DOCTRINAL
STATEMENT
* Statement of Purpose
* Covenant of Faith
* Statement of Doctrine
ARTICLE I
This body of believers shall be called the “Berean
Bible Church.” We recognize that all born-again persons
of all nations throughout the world comprise the Church Universal,
which is the body and bride of Christ. According to the teaching
of the Word of God there are many local assemblies within
the Church Universal, with each local assembly being subjected
to the direct headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Believers
who gather to worship the Living God at the Berean Bible Church
shall thereby make up a local assembly.
ARTICLE II
The objective of this church is the promotion of godly worship;
the defense of “the faith once delivered” until
He comes; the edification of Christians through the teaching
of God’s Word; the salvation of souls; and the worldwide
proclamation of the saving grace of God expressed in the shed
blood and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.
ARTICLE
III
Church Covenant
Having been born-again by the Spirit of God through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ according to the provisions
of the abounding grace of God, and being justified on the
grounds of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and acknowledging
our willingness to confess Him as our Saviour before men;
we do now in the presence of God, the Holy Angels, and this
Assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with
one another as one body of Christ. We engage therefore, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian
love; to strive for the advancement of this local assembly
within the body of Christ in knowledge, holiness, and comfort;
to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its
worship, ordinances, disciplines, and doctrines; to contribute
cheerfully, scripturally, and regularly to the support of
the ministry, the expenses of the Church, the relief of the
poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations by
means of our missionaries and fundamental faith missions.
( Ephesians 1:15; 2:6; 5:5-27 / Galatians 5:16-23 / Romans
6:1-14 / Hebrews 4:12; 10:13-14 / I Corinthians 6:19-20 /
II Corinthians 3:18; 6:14-17; 7:1 / II Peter 3:18 )
ARTICLE
IV
The Doctrinal Basis
The Scriptural doctrines which every member believes and accepts
are briefly contained in the Articles of Faith:
1.
The Holy Scriptures. We believe that the
Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God, His revelation
to man, inerrant in the original writings; and that it is
therefore the supreme and final authority in all matters of
doctrine, faith, and life.
( II Timothy 3:16-17 )
2.
The Trinity of the God-Head. We believe in
one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
( Matthew 28:19 )
3.
The Pre-Existence, Deity, and Incarnation of Jesus
Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ eternally existed
with the Father and the Holy Spirit; that in His incarnation
was begotten by the Holy Spirit; born of the virgin Mary,
and is true God and true man.
( John 1:1-19 / I Tim. 3:16 )
4.
The Creation and Fall of Man. We believe
that man was created in the image of God; that he sinned and
thereby incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual
death, which is separation from God; that all human beings
are born with a sinful nature, and are totally depraved; that
those who reach moral responsibility become sinners in thought,
word and deed, and must be born-again to be accepted of God.
( Romans 5:12; 3:10 & 23 /John 3:1-21 )
5.
The Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.
We believe that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures as a representative and a substitutionary sacrifice;
and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds
of His shed blood. We believe that He arose bodily from the
dead on the third day in the same body in which He suffered
and died. We also believe that our Lord ascended into Heaven;
that He is now seated on the right hand of the Father, and
is our High Priest and divine Advocate with the Father. We
believe that by His finished work on the Cross and His unceasing
ministry of intercession in glory, Jesus Christ has procured
for every believer Eternal Redemption, Eternal Salvation,
and Everlasting Life.
( Romans 5:9 / I Corinthians 15:3 & 4 / John 3:16; 20:27
/ Mark 16:19 / Hebrews 5:9; 7:25; 8:1;
9:12 / I John 2:1 )
6.
The Personality and Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person; that He convicts
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that
He regenerates the sinner by the Word of God; that He permanently
indwells the Church and the body of each believer. He seals,
enlightens, instructs, and guides every born-again person,
and is the efficient power for godly living, Christian service,
and spiritual worship.
( John 3:5-7; 14:16,17, 26; 16:7-15 / I Peter 1:23 / Ephesians
4:30 )
7.
The Nature of the Church. We believe that
the Church of Jesus Christ was begun at Pentecost when the
Holy Spirit descended from Heaven and came into the Church;
that it is composed solely of born-again people who have been
called out from among the Jews and Gentiles to become the
body and bride of our Lord. Christ glorified in Heaven is
its Head; and the Holy Spirit on earth is the active agent
of the God-Head, who ever seeks within its ranks, to bring
about conformity and obedience to the Word of God and the
will of God. Being
one body unites believers to each other and all to Christ;
and its chief purpose of existence is to evangelize the world
and complete itself through the winning of lost souls to Christ.
( Mark 16:15 / Acts 1:8; Acts 2; 15:14 / Romans 1:16 / Ephesians
5:23-24 / I Corinthians 12:12-13 )
8.
