…speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head…
Ephesians 4:15
SCRIPTURE
All the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as written by the prophets and apostles are inspired by God. This refers to the autographs. Thus the Bible is without errors in the original.
INTREPRETATION
Conservative, normal and literal hermeneutics takes a very tried and true approach to understanding the Bible that includes close observation of its grammatical and historical components. Literal interpretation stands in opposition to both allegorical and spiritualized interpretation, which are systems of intrepretaion that draws upon a philosophical approach to understanding the Word of God. These sytems are unaceptable as they are clearly contrary to proper biblical interpretation.
THE GODHEAD
The Godhead eternally exists in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—and these three are one God, having the precise same nature, attributes, and perfections and worthy of precisely the same honor, confidence and obedience.
SOVEREIGNTY
God is Absolute Sovereign over all creation and history: “Surely as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand (Isa. 14:24). He has a determined plan for the whole world and no one can alter His purposes (Isa. 14:26- 27); what He has planned He will accomplish (Isa. 46:11); and He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will (Eph. 1:11). While this is impossible for the finite mind to reconcile, especially where sin and evil are concern, God’s sovereignty is clearly the teaching of Scripture.
Sovereignty also extends to the providence of God whereby He sustains all creatures, giving them life and removing life as He pleases (Deut. 32:39). In sovereignty, all things were created for the glory of God and all things exist for Him (Rev. 4:11).
The sovereignty of God also extends to the doctrine of divine election whereby those chosen by the council of the Lord’s own will, shall come to Him in faith. And yet, even though difficult (probably impossible) to reconcile in human understanding, the sovereignty of God does not remove the responsibility of man. Equally difficult (probably impossible) to reconcile in the finite mind of man is the fact that He is not the author of sin; yet in some mysterious way His decrees include all that takes place in the universe.
The Openness of God theory that says, in so many words, that God does not know the future, therefore, He is open to the free choices people make and then responds to their free agency is emphatically rejected. This view violates the omniscience of God. It also violates the fact that He has ordained all things. Though a complex doctrine, sovereignty is still clearly stated in Scripture. Thus, the view of the Openness of God is considered a heresy.
ANGELS
God created to serve Him an innumerable company of sinless, spiritual beings, known as angels. Angels are higher creatures than man. Some angels have remained obedient to Him and carry out His will. These unfallen angels are also spoken of as “holy ones” (Ps. 89:5, 7), because: they are the creation of a holy God; they were created perfect without any flaw or sin; they are called holy because of their purpose. They are “set apart” by God and for God as His servants and as attendants to His holiness (cf. Isa. 6).
Other angels are called fallen angels, because they disobeyed God and fell from their holy position. These fallen ones now stand in active opposition to the work and plan of God. And have sided with one whom Scripture calls the “the anointed cherub”—the highest ranking of this class of created beings—also known as Satan and the devil. This creature sinned through pride and a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of unholy purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day.”
CREATION AND FALL OF MAN
Man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, as God’s representative vice-regent on earth. But Adam fell through sin: he lost his spiritual life; he is dead in trespasses and sins, thus subject to physical and second death; and he lost his God-appointed position on earth and became subject to the reign of sin and the power of the devil. Following the sin of Adam, man could only produce descendants who would be sinners. Therefore all mankind is under a death sentence because the penalty of sin (Rom. 5:12-18) and thus all are doomed, unless repentenced is made by believing in Christ as Savior.
Furthermore, the lost are mentally blinded by Satan, the god of this world, and the truth of the Gospel is veiled from those who are destroying themselves (II Cor. 4:3-4). The Word of God makes it clear, there is no one who seeks after God (Rom. 3:11). So God has given mankind over to the lusts of his heart and to a depraved mind (Rom. 1:24, 28). Theologically, this darkness of mind and heart has been rightly called Total Depravity (Rom 1:28).
GRACE
According to the eternal purpose of God (Eph. 3:11), salvation in the divine reckoning is always by grace through faith and rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Christ. While God has always been gracious, regardless of the dispensation, man has not at all times been under an administration or stewardship of grace as is true in the present dispensation of the Church.
It has been progressively revealed in Scripture that it is only through the reconciliation of Christ, by His death, are human beings who are enemies of God being saved (Rom. 5:10). Whereby, sinners are justified by Christ’s blood and are rescued from the wrath of God.
THE INCARNATION
As provided and purposed by God and as preannounced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might reconcile men to God and become the Redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin and received a human body and a sinless human nature. In fulfillment of prophecy He came first to Israel as her Messiah-King, but being rejected of that nation, He gave His life as a ransom for all according to the eternal counsels of God. Furthermore, the Scriptures state that He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died and that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which ultimately will be given to all believers.
SALVATION IS THROUGH CHRIST ALONE
Owing to spiritual death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again: no degree of reformation however great; no attainment in morality however high; no culture however attractive; and no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven. Only a new nature and a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation. Salvation is attained by the unregenerate through the grace of God by faith in the substitutionary, atoning death of Christ. And only those thus saved are sons of God.
