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ARTICLES OF FAITH
BIBLE BAPTIST CHURCH
Kokomo, Indiana
We believe in THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: Accepting
fully the writings of the Old and New Testaments as the very Word of God,
verbally inspired in all parts and therefore wholly without error as originally
given of God, altogether sufficient in themselves as our daily infallible rule
of faith and practice. (Mt 5:18; Jn 10:35, 17:17; 2Tim
3:16; 2Pet 1:21).
We believe in THE ONE TRIUNE GOD: Who
is personal, spirit, and sovereign; perfect, infinite, and eternal in His being
holiness, love, wisdom, and power; absolutely separate and above the world
as-its Creator, yet everywhere present in the world as its Upholder of all
things; self-existing and self-revealing in three distinct Persons, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit) each of whom is to be honored and worshipped
equally as true God. (Mk 12:29; Jn 4:24, 14:9; Ps
135:6)(Ps 18:30, 147:5; Deut 33:27)(Gen 1:1; Ps 104)(Jn 5:26; Mt 28:19; 2Cor
13:14)(Jn 5:23; Acts 5:3-4).
We believe in THE LORD JESUS CHRIST:
Who is the second Person of the Triune God, the Eternal Word and Only
Begotten Son, our Great God and Savior, that without any essential change in His
divine person He became man by the miracle of the Virgin Birth thus to continue
forever as the true God and true Man, one Person with two natures, that as man
He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, that as the
perfect Lamb of God He gave Himself in death upon the cross, bearing there the
sin of the world, and suffering His full penalty of divine wrath in our stead,
that He arose again from the dead and was glorified in the same body in which He
suffered and died, that as our great High Priest He ascended into heaven, there
to appear before the face of God as our Advocate and Intercessor. (Jn
1:1-16; Tit 2:13; Rom 9:5)(Heb 13:8)(Jn 1:14; Mt 1:23)(Col 2:9; Rev 22:16)(Heb
4:15; Jn 8:46)(Isa 53:5-6; Mt 20:28; Gal 3:13; Jn 1:29)(Lk 24:36-43; Jn 20:25-28)(Heb
4:14, 9:24; 1Jn 2:1).
We believe in
THE HOLY SPIRIT: Who
is the third Person of the Triune God, the divine Agent in nature, revelation
and redemption, regenerates those who believe, and indwells, baptizes, seals,
empowers, guides, teaches and sanctifies all who become children of God through
faith in Christ Jesus. (Mt 28:19; Acts 5:3-5)(Gen 1:2;
Ps 11)(Jn 3:5)(1Cor 6:19, 12:13; Eph 4:30, 3:16; Rom 8:14; Jn 14:26; 1Cor 6:11).
We believe in THE CREATION AND THE FALL OF
MAN: that he was the direct creation of God, spirit and soul, and
body, not in any sense the product of an animal ancestry, but made in the divine
image, that by personal disobedience to the revealed will of God man became a
sinful creature and the progenitor of a fallen race who are universally sinful
in both nature and practice alienated from the life and family of God under the
righteous judgment and wrath of God and have within themselves no possible means
of recovery or salvation. (Gen 1:26-28, -2:7, 18:24; Mt
19:4; 1Thess 5:23)(Gen 3:1-24, 5:3)(Eph 2:3; Rom 3:23, 5:12)(Eph 4:18; Jn
8:42-44)(Rom 1: 18, 3:19)(Mk 7:23; Mt 19:26; Rom 7:18).
We believe in SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH
FAITH: that salvation is the free gift of God neither merited nor
secured in part or in whole by any virtue of work of man, but received only by
personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all believers have as personal
possession the gift of eternal life, a perfect righteousness, sonship in the
family of God, deliverance and security from all condemnation, every spiritual
resource needed for life and godliness, and the divine guarantee that they shall
never perish; that this salvation includes the whole man, spirit and soul and
body, and apart from Christ there is no possible salvation. (Rom
3:24, 6:23)(Tit 3:5; Rom 3:4-5, 9:16)(Jn 3:16, 6:29; Acts 16:30-31; Eph 2:8-9)(1Jn
5:13; Rom 3:22; Gal 3:26; Jn 5:24; Eph 1:3; 2Pet 1:3; Jn 10:27-30)(1Thess
5:23-24)(Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12).
We believe in RIGHTEOUS LIVING AND GOOD
WORKS: not as the procuring cause of salvation in any sense, but
as its proper evidence and fruit, and therefore as Christians we should keep the
Word of our Lord, seek those things which are above, walk as He walked (1Jn
2:6), be careful to maintain good works, and especially accept as our solemn
responsibility the duty and privilege of bearing the gospel to a lost world in
order that we may bear much fruit, remembering that a victorious and fruitful
Christian life is possible only for those who have learned they are not under
law but under grace, and who in gratitude for the infinite and undeserving
mercies of God have presented themselves wholly to them for His service. (1Jn
3:911, 4:19, 5:4; Eph 2:8-10; Tit 2:14; Mt 7:16-18; 1Cor 15:10)(Jn 14:23)(Col
3:1)(Tit 3:8)(Acts 1:8; 2Cor 5:19; Jn 15:16)(Rom 6:14)(Rom 12:1-2).
