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“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1 John 4:16

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Basic Statement of Faith

We believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and in the inerrant authority of the Scriptures as the Word of God.  We believe Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, died for all sins on the cross, and was raised from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven to be our only Lord and personal Savior.  We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  We believe in the Holy Spirit who sustained Jesus; regenerates, indwells and seals believers, and guides us as believers into all truth.  We believe in that Blessed Hope, the personal, imminent, physical return of Christ for His people.

The Teachings of Grace Bible Church

1. The Holy Scriptures

We teach the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the verbally inspired Word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible and God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20,21; Matt. 5:18; John 16: 12,13).

2. The Godhead

We teach one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfection (Deut. 6:4; 2 Cor. 13:14).

3. The Person and Work of Christ

His birth. We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men (John 1:1,2,14; Luke 1:35).

His death and resurrection. We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all mankind as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice, and that the sufficiency of this atoning sacrifice to accomplish the redemption and justification of all who trust in Him is assured by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Rom. 3:24,25; 4:25; Eph. 1:7, 1 Tim. 4:10; Heb. 2:9; 1 Pet. 1:30, 2:24; and 2 Pet. 2:1).

His ascension and present ministry in heaven. We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Acts 1:9,10; Heb. 9:24, 7:25; Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1,2).

4. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit.

We teach that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That He is the Supernatural Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ, indwelling and sealing them unto the day of redemption (John 16:8-11; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; Rom. 8:1; Eph. 1:13-14).

We teach that He is the Divine Teacher who guides believers into all truth, and that it is the privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit (John 16:13; 1 John 2:20,27; Eph. 5:18).

5. The Total Depravity of Man.

We teach that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; that man is totally depraved, and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition (Gen. 1:26-27; Rom. 3:22-23, 5:12; Eph. 2:1-3).

6. Salvation.

We teach that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 2:8-10; John 1:12; Eph. 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

7. The Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers.

Our security. We teach that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever (John 6:37-40, 10:27-30; Rom. 8:38-39; 1 Cor. 1:4-8; 1 Peter 1:5).

Our assurance coupled with caution. We teach that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberties as an occasion for the flesh (Rom. 13:13-14; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-15).

8. The Two Natures of the Believer.

We teach that every saved person possesses two natures, with provision made for victory of the new nature over the old nature through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, and that all claims to the eradication of the old nature in this life are unscriptural (Rom. 6:13, 8:12-13; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:10; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 John 3:5-9).

9. Separation.

We teach that all the saved should live in such a manner as to not bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord, and that separation from all religious apostasy, as well as all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices and associations is commanded of God (Rom. 12:1-2, 14:13; 1 John 2:15-17).

10. Missions.

We teach that it is the obligation of the saved to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the gospel to all mankind (Mark 16:15; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:19-20).

11. The Ministry and Spiritual Gifts.

We teach that the gifts of the Spirit are any resource given by God to a believer which, when applied by faith, results in the spiritual edification of the body of Christ.  The Spirit will manifest Himself differently in each individual at the Spirit’s discretion.  Every believer has the responsibility to apply these gifts to the mutual building up of the body.  In light of this, we teach that speaking in tongues and the working of “sign gifts” as practiced by some believers today may be valid experiences, but these modern practices do not qualify as Spiritual gifts as described in Scripture (1 Cor. 12:4-11, 14:1-39; Eph. 4:7-12).

We teach that God does hear and answer the prayer of faith, in accord with his own will, for the sick and afflicted (John 15:7; 1 John 5:14-15).

12. The Church

The Universal Church. We teach that the Church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this present age (Eph. 1:22-23, 5:25-27; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; 2 Cor. 11:2).

The Local Church. We teach that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures (Acts 14:27, 20:17,28-32; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11).

Government of the Local Church. We teach the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control (Acts 13:1-4, 15:19-31, 20:28; Rom. 16:1,4; 1 Cor. 3:9, 16, 5:4-7, 13; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).

Ordinances of the Local Church. We teach the ordinances of believer’s water baptism and the Lord’s supper as scriptural means of testimony for the church age (Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42, 18:8; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).

13. Dispensations.

We teach that the Scriptures interpreted in their natural, literal sense reveal determined dispensations, or rules of life, which define man’s responsibilities in successive ages. These dispensations are not ways of salvation, but rather divinely ordered stewardships by which God directs man according to His purpose. Three of these – the age of law, the age of the Church, and the age of the millennial kingdom – are the subjects of detailed revelation in scripture (John 1:17; 1 Cor. 9:17, 2 Cor.  3:9-18; Gal. 3:13-25; Eph. 1:10, 3:2-10; Col. 1:24-25; Heb. 7:19; Rev. 20:2-6).

14. The Personality of Satan.

We teach that Satan is a person, the author of sin, and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man, and that he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire (Job 1:6-7; Isa. 14:12-17; Matt. 4:2-11, 25:41; Rev. 20:10).

15. The Second Advent of Christ.

We teach that “Blessed Hope,” which is the personal, imminent, pre-tribulation and pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His redeemed ones, and His subsequent return to earth, with His saints, to establish His Millennial Kingdom (1 Thess. 1:10, 4:13-18, 5:9;  Zech. 14:4-11; Rev. 3:10, 19:11-16,  20:1-6).

16. The Eternal State.

We teach the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46; John 5:28-29, 11:25-26; Rev. 20:5-6, 12-13).

We teach that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 2:23, 3:21; 1 Thes. 4:16-17; Rev. 20:4-6).

We teach that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment (Matt.  24:41-46;  Luke 16:19-26; 2 Thess. 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev. 20:11-15).