Our Story

We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-identical in nature, coequal in power and glory (Deut. 6:4; John 1:1-4; 16:7-15; Luke 1:35; Matt. 3:16-17).

We believe in God, who is Spirit and a person; infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; sovereign (Deut. 4:15-18; John 4:24; Exodus 3:14; Num. 23:19).

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinners (John 1:1-2, 14; Luke 1:30-35; Phil 2:5-8; Heb. 4:15; Matt. 1:18-25). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood on the cross, where He died as a representative, substitutionary sacrifice, and that our justification is ensured by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Rom. 3:24-25; I Peter 2:24; Eph. 1:7; I Peter 1:3-5). We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, and now is exalted at the right hand of God, where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Acts 1:9-10; Heb. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1-2).

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, and not merely an influence; that He is the source and power of all acceptable worship and service. We believe that His work is to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, to convict and regenerate sinners, to dwell in the hearts of believers, to guide, comfort, protect, and sanctify them in this world, and to glorify Christ. We believe that He will never depart from the Church nor from the weakest believers (John 14:16-17, 26; 16:13-15; Acts 1:8, 5:3-4; Rom. 8:2, 16; I Cor. 6:19, 12:13; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:30, 5:18).

We believe that Christians should bear a good testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ by living lives separated unto God, abstaining from worldly practices (Rom. 12:1-2; I Cor. 3:16-17, 8:13; II Cor. 6:3, 14-18; I Thess. 5:22; I John 2:15).

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved in the sense that his whole being is affected and cursed by sin so that he cannot, in this state, please God. We believe that he is unrighteous in an absolute sense and can only accomplish relative good. We believe that he is lost and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Gen. 1:26-27; Eph. 2:1-3, 12; Rom. 3:22, 5:12). We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and is thus given a new position of righteousness and holy standing before God, in which he becomes a son of God by spiritual rebirth, a new creation in Christ (John 1:12; Rom. 8:1, 38-39; I Cor. 1:14-15, 10:10; II Cor. 5:17). We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1, 38-39; I Cor. 1:4-8; I Peter 1:5). We believe it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh (Rom. 13:13-14; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-14).

We believe in the imminent, personal, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ to gather His bride, the Church. This should be the joyful hope of every believer. While we generally hold to a pre-tribulation, dispensational view, the staff at Fortis Institute holds alternative orthodox positions re. eschatology (Acts 1:11; I Thess. 4:16-17, 3:13; Colossians 3:4; Revelation 19:11-16).

We believe that Satan is a fallen angel; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; that he is the prince of the power of the air, often appearing to man as an angel of light, but that he attempts to frustrate all of God’s purposes through hindering the faithful proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that eventually Satan and those separated from the goodness of God will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be eternally tormented and separated from God (Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matt. 4:2-11; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:10).

We believe that every unrepentant, unbelieving sinner whose sins have not been forgiven through Jesus Christ, will immediately be condemned after death to conscious torment until the Great White Throne Judgment, when they will be reunited with their body and cast into a literal, eternal place of conscious torment, never to be annihilated, but punished by God Himself, with everlasting torment for their sins, separated from all that is good about God. Further, we believe that all of those who have received the gifts of repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ will, at death, immediately enter into His presence in Heaven and will there remain in conscious comfort until the resurrection of the body at His coming for His bride, the Church, when soul and body will be reunited and they, together with the saints from all ages, will dwell with Him forever in glory (Luke 16:19-26, 23:43; John 3:36; II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; II Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15, 21:8).

We believe in the verbal, plenary God-breathed inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, consisting of 66 books, inerrant in the original writings. The Bible is God’s sufficient revelation to man, and there is no need for any additional revelation from God (II Tim. 3:16-17; Matt. 5:18; II Peter 1:21-22; John 16:12-13).

We believe that the Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age and is distinct from the nation of Israel (Eph. 1:22-23, 5:25-27; I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 11:2). We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27, 20:17, 28-32; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11).

We believe that every new believer should be baptized (preferably by immersion) in water as a physical picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and as a picture of the believer’s death to self, and resurrection to new life in Christ. Baptism does not, by any means, confer forgiveness. Further, baptism does not initiate an infant into a protective covenant with God. Baptism is an outward picture of an inward work of grace (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 10:48).

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic meal of bread and wine that represents the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Supper does not confer forgiveness. The Lord’s Supper should only be partaken by those who are repentant believers who are willing to make amends with anyone in the body if there is division. The failure to rightly examine oneself in this manner could result in weakness, sickness, or even death (Mark 14:22-25; I Corinthians 11:23-24).