Grace Bible Church - Statement of Faith

I. The Scriptures - The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture or error, for its matter.

II. 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. The eternal triune God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

A. God the Father - God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.

B. God the Son - We believe in Jesus Christ, the Father's only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe that He is coequal, and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We believe that He is perfectly God and perfectly man in indivisible oneness. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, and teachings. We believe in His substitutionary atoning death for believers, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal visible return to earth.

C. 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 gifts and empowers those who God has saved.

III. Man - God 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. We believe that man was created by God in His own image to glorify and enjoy Him through fellowship. We believe that man sinned and thereby incurred physical, spiritual, and eternal death, which is separation from God; that consequently, all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners by choice and therefore under condemnation. This condemnation is such that man is utterly incapable of or desiring to do that which is acceptable to God apart from His divine grace.

IV. Salvation - Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. We believe that those who repent and forsake sin and trust Jesus Christ as Savior have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and have become new creatures, delivered from condemnation, and have received eternal life. We believe that repentance and faith are gifts given sovereignly by God.

V. God’s Purpose of Grace - Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.

VI. The Church - A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, 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.

VII. 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 Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the living in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. 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.

Our Church Covenant

1. Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God, angels and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.

2. We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of Grace Baptist Church in knowledge, holiness and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the Church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations.

3. We also engage to maintain family and personal devotions; to educate our children in the Christian faith; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment, to avoid all tattling and gossip, backbiting and excessive anger; to seek God's help in abstaining from practices which bring unwarranted bodily  harm or jeopardize our own or another's faith.

4. We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay.

5. We moreover engage that when we remove from this place, we will, if possible, unite with a church where we can carry out the articles of this confession and the spirit of this covenant.