Excerpted from the Constitution and Bylaws of Brush Prairie Baptist Church
Declaration of Faith
Excerpted From the Constitution and Bylaws of Brush Prairie Baptist Church
THE WORD OF GOD
We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of Scriptures and in the finality of the revelation at the conclusion of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. The Scriptures, written without error in the original manuscripts, are the final authority for the believer’s faith and practice. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21)
THE TRINITY
We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are identical in nature and equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections. God is Sovereign over all of His Creation. (Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19; John 1:1-14; Acts 5:3-4; Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Acts 4:24)
JESUS CHRIST
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. We believe in His eternality; His incarnation; His virgin birth; His sinless life; His substitutionary atonement; and His bodily resurrection from the grave. We believe in His personal, visible, imminent and pre-millennial return from Heaven. He is the sole Mediator between God and man. He is to be preeminent in the life of all believers. He is head of the Church. (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38; Luke 2:1-7; John 1:1-14; Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 5:18; Hebrews 1:3; Ephesians 1:22).
HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the Holy Spirit and in His active work in this age, which includes convicting the world of sin, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, and transforming believers into the likeness of Christ. At the time of regeneration, He permanently indwells the believer and baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ. He is progressively sanctifying, instructing, empowering for service, and preserving the believer unto the day of Christ. He administers the spiritual gifts, distributing to each believer as He wills. We are commanded to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit which only takes place as we are in complete submission to Jesus Christ and obedient to His written Word. (John 14:17; Romans 8:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 12:11-13; Ephesians 1:13; 5:18).
HUMANITY
We believe humanity was created in the image of God. We believe that God wonderfully and unchangeably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct and complementary genders both individually and together reflect the image and nature of God. (Genesis 1:26-27). We believe that all humanity sinned in Adam, and all are therefore sinners in Adam and by their own actions (Genesis 1:27; 2:7; 3:6-17; 1 Corinthians 15:21; Romans 5:12; 6:23). We believe that God has given humanity marriage, the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union (Genesis 2:18-25) for relational, societal and spiritual benefit (Ephesians 5:22-33). We believe that God reserves sexual intimacy for this unique, biblical covenant of marriage (1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4).
SALVATION
We believe one receives salvation by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ, apart from human merit, works, or ceremonies. We believe in the Priesthood of the believer and the believer’s direct approach and communion with God. All believers are eternally secure by the power of God. (John 1:12-13; 3:3-7; 10:28-29; 14:16-17; Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 1:18, 24; 1 Timothy 2:5)
THE CHURCH
We believe that a local New Testament Church is a community of baptized believers who have united themselves for worship, fellowship, discipleship and evangelism. The local church should be free from any outside ecclesiastical or political authority. (Mark 12:17; Acts 2:41; 5:14; Acts 6:3-6; 4:19-20; 5:29; 13:2-4, 15:2, 22-31)We believe the two ordinances of the church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the immersion in water of the believer in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit signifying a believer’s identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the believer’s death to sin and resurrection to newness of life in Christ. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the Lord's death until He comes again. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 8:34-39; Acts 16:30-33; Romans 6:1-11; Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:20-34)
SATAN
We believe that Satan is a personal being, a fallen angel, and the tempter of man. He is the enemy of God and man, and he will suffer eternal conscious punishment in the Lake of Fire. (Ezekiel 28:11-19; Genesis 3:1-6; Job 1:6-7; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 12:9-11; 20:2-3, 10)
CHRISTIAN CONDUCT
We believe all believers are responsible to God for their stewardship, devoting their gifts, time, energy, and their resources for the support of the Church’s ministries at home and abroad. (1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-5; Galatians 6:6, 7)
THE LAST THINGS
We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, those who are saved unto the resurrection of life and those who are lost unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:29; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Ephesians 2:8-9; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Luke 16:19-31; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 20:11-15; 1 Corinthians 15)
1