What We Believe at Community Baptist Church

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. The following is a brief summary of the Bible's teachings on major doctrinal issues.

The Scriptures

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. We believe that God gave us an inerrant Scripture in Greek and Hebrew and that He has preserved that in the Hebrew Masoretic and Greek Received Text underlying the King James Bible. Therefore, we only endorse the Authorized Version of 1611 and faithful translations of the Textus Receptus in other languages as being the Word of God. (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21;  Matt. 4:4; Psa. 12:6-7)

The True 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. (Matt. 18:19; John 4:24; Mark 12:30; John 10:30)

The Lord Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ 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. (Luke 23:33; 24:5-6; Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-80; 2:7)

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is Deity, the third Person of the Trinity. He convicts of sin, regenerates, endues Christians with power to be witnesses, seals believers in Christ, guides Christians etc. (John 1:2; Eph. 1:13-14; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 3:2)

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 judgment of his sin. (Isa. 45:22)

Salvation

Man's only hope is to be saved from his sin. The Lord Jesus Christ 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. (Isa. 55:1; Rom. 16:25,26; John 5:40; John 3:19)

Eternal Security

We believe that 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. (John 3:14-16; 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Rom. 8:1,38,39; I Cor. 1:4-8; I Pet. 1:5)

Creation

We believe that the Genesis record of creation is literal, and not allegorical or figurative. God personally created the heaven and the earth in six literal days and miraculously brought forth all original matter out of nothing. (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:1-3, 14; Heb. 11:3; Gen. 1:21, 24-27; Gen. 2:7; Col. 1:16.)

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, the new age movement, and other fabrications of the truth of the Word of God. (Gen. 3:1-6; Job 1:6,7; Isaiah 14:12-15; Matt. 4:2-11; Rev. 20:1-10)

The Church

The church is a called out assembly of baptized believers who are covenanted together to obey the great commission by witnessing to the lost, baptizing the converts and training them in the Word of God to witness to others. (Matt. 16:18; 28:18-20; Acts 2:41-42, 47; 20:28)

The Ordinances

God has given two ordinances to His local churches. Only a Scriptural New Testament 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, after salvation, as a testimony of that salvation and is necessary for membership in the local New Testament church. There is no saving power in baptism, it is simply an outward sign of the inward act salvation that has already taken place. (Matt. 28:19; Romans 6:4,5)

The Lord's Supper consists of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine (non-alcoholic). It is to be observed on a regular basis under the authority the local New Testament church. There is no saving power in the drinking of the cup and the eating of the bread. These are used only as symbols of the shed blood and broken body of our Lord Saviour Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 11:23-34)

The Grace of Giving

We believe that God's method of financing His earthly work of spreading the Gospel to all nations is by the tithes and offerings of His people. Everyone is accountable to God for one-tenth of his income. (1 Cor. 16:1,2; Heb. 7:2,4; Lev. 27:30; Mal. 3:10)

Church and State

We believe that every human being has direct relations with God, and is responsible to God alone in all matters of faith; that each church is independent and autonomous, and must be free from any interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority; that, therefore, the church and state must be kept separate as having different functions, each fulfilling its duties under the authority of God's Word.

Christian Living

We believe that every saved person should manifest Christ in his life through a consistent walk, fully and constantly yielding his members to the indwelling Holy Spirit, so that he may always in life and word show forth the praises of Him who called him out of darkness into His marvelous light. We believe in a separated life for all believers as set forth in 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1, including separation from worldly alliances, pleasures, methods of work, worldly societies, etc.

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. (1 Cor. 15:35-58; Rev. 20:11-15)

Last Things

We believe in the personal, imminient, pre-tribulational, pre-millenial return of the Lord Jesus Christ to catch the church up to Himself (rapture). We believe that the church will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ in heaven where the individual Christian's works and motives for service will be tested by fire for reward or loss. Simultaneously, those yet on earth will be undergoing the seven years of Tribulation. Christ will return at the end of the Tribulation to judge the nations and establish his earthly kingdom for 1000 years. Following this will be the last judgment - the Great White Throne Judgment where all the unconverted since Adam will be judged according to their works to determine their degree of punishment in the lake of fire. God will then renovate the earth with fire making a New Heaven and a New Earth. (I Thess. 4:13-17; I Cor. 3:11-15; Romans 14:10-12; II Cor. 5:10; Rev. 6-19; Matt. 24-25; Rev. 19-22)

Contemporary Movements