Though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ (positionally speaking). The believer, therefore, in no way required by God to seek a so-called “second blessing,” “second work of grace” or a “second baptism.”
Christ’s sacrificial death is unlimited as to its provision for fallen humanity but limited as to its application to the elect. Thus, the theory of Limited Atonement is rejected.
The theory of Lordship Salvation is rejected. This teaching seems to go against the clear biblical teaching that salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can be added to His work on the cross and to the proclamation of one’s personal faith and trust in His finished work of eternal redemption.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
God keeps eternally all those He has elected and called to salvation and none can be lost. “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Those who deny the doctrine of the eternal security of the believer may not realize that in so doing they are putting a slight upon the finished work of Christ—they are reducing the sacrifice of Christ practically to the level of the offerings of bulls and goats. When one comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in Him, not only are all their sins up to the day of their conversion forgiven, but all (past and future) sins are put away for eternity. If only the sins that were committed up to the moment of one’s conversion are put away by the atoning blood of Jesus, what possible way would there be for dealing with future sins? Since, the only ground on which God could forgive sin is that Jesus settled all upon the cross.
God does, however, chasten and correct His own in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will in the end present every one faultless in Christ, and on His merits, before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. The saints can have eternal assurance that they are the children of God and so are eternally kept by the power of God. This assurance gives confidence and peace, helping the believer grow spiritually and towards full maturity in Christ.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE WORLD
The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise. By His baptism He unites all to Christ in one body and indwells every believer. As the indwelling One, He is the Source of all power, all acceptable worship, all service and all spiritual gifts.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
It is the explicit command of our Lord Jesus Christ that all believers, regardless of gifts, involve themselves in evangelism of non-believers and instruction of believers; making disciples in accordance with His Gospel, for the building up of the body of Christ.
APOSTASY IN THE CHURCH
The Apostle Paul warns: “in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons;” and “will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” This apostasy will be religious and moral in nature—“holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” This “apostasy comes” prior to the rapture of the Church and before the revelation of the son of destruction, the Antichrist. Paul further teaches that the seeds of apostasy are alsways present in the church but they will also completely mature in the last days, which he describes as “difficult times.”
THE BLESSED HOPE OF THE BELIEVER
The next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His coming all who have died in Christ (a.k.a., the Rapture). This event is the blessed hope set before us in the Scripture. All believers should be constantly looking for this event and living our lives as though it can happen at any moment.
THE TRIBULATION
The rapture of the church will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel’s seventieth week (Dan. 9:27; Rev. 6:1 -19:21) during which the church, the body of Christ, will be in heaven. The whole period of Israel’s seventieth week will be a time of judgment on the whole earth, at the end of which “the times of the Gentiles” will be brought to a close. The latter half of this period will be the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7), which our Lord called the great tribulation (Mt. 24:15- 21). Universal righteousness will not be realized previous to the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day by day ripening for judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy.
THE SECOND COMING
The period of great tribulation in the earth will be climaxed by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth as He went. The millennial age will follow, with Satan bound. Israel will be restored to her own land and the Abrahamic Covenant will be fulfilled: by the consummation of its three divisions; Land (Palestinian Covenant); Seed (Davidic Covenant); and Blessing (the New Covenant finally brought to complete fruition). The whole world that survives will be brought to a complete knowledge of the Messiah.
ETERNITY
At death the immaterial nature of man (i.e. soul, spirit), of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own. At the reurrection soul and body are reunited and the believer is associated with Him forever in glory. But the immaterial nature of the unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited and casted into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.
DISPENSATIONALISM
The Bible presents the fact that God has not always dealt with mankind the same way in every age. According to biblical terminology these distinct periods are called “administrations” in regard to the purpose of God or “stewardships” concerning the responsibility of man as originated from the New Testament usage of the Greek word, oikonomia. Classical or traditional dispensationalism is the system that best represents the Biblical teaching on this matter. Classical or traditional dispensationalism is distinguished by a consistent literal interpretation; a clear distinction between Israel and the church; taking into account progressive revelation; recognizing the glory of God as the ultimate purpose of God in the world.
The theories of Progressive Dispensationalism are rejected. The central disturbing tenet in this view is that the Lord Jesus Christ is now reigning on the throne of David in heaven. The complementary hermeneutic, including the use of the “already/not yet” as an interpretive principle are rejected. As is its softening stance against Covenant Theology, its debasing of progressive revelation and thereby forcing a false continuity between the Testaments. The Lord is seated at the right hand of the Father presently in glory, but this is not the prophesied davidic rule that will take place in time and history.
CURRENT ISSUES
Influences have always been working against the the body of Christ. Along with immoral forces, we reject the man-created philosophies of secular humanism, materialism, evolution, feminism, and psychology. While some truths may be imprinted into these and other opinions, basically, they run counter to the revealed truths of Scripture.
Adopted this 1st day of January 2007, by CHRIST’S CHURCH BIBLE MINISTRY
