What Do We Believe and Teach?
Northwest Bible Fellowship Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
The Holy Scriptures were written by God as He dictated the writing through men. The Scriptures are God's revelation of Himself to man and are are inerrant, infallible and will last forever( Matthew 24:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). They prophecy, testify to, and reveal Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. (Genesis 3:15. Isaiah 53, John 14:6, Acts 4:12). They discern the heart of man, instructing, encouraging, teaching, correcting, reproofing, training, and equipping man to walk in obedience to God and make him wise for salvation ( John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-16). The Holy Spirit guides man in his understanding of the pure, perfect, certain, and everlasting Word of God (John 16:12-13;1 Corinthians 2:6-16). The Scriptures are the only infallible standard by which individual men and the church operate (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35, 16:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:15- 16).
The Triune God
There is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4). He reveals Himself to us as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons, yet one triune God (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). He is a living, eternal, intelligent, and personal being who is holy in His essence and is perfect in every way (John 1:1-8, 14-18; 1 Peter 1:16, Matthew 5:48). He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, Colossians 1:16). He sovereignly rules over His creation in all power and wisdom (Psalm 24:1-2; Matthew 19:26;). He possesses perfect knowledge of all things past, present, and future (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 46:10; Hebrews 4:13).
God the Father
God the Father is the first person of the Trinity. He is the one true God, the Creator of everything (Genesis 1:1- 31), everlasting in His reign as King over all of creation (Psalm 103:19), which He sovereignly cares for according to His grace and His purposes (Psalm 145:8-13) as the all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise God of the universe (Revelation 1:8; Isaiah 40:28; 1 John 4:8; Psalm 147:5) God is Father to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, becoming children of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14; Galatians 4:4-5).
God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person the Trinity. He is coequal in His essence and being and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30, 14:9) Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, He came to earth both fully human and fully God (Philipians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9), revealing and living in perfect obedience to the will of the Father (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15). By His sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross, He became the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of man, reconciling to God all who place their trust in His full and finished work on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was raised from the dead and appeared to His disciples and to many others in a glorified body (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). He ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and is seated at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20-23). He is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), interceding on behalf of man (Romans 8:34). He is the head of the body of believers (the Church) (Colossians 1:18) and His Spirit lives inside every believer (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16). In power and glory He will one day return to judge the world and to bring to complete fulfillment His mission of redemption (Revelation 1:6-7, 3:11; 20:1-22:13).
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the fully divine, eternal spirit of God (Acts 5:3-4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). He inspired and dictated the minds and the hands of men to write Holy Scriptures-the very words of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Upon regeneration (Titus 3:5), the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ and indwells the believer immediately and forever (1 Corinthians 12:13). He guides the regenerate in the truth of the Scriptures-teaching and calling to remembrance the Word of God and empowering the believer to exercise the will of God (John 16:12-13;1 Corinthians 2:6-16; Galatians 5:16). He gives gifts to the believer to be applied in service to God (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11). He bears witness to, declares, and glorifies Jesus Christ and convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment, drawing sinners to the Savior (John 16:8). He is the guarantee of the believer’s eternal inheritance, confirming the believer’s adoption into the family of God (Romans 8:16) and sealing him until the day of final redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Man
God created man out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7, 3:19). He created man in His own image, both male and female, and gave him dominion over all of the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). Man was fully innocent of sin in the beginning and was given the freedom of choice. Through the temptation of Satan, man exercised his freedom of choice and willingly violated the command of God, falling from his original state of innocence, causing his descendants to inherit a sinful nature and an environment of sinful inclination (Genesis 3:1-22). Thus, sin entered the human race. Every human being is born into condemnation as a transgressor of God’s commands (Psalm 14:1-3; Rom. 3:9–18,23;5:10–12). Only by God’s grace is man restored into fellowship with God and able to function according to God’s original creative design and purpose (Romans 5:12- 21; 2 Corinthians 5:14-19).
Heaven and Hell
Heaven is a literal place in which God dwells. (Matthew 5:34-35; Mark 16:9; John 14:1-4; Acts 7:48-49). Only those who have placed their confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith will abide in heaven and worship God for all eternity (John 14:3; Revelation 7:10, 11:16-18, 15:2-4). Hell is a literal place of conscious, eternal punishment and torment where those who have rejected Jesus Christ and have remained in their sins (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) will be subject to the wrath and judgment of God for eternity (Daniel 12:2; Mark 9:44-49; Luke 16:23-24; Romans 1:18-32; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 14:10-11, 20:10).
