the light of this truth, which moves him to greater love, praise, worship, obedience and holiness. All true believers should refrain from taking part in this ordinance with those who call themselves Christians yet live in disobedience, according to 1 Corinthians 5:6–13, or with unbelievers.

Acts 8:36–39; Matthew 3:6; John 3:23; Romans 6:4–5; Matthew 3:16; Matthew 28:19–20; Romans 6:3–5; Colossians 2:12; Acts 2:41–42; 1 Corinthians 11:26

We are confident that after a genuine new birth and entrance into God’s family as a newborn babe in Christ, the Christian has eternal life and will never perish or go to hell. When God begins something, He brings it to completion, and the works of His hands are the height of perfection. With the Lord, word and deed always agree. It is impossible to lose salvation once it has truly been received. Saved believers are kept by the power of God through faith in an eternal redemption. We believe in the final and irreversible perseverance unto eternal salvation of all who are truly born again; at death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and pass immediately into glory, while their bodies rest in the grave until their resurrection.

John 3:16, 36; 4:13–14; 5:24; 6:37, 39; 10:27–30; 14:16; 1 John 5:10–13; Jude 24; Ephesians 2:6, 8–9; 5:30; Romans 3:24; 4:4; 5:10, 18–19; 6:23; 8:38–39; 2 Timothy 1:7, 9; 4:18; Titus 3:5; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 3:11–15; 5:1–5; 12:18, 27; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Colossians 2:10; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:4–5, 23; 2 Thessalonians 2:16

We believe that there is an essential and profound difference between the righteous and the wicked. Only those who through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God are truly righteous in God’s sight. All who obstinately remain in impenitence and unbelief are, in God’s sight, wicked and sinful, and under His curse (wrath). This distinction holds both before death and after it, bringing the righteous to eternal blessedness and the lost to eternal, conscious torment.

Malachi 3:18; Genesis 18:23; Romans 6:17–18; Proverbs 11:31; 1 Peter 4:18; Romans 1:17; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Acts 10:34–35; 1 John 5:19; Galatians 3:10; Romans 7:6; 6:23; Proverbs 14:32; Luke 16:25; Matthew 25:34, 41; John 8:21; Luke 9:26; John 12:25; Matthew 7:13–14

We believe that civil government is instituted to protect the interests and promote the good of human society. Rulers are to be prayed for, conscientiously obeyed and honored, except where their demands are contrary to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ – the only Lord of our conscience and the Lord of all rulers, the King of kings and the Ruler of the kingdoms of the earth.

Romans 13:7; 2 Samuel 23:3; Exodus 18:21–22; Acts 23:5; Matthew 22:21; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13, 17; Acts 4:19–20; Daniel 3:17–18; Matthew 10:28; 23:10; Philippians 2:10–11; Psalm 72:11

We believe and rely fully on the Holy Scriptures in these matters, taking the Holy Words literally and receiving by faith every jot and tittle. Concerning the resurrection of Christ, we believe that the Lord rose bodily “the third day according to the scriptures.” We believe that He alone can be our “merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,” and that “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Bodily, personally and visibly, all the living saints will be changed and the dead will be raised: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” First the Lord will come in the clouds, in the air, to take His bride, the Church, before the period of the Great Tribulation; this is in essence “that blessed hope,” the Rapture of the Church, for which we should constantly look and long (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17; 5:9). The second stage of Christ’s second coming takes place at the end of the seven years of Tribulation, to put down the wicked and to reign for a thousand years in a literal kingdom on this earth: “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David”; Christ “must reign [a thousand years in righteousness], till he hath put all enemies under his feet.”

Mark 16:6; Mark 16:19; John 14:3; John 20:27; 1 John 2:1; Revelation 19:11; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 20:1–4; Luke 1:31–33; Luke 24:2, 4–6; Luke 1:32; Luke 24:51; Luke 24:39; Matthew 28:6–7; Matthew 24:27; Matthew 24:42; 1 Corinthians 15:4; 1 Corinthians 15:42–44, 51–53; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Acts 1:9; Acts 1:11; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 12:2; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 5:9–10; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Philippians 3:20–21; Isaiah 11:4–5; Isaiah 9:6–7; Psalm 72:8

The Lord’s command to take the Gospel to the whole world is clear and beyond dispute. Our church firmly believes that the Great Commission has never been revoked. We hold that all born-again believers should be mission-minded – not only in their own country but also abroad. God honors the mission-minded local church. When God calls some of its members to mission work, the church, blessed by the Lord, should promote this by supporting its missionaries with prayer and giving. We believe in the priority of preaching the Gospel, as it is written in Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 16:15; John 20:21; Romans 10:13–15

1. Spiritual offerings and giving are a foundation of faith. “Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
2. God has commanded that gifts be brought to the church on the first day of the week (Sunday). “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:2).
3. In the Old Testament the tithe is 10% of all that God has given, and it belongs to the Lord: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD” (Leviticus 27:30).
4. The New Testament gives no direct command to give exactly 10%, yet 10% is regarded as the minimum that a child of God gives to God in the Church age. (For example, Abraham gave tithes 400 years before the Law of Moses – Hebrews 7:2–4.) “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23).
5. The New Testament church had a common fund to help those in need: “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need” (Acts 4:34–35).