SCRIPTURE
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and are therefore infallable and inerrant. They comprise the only sufficient, certain and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. Grace Baptist Church seeks to consistently interpret the Bible by means of seeking the plain sense of Bible texts.
GOD
There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself, all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe their highest love, reverence and obedience.
TRINITY
God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit–each with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature, essence or being.
PROVIDENCE
God, from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any wise to be the author of or give approval to sin, nor to destroy the responsibility of man.
MAN CREATED AND FALLEN
We believe the universe and all that is in it, including man, was created by God in six literal days; that man, originally created in the image of God, fell into sin by Adam’s voluntary act of disobedience; that as a consequence of his sin, he lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sin, and that he became subject to the power of the devil and physical death. We also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus alone being excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably evil and under God’s judgment apart from divine grace.
SALVATION
We believe through faith alone in the crucified risen Christ, man is justified, regenerated, and made a child of God. It is a sovereign and gracious act of God, totally apart from the works of man. Man cannot gain it by his acts, nor can he lose it by his actions. There is but one way of salvation, namely, through the Person and work of Christ. All who so trust the Savior pass from death unto life, are forgiven of their sins, accepted by the Father, and adopted into His family by means of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.
THE CHURCH
We believe there is a universal church to which all believers belong. We believe that the church is a society of believers “born of the Spirit and baptized into the Body of Christ.” It is a Body with Christ as its Head. Believers within the Body are dependent upon Christ, the Head, and interdependent in their relationship to one another, exhibiting faith, hope, and love.
We believe there is a local church, which is a company of baptized believers in a geographical location banded together for the public preaching and teaching of God’s Word, corporate worship, personal edification, the promotion of personal and worldwide evangelism, and the celebration of the ordinances… the Lord’s Supper and Believer’s Baptism by immersion. The local church is committed to Christ as the Head and to work cooperatively with those whom He places in leadership as set forth in the New Testament. There are two Scriptural functions or offices in the local church today: Elder and Deacon.
BAPTISM
Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus, required of every believer, wherein he is immersed in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as a sign of his fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ, or remission of sins and of his giving himself up to God, to live and walk in newness of life. It is prerequisite to church fellowship.
THE LORD’S SUPPER
The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ to be administered with the elements of the bread and cup and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith and other graces of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge and renewal of their communion with him and of their church fellowship.
LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
God alone is Lord of the conscience; and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to His Word, or not contained in it. Civil magistrates being ordained of God, subjection to all lawful things commanded by them, ought to be yielded by us in the Lord, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
FUTURE THINGS
We believe in the imminent, pre-tribulational return of Jesus to rapture His church, both dead and living believers, and to reward each individual believer according to his works. We believe that at the end of the Tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ will bodily return with His saints and reign together over the nations for a literal thousand years; then Satan will be loosed. After the millennial reign, the unbelieving dead will be raised and judged and, together with Satan and his emissaries, cast into the lake of fire to bear the burden of their choice, eternally, consciously apart from God. Believers, however, will share eternal joy with the Lord Jesus Christ.
