Our Beliefs
The study of the Word of God is not an end in itself, but it is a high priority and a necessary channel for fellowship with God and thereby also of genuine worship and effective ministry to one another and to the world at large. It will not therefore, be bypassed or made secondary in the interest of social concerns, actions, or activities, but must be so promoted that the teaching of the Bible become the pulse and heartbeat behind all church and non-church related activities or concerns (Psalm 119:1ff; 138:2; Isaiah 66:2; Romans 15:4; 16:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Timothy 1:5-7; 4:1-16; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-4).
This local church shall thus function as an independent, non-denominational, evangelical Bible church, committed to the fundamental, historic truths recorded in God’s inerrant revelation—the Holy Scriptures. To hold positions within Calvary Bible Church, all pastors, deacons, teachers, and other ministerial persons, must wholeheartedly agree with the Doctrinal Statement [Article III] of this church.
Section 1: The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, sixty-six books in all, to be the plenary-verbally inspired Word of God, without error in the original manuscripts, the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of mankind and the Divine and final authority for all Christian faith and practice. (Matthew 5:18; Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16; 8:25-35; 17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; 28:23; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 10;11; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
Section 2: The Godhead
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son [Jesus Christ] and Holy Spirit, identical in nature, equal in power and glory and having the same attributes and perfections and worthy of the same homage, confidence and obedience (Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 1:1-3; Revelation 1:4-6).
Section 3: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man so that the Father might be glorified. That He accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice. That our redemption is made sure to us by His literal physical resurrection from the dead. And that He is now in heaven exalted at the right hand of God the Father, whereas High Priest for His people, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor and Advocate. (John 1:1-1,2; Luke. 1:35; Romans 3:24,25; 4:25; 1 Peter 1:3-5)
Section 4: The Person, Work and Gifts of the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a Person who convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment to come, indwells all believers in Jesus Christ, baptizes them into His body, seals them unto the day of redemption, endows them with special spiritual abilities for the building up of the church. And that it is the responsibility of every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
We further believe that the gifts of the Spirit have been sovereignly given to the Church by her head, Jesus Christ to be lovingly exercised by each member of His body for the common good of the whole to the end that it may grow into His likeness; that the gifts of men as Apostles and Prophets have ceased with the initial founding of the Church; that some of the ability gifts, such as those of speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the performance of healings and the working of miracles by individuals, having been especially associated with the establishment of the Church in the world and its special and unique needs at that time, have ceased as a normal, expected or required activity of the established Church today. We believe that the gifts of men as Evangelists and as Pastor-teachers are given to the Church today to equip the members to utilize their individual gift(s) to effect the ministry of the Church as a whole so that it might build itself up in love toward maturity in Christ. (John 16:8-11; Romans 8:4; 12:1-9a; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 1:13,14; 5:18; 4:7-16; Hebrews 2:1-4; 1 Peter 4:7-11).
Section 5: Man Created and Fallen
We believe that man was created by God as a human being in the image and after the likeness of God and did not evolve from a lower order of life. We believe that man fell through sin and, as a consequence of his sin, lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and that he became subject to the power of the devil. We also believe that his spiritual death and totally depraved nature, have been passed on to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus being the unique exception, and therefore that every individual human being is born into the world with a nature which is essentially and unchangeably evil apart from divine grace (Genesis 1:26; 2:17; 6:5; Psalm 14:1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:6; 5:40; 6:53; Romans 3:10-19; 8:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 3:8).
Section 6: Salvation Only Through Christ
We believe that, due to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; that a new nature, imparted from above and implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation and that only those so regenerated are children of God. We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sacrificially and judicially, as our substitute, bore the penalty for our sin in His own body on the cross; and that nothing can add in any way or degree, to the finished work accomplished for us by Christ, who, in His Person, is true deity and perfect and sinless humanity (Lev. 17:11; Isa. 64:6; Matt. 26:28; John 2:7-18; Rom. 5:6-9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 6:15; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; Heb. 9:22; James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:18-19, 23).
