Beacon Baptist Church

-Doctrinal Statement-

 

1.         The Basis For Our Doctrine

We accept the Bible as the very Word of God to man. Therefore we allow the Bible, literally interpreted, to govern our beliefs and practices, both as individuals and as a local New Testament church body. This doctrinal statement is a listing of the Bible teachings on major doctrinal issues, and is an affirmation of the beliefs and teachings of the church concerning these doctrines.

 

2.         The Bible

The Word of God was written by God through the pens of men of His choosing. Every word is from God and therefore inspired and infallible. The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice, as it is the only Book that God ever wrote. The Bible has been supernaturally preserved by God in the Textus Receptus text. Therefore, we only endorse the Authorized Version of 1611 and other faithful translations of the Textus Receptus as being the Word of God.  (II Tim. 3:16; II Peter 1:21; Matt. 4:4; Psalm 12:6-7).

 

3.         God

God is a Spirit, infinitely holy, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, and the Creator of the universe. God is a Trinity--one God in three equal Persons--God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit.

 

4.         Christ

The Lord Jesus is Deity, the Second Person of the Trinity. He came to earth to seek and to save the lost. He died on the cross as our Substitute, bearing our sins and suffering the judgment we deserve as sinners. He rose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended to Heaven forty days later. He is presently at the right hand of God the Father interceding for His saints. He was virgin-born.

 

5.         The Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is deity, the Third Person of the Trinity. He convicts of sin, regenerates, endues Christians with power to be soul winners, seals believers in Christ, guides Christians, etc.

 

6.         Man

Man is born a sinner and can do nothing to merit anything from God. Man deserves one thing and that is to go to Hell forever for the judgement of his sin.

 

7.         Salvation

Man’s only hope is to be saved from his sin. The Lord Jesus came to seek and to save man from his sin. Salvation is available only as a free gift through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ . Salvation is received by grace through faith, apart from good works.

 

8.         Eternal Security

Once a person is saved, he is saved forever, as the Bible says he has eternal life. Nothing can cancel the fact that a person is saved. Only those who are genuinely saved have this security. Saved people are subject to the discipline of God through chastisement.

 

9.         Creation

God is the Creator of the universe, the earth, and all living things. We utterly reject the theory of evolution. We also reject the theory of theistic evolution.

 

10.       Satan  

Satan is the arch-enemy of God and of God’s people. As the father of lies, he is the author of modernism, the ecumenical movement, the cults, and other fabrications of the truth of the Word of God.

 

11.       The Church

The church is the local body of baptized believers who are covenanted together to obey the Great Commission by winning the lost, baptizing the converts, and training them in the Word of God to win others.

 

12.       The Ordinances

God has given two ordinances to His local church. Only a Scriptural church has the authority to administer the ordinances. Baptism is the immersion of the believer in water in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and is necessary for membership in the church. The Lord’s Supper consists of unleavened bread and of the fruit of the vine ( unfermented wine ) . The ordinances are not sacraments--they have nothing to do with salvation. They are important, however, as they are commanded by the Lord.

 

13.       The Grace Of Giving

Scriptural giving is one of the fundamentals of the faith.  We are commanded to bring our gifts into the storehouse (the common treasury of the church) upon the first day of the week. (Lev. 27:30; Mal. 3:10; Acts 4:34-37; I Cor. 16:2; II Cor. 8:7; Heb. 7:2-4).

 

14.       Heaven And Hell

All saved people will spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven.  All lost people will spend eternity in the lake of (literal) fire, called Hell.

 

15.       Last Things

The Rapture of the Christians will be the return of Christ to the air to evacuate all born again people before the Great Tribulation Period.  The Return of Christ to the Earth will take place at the close of the 7-year Great Tribulation Period.  Christ will reign from Jerusalem for 1,000 years. (Premillenial and Pretribulational)

 

16.       Contemporary Movements

We reject the following movements as being unscriptural: the charismatic movement, the ecumenical movement, hyper-Calvinism (particularly the doctrines of unconditional election, limited atonement and irresistible grace) and neo-evangelicalism.