Salvation
We do not receive forgiveness from God or right standing with Him based on our good works or deeds, but by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Those who place their confidence in His finished work on the cross as full and final payment for sin are, at that moment, born of the Spirit, immediately reconciled to God, and assured of eternity in heaven. (Romans 3:28, 4:5, 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17-19; Ephesians 2:1-10; Galatians 3:24; Titus 3:5- 8). Salvation includes God’s work of regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification of the redeemed.
The Church
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, is referred to in Scripture as the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 19:7, 8) and the body of Christ, comprised of all those who have been redeemed from all ages (1 Cor. 12:12, 13; (Eph. 2:11-3:6). A New Testament church is a local, autonomous, congregation of such believers who have been baptized and who share in the covenant, faith, fellowship, and spreading of the gospel (Acts 2:38-42) of Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the church. Each congregation operates under the headship of Christ, each member being accountable to Christ as Lord (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; Col. 1:18). Each congregation is called to exercise the gifts imparted to its members by the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:3-8). The scriptural leadership offices of the church are elders (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11) and deacons (Acts 6; Philippians 1:1). Elder and deacon qualifications are defined in Scripture (1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-5). Elder service is limited to men (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:1-13) according to the scriptures, though both men and women are called to exercise the gifts of service that have been given to them by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:58; Titus 2:3-5). Every church and every individual believer has been commissioned by Christ to labor to make disciples of all nations through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 10:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9, 3:15; Colossians 4:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Each congregation is called to observe the two ordinances of Christ, which are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is an act of faith and obedience in which a believer is fully immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 8:36-39). It is symbolic of the believer’s faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, drawing a parallel to the believer’s death to sin and burial of the believer’s old life, and the believer’s resurrection to walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1-11).
The Lord’s Supper, also an ordinance of Jesus Christ for the church, is an act of obedience in which the death of Jesus Christ is remembered and the second coming of Christ is anticipated. Believers remember and anticipate through consumption of the bread (symbolizing the body of Christ) and the fruit of the vine (symbolizing the blood of Christ). (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-32).
Marriage and Family
In the marriage covenant, one man and one woman are united and committed to one another for a lifetime (Genesis 2:18-24; Mark 10:6-9). God has given the gift of marriage as a picture of the unified relationship between Jesus Christ and the church.
The responsibility of the husband in the marriage is to serve his family, loving his wife as Christ loved the church. He is to lead, provide for, and protect his family. As the church willfully submits to the headship of Christ, so the wife is to willfully submit to the servant- leadership of the husband, which is modeled by Jesus Christ. The wife should respect her husband and serve as his helper as he serves his family (Ephesians 5:22-33).
The husband and wife, both being created in the image of God, are equal before God (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:3-4). In the marriage relationship, they are to serve one another lovingly, enjoying deep companionship and sexual intimacy within biblical standards. Sexual intimacy and procreation of the human race is designed to occur only within the marriage covenant between one man and one woman for life. Sexual intimacy outside of those parameters is defined by the scriptures as sin. (Exodus 20:14; Mathew 5:28; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 7:2-4; Hebrews 13:4).
Children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). It is the responsibility of the parents to nurture the life of the child from the moment of conception. Parents are responsible for modeling for their children God’s design for marriage. They have the responsibility to teach biblical values and to lead the child to conduct himself in accordance with biblical truth (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Parents have the responsibility to model this lifestyle and to administer loving discipline as necessary (Ephesians 6:4). Accordingly, children are commanded in the Word of God to obey their parents (Ephesians 6:1).
Spiritual Gifts
We believe that spiritual gifts are a God-given, Spirit empowered ability for spiritual service that are given to every believer (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11). Each believer has some, but not all of the gifts (1 Peter 4:10). Certain gifts were given for the foundation of the church during the apostolic era and are no longer given now that the foundation has been laid. These include sign gifts of miraculous divine revelation, miraculous healing, and speaking in tongues (John 2:11; Acts 4:10,16; 1 Corinthians 14:22). These gifts were meant to authenticate the Apostles' teaching and are no longer necessary and no longer given now that the Scriptures are complete (Heb. 2:3,4; 2 Cor. 12:12). The Scriptures are now the sole standard by which man's teaching is to be tested and authenticated (1 Cor. 13:8–12, 2 Peter 1:20-21). We do hold that although we believe these gifts have in this age ceased, God is able at any time to employ these gifts through man if He chose to do so.
