1. The Scriptures

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We believe the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are verbally and fully inspired, inerrant, infallible, and divinely preserved. The Authorized Version is the official translation used by our church.

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Tri-State has determined to seek doctrinal accuracy and doctrinal unity. We approach the Bible as the Word of God and as our authority for life and ministry. We seek to understand it literally, grammatically, historically, contextually, and practically.

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2. The Godhead

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We believe in one triune God, eternally existing in three distinct Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—who are coequal and coeternal in divine essence, power, and glory.​

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3. God the Father

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We believe in God the Father, who sovereignly rules over all creation and works all things according to the counsel of His will, and who according to His eternal purpose and love gave and sent His only begotten Son into the world to provide salvation for all who believe.​

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4. God the Son

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We believe Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who became fully man without ceasing to be God, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Through His substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, and ascension, He accomplished our redemption and is our High Priest and Advocate.​

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5. God the Holy Spirit

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We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, who brings conviction to the lost in the matter of salvation and regenerates, indwells, seals, teaches, and empowers believers. He gives spiritual gifts for ministry, while the miraculous sign gifts were temporary.​

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6. Man

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We believe mankind was created in the image of God and endowed by Him with a free will, making every person personally responsible before God for his choices, including his response to the Gospel. Through Adam, every person is born with a sin nature, separated from God because of sin, and unable to redeem himself. Redemption comes exclusively by God’s grace and is received through personally believing on and receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour.​​

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7. Salvation

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We believe salvation is the gift of God, freely offered and available to all men, and received by grace through personal faith in Jesus Christ and His shed blood. We reject the teaching that God has chosen only certain individuals to be saved, believing instead that “whosoever will” may come to Christ and receive eternal life. Every true believer is eternally secure in Christ, being kept by the power of God and not by his own merit or ability, and has assurance of eternal redemption through God’s Word.​

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8. The Church

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We believe the local church is an autonomous assembly of born-again believers who have been baptized by immersion. God established two offices within the local church: pastor and deacon. Christ gave the church the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper and commissioned it to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world. We believe in the perpetuity of the church, established by Christ in the New Testament era and preserved throughout every generation according to His promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The church has continued to this day and will remain until Christ receives His saints at the Rapture.​

 

9. End Times

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We believe Christ will return personally and imminently to rapture His church before the Tribulation. Following the Tribulation, He will return visibly and bodily with His saints to establish His one-thousand-year earthly kingdom. We believe all people will be raised bodily: the saved to eternal life in the presence of God Himself, where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore; and the unsaved to conscious and everlasting judgment in the lake of fire, forever separated from the fellowship, favor, and blessing of God’s presence.