In July 2009, the congregation of Alliance Baptist Church devoted themselves to preparing a simplified version of the Statement of Beliefs. In the end, what follows is the statement of Faith and Declarations. If you would like to view and study the Traditional Statement of Faith Click Here.
Our Faith Statements and Declarations
We believe in God
We believe in God, the Father almighty, creator
of heaven and earth.
Who raised Jesus from the dead,
Who created and sustains the universe,
Who acts to deliver His people in times of need,
Whose Will governs the works of His people,
Who rules over the destinies of men and nations,
Who is holy, righteous, and perfect in all things eternally.
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our
Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ,
Came in the flesh to dwell among us,
Announced the coming of the rule of God,
Gathered disciples and taught them,
Died on the cross to free us from sin,
Was Resurrected from the dead to give us life and hope
Reigns in heaven at the right hand of God,
Comes to judge and bring justice to victory.
We believe in the Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit
Who moves men to faith and obedience,
Who is the guarantee of our deliverance,
Who leads us to find God's Will in His Word,
Who guides us in discernment,
Who leads us to accomplish the LORD GOD's Will.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins
We believe in the forgiveness of sins through
Jesus Christ
We believe in the resurrection of the body,
And we know for certain that there is life everlasting.
Amen.
THE LORD GOD
There is one and only one living and true LORD
GOD. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator,
Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and
all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge
extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future
decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and
obedience.
GOD AS FATHER
God the Father reigns with providential care
over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history
according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all
loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of
God through the Spirit of Adoption by their faith in Jesus Christ.
JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LORD GOD
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His
incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the Will of God, taking upon
Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself
completely with mankind, yet was without sin. He honored the divine law by His
personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made
provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with
a glorified body through his Resurrection, and appeared to His disciples as the
person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is
now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator in whose
Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in
power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.
THE HOLY SPIRIT OF THE LORD GOD
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the LORD GOD,
fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through
illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts
men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He cultivates Christian
character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they
serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final
redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring
the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and
empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
SALVATION
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole
man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,
who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its
broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification,
and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus
Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or New Birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers
become new creatures in Christ Jesus at the moment a faithful believer is
resurrected out of the Baptismal waters. The Baptism of Jesus Christ brings
death to sin, and becomes the grave to which faithful believers in Jesus
Christ's own Resurrection, are Born Again as they come up out of the waters.
This regenerative process brings a change of heart, forever changed, and a new
life able to receive and be guided by the Holy Spirit.
B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His
righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification
brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the
believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward
moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit
dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate
person's life.
D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and
abiding state of the redeemed.
THE GRACE OF THE LORD GOD
Election is the gracious purpose of God,
according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.
It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise,
holy, and unchangeable. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God
has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from
the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin
through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their
graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal
judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation.
THE BAPTISM OF JESUS CHRIST
The Baptism of Jesus Christ is a baptism of
redemption through immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Baptism of Jesus Christ frees the believer
from the control of sin, by bringing death to sin. When the believer arises
from the baptismal waters, he is born again, and resurrected into the new life
in Christ Jesus. It is an act of obedience of the believer's faith in a
crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of
the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.
It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.
THE WORD OF GOD
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely
inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of
divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and
truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture
is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges
us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center
of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct,
creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to
Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
DECLARATIONS
WE DECLARE that the Bible, in its entirety and as
originally composed, is the Word of God written.
We
declare that in every detail, both the form and content of the Bible
are inspired by God and essential to the message of the Bible.
We
declare that the assertions of the Bible are absolutely true
regardless of the distances of time and culture.
We
declare that any copy of the Bible is profitable and remains the
inerrant, infallible Word of God, to the extent that its translation
communicates clearly and accurately the meaning intended by the words of the
authors of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts at the time they were written.
We
declare that the Bible is the only authoritative source for
Christian faith and practice, and it is the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creeds, and opinions of any kind should be tried.
