1953-1955 Academic Catalog

DOCTRINAL STATEMENT All officers and members of the faculty and board of trustees are re– quired to sign the following Doctrinal Statement each year. 1. We believe In the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbalJy ln– !>plred by God and inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority In faith and life. !. We believe in one God, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, manlfe1tln&' Himself In Three Persons-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-one In nature, attributes, power and glory. 3. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was begotten by the Roly Spirit, born "' the Virgin 1\lary, and that ~e Is true God and true man. 4. We believe that man was created In the image of God; that h• sinned and thereby Incurred not only physical death but also spiritual daath which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and In tb• case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word and doed. 5. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip– tures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and rose again for our Justi– fication; and that all who believe In Him are JustUied on the ground of His 11hr.d blood and are saved by grace through faith wholly apart from human merit and worka. 6. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus are b&m aga.ln by the Holy Spirit through the word of God and thereby become the childrP.n or God, possess– ing eternal divine life. 'Z. We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person-the Administrator of the Godhead-convicting of sin, revealing Christ, teaching truth, restraining evJI, enP.rgiz– ing believers bl prayer, worship and service, and is ever present In the believer as Comforter and Helper. 8. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, Bis ascension into Heaven, His present life there as our fflgh Priest and Advocate, and His personal, bodily, visiblle, premillennial return to establish Bis kingdom on earth and to reign as the Only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 9. We believe that at any moment the rapture of the saved may occur, wbeD "the Lord shall descend from heaven° to catch up His people to meet Him ln the air, and "so shall we ever be with the Lord.' ' 10. We believe in the bodily resurrection of all the dead-the saved to a Ufr. of eternal glory and bliss in Heaven with God; the unsaved to eternal judgment of con· scious suffering and woe in the l&ke of fire. 11. We believe in separation from all worldly practices and in wholeheartP.d devo– tion to the cause of Christ as the only scriptural basis for a. happy and seful Christian life. For this reason we oppose all Indulgences in intoxicating liquers, in dancing, card playing, the narcotic use of tobacco in any form, theater going, mem– bership in secret societies, and all similar practices which detract from a spiritual life. 12. We believe that it is the privilege and responsibility of every bP.lievP.r to br. a personal soul·winner and to do his utmost to give the Gospel of Christ to th~ whole world. 18. We believe that the true, universal Church includes all believers In Christ during this present dispensation and Is the body and bride of Christ of which B1: 11 the Bead. We believe that the local church is a. congregation of immersr.d believers, associated by covenant, observing the ordinances of Christ, exercising thP. gifta, privi– leges and responsibilities given in the New Testament, a.nd following a democratic and congregational type of government. 14. We believe that there are two church ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism Is the immersion of a believer in water to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried a.nd risen Savior, and our death to sin and resurrection to a new Ute, and that it is pre.-equlslte to local church relation. The Lord's Supper ls a memorial service commemorating ffjs death until Be comes, and should be preceded always by solemn self-examination. •"