DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
WHAT WE BELIEVE ABOUT...
THE BIBLE
We believe the Holy Bible is a supernatural book and that it is the very Word of God. It is the full, final and complete revelation of God's will to man. We believe in the full verbal inspiration of the Bible, that Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, as revealed in Second Peter Chapter One. We believe and teach that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. FBC uses the King James Bible version -- 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Peter 1:19-21, Isaiah 8:20, Psalm 119:89, Romans 15:4
THE PERSON OF GOD
We believe and teach that there is only one true and living God. He is absolute and perfect in nature, holy in character, and is revealed in the Trinity which is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The three persons of the Trinity subsist in the same divine nature, essence and being. They are co-existent and co-equal. -- Ephesians 4:, 1 Timothy 1:17, Exodus 20:2-3, Romans 11:33, John 4:24, Psalm 90:2
We believe that Jesus Christ is co-eternally existent as the second person of the Trinity, is co-equally existent with the Father, and thus, has neither beginning nor end. He manifested God visibly to the world, through various appearances in the Old Testament, and through the Incarnation in the New Testament. He was born of the virgin Mary and is the only Savior for this lost world. His death on the cross was voluntary, substitutionary and sufficient for the salvation of all men of all times. He is coming again to rapture all believers at a time in the future known only by God. -- Matthew 28:19, Isaiah 53:5-6, John 1:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Genesis 18:1-22,33, 1 Timothy 4:10, John 1:14, 2 Peter 2:1, Luke 23:46, 1 John 2:2, John 10:17-18, John 3:16.
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born being conceived by the Holy Spirit in a miraculous manner. He is both the Son of God and God the Son, being fully God and fully human. -- Luke 1:35, Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:18-25, John 1:14, Mark 1:1
The Holy Spirit is a divine person; equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature and was active in the creation. He is restraining evil until God's purpose is fulfilled. He convicts of sin, judgment and righteousness. He is the agent of the New Birth and indwells, seals, guides and directs the Believer. -- John 14:16-17, John 14:26, John 15:26-27, Romans 8:16, Ephesians 1:13-14, Romans 8:26-27
THE KINGDOM OF SATAN
We believe that the Devil is an actual being and not an imaginary influence; that he once enjoyed high heavenly honors and glorious heavenly privileges; that he through pride, ambition and self-will betrayed God and as a result brought down upon his head the judgment of God. He operates today as the god of this world and the Prince of the Power of the air; that he is the arch deceiver, and father of all lies, that he is the greatest enemy, the biggest tempter and the greatest opposition to Christians. His final abode shall be the Lake of Fire, which is the eternal place of punishment, prepared for the Devil and his angels (demons). -- Isaiah 14:12-15, Jude 6, 1 John 3:8, Ezekiel 28:14-17, 1 Peter 5:8, John 8:43-44
CREATION
We believe the Genesis record of the creation is literal, and not allegorical or figurative; that God personally created the Heaven and the earth in a direct act, that He brought forth all original matter out of nothing. We believe that man was created in God’s own image and not by the hypothesis of any kind of evolution. God's established law says that all species shall bring forth "after their kind." -- Genesis 1:1, Acts 17:23-26, Romans 1:20, John 1:1-3, Hebrews 11:3, Genesis 1:26-27
THE FALL OF MANKIND
We believe that man was created in innocence and holiness and by voluntary transgression of the Lord's command, fell from the state in which he was created and as a consequence became a sinner alienated from God and brought upon himself and all mankind just condemnation. Man is now, by virtue of his fallen nature, void of holiness, positively inclined to evil and actually condemned to eternal ruin without excuse. -- Genesis 3:6-24, Romans 5:19, Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 5:12, Romans 1:18, Romans 1:28
GOD'S ATONEMENT FOR SIN
We believe that the lost sinner is guilty and under just condemnation and is by nature alien to God and because of sin condemned to die; that the atonement for sin was provided through our Mediator, the Son of God who by divine appointment freely took upon Himself our human nature, yet without sin, that He through obedience during His earthly walk personally honored the divine law by keeping it, and through His death on the cross actually satisfied the Law for the penalty of sin. His obedience and sacrificial death made full and substitutive atonement for all sin. -- Romans 3:25, 1 John 1:7, Isaiah 53:12, Hebrews 9:22, John 10:17-18, Hebrews 12:2
THE GRACE OF SALVATION