We
declare that there is no realm of life, belief, or investigation
over which the Bible does not have supreme authority.
We
declare that the authority of the Bible derives solely from the fact
that it has God as its author and not from recognition by any church,
individual judgment, experience, practicality or conformity to other beliefs or
knowledge.
We
declare that the Bible consists by definition of all written
material which is inspired by God.
We
declare that books of the Bible received entry as they were
recognized by Christian consensus to be inspired, and that the composition was
not of the church's making.
We
declare that the inspired Bible is the 39 commonly received books of
the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, each as they were
originally composed.
We
declare that the order of books is of little or no help in biblical
interpretation.
We
declare that the words contained within the Bible are all equally
inspired and true, and are on the same level of inspiration and truthfulness as
the words spoken by Jesus Himself.
We
declare that biblical revelation is progressive: while the quality
of revelation never changed, the quantity increased, so that the fullest
revelation comes with the completion of the later parts of the New Testament.
We
declare that the Bible is completely inerrant, meaning that
everything it asserts explicitly or implicitly, on any subject, is true in the
sense intended by the LORD GOD.
We
declare that the believer's confidence in the Spirit's authorship of
the Bible should derive from the internal conviction of the Holy Spirit
Himself, rather than from human authority, tradition, intuition, personal
appeal, or evidence.
We
declare that the doctrine of the complete inerrancy of the Bible as
originally written is absolutely essential to any theology which would call
itself Christian, and that anything short of this is heresy and unbelief, and
tends toward the destruction of faith.
We
declare that perceived inconsistencies or inaccuracies in the words
or meanings of the Bible are the reader's misperceptions.
We
declare that it is a worthwhile task to discover the resolutions of
such apparent errors, but that some may be beyond present human discovery, and
that in any case it is unnecessary to resolve these conflicts to be confident
of the complete truthfulness of the Bible.
We
declare that the Bible infallibly accomplishes all the purposes for
which it was intended.
TRUE AND FALSE TEACHING
WE DECLARE that faithful teaching is given by the Holy
Spirit to those who have been chosen as Teachers by the LORD GOD, as they
believingly, prayerfully, and diligently search the Word of God.
We
declare that all faithful Teachers of the Word of God must conduct a
proper study to obtain complete truth.
We
declare that advanced study, intent, ideas or desire does not guarantee
true teachings of the Word of God. Therefore, we affirm that only those
teachings given by the LORD GOD, through the Holy Spirit, are the Truth
completely, and as much as He would have man to understand.
We
declare that the teachings by the Holy Spirit are without error. We
declare that Teachers of the Word of God are human and can get in the way of
the moving of the Holy Spirit and His direction. As a result of this
possibility, all Teachers of the Word of God should reference Scripture to
support all of their Teachings, so the students can know the source, and uphold
or question as appropriate.
We
declare that the divinely perfect Holy Spirit will teach others
through human Teachers of the Word of God, and divide those teachings to the
various levels of spiritual understanding and maturity of each individual
student through His indwelling.
We
declare that false teachers are those who propagate false doctrines
out of disrespect for the Bible, lack of love for God, malicious intent toward
their followers and advancement of their offensive positions in End Times.
We
declare the most threatening aspect of false teachers in these times
is the attempt to discredit the Word of God in subtle and cunning ways.
We
declare that false teachers are tricking believers today through false
promises of riches, health, power, blessings, special knowledge, or secretive
messages to be given by God to those who believe their teachings.
We
declare that false teachers are expanding their territory through
challenging the foundations of belief established from the Word of God, in
support of new revelations, esoteric experiences, visions and manipulated
apostolic fervor.
We
declare that heresy is teaching those things directly opposing the
clear teachings of the Word of God on matters of essential importance to the
integrity of Christianity; religious groups claiming the name of Christ (Disciples
of Christ and United Church of Christ) but having the foundation of heresies
(rather than the Foundation of Jesus Christ), and are cults and should be avoided.
