Articles of Faith for Grace Baptist Church Newberg, Oregon
We believe in:
1. One God: Holy, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, subsisting in an eternal trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Isa. 6:3)
2. One Word: The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament given by plenary and verbal inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. (2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:16-21)
3. One Mankind: We believe that man was created in the image of likeness of God as a free moral agent. In his original creation man was innocent but fell into sin through an act of disobedience and thus became dead in the trespasses and sins, and became subject to death and the power of Satan. We believe this original act of sin resulted in a spiritually lost human nature that has been transmitted to the entire human race, the man Christ Jesus alone being excepted, and hence that every child born of Adam has a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially unchangeably bad, apart from the divine grace. (Gen. 1:26; 2:17; 6:5; Ps. 14:1-3; 51:5; Jer. 17:9, Rom. 5:12-21; 1 John 3:8)
4. One Savior: The Lord Jesus, His eternal preexistence, God manifest in the flesh; in His essential deity, virgin birth (Matt. 1:23), sinless life (1 John 3:5), substitutionary death, bodily resurrection from the grave and His ascension into heaven, whence He will return personally and premillenially to set up His earthly kingdom. (John 1:1-4, 14:9; Is. 7:14; Acts:3:12-26; Heb. 9:24; 1 Cor. 15:12-28; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Acts 1:11; Rev. 19:11-16, 20:1-6; Titus 2:11- 14)
5. One Salvation From Sin: Made by Jesus Christ in His substitutionary and sacrificial death on the cross, sufficient for all, available to all, meeting every biblical demand for all, and on these grounds to be offered to all, and that all must be born again or be forever lost. (Heb. 2:9; Rom. 5:6-10; 2 Cor. 5:18-21; Mark 10:45; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19, 2:24, John 3:1-16) Though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and he is therefore in no way required by God to seek a so-called “second blessing” or a “second work of grace.” (John 5:24, 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; 1 Cor. 3:21-23; Eph. 1:3; Col 2:10; 1 John 4:17, 5:11-12) We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all true believers everywhere, once saved, shall be kept saved forever, apart from all human merit, He who cannot fail, will in the end present every one of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His son. (John 5:24, 10:28, 13:1, 14:16-17, 17:11; Rom. 8:29p; 1 Cor. 6:19; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 1:1-2, 5:13; Jude 1:24)
6. One Spirit: God, the Holy Spirit, through whose sovereign agency in regeneration of the soul, dead in sin, is made alive in Christ, through whose sovereign agency in sanctification the fruit of the spirit is produced in the believer and the gifts of the Spirit are given to the believer, so that he can function in the body of Christ. (John 16:7-15; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 3:16; John 14:17; Acts 5:3-4; John 3:3-8; Gal. 5:22-23, Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-7)
7. One Life: The life hid with Christ in God; the life eternal begins when a sinner believes and receives Him, and continues thereafter by the effectual and sovereign grace of God. (Eph. 1:13; Phil. 1:6; John 1:23-23; Rom. 10:9-10; John 3:16)
8. One Church: Christ’s body, all members of which God hath from the beginning chosen in Christ to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. The earthly ministry of Christ’s body functions preeminently in the local, autonomous church, which is motivated and governed by Holy Scripture. The membership of the local church is made up of regenerated, baptized believers who meet together for worship, service, fellowship, and gospel outreach. (Eph. 1:4, 14, 22, 23; 5:25; Col. 1:8; 1 Cor. 1:2; Matt. 28:18-20)
9. One Destiny: Heaven or hell; that heaven is a place of eternal life with Christ; that hell is a place of eternal death and separation from God. (John 3:16; 3:36; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:1-15, 21- 22; Luke 16:19-26)
10. One Angelic Host: We believe that God created an innumerable company of spiritual beings called angels. In eternity past one angel of highest rank sinned through pride and fell. A great company of angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons. They are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. However, there was a great company of angels who kept their holy estate and are before the throne of God. They are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. (Matt. 4:2-11; John 8:44; Eph. 6:11-12; 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:9-10; Job 1:6; Isa. 14:12-24, Ezek. 28:11-19; 2 Pet. 2:4; Luke 15:10; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 7:12)
11. One Satan: The Fallen One, who first existed as an archangel of God but was cast out of heaven because of pride and became an archenemy of God and is the tempter and accuser of mankind (Matt. 4:2-11; John 8:44; Eph. 6:11-12; 1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:9-10; Job 1:6; Isa. 14:12-14) Satan was judged at the cross, and in his final estate will be “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” where he shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Col. 2:15; Rev. 20:1-3, 10)
12. One Commission: The great evangelistic and missionary commission given by Jesus Christ to the disciples for the continuing church (Matt. 28:16-20; Acts 1:8)
13. Ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism. An act of obedience, is the immersion in water of a believer in Christ, “In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit” and symbolized the believers’ death, burial, and resurrection with Christ to walk in newness of life. (Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 6:3-6) The Lord’s Supper is a commemoration of His broken body and shed blood for the remission of sin and symbolized the fact that the believer identifies himself with the death of Jesus Christ. These ordinances should be partaken of only by those whose faith is in Christ, and the Lord’s Supper is to be observed till He comes again. (1 Cor. 11:23-26; Matt. 25:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20)
14. Marriage: We believe that God has established marriage as a lifelong, exclusive relationship between one man and one woman and that all intimate sexual activity outside the marriage relationship, whether heterosexual, homosexual, or otherwise, is immoral and therefore sin. (Gen. 2:24-25; Ex. 20:14,17,22:19; Lev.18:22-23,20:13,15-16; Matt.19:4-6,9; Rom.1:18-31; 1 Cor. 6:9-10,15-20; I Tim. 1:8-11; Jude 7.) We believe that God created the human race male and female and that all conduct with the intent to identify as a gender other than one’s birth gender is immoral and therefore sin (Gen.1:27; Deut. 22:5.)
*Re-typed and published with the addition of Article 14, November 7, 2016