The Kingdom, End Times, and the Eternal State
We practice a literal, dispensational interpretation of the scriptures and believe that the scriptures most clearly point to a premillennial view of Eschatology, including a pretribulation rapture of the church (1 Thess 4:16; Titus 2:13).
Resurrected believers will receive rewards at the judgment of the believers works (1Cor. 3:11-15) and will rule and reign with Christ during this time (Revelation 20:2-7).
At the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ upon the earth, all unbelievers will be resurrected to stand before God in judgement for their sin, each receiving a guilty verdict resulting in an eternity of conscious torment in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
A new heaven and a new earth will be created by God, where the righteous in Christ, those who are saved by grace through faith, will dwell for all eternity (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-4).
We recognize that there are differing views regarding the end times. We maintain fellowship with those who disagree with this view of Eschatology based upon their scriptural convictions. God will perfectly execute His sovereign will with regard to the end times.
The Holy Scriptures were written by God as He dictated the writing through men. The Scriptures are God's revelation of Himself to man and are are inerrant, infallible and will last forever( Matthew 24:35; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). They prophecy, testify to, and reveal Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. (Genesis 3:15. Isaiah 53, John 14:6, Acts 4:12). They discern the heart of man, instructing, encouraging, teaching, correcting, reproofing, training, and equipping man to walk in obedience to God and make him wise for salvation ( John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-16). The Holy Spirit guides man in his understanding of the pure, perfect, certain, and everlasting Word of God (John 16:12-13;1 Corinthians 2:6-16). The Scriptures are the only infallible standard by which individual men and the church operate (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35, 16:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:15- 16).
The Triune God
There is only one true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4). He reveals Himself to us as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons, yet one triune God (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). He is a living, eternal, intelligent, and personal being who is holy in His essence and is perfect in every way (John 1:1-8, 14-18; 1 Peter 1:16, Matthew 5:48). He is the Creator of all things (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, Colossians 1:16). He sovereignly rules over His creation in all power and wisdom (Psalm 24:1-2; Matthew 19:26;). He possesses perfect knowledge of all things past, present, and future (Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 46:10; Hebrews 4:13).
God the Father
God the Father is the first person of the Trinity. He is the one true God, the Creator of everything (Genesis 1:1- 31), everlasting in His reign as King over all of creation (Psalm 103:19), which He sovereignly cares for according to His grace and His purposes (Psalm 145:8-13) as the all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise God of the universe (Revelation 1:8; Isaiah 40:28; 1 John 4:8; Psalm 147:5) God is Father to those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, becoming children of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:14; Galatians 4:4-5).
God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second person the Trinity. He is coequal in His essence and being and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30, 14:9) Conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, He came to earth both fully human and fully God (Philipians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9), revealing and living in perfect obedience to the will of the Father (1 Peter 2:22; Hebrews 4:15). By His sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross, He became the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of man, reconciling to God all who place their trust in His full and finished work on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21). He was raised from the dead and appeared to His disciples and to many others in a glorified body (1 Corinthians 15:1-8). He ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and is seated at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20-23). He is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), interceding on behalf of man (Romans 8:34). He is the head of the body of believers (the Church) (Colossians 1:18) and His Spirit lives inside every believer (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16). In power and glory He will one day return to judge the world and to bring to complete fulfillment His mission of redemption (Revelation 1:6-7, 3:11; 20:1-22:13).
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the fully divine, eternal spirit of God (Acts 5:3-4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). He inspired and dictated the minds and the hands of men to write Holy Scriptures-the very words of God (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Upon regeneration (Titus 3:5), the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the body of Christ and indwells the believer immediately and forever (1 Corinthians 12:13). He guides the regenerate in the truth of the Scriptures-teaching and calling to remembrance the Word of God and empowering the believer to exercise the will of God (John 16:12-13;1 Corinthians 2:6-16; Galatians 5:16). He gives gifts to the believer to be applied in service to God (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11). He bears witness to, declares, and glorifies Jesus Christ and convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment, drawing sinners to the Savior (John 16:8). He is the guarantee of the believer’s eternal inheritance, confirming the believer’s adoption into the family of God (Romans 8:16) and sealing him until the day of final redemption (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Man
God created man out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7, 3:19). He created man in His own image, both male and female, and gave him dominion over all of the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). Man was fully innocent of sin in the beginning and was given the freedom of choice. Through the temptation of Satan, man exercised his freedom of choice and willingly violated the command of God, falling from his original state of innocence, causing his descendants to inherit a sinful nature and an environment of sinful inclination (Genesis 3:1-22). Thus, sin entered the human race. Every human being is born into condemnation as a transgressor of God’s commands (Psalm 14:1-3; Rom. 3:9–18,23;5:10–12). Only by God’s grace is man restored into fellowship with God and able to function according to God’s original creative design and purpose (Romans 5:12- 21; 2 Corinthians 5:14-19).
