Articles of Faith

A.  The Scriptures

We believe the Bible is the verbally inspired and infallible Word of God.  (II Timothy 3:16)  The authorized King James Version is the Bible translation that is to be used as the basis for all preaching and teaching in Life Baptist Church.

B.  The God-Head

 We believe the G0d-Head eternally exists in three person; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that these are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections.  (Genesis 1:1, 1:26; Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19-20; John 10:30; II Corinthians 13:14; Romans 8:9)

C.  The Lord Jesus Christ

We believe in:

1.  His eternal existence as God.  (Hebrews 1:8)

2.  His incarnation by means of the virgin birth.  (Luke 1:35, Isaiah 7:14)

3.  His death on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for sin.  (Romans 3:25; Hebrew 9:14)

4.  His literal bodily resurrection from the dead.  (Luke 24:36-43; Acts 10:40-41)

 5.  His present ministry of intercession in Heaven (Act 1:9; I John 2:1; Hebrews 8:1-2)

6.  His personal return to earth.  (Acts 1:11; II Thessalonians 4:16; Colossians 2:3; Matthew 26:64)

D.  Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third part of the God-Head.  He convicts men of sin, regenerates, indwells and seals believers.  (John 16:8; I Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:13-14, Titus 3:5)  The evidence of a Spirit filled life is one that has power to witness (Act 1:8, Acts 4:31) and has the fruit of the Spirit as taught in Galatians 5:22-23.  Every believer possesses the Holy Spirit.  (I Corinthians 12:13; Romans 8:9)

E.  Man

We believe

1. Man was created innocent and pure.  (Genesis 1:26)

2. Adam fell through the sin of disobedience.  (Romans 5:19)

3. Thereby all men are corrupted in body, mind and soul.  (Romans 5:12)

4. Therefore, all are in need of redemption.

F.  Satan

We believe in the reality and personality of Satan.  (Job 1:6-9, Job 2:3, Matthew 4:1-11, I Peter 5:8, James 4:1)

G.  Salvation

We believe:

1.  That salvation is solely by grace through faith in the blood sacrifice, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2.  All that are truly saved are kept forever.  (I Peter 1:5, John 6:37)

3.  However, God cannot overlook sin in His children and will chasten and  correct them in love.  (Hebrews 12:5-8)

H.  The Church

We believe:

1.  That the local church is composed of regenerated, baptized believers; voluntarily united together for the purpose of worship, edification, fellowship of believers, spiritual growth and service.

2.  It has been commissioned by Christ to propagate the Gospel unto the uttermost part of the earth.

3.  That the local church has absolute right of self-government, free from interferences of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; and that the one and only superintendent in Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

4.  That on all matters of membership, of policy, of government, of benevolence; the will of the local church is final.  (Act 2:41-47; 4:33-37; 5:1-20)

I.  The Ordinances

We believe that Christ gave only two ordinances to the Church to be observed till he comes:

1.  The Lord’s Supper – It was left as an ordinance by the Lord Himself (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; I Corinthians 11:23-25) for a memorial of His death until He comes and should not be taken inadvisably, but with examination of one’s life.

2.  Believer’s Baptism – We practice baptism because of the example of  our Lord Jesus while He was here on the earth.  (Mathew 3:13) and  because of the command given by our Lord to be baptized (Matthew  28:19).  We accept immersion ONLY as the scriptural mode of baptism.  It should be clear that there is no saving power in baptism; it is meant for those who are already saved, giving a clear picture of the fact that the believer is dead, buried and raised spiritually with Jesus Christ by faith in Him.  Since baptism is a picture of salvation, and we hold that salvation is by grace through faith apart from any keeping power on the part of the saved.

J.  The Future

We believe the personal premillennial return of Jesus Christ.  

He will come:

1.  For His saints to gather them unto Himself and;

2.  With His saints to judge the nations and to eternal abode in the glory of His presence.  The bodily resurrection of the unjust unto judgment and everlasting conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

K.  Separation

We believe it is our duty to call the attention of believers the scriptural teaching of separation and that we should abstain from worldly practices and live a life devoted unto the Lord (Romans 12:1-2).

L.  Missions

Because all mean everywhere without Christ are lost and bound for the eternal punishment (Romans 1:18-20), and because men cannot believe in Him of whom they have never heard (Romans 10:14) we believe that we are debtors to all man and have the responsibility of giving them the gospel.  Jesus left us the command that we should all be witnesses for Him (Act 1:8) and should take the good news of the Gospel to every place where men are to be found.  (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21)  We believe that to carry out this command, we must ourselves be witnesses  by life and word to tell al lost men about Christ and we must support, by prayer and financial aid, those who go out under sound missionary agencies to represent us in other parts of the world.