The Cincinnati Church

An Introduction... Be it understood that this is not an exhaustive statement of the faith of the Cincinnati Church. It is a simplified statement of identification relative to some commonly discussed Bible doctrine.

1. The Cincinnati Church acknowledges the word of God, the Holy Scriptures, as its only rule of faith and practice. [PSA 119:105; ISA 8:20] We believe the Scriptures are given by the inspiration of God and are without error. [2TI 3:15-17; 2PE 1:21; PSA 119:128] God has promised to preserve His pure words and this process of preservation necessarily includes copies of the text and translations of the text. [PSA 12:6-7; DEU 17:18-19; PRO 25:1; MAT 24:14; 1CO 14:11; MAR 5:41] We believe the pure words of God have been preserved and transmitted to our generation in the Authorized or King James Version of 1611. The fruits of this Bible in evangelism, social reform, liberty, material prosperity, and in glorifying Jesus Christ attest to this fact. [MAT 7:15-20; COL 1:5-6; PRO 8:6-21; JOH 16:14] The modern English versions do not bear these fruits. Rather, they manifest their corruption in adding to, deleting from, changing, and questioning the authorized text of God's word. [2CO 2:17; DEU 4:2; ROM 1:25; GEN 3:1-4]

2. The Cincinnati Church believes that Jesus Christ is the one, eternal Creator God as much as are the Father and the Holy Ghost, they being three Persons yet one God. [JOH 1:1-3; ROM 9:5; 1JO 5:7; JOH 1:14; 1TI 2:5] He became and is truly man, divinely conceived of a virgin and is, therefore, the Son of God. [MAT 1:23; LUK 1:34-35] We acknowledge His death for sinners, His bodily resurrection from the dead, and His ascension bodily into heaven. [ROM 5:6-10; LUK 24:36-46, 50-51]

3. The Cincinnati Church believes that mankind fell into sin in the first Adam. Men are thus totally corrupted under sin and incapable of recovering themselves from their fallen condition. [1CO 15:22; ROM 5:12,19, ROM 3:9-20; JER 13:23; ROM 8:6-8] We believe that the eternal salvation of man from sin is the work of the Godhead alone. Salvation is by grace and is not conditioned upon the will or work of the sinner. [2TI 1:9; ROM 9:15-16; TIT 3:5] We believe that Christ died only for those chosen of God [EPH 1:4-6, EPH 2:4-9; ROM 9:11-16] and that His death was effectual in putting away their sins and securing their eternal salvation. [MAT 1:21; JOH 10:11,26; ROM 8:33-34; HEB 1:3; JOH 17:1-4] This salvation is applied by the grace of God in the new birth, the sinner being totally passive in this work. [JOH 3:3; JOH 1:13; EPH 2:1-5; JOH 5:25] We believe that all of those elected of God will be eternally saved without the loss of one. [JOH 6:37-39, 10:27-29; ROM 8:30]

4. The Cincinnati Church believes that the gospel is the glad tidings of the eternal salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ. [EPH 1:13; ACT 13:32-33, 38-39] This gospel calls men to faith and obedience. [ROM 16:25-26] Faith and good works performed in obedience to the gospel are evidences that one is in possession of eternal life. They are the effects, not the cause, of eternal life. [JOH 5:24; 1JO 5:1; 1JO 2:29] The gospel is the means whereby men come to know that they have eternal life. [1JO 5:13; 2TI 1:10] By believing and obeying the gospel a man can gain assurance of his election and be delivered from ignorance, spiritual immaturity, and deception. [1TH 1:4-6; 1TI 4:16; EPH 4:11-15]

5. The Cincinnati Church believes that Jesus Christ is now reigning over all things at the right hand of God. [EPH 1:20-21] This reign fulfills the covenant promise that God would raise up Christ of the seed of David to sit upon David's throne, which is also the Lord's throne. [PSA 132:11; ACT 2:29-36; PSA 89:27; cp. EPH 1:21; REV 3:7; 1KI 2:12; cp. 1CH 29:23; REV 3:21] We aver that the promised kingdom of God began at the first coming of Christ and that this kingdom is the local church. [DAN 2:44; LUK 11:20, LUK 16:16; MAT 16:18-19; LUK 22:29-30; 1CO 1:2, 1CO 10:21, 11:23-26] We hold that the seed of Abraham are the children of God regardless of their natural race. [GAL 3:7, 28-29; ROM 9:6-8, ROM 2:28-29]