Heaven and Hell
Heaven is a literal place in which God dwells. (Matthew 5:34-35; Mark 16:9; John 14:1-4; Acts 7:48-49). Only those who have placed their confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for the forgiveness of sins and have had the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith will abide in heaven and worship God for all eternity (John 14:3; Revelation 7:10, 11:16-18, 15:2-4). Hell is a literal place of conscious, eternal punishment and torment where those who have rejected Jesus Christ and have remained in their sins (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) will be subject to the wrath and judgment of God for eternity (Daniel 12:2; Mark 9:44-49; Luke 16:23-24; Romans 1:18-32; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 14:10-11, 20:10).
Salvation
We do not receive forgiveness from God or right standing with Him based on our good works or deeds, but by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Those who place their confidence in His finished work on the cross as full and final payment for sin are, at that moment, born of the Spirit, immediately reconciled to God, and assured of eternity in heaven. (Romans 3:28, 4:5, 5:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17-19; Ephesians 2:1-10; Galatians 3:24; Titus 3:5- 8). Salvation includes God’s work of regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification of the redeemed.
- A. Election is God’s purpose of grace according to His sovereignty, infinite wisdom, holiness, and His gracious will in which He chooses to regenerate, justify, sanctify, and glorify sinners (Romans 8:27- 30; Romans 9; Ephesians 1) It is taught in Scripture in congruence with man’s free will and moral responsibility (John 3:18-19) and includes, without contradiction, all that salvation entails.
- B. Regeneration (the new birth), is the process by which the Holy Spirit transforms the heart of a sinner. It is only by God’s grace, through the working of the Holy Spirit that a sinner’s heart is changed through conviction of sin. As the sinner responds to the Spirit’s conviction by turning from sin in repentance toward God and with submission in faith toward Jesus Christ, the sinner is spiritually born again as a new creation in Christ. (John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5)
- C. Justification is the gracious act of God in which He judicially declares righteous all sinners who have repented and believed in Jesus Christ. The believer, upon justification, is brought into a fully reconciled relationship of peace with God. (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:5, 5:15-17; Galatians 2:16, 3:24; Ephesians 2:11-22; 2 Cor 5:17-19)
- D. Sanctification is a process that begins at regeneration and continues throughout the life of the regenerate. Through the power of the Holy Spirit living within the believer, God will begin the process of growth in spiritual maturity, setting the believer apart to God’s purposes, allowing increasing conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. (John 17:17; Romans 6; Philippians 1:6, Philippians 3; 1 Thessolonians 4:3, 5:23)
- E. Glorification is the final culmination of salvation. It is the final, eternal, blessed state in which the redeemed will abide, completely sanctified and free from the presence of sin.
- F. Eternal Security A true believer is eternally secure in His salvation. God will never remove His grace from those who have been redeemed in Jesus Christ. The redeemed will be kept by God, through faith and by His power, until the end. (John 5:24, 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Romans 5:9-10, 8:1, 31-39; 1 Corinthians 1:4-9).
