Printable Version – Sovereign Grace Church Statement of Faith
THE SCRIPTURES
We believe in the verbal, plenary God breathed inspiration of the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, consisting of 66 books, inerrant in the original writings. (II Tim. 3:16-17; Matt. 5:18; II Peter 1:21-22; John 16:12-13)
THE TRIUNE GOD
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-identical in nature, coequal in power and glory. (Deut. 6:4; John 1:1-4; 16:7-15; Luke 1:35; Matt. 3:16-17)
GOD THE FATHER
We believe in God, who is Spirit and a person; infinite, eternal and unchangeable in being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; sovereign. (Duet. 4:15-18; John 4:24; Exodus 3:14; Num. 23:19)
GOD THE SON
We believe 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 sinners. (John 1:1-2,14; Luke 1:30-35; Phil 2:5-8; Heb. 4:15; Matt. 1:18-25)
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood in death on the cross as a propitiation, representative, substitution sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical, resurrection from the dead. (Rom. 3:24-25; I Peter 2:24; Eph. 1:7; I Peter 1:3-5)
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, and 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. 7:25; 9:24; Rom. 8:34; I John 2:1-2)
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, and not merely an influence; that He is the source and power of all acceptable worship and service. We believe that His work is to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, to convict and regenerate sinners, to dwell in the hearts of believers, to guide, comfort, protect and sanctify them in this world, and to glorify Christ. We believe that He will never depart from the Church nor from the weakest believers. (John 14:16-17,26; 16:13-15: Acts 1:8; 5:3-4; Rom. 8:2,16; I Cor. 6:19; 12:13; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; Titus 3:5)
MAN
We believe 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; and that man is totally depraved in the sense that his whole being is affected and cursed by sin so that he cannot, in this state, please God. We believe that he is unrighteous in an absolute sense and can only accomplish relative good. We believe that he is lost and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. (Gen. 1:26-27; Eph. 2:1-3,12; Rom. 3:10-18,22; 5:12)
We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and is thus given a new position of righteousness and holy standing before God, in which he becomes a son of God by spiritual rebirth, a new creation in Christ. (John 1:12; Rom. 8:1,38-39; I Cor. 1:14-15; 10:10; II Cor. 5:17)
We believe 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. 8:1,38-39; I Cor. 1:4-8; I Peter 1:5)
We believe 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 liberty as an occasion to the flesh. (Rom. 13:13-14; I Cor. 10:23; Gal. 5:13; Titus 2:11-14)
SEXUALITY AND MARRIAGE
We believe that from the beginning God created man and woman to be in intimate relationship with each other, with the chief end being to glorify God by living together as husband and wife in a One Flesh relationship in a manner that reflects His love and goodness, as well as giving a picture of Christ’s relationship to the church. This marriage relationship was defined and ordained by God from the beginning as being between one man and one woman only. (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:20-25; Eph. 5:22-33; Matthew 19:1-10)
THE CHURCH
We believe that the church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons of this present age and is distinct from the nation of Israel. (Eph. 1:22-23; 5:25-27; I Cor. 12:12-14; II Cor. 11:2)
We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. (Matthew 16:18; Acts 14:27; 20:17,28-32; I Tim. 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)
CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY
We believe that Christians should bear a good testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ by living lives separated unto God, abstaining from worldly practices. (Rom. 12:1-2; I Cor. 3:16-17; II Cor. 6:3,14-18; I Thess. 5:22; I John 2:15)
THE ORDINANCES
Baptism
We believe that every believer should follow the Lord Jesus Christ in believer’s baptism. The mode of any baptism, as practiced by Sovereign Grace Church, shall be by immersion. (Matt. 3:13-17, 28:19-20; Acts 10:48)
The Lord’s Supper
We believe that all born again believers are to be invited to partake of the Lord’s Supper. (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; I Cor. 11:23-26)
THE SECOND COMING
We believe in the personal, bodily, and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ for His Bride, the Church, which constitutes the Blessed Hope set before us, for which we should be constantly looking. We believe that, there will be a period known as the Great Tribulation upon the earth. This will be a time of judgement and warning for those who are upon the earth without Christ. It will also be a time of trial and refinement for the church. God will use this time of testing to further sanctify His Bride the church and to have her shine forth His glory to the lost world. We believe that, at the conclusion of this period, Christ will come with His saints who have already passed on or fallen asleep and those believers who remain will be caught up in the air with Him (raptured) as Christ pours out His final wrath upon the earth and sets up His reign over the kingdom of the world as He makes it His own. (Acts 1:11; I Thess. 4:13-18 and 5:1-11; 1 Thess. 3:13; Rev. 11:15-19; Rev. 19:11-16)
BASIC BELIEFS ON TONGUES AND DIVINE HEALING
The Scripture says that all true believers have been baptized into one body by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:13) and that there is only one baptism. (Eph. 4:5)
The baptism of the Spirit is to be distinguished from the filling of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is not an experience to be sought but is God’s gift to every believer. It is a one time work of the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation. (Matt. 3:11; Ephesians 5:18)
Tongues
We believe that the gift of tongues is the ability of a believer to speak in various languages, both known and unknown to the believer. The purpose of this gift seems to be to advance the gospel to peoples or nations that have not heard the gospel before (Acts 2:4-8 and 1 Corinthians 14:22). The purpose of this gift is not in any way to be an evidence of salvation, as not all believers receive the same gifts from the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). We also believe that the gift of tongues may still occur today as the Holy Spirit sees fit, especially on the mission field in cases where new people groups are being introduced to the gospel for the first time. However, whenever the gift of tongues is used, it must be in accordance to the instructions of Scripture. That is to say that tongues may only be used when an interpreter is present to translate and only two or three at the most may speak in tongues and when they do, they must do so one at a time (1 Corinthians 14:27-28).
Divine Healing
We believe that God can and does heal, but that physical healing is not guaranteed here and now in this life. We further believe that God heals today only when it is His Sovereign will to do so and that, at times, it is not His will for sickness to be removed. (II Cor. 12:7-10; II Tim. 4:20; I Tim. 5:23: Job 2:1-8; I Cor. 12:7-13)
SATAN
We believe that Satan is a real personality; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; that he is the prince of the power of the air, often appearing to man as an angel of light, but that he attempts to frustrate all of God’s purposes through hindering the true proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan has no power besides what God allows him. Satan is a created angel who fell and does not have any of the attributes of God, in that he is not omniscient, omnipresent, nor omnipotent. We believe that eventually Satan and all fallen people will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be eternally tormented and separated from God. (Job 1:6-7; Isaiah 14: 12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Matt 4:2-11; Jude 6- 7; Rev. 20:10)
THE ETERNAL STATE
We believe that all those who have not believed on nor received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, remain after death in conscious torment in hell (Hades) until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium when spirit, soul and body will be reunited and all those individuals will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (which we believe will be a literal place), not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction, without end, and separated from the love and grace of our Lord and from the glory of His power.
We believe that all those who have believed on and have received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior will, at death, immediately enter into His presence in Heaven and will there remain in conscious comfort until the resurrection of the body at His coming for His bride, the Church, when spirit, soul and body will be reunited and they together with those raptured alive at His coming for the church, will dwell with Him forever in the glory. (Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; John 3:36; II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23; II Thess. 1:7-9; Rev. 20:11-15; 21:8)