THE BIBLE -- GOD'S REVELATION

 

The most significant gift bestowed upon humanity is the revelation of God Himself through the written word. God, in His wisdom, provided the Holy Scriptures, which we call the Bible, for our edification. The Holy Scriptures are God's written revelation to man; these sixty-six books have been given to us by the Holy Spirit and consist solely of the inspired Words of God (1Corinthians 2:7-14; 2Peter 1:20-21). 

 

All Scripture was conveyed and received without error in the original documents. The Bible is the infallible, God-breathed, inerrant Word of God for all people for all times. The sixty-six books of the completed canon is the only rule of faith and Christian practice.(John 10:35; 16:12-13; 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12; Matthew 5:18; 24:35; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 1 Corinthians 2:13).

 

 

GOD

 

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

 

God the Father

 

God the Father is the first person of the Trinity and orders all things according to His will (1Corinthians 8:6; Psalm 145:8-9). The Father with the Son is the Creator of all things and sovereign over all creation (Genesis 1:1-31; Ephesians 3:9; Psalm 103:19; John 1:1; Col. 1:15, 16; Romans 11:36). He is the just Judge and does not diminish man's accountability for moral actions and thoughts (1 Peter 1:17). The Father adopts all who come to Him, and upon adoption, He becomes our spiritual Father (John 1:12; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Hebrews 12:5-9; Ephesians 1:4-6; John 3:16).

 

God the Son

 

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord. (Matthew 28:1-6, 18-20; John 1:1-18; Galatians 4:4,5; Ephesians 1:20; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14, 15)

 

God the Holy Spirit

 

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration, He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service. (Matthew 1:18; 28:19; John 14:16,17; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:9-11; 1Corinthians 2:10-14; 12:3-11; Ephesians 1:13, 14; 2Pet. 1:20).

 

MAN

 

God created Adam and Eve in His likeness and image and gave them authority over the Earth

(Genesis 1:27; 2:7, 15-25). Man was created free from sin and the knowledge of evil (Genesis

5:1). When Adam disobeyed God's revealed will, humanity lost its innocence and became subject to spiritual and physical death and God's wrath (John 3:36; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23). Man became inherently corrupt and unwilling to choose or do what was acceptable to God without divine grace (Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-19; John 3:36; Romans 3:23; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 2:13-14; 1 John 1:8). Therefore, man's salvation depends entirely on God's grace through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 2:13-14; 1 John 1:8).

 

He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.and gave them equal value, worth, and dignity (Psalm 139:14; 1 Corinthians 11:7). God also created marriage to join man and woman together as one flesh (Genesis 2:18-24; 1:28; 9:1). According to God, marriage is only between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:6; Hebrews 13:4).

 

SALVATION

 

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption for believers through His life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven. There is no salvation for anyone apart from repentance from sin through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. (2Corinthians 5:17; Romans 10:9,10)

 

Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God. (Romans 5:1-8)

 

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. 

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

 

THE CHURCH

 

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. (Matthew 16:13-18; Ephesians 5:23)

 

DISCIPLESHIP

Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ. Believers are also commanded to be disciples of one another, Older men to seek out and train younger men, and Older women to seek out and train younger women (Titus 1-2 Proverbs; Ephesians 6:4; Corinthians 11:1). Younger believers are commanded to look to their spiritual and physical elders’ examples and heed them with the honor befitting their station.The Bible teaches that with age comes wisdom (Job 12:12; Deuteronomy 32:7; 1 Timothy 5:1-25). Discipleship is also mutual accountability for believers to each other, which encourages spiritual growth and increases understanding of God's Word. Discipleship also fills the need for calling out sin and disciplining sinning members within the congregation by the standards of the Bible (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:2; Matthew 18:5-14; Matthew 18:15-22; Acts 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; 1 Timothy 1:19-20; Titus 1:10-16).

 

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ.

 

BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER

 

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.

 

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

 

 

LAST THINGS

 

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.