WHAT WE BELIEVE


The absolute best way to understand and learn about any community is to experience it on the relational level. Statements of faith can tell you what a community of faith’s beliefs are, but they can’t tell you who they are. If you’d like to discover who we are at Grace Brethren Church, please come to one of our Sunday Services, directions can be found by clicking here.



OUR STATEMENT OF FAITH

I.   GOD

     We believe in the only true God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; Who created all things, and upholds all things by the Word of His Power, in Whom we live and move and have our being; a God of truth and without iniquity; just and right is He, and He shall judge the world.


II.  OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Section A. Our Lord Jesus Christ was supernaturally conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin, a lineal descendant of David.  He lived and taught and performed mighty works and wonders and signs as recorded in the four gospels.  He was put to death by crucifixion.  God raised from the dead the same body which had been nailed to the cross.  The Lord Jesus, after His crucifixion showed himself alive to His disciples appearing unto them by the space of forty days.  After this the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to be seated at the Father's right hand.

Section B. SAVIOR: We believe that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Section C. DEITY: The Lord Jesus, before His incarnation, existed in the form of God, and of His own choice laid aside His divine glory and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.  In His pre-existent state, He was with God, and was God.  He is a divine person and possessed of all the attributes of deity and should be worshipped as God.


Section D. HUMANITY: The Lord Jesus Christ became in every respect a real man, possessed of all of the essential characteristics of human nature.

Section E. ATONEMENT: By His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus made a perfect atonement for sin, and a ground furnished upon which God can deal in mercy with sinners.  He redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by becoming a curse for us.  He who was Himself absolutely without sin was made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Section F. SECOND COMING: The Lord Jesus is coming to this earth personally, bodily and visibly.  This coming is premillennial.  The return of our Lord is the blessed hope of the believer, and in it God's purposes of Grace toward mankind will find their consummation.


III.  THE HOLY SPIRIT

     We believe in the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune God.  He carries on the work of God in the hearts of men today.  He convicts sinners of their need of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He regenerates believers and is the power by which men are born again.
     Subsequently, according as He will, the Spirit is the imparter of such gifts as are recorded in I Cor. 12, Romans 12 and Eph. 4. The Holy Spirit operates in the lives of believers to produce the fruit of the Spirit as recorded in Gal. 5. The Holy Spirit is the person who baptizes the believer, administers the anointing of the believer and seals the believer.

IV.  THE GODHEAD

     We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God having precisely the same nature, attributes, perfections and are worthy of the same worship, confidence, and obedience.

V.  THE BIBLE

     The Bible, consisting of all the books of the Old and New Testaments is the Word of God; a supernaturally given revelation from God Himself, concerning Himself, His being and nature, and concerning man, his need, duty and destiny.  We hold that the Scriptures are verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit and any translation is accurate to the extent that it is an accurate translation of the original inerrant writings.

VI.  MAN

Section A. We believe that man, originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, fell from his high and holy estate, and as the consequence of his disobedience, the penalty of death was then and there inflicted, so that his moral nature was injured by the fall and he became totally lost and dead in trespasses and sins.

Section B. We believe that this spiritual death has been transmitted to the entire human race, the man Christ Jesus alone excepted, and hence every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially bad, being at enmity against God.

Section C. We believe that redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and a curse for us, and who by faith is made unto us the righteousness of God.


Section D. We believe that Christ is received by faith alone, and that the moment that we genuinely trust Him as our savior, we pass from death to life, being justified from all things, and accepted before the Father according to the measure of Christ's acceptance.

VII.  THE CHURCH

     We believe that the church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God.  This union takes place the moment one accepts Jesus Christ to be His Lord and Savior.
     We believe in the importance of the local church to carry out the Great Commission.

VIII.  SATAN

     There is a personal devil, a being of great cunning and power.  He can exert vast power, but only as God allows him to do so.  Ultimately he shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

IX.  BAPTISM AND COMMUNION

     The church shall practice as regular ordinances; baptism of believers by triune immersion, the practice of footwashing, the Lord's Supper and the communion of the bread and cup.