We believe in THE EXISTENCE OF SATAN:
who was originally created a holy and perfect being, but through pride and
unlawful ambition rebelled against God, thus becoming utterly depraved in
character, the great Adversary of God and His people, leader of all other evil
angels and spirits, the deceiver and god of this present world, that his powers
are supernaturally great, but strictly limited by the permissive will of God who
rules over all his wicked devices for good, that he was defeated and judged at
the cross, and therefore his final doom is certain, that we are able to resist,
and overcome him in the armor of God and by the blood of the Lamb. (Ezek28:13-17;
Isa 14:13-14; 1Tim 3:7)(Jn 8:44)(Mt 4:1 -11; Rev 12:10)(Mt 12:24-26, 25:41)(Rev
12:9; 2Cor 4:4)(Job 1:1-22; Lk 22:31-32)(Jn 12:31-32, 16:11; Rev 20:10)(Eph
6:12-18; Rev 12:11)
We believe in THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST:
that His return from heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious, a
blessed hope for which we should constantly watch and pray; the time being
unrevealed but always imminent; that when He comes He will first by resurrection
and translation remove from the earth His waiting church, and then pour out the
righteous judgment of God upon the unbelieving world, afterward descend with His
church and establish His glorious and literal kingdom over all the nations for a
thousand years, at the close of which He will raise and judge the unsaved dead,
and finally as the Son of David deliver up His Messianic Kingdom to God the
Father, in order that as the eternal Son he may reign with the Father in the new
heaven and the new earth. (Acts 1:11; Rev 1:7; Mk
13:33-37; Tit 2:11-13; Rev 22:20)(1Thess 4:16)(Rev 6:1-18,24)(Rev 19:1, 20:6; Mt
13:41-43)(Rev 20:11-15)(1Cor 15:24-28)(Lk 1:22-23; Rev 21:1, 22:6).
We believe in THE FUTURE LIFE, BODILY
RESURRECTION, AND ETERNAL JUDGMENT: that the spirits of the saved
at death go immediately to be with Christ in heaven, where they abide in joyful
fellowship with Him until His second coming, when their bodies shall be raised
from the grave and changed into the likeness of His own glorious body at which
time their works shall be brought before the Judgment Seat of Christ for the
determination of rewards, a judgment which may issue in the loss of rewards, but
not the loss of the soul; that the spirits of the unsaved at death descend
immediately into Hades, where they are kept under punishment until the final day
of Judgment, at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, they
shall be judged according to their works, and cast into the place of final and
everlasting punishment. (Phil 1:21-23; 2Cor 5:8)(Phil
3:20-21; 1Cor 15:35-38; 1Jn 3:2)(1Cor 3:8-15)(Lk 16:19-31; 2Pet 2:9)(Rev
20:11-15, 21:8; Mk 9:43; Jude 13).
We believe in the ONE TRUE CHURCH:
the mystical body and bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He began to build
on the day of Pentecost, and will complete at His second coming, and into which
all true believers of the present age are baptized immediately by the Holy
Spirit; that all the various members of this one body should assemble themselves
together in local churches for worship, prayer, fellowship, teaching, united
testimony, and the observance of the ordinances of our Lord, which are the
following: the baptism of believers by immersion, and the communion of the bread
and the cup. (Eph 4:4, 5:25-32)(Mt 16:18; Acts 2:47)(1Thess
4:16-17)(1Cor 12:12-13 with 1:2)(Heb 10:25; Acts 2:41-47)(Mt 28:20)(1Cor
11:23-24).
We believe in SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD:
that since our Christian citizenship is in heaven, as the children of God we
should walk in separation from this present world, having no fellowship with its
evil ways, abstaining from all worldly amusements and unclean habits which
defile mind and body, from the sins of divorce and remarriage as forbidden by
our Lord, from the swearing of any oath, from the use of unbelieving courts for
the settlement of disputes between Christians, and from taking personal
vengeance in carnal strife. (Phil 3:20; 2Cor 6:14-18; Rom
12:2; Eph 5:1 1)(Lk 8;14; 1Thess 5:22; 1Tim 5:6; 1Pet 2:22; Eph 5:3-5,18; 1Cor
6:19-20)(Mt 19:9)(Jas 5:12)(1Cor 6:1-10)(Rom 12:18-20; 2Cor 10:3-4).
We understand that the above articles do not by any
means exhaust the content of our creed which is the whole Word of God, and they
are not intended to set a limit beyond which faith cannot go without this Word;
but we do believe that insofar as these articles extend, they are a true
representation of the sound doctrine taught in the Scriptures, and therefore
binding upon us as Christian believers.
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