6. The Cincinnati Church believes that we are living in the last days. [HEB 1:1-2; 1JO 2:18] At the end of this last time we believe that Jesus Christ will return a second and final time to raise the dead, just and unjust, and to judge the world. [ACT 1:11; HEB 9:28; 1TH 4:13-17; ACT 24:15; JOH 5:28-29; ACT 17:31] At this judgment the just will be presented blameless through Jesus Christ and ushered into eternal glory while the unjust will be consigned to eternal punishment in the lake of fire. [COL 1:21-22; JUD 24; MAT 25:31-46; REV 20:11-15, REV 21:27]

7. The Cincinnati Church does not believe in or practice the use of sign gifts such as speaking in other tongues and healing the sick. Neither do we practice nor believe in the revelatory gifts such as prophecy and knowledge. [MAR 16:17-18; 1CO 12:8-10] We believe the sign gifts were for a prophesied period of forty years spanning from the public ministry of Christ unto the destruction of Jerusalem. [MIC 7:14-15; cp. ACT 7:36; JOH 2:11] These gifts were for the purpose of confirming the prophetic word of God then being delivered and for the purpose of convicting the unbelieving Jews. [MAR 16:20; HEB 2:3-4; 1CO 1:22, 1CO 14:21-22; cp. ISA 28:11-14; JOH 15:24] With the completion of the New Testament under the ministry of the apostles, the prophetic word of God was complete. [JOH 15:27, JOH 16:13; 2PE1:16-21; REV 22:18-19; JAM 1:25] Upon the destruction of the nation of Israel and the completion of the prophetic word, the sign gifts and the revelatory gifts ceased. [LUK 21:20-24; 1CO 13:8-10] Scripture prophesies of a time when sign gifts will be performed by the power of Satan. Hence, we believe that the current exercising of sign gifts is not of the Spirit of God. [2TH 2:3-9; REV 13:14]

8. The Cincinnati Church is a Baptist church in the lineage of true, local churches dating back to the time of Christ and the apostles. [MAT 16:18, MAT 28:19-20] These local congregations have maintained baptism by the immersion of believers in water upon profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. [ACT 8:12, 35-39] They have, therefore, been baptistic in practice though known by different names in history and have had various disorders in them as did the churches at Galatia and Corinth. [GAL 1:2 cp. GAL 3:1; 1CO 1:2 cp. 1CO 3:3] We do not use the word "Baptist" in our name because the Scriptures make no such requirement. We identify our church by its geographical location as the churches in the New Testament were identified. Denominational names can be misleading by identifying a church with some beliefs and practices not held by that particular church.

9. The Cincinnati Church is an independent, local congregation. The church is not affiliated with any assoc- iation, convention, or denominational fellowship. [ROM 16:5, 23; 1CO 1:2; REV 1:11, 2:1] We firmly hold that the local church is to be under no head but the Lord Jesus Christ. [EPH 4:15-16] The churches of the New Testament were separate local entities each independent of the others organizationally. As opposed to man-made, super-church organizations, we believe that each local church is to be ruled by its own pastor or elder. [1TI 5:17; 1PE 5:2-3; HEB 13:7,17] The pastor is to rule the church as the minister of Christ. He has no authority to rule by arbitrary whim, but he is rather to teach and exemplify the laws of Christ and to command obedience to them alone. [1CO 4:1; 1TI 1:3, 1TI 4:6-7, 11-16] Hence, Christ governs the church through His written word being administered by His appointed overseer, the pastor.

10. The Cincinnati Church observes the Lord's Supper. This supper is not a fresh sacrifice of Christ, but rather a memorial of His one sufficient sacrifice. [1CO 11:20-26; HEB 7:27, HEB 10:10-18] We believe that a valid baptism in water is a prerequisite to being admitted into the fellowship of the church and partaking of the Lord's Supper. [MAT 28:19-20; ACT 2:41-42] We practice church discipline by withdrawing church fellowship and communion from the wicked and those who walk disorderly. [1CO 5:1-5, 11-13; 2TH 3:6, 14-15]

11. The Cincinnati Church is neither a corporation, an unincorporated association or any other organization wherein such status is created by the state. We affirm that the interests and liberty of the church and the state are best served by maintaining distinction between secular and ecclesiastical domains. [MAT 22:21] We therefore do not substantiate tax-deductible contributions since such deductions may be construed as a benefit from the state and so subject the church to regulation by the state.

For further information contact: The Cincinnati Church