The Church
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in the New Testament, is referred to in Scripture as the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:23-32; Rev. 19:7, 8) and the body of Christ, comprised of all those who have been redeemed from all ages (1 Cor. 12:12, 13; (Eph. 2:11-3:6). A New Testament church is a local, autonomous, congregation of such believers who have been baptized and who share in the covenant, faith, fellowship, and spreading of the gospel (Acts 2:38-42) of Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the church. Each congregation operates under the headship of Christ, each member being accountable to Christ as Lord (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; Col. 1:18). Each congregation is called to exercise the gifts imparted to its members by the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:3-8). The scriptural leadership offices of the church are elders (Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11) and deacons (Acts 6; Philippians 1:1). Elder and deacon qualifications are defined in Scripture (1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet. 5:1-5). Elder service is limited to men (1 Timothy 2:12; 3:1-13) according to the scriptures, though both men and women are called to exercise the gifts of service that have been given to them by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:58; Titus 2:3-5). Every church and every individual believer has been commissioned by Christ to labor to make disciples of all nations through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 10:14-16; 1 Peter 2:9, 3:15; Colossians 4:5-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Each congregation is called to observe the two ordinances of Christ, which are baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is an act of faith and obedience in which a believer is fully immersed in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 8:36-39). It is symbolic of the believer’s faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, drawing a parallel to the believer’s death to sin and burial of the believer’s old life, and the believer’s resurrection to walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:1-11).
The Lord’s Supper, also an ordinance of Jesus Christ for the church, is an act of obedience in which the death of Jesus Christ is remembered and the second coming of Christ is anticipated. Believers remember and anticipate through consumption of the bread (symbolizing the body of Christ) and the fruit of the vine (symbolizing the blood of Christ). (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-32).
Marriage and Family
In the marriage covenant, one man and one woman are united and committed to one another for a lifetime (Genesis 2:18-24; Mark 10:6-9). God has given the gift of marriage as a picture of the unified relationship between Jesus Christ and the church.
The responsibility of the husband in the marriage is to serve his family, loving his wife as Christ loved the church. He is to lead, provide for, and protect his family. As the church willfully submits to the headship of Christ, so the wife is to willfully submit to the servant- leadership of the husband, which is modeled by Jesus Christ. The wife should respect her husband and serve as his helper as he serves his family (Ephesians 5:22-33).
The husband and wife, both being created in the image of God, are equal before God (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:3-4). In the marriage relationship, they are to serve one another lovingly, enjoying deep companionship and sexual intimacy within biblical standards. Sexual intimacy and procreation of the human race is designed to occur only within the marriage covenant between one man and one woman for life. Sexual intimacy outside of those parameters is defined by the scriptures as sin. (Exodus 20:14; Mathew 5:28; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 7:2-4; Hebrews 13:4).
Children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). It is the responsibility of the parents to nurture the life of the child from the moment of conception. Parents are responsible for modeling for their children God’s design for marriage. They have the responsibility to teach biblical values and to lead the child to conduct himself in accordance with biblical truth (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Parents have the responsibility to model this lifestyle and to administer loving discipline as necessary (Ephesians 6:4). Accordingly, children are commanded in the Word of God to obey their parents (Ephesians 6:1).
Spiritual Gifts
We believe that spiritual gifts are a God-given, Spirit empowered ability for spiritual service that are given to every believer (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:4-11, 28-30; Ephesians 4:11). Each believer has some, but not all of the gifts (1 Peter 4:10). Certain gifts were given for the foundation of the church during the apostolic era and are no longer given now that the foundation has been laid. These include sign gifts of miraculous divine revelation, miraculous healing, and speaking in tongues (John 2:11; Acts 4:10,16; 1 Corinthians 14:22). These gifts were meant to authenticate the Apostles' teaching and are no longer necessary and no longer given now that the Scriptures are complete (Heb. 2:3,4; 2 Cor. 12:12). The Scriptures are now the sole standard by which man's teaching is to be tested and authenticated (1 Cor. 13:8–12, 2 Peter 1:20-21). We do hold that although we believe these gifts have in this age ceased, God is able at any time to employ these gifts through man if He chose to do so.
The Kingdom, End Times, and the Eternal State
We practice a literal, dispensational interpretation of the scriptures and believe that the scriptures most clearly point to a premillennial view of Eschatology, including a pretribulation rapture of the church (1 Thess 4:16; Titus 2:13).
Resurrected believers will receive rewards at the judgment of the believers works (1Cor. 3:11-15) and will rule and reign with Christ during this time (Revelation 20:2-7).
At the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ upon the earth, all unbelievers will be resurrected to stand before God in judgement for their sin, each receiving a guilty verdict resulting in an eternity of conscious torment in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
A new heaven and a new earth will be created by God, where the righteous in Christ, those who are saved by grace through faith, will dwell for all eternity (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-4).
We recognize that there are differing views regarding the end times. We maintain fellowship with those who disagree with this view of Eschatology based upon their scriptural convictions. God will perfectly execute His sovereign will with regard to the end times.
Comments
Post a Comment