We believe that the new birth of the believing sinner comes only through faith alone in Christ alone and that repentance is a vital part of believing, thus, it is, in itself, not a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service to be added to believing as a condition of salvation (John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts 13:38,39; 16:30,31; Romans 1:16-17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Galatians 3:22). We also believe in the eternal security of the truly born again believer and of the obligation for that believer to abide in Christ and to grow in grace (John 10:27-30; Ephesians 1:13-14; John 15; Romans 8:28-39; 2 Timothy 1:12).
Section 7: The Church and Ordinances
We believe that the church of Jesus Christ began at Pentecost; is a spiritual organism composed of all true believers who, through faith alone in Christ alone, have become the children of God; that it is the body and bride of Christ, distinct from Israel; and that its mission, in concert with Him, is to continue His work on earth of building His church. We believe that only those who are members of the true Church are eligible for membership in the local Church. (John 1:11-14; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13).
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Head of the Church, and that the local Church is to be governed theocratically through a plurality of pastors [also called elders, bishops and overseers in the New testament] seeking through prayer and the Word, direction from its Chief or Head Pastor, Jesus Christ, along with a plurality of Deacons as designated by the pastoral board under whose immediate authority they serve. We believe that every local Church has the right under Christ, to govern its own affairs. (Matthew 16:18; 18:20; Acts 13:1-3; 1 Peter 2:4-8; 1 Timothy 3; Titus 1:1-16; 1 Pet. 5:1-5; Hebrews 13:7,17).
We further believe that the ordinances of the Lord’s table and water baptism of believers in Christ by immersion, both of which are symbolic in nature, are designed as a means of corporate worship and testimony for believers who meet as a local expression of the Church Universal (Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 2:41,42; 8:36-39; 18:8; 1 Corinthians 11:23-34). Baptism by immersion, if physically possible, is a requirement for membership in this local body.
Section 8: Angels, Fallen and Unfallen
We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless, spiritual beings known as angels; that one, “Lucifer, son of the morning,” the highest in rank, sinned through pride thereby becoming Satan and the originator of sin; that a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” and that under the permission of God and as the adversary of God and His character, he through subtlety led our first parents into transgression, thereby accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting them and their posterity to his own power (Gen. 3:1-19; Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Romans 5:12-14; Ephesians 6:10-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 11:3,4,13-15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 3:6; 4:1-3; 2 Peter 2:4; 1 John 4:1-3; Jude 6; Revelation 12:3-4).
We believe that Satan was judged at the cross, though his sentence was not then executed, and that he, a usurper, now rules as the “god of this world;” that at the second coming of Christ, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years and after the thousand years he will be loosed for a little season and then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone” where he “shall be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3, 10).
We believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are before the throne of God from where they are sent as ministering spirits to minister to those who are and will be heirs of salvation (Luke 15:10; Ephesians 1:21; Hebrews 1:14; Revelation 7:11-12). We believe that man was made lower than the angels in rank and nature, and that, in His incarnation, Christ took this lower place for a little time that He might impart to he believer His own nature and raise them to His own sphere above the angels (Hebrews 2:6-10).
Section 9: The Second Advent of Christ
We believe in the personal, pretribulational, premillenial imminent coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the air for all those who make up His body, the Church, and His coming again to earth with His saints to set up His earthly Kingdom. (John 14:3; Luke 17:20 & 18:8; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2; 4:13-18; Revelation 20:6.)
Section 10: The Eternal State
We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do, at death, immediately pass into His presence and there remain in conscious joy until the resurrection of the glorified body at His coming, when spirit, soul and body will be united and thereafter be eternally associated with Him in glory. Likewise, we believe that the souls of unbelievers in Christ remain in conscious torment after death until the final judgment before the great white throne at the close of the Millennium, when the spirit, soul and body, reunited, shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but punished with everlasting punishment from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Timothy 1:16; Galatians 6:8; Revelation 20:10-15; 21:8.)
