WHAT WE BELIEVE

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Concerning The Bible

We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are given by the inspiration of God through the miraculous guidance and supervision of the Holy Spirit who was at work in and through each of the human writers of the Scriptures. In its original languages and manuscripts, the Bible is completely inspired right down to the very words. It is infallible in all matters of belief and behavior and is inerrant in all matters of which it speaks. It is the final, even sole authority for all that is believed and practiced at Grace Bible Church.

Concerning God

There is One God who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The members of the Trinity are equal in every divine perfection and carry out distinct but harmonious roles in the great work of salvation. God’s works include creation, in which He made the universe in six literal, 24-hour days, preservation by which He also presently maintains the created order, and providence, through which He directs the course and determines the outcome of world history and individual affairs.

Concerning The Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human. He is the only begotten Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He, the Sinless One, died upon the cross, the righteous for the unrighteous, as a substitutionary sacrifice so that all who believe in Him are, on the basis of His shed blood, forgiven of their sins and declared righteous before God. He rose physically from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of the Majesty on high as our Great High Priest. He also holds the offices of Prophet and King.

Concerning the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a Person. As the third member of the Trinity He is also fully God. At the moment of salvation, the believer is by the Holy Spirit instantaneously and simultaneously regenerated, permanently indwelt, sealed, baptized into the Universal Church, which is the body of Christ, and granted a spiritual gift or gifts for ministry to others. The filling of the Spirit is that repeated experience after salvation in which the yielded and obedient believer is brought under the Holy Spirit’s influence, resulting in holy living and character qualities that reflect Christ. In addition, the Spirit is also active in every believer’s sanctification.

Concerning the Human Race

Man was created by a direct act of God apart from any process of evolution. Man was created sinless and holy in the image of God However, he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death and severely marring the image of God in him. Consequently, all men are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ, the image of God in man is in the process of renewal.

Concerning Salvation

Salvation, provided through Jesus Christ for all men, is totally by the grace of God through faith, not by any human works. God reconciled sinful man to himself through Christ’s death. Genuine, "saving faith" involves (1) a genuine change of mind and heart, leading to the acknowledgment of the fact that one is a sinner, condemned before God, (2) an understanding that Jesus died as a substitute for man’s guilt, and (3) a sincere and complete trusting in Jesus Christ alone to save from the penalty of sin, which is, namely, eternal punishment in hell

Concerning the Church

The Universal Church is made up of all genuine believers from the time of Pentecost until the rapture. Founded upon the apostles and prophets, of whom Christ is the cornerstone, it consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, born again, and baptized by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Universal Church (which is His body). Christ has commissioned the Church to go into the entire world as a witness, preaching the Gospel to all nations.

The Local Church is a body of scripturally immersed believers in Christ who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel, joined together for the worship of God, instruction and edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the Gospel locally and worldwide, observance of the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper, and the practice of church discipline. Individuals become members of a New Testament church through personal faith in Christ and water baptism. However, water baptism is by no means a necessary ingredient for salvation.

Concerning the Intermediate State and the Future

Upon death, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ go directly to heaven to be with the Lord. Those who die without Christ immediately go to Hades, a place of torment and actual fire, to await judgment and sentencing at the Great White Throne.

The next event in the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church in which all believers in Christ will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The bodies of all living believers will be instantly transformed. Following the rapture of the church will come a literal seven-year period known as the tribulation, during which time God will pour out His wrath upon the earth in an unprecedented fashion. At the climax of the tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ at His Second Coming will return to the earth with His saints and will overcome the anti-Christ (i.e., the beast), false prophet, and armies aligned with them. The anti-Christ and false prophet will be cast alive into the Lake of Fire. Following the Second Coming, Christ will establish His kingdom to rule and reign over the entire earth for a thousand years. After this period, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Following the Great White Throne judgment, the universe will undergo a radical transformation, and the Triune God will rule His holy kingdom forever with His people.

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