Ordinances. We believe the two ordinances
that Christians are commanded to observe are water baptism
and the Lord’s Supper. While recognizing that water
baptism has no saving merit, it is our conviction that after
one is saved, water baptism is the next step in order to portray
to the world the believer’s union with Christ in His
death, burial, and resurrection. It is our conviction that
the scriptural method of water baptism is immersion. We believe
that water baptism by immersion is to be observed but once
and is a sign of identification and testimony to newness of
life. We believe that Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s
Supper to commemorate His death until He comes. The Lord’s
Supper is to be observed often as a memorial of the sacrificed
body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
( Romans 6:4 / Colossians 2:9-13 / I Corinthians 11:23-33
)
9.
Our Lord’s Second Advent. We believe
in the Blessed Hope, the personal, pre-millennial, pre-tribulational
and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
which is know as the Rapture of the Church. We also believe
in the personal, visible, and glorious return of Christ to
the earth with His saints at the end of the Great Tribulation.
This phase of His coming is known as the Revelation of Jesus
Christ. When He returns to the earth with His saints, we believe
that Jesus Christ will then establish His millennial Kingdom
and will reign for one thousand years.
( Titus 2:13 / I Thessalonians 4:13-17 / John 14:3 / Revelation
19:11-21; 20:1-6 )
10.
Israel’s Place in God’s Program.
We believe that “the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance” and therefore His covenant people, Israel,
now blind and scattered, shall be redeemed and re-gathered
to the land of promise, which is Palestine, and under the
personal and millennial reign of Christ upon David’s
throne in Jerusalem, shall become the head of nations; and
“the Gentiles shall come to their light and kings to
the brightness of their rising.”
( Romans 11:25-29 / Psalm 72 / Isaiah 60:3 )
11.
The Resurrection of the Dead. We believe
in the bodily resurrection of the just at the Rapture; and
of the unjust at the end of time.
( John 5:28:29 / I Thessalonians 4:16 / I Corinthians 15:51-57
/ Revelation 20:11-15 )
12.
The Eternal State of the Saved and the Lost.
We believe in Heaven and Hell. Heaven is the place of eternal
conscious joy for all who receive Jesus Christ as their personal
Saviour. Hell is the place of eternal conscious punishment
in the Lake of Fire for all who reject Jesus Christ and those
dying in their sin.
( John 8:24; 14:1-6 / Psalm 9:17; 16:11 / Philippians 1:21-23
/ II Thessalonians 1:7-9 / Revelation 20:10-15 )
13.
The Personality of Satan. We believe that
Satan is a personal being, a fallen angel, prince of demons,
the god of this age, the great enticer and deceiver, the adversary
of Christ and His people, the accuser of the brethren, whose
end is in the Lake of Fire.
( Isaiah 14:12-15 / Ezekiel 28:12-19 / Matthew 25:41 / II
Corinthians 4:3-4 / I Peter 5:8 / Revelation 12:9-10; 20:10
)
14.
Separation and Sanctification. We believe
that the Scriptures clearly teach non-conformity to the world
for every believer; that born-again people should be separated
from the world unto Christ; that it is clearly commanded of
God that all believers should live lives of separation from
all worldly and sinful practices; and to be holy as He is
holy. We believe that positional sanctification occurs at
the moment of regeneration; and that practical sanctification
is to be progressive throughout the entire life span of a
believer on earth. God’s provision for holy living is
in the believer’s identification with Christ in His
death, resurrection and ascension, the indwelling person and
power of the Holy Spirit, and the believer’s yieldedness
to Him, and by the powerful Word of God. ( John 17:17 / Colossians
1:13; 3:1 )- We also engage to maintain family and private
devotion; to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord; to seek the salvation of our kindred, our acquaintances,
our enemies, and all children and adults within and beyond
this Assembly.
Through
the provision that God has made for victorious Christian living,
it shall be our desire to abstain from fleshly lusts that
war against the soul, and to live a life of separation from
sinful and worldly practices, with a desire to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Through the love of Christ, we will put away from us all bitterness
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking - and
be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another
even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. We recognize
that the outstanding evidence of the Christian life is love,
according to the words of our blessed Lord when He said, “By
this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have
love one for another.” ( John 13:35 )
We
further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love;
to remember each other in prayer; to aid one another in sickness
and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling,
and courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always
ready for reconciliation, and mindful of the commands of our
Saviour, to secure it without delay. And this we do depending
entirely upon the aid of our Heavenly Father, who so loved
the world that He gave His only Son for our salvation, and
Jesus Christ our Saviour, who has redeemed us with His own
precious blood, and the indwelling Holy Spirit, our Comforter,
Teacher, and Guide.
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