THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
To know the only true God, honor and obey Him, and make Him known.
Doctrinal Statement
1. We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are
• verbally inspired by God (1 Corinthians 2:13),
• without error in the original writings (2 Peter 1:21; Psalm 12:6; Matthew
5:18),
• and that they are the final authority in all matters relating to everyday
life and to all truth... whether it be doctrinal, theological, historical, or
scientific (2 Timothy 3:16; Psalm 19:7-11).
2. We believe in the triunity of the one and only true God (Deuteronomy 4:39; Isaiah 42:8; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:13 [also numbered as 13:14 in many Bibles]):
• Father (John 6:27; 1 Peter 1:2),
• Son (John 3:13, 31; John 8:58; John 10:30),
• Holy Spirit (John 14:16; John 16:7-11; Romans 8:26; Psalm
139:7).
Muslims may better understand this triunity as God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God because they understand "Son" to infer that God somehow had sex and produced an offspring. We, of course, would not agree with that either.
3. We believe that the eternal Son became a man in the person of Jesus, the Messiah (Daniel 9:25; Philippians 2:5-11; John 1:1, 14, 41).
• He was born of the Virgin Mary, having been conceived by the Holy
Spirit in order to take on a natural, physical, human form (Matthew 1:18-25).
• He is fully God and completely and perfectly human (John 20:28-29; Hebrews
4:15).
• Jesus died in our place, in order to save us from the eternal consequences
of our sin. This is both a personal sin and an inherited sin nature that has
its origin in the disobedience of Adam and Eve (1 Peter 3:18; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12;
John 3:16).
• Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and He will return again
exactly as the Scriptures indicate (Matthew 20:19; Matthew 28:6; John 11:25; 1 Corinthians
15:3-8; Acts 1:9-11; 1 John 3:2-3).
4. We believe that any person who places saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 3:5)
• has been purchased and set free from slavery to sin (1 Corinthians
6:20; Romans 6:18),
• has been reconciled to God, and is no longer under His wrath (2 Corinthians
5:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:10),
• has been declared righteous before God (Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:11),
• has passed from death to life... a true transformation (John 5:24; 2
Corinthians 5:17),
• has received the permanent, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (1
Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:13),
• has become a member of the Body of Christ (Romans 12:5; Colossians 3:15),
• continues in a process of sanctification in this present life (Ephesians
5:18-21; Colossians 2:6-7),
• and will ultimately spend all eternity with God (John 14:2-3; Philippians
3:20-21; Revelation 21; Revelation 22:1-5).
5. Those who reject this divine plan of redemption will spend all eternity separated from the presence of God, in a place that was originally created for the devil and those angels that followed him in rebellion against God (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:11-15).
What is our position on eschatological issues?
What does the word "evangelical" mean in Christendom today?