We believe and teach that salvation is by God's grace and is a supernatural act of God. Salvation is free to all through the Gospel; that it is the duty of all to accept, by faith, that salvation and those who voluntarily reject salvation will face eternal separation from God in a literal place of punishment called Hell in the Scriptures. When a sinner repents and receives Jesus Christ as his personal Savior he receives eternal life. The eternal purpose of God in Salvation is first of all to preserve the believer forever in Christ; the believer is saved eternally. It is also the eternal purpose of God that the believer will conform to the image of His Son. This salvation accomplished by grace then assures us that we are preserved in Christ by the power of God and no man can pluck the saved from the Father's hand. Salvation is everlasting and the glorious truth "once in Grace, always in Grace," is true. -- John 3:15-16, 1 Peter 1:5, John 1:12, John 10:27-30, Romans 10:1-13, John 5:24
We believe that repentance and faith are inseparable prerequisites for salvation; that they are a work in the heart brought about by the power of the Holy Spirit, and as the sinner is deeply convicted of his guilt and helplessness he turns in repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ, surrendering himself wholeheartedly and receiving Him as personal Savior and Lord, he is immediately born again. -- Acts 3:19, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10, Mark 1:15, Acts 2:37-38, Acts 20:21, Matthew 3:1-2
THE PLAN OF SALVATION
You need to be saved; "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Romans 3:23. You cannot save yourself; "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us," Titus 3:5. God has provided for your salvation; "Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25 Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation; "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6 God wants to save you; "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." II Peter 3:9 God can save you now; "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." -- Romans 10:13
THE CHURCH
We believe and teach that the local, visible assembly of called out believers into a public place of worship and service is the only one found in the New Testament. We do not believe in an invisible or universal church. The local New Testament Church was authorized by Christ to carry out the Great Commission. The first New Testament Church was founded by Jesus Christ during His own personal ministry and entrance into the local church is by scriptural baptism. We believe and teach the Local New Testament Church is an independent congregation and is not governed or controlled by an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. The will of the Local Church is final. -- Ephesians 3:21, Acts 2:47, 1 Timothy 3:15, Matthew 16:18, Colossians 1:24, Ephesians 1:22, Acts 16:5, Acts 11:22, Acts 8:1
BAPTISM & COMMUNION
We believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only two local church ordinances set forth in the local church by Jesus Christ. Scriptural Baptism began with John the Baptist.
Baptism: Believers Baptism to be scriptural must be: a proper candidate or one who has been Born Again. It must also be the proper method which is immersion. It must also be the proper design or motive. It unites the believer into the local church where he is baptized.
It also pictures the death, burial and resurrection of the believer to a new life in Christ. Fourthly, is requires the proper administrator or authority, which is a scriptural local church.
The Lord's Supper: We believe the Lord's Supper is a memorial supper administered by the authority and instruction of the local Baptist Church; it symbolizes the broken body of and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that only members of the local church whose spiritual lives in a right relationship are qualified participants in the Lord's Supper service. We also teach and believe that there is no saving power or grace in either Baptism or the Lord's Supper. -- Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Corinthians 11:23-34, Acts 8:36-39, Romans 6:3-5, Matthew 26:17-30
THE RESURRECTION
We believe and teach that Jesus Christ arose bodily from the grave. We also believe and teach that this resurrection assures all believers the same bodily resurrection when the Lord returns for true believers at the time of the Rapture. There will also be a resurrection of the unsaved to stand in judgment before the Lord, known in the Scriptures as the Great White Throne Judgment. -- Matthew 28:6-7, John 20:27, 1 Corinthians 15:42-52, Hebrews 9:27-28, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ will return bodily at the end of the world as we know it. There are more verses in the Bible that prophecy His second coming, than there were scriptures that predicted His first coming. -- John 14:3, Acts 1:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, James 5:8, Philippians 3:20-21