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Our
Beliefs: |
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God - We believe that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and
Righteous Ruler of the universe. He has revealed Himself in nature, and in
the Scriptures of the Holy Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: yet as one
God. ·
Jesus Christ - He is God's unique Son; the only one of a kind. The
Scripture teaches that He is God revealed in flesh. In His Divine nature He
is truly God and in His human nature truly man. He is the One once crucified
for man's sin, the now risen and glorified Savior and Lord who mediates between God and man and who gives us access to
the Father through His intercession. None can come to the Father unless they
come through Him. ·
Holy Spirit - All of the attributes of God are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit by the Scriptures. It is He who convicts and convinces men of their
sin. He also convinces man of that which is right, and that a final day of
judgment will come. He, it is, who comes to live in us at conversion, to open
our understanding to the Scripture, and to lead us into the truth. ·
The Bible - God used holy men to write the Scriptures. They are, in
both the Old and New Testaments, the very words God intended us to have. They
are, as given by God, without error and are our only rule of faith and
practice. We profit from them by learning the truth about many things: they
also speak to us about wrong doing; they even correct us and get us back on
course as well as instructing us in right living. ·
Man - God created man in a state of innocence. Man, being
tempted by Satan, yielded and willfully disobeyed God, becoming a sinner and
incurring God's judgment upon sin. All of Adam's descendants inherit his
fallen nature and thus have a natural inclination to sin. When one comes to
an age of accountability, he is guilty of sinning before God and in need of
salvation. ·
God's Relationship to His Creatures
and Creation - God exercises a
wise and benevolent providence over all beings and things. He maintains the
laws of nature and performs special acts as the highest welfare of mankind
and His created order of things require. ·
Salvation - Man receives pardon and forgiveness for his sins when
he admits to God that he is a sinner, when in godly sorrow he turns from them
and trusts in the work of Christ as redemption for his sin. This acceptance
of God's great salvation involves belief in Christ's death on the cross as
man's substitute and the fact of God's raising Him from the dead as
predicted. It is a salvation by grace alone and not of works. ·
Who Can be
Saved? - It is God's will
that all be saved, but since man has the power of choice, God saves only
those who repent of their sin and believe in the work of Christ on the cross.
Those who refuse in this life to repent and believe have no later chance to
be saved and thus condemn themselves to eternal damnation by their unbelief. ·
Church Government - Free Will Baptist churches enjoy local church autonomy
(self-governing). The local church is the highest authority in the
denomination. Local churches voluntarily organize themselves into quarterly
meetings, district, state, and national associations for the purpose of
promoting the cause of Christ on the local, state, district, national, and
world-wide level. ·
Perseverance - We believe that there are strong grounds to hope that
the saved will persevere unto the end and be saved because of the power of
divine grace pledged for their support. We believe that any saved person who
has sinned (whether we call him a backslider or sinner), but has a desire to
repent, may do so and be restored to God's favor and fellowship. Since man,
however, continues to have free choice, it is possible because of temptations
and the weakness of human flesh for him to fall into the practice of sin and
to make shipwreck of his faith and be lost. ·
Christ's Second Coming - The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, who ascended on
high and sits at the right hand of God, will come again to close the Gospel
dispensation, glorify His saints, and judge the world. ·
Missions - Free Will Baptists believe that Jesus commanded the
church to go into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every creature. ·
The Christian Sabbath. The divine law
requires that one day in seven be set apart from secular employments and
amusements, for rest, worship, holy works, and activities, and for personal
communion with God. ·
Resurrection, Judgment, and Final
Retribution. The Scriptures teach the resurrection of
all men at the last day. They that have done good will come
forth to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the
resurrection of damnation; then the wicked will “go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” ·
Sanctity of Human Sexuality and
Marriage. Based on the teachings of Scripture, we believe
that each human is created by God as either male or female, that sexual
relations are reserved exclusively for marriage, and that marriage is defined
in the Bible as a lifelong covenant-union between one man and one woman. |
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