We Believe
THE STATEMENT OF FAITH of
GRACE BIBLE CHURCH
The Bible
WE BELIEVE the original Scriptures are inerrant, infallible, and sufficient. We believe God will preserve His Word by bringing to pass each one of its promises and predictions, and that He has graciously preserved His Word for us in the abundance of surviving manuscripts that undergird faithful translations of the original languages.
The Triune God
WE BELIEVE in 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 perfections, yet distinguished in Scripture by their personal relations with one another and by their distinctive works.
Creation of Humanity
WE BELIEVE that God created mankind male and female and established the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman for life.
The Fall
WE BELIEVE that God created man and woman in the image and likeness of God, and that in Adam’s sin the entire human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from and hostile to God. We believe that man’s fallen condition pervades the entirety of his being and that he is of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.
Jesus Christ
WE BELIEVE that during the days of His incarnation, Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His perfect life and innocent death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice. We believe that our justification by God is made sure by Jesus’ literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
The Gospel
WE BELIEVE in the single, substitutionary, perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners, One for all, and once for all; that salvation is wholly of divine grace apart from any works of merit of the sinner; that salvation is provided in the atoning death of Jesus Christ, wrought by God, and is received by a sinner when he repents toward God and puts his trust in the Lord Jesus as his own personal Savior; that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by personal faith as Savior are thereby born again, brought into living union with Christ, and have eternal life through the indwelling Christ.
The Holy Spirit
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit ministers the privileges of the New Covenant mediated by Christ to the believer, and 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.
WE BELIEVE the sign gifts existed to authenticate the apostolic teaching of the resurrected Christ and the establishment of the church. With the completion of the canon of Scripture, the sign gifts have ceased and Scripture is the sufficient revelation for all of life.
A People for His Name
WE BELIEVE that the establishment and continuance of the local church is directed in the New Testament; that a local New Testament church is a body of believers in Christ that have followed the Lord through the waters of baptism, voluntarily associated together under the direction and government of Christ, the Head of the church, for worship, instruction, fellowship, service, and the spread of the Gospel; that it functions immediately and independently under the authority of Christ as mediated through His Word.
That Christ established local churches to exist as autonomous local assemblies, but to fellowship heartily with like-minded ministries.
That God gifts men to serve and lead local assemblies as pastor/elders and deacons.
Christ’s Future Reign
WE BELIEVE that before Jesus returns that men and conditions will become worse and worse until this age ends in a widespread apostasy from “the faith once delivered to the saints”; that when man’s rebellion against God reaches its awful climax in the worship of Satan, the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to earth, bring to naught every wicked device of man, chain Satan, and take His Messianic throne to reign in righteousness over the earth for one thousand years.