At Calvary Bible Church we value rich theology and uphold the word of God as our authority. See our detailed doctrinal statement below.
A. THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally written were inspired (God-breathed), both verbally and plenarily (in every part). We believe God, Who is Truth, communicated through Spirit-controlled men so that the Scriptures are without error and therefore authoritative in all they teach and in all matters they touch. We believe the Bible is the supreme revelation of God’s will for man and constitutes the only infallible guide for faith and life. I Corinthians 2:13; II Timothy 3:26; Hebrews 4:12, II Peter 1:16-21
B. THE HOLY TRINITY
We believe that there is one true and living God. In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – equal in essence and attributes, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption. Matthew 28:19; 3:16-17; John 6:27; Acts 5:3-4; Ephesians 4:6; Hebrews 1:8; I John 5:7
C. GOD THE FATHER
We believe that God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. He is the creator, sustainer and ruler of the entire universe, giver of all life, in sovereign authority over all His created beings, the keeper over the nation Israel, and the Father of His chosen in Jesus Christ. Psalms 139:7-10; Isaiah 46:9; Romans 11:33; Revelation 19:6
D. GOD THE SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
We believe in the absolute deity of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is God, existing from all eternity and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the creator of the universe and by Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15-19). At His incarnation, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary (Luke 1:26-38). He is the only Savior of mankind (Acts 4:12). He is the one mediator between God and men (I Timothy 2:5). He lived a sinless life on earth and in His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins as a substitute for sinners (II Corinthians 5:21; I Peter 2:24). He rose bodily from the dead on the third day (I Corinthians 15:3-4), ascended into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest (Hebrews 7:25), will appear in the air to rapture His saints (I Thessalonians 4:13-18), and seven years later will come again with the saints to set up the throne of David and establish His millennial kingdom (II Thessalonians 2:6-8).
E. GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son in nature and attributes, that He was active in the creation, that He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, that He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in preaching and in testimony, that He is the agent in the new birth, that He indwells, seals, empowers, guides, teaches, sanctifies, comforts and helps the believer. He baptizes every believer into the body of Christ at
the moment of salvation, so that there are none who are saved who are not indwelt by Him. However, the filling of the Spirit comes only to those who fully submit themselves to Him, and as many times as they do the same. The Holy Spirit is the giver of gifts to believers. We believe that the Holy Spirit gave specific sign gifts to authenticate the early church and that these gifts are no longer the norm for today. Genesis 1:2; John 7:39, 14:16-17 & 26, 16:13-14; Acts 1:5; Romans 8:9, 12:3-8; I Corinthians 12:11 & 13, 13:8-10, 14:19 & 27-28, 33-34 & 40; Ephesians 1:13, 4:11-12, 5:18
F. SATAN THE DEVIL
We believe that Satan is a created being, that he is the unholy god of this age and the prince of all the powers of darkness. He is a deceiver of men and constantly seeks to frustrate the purposes of God. He was conquered by Christ on the cross and is destined to the judgment of an eternal and just torment in the lake of fire. Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Matthew 25:41; Luke 10:18; II Corinthians 4:4, 11:13-15; Ephesians 2:2, 6:12; Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10
G. CREATION
We believe the Genesis account of creation and that men and women were directly created by God in His own likeness and image. We reject and combat both the theories of evolution and theistic evolution. We believe that the six days of creation were literal 24-hour days. Genesis 1-2; Psalms 8, 19:1; John 1:3; Romans 1:18-20, 8:18-23; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:1-3
H. MAN
We believe that man (male and female) was created by a direct act of God and not from any previously existing form of life, that all men are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race. By voluntary transgression man fell from his sinless state, in consequence of which all men are now sinners by nature and by choice, utterly devoid of the holiness required by God’s law, positively inclined to evil, and therefore, under just condemnation to eternal judgment and everlasting existence, separated from God without defense or excuse. Genesis 1:26-27, 3:1-19; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:9-19, 23, 5:12-19
I. SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH
We believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world and that salvation of sinners is divinely initiated, wholly of grace, and accomplished only through the mediatorial work of the Son of God. It is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that saving faith relies exclusively upon Christ’s work on the cross and this work alone is sufficient payment for our sins. We believe that salvation is instantaneous and not a process, that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God, that the believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of eternal life, which is eternally secure. John 3:16; 10:9-13, 8:28-29; Ephesians 1:3-7, 29-10; Titus 3:5-6; I Peter 1:5; II Peter 1:3-4
J. HEAVEN AND HELL
We believe that Heaven is a literal place prepared for believers in Jesus Christ. John 14:1-6; Revelation 21-22 We believe that Hell (the lake of fire) is a literal place prepared for Satan, his angels, and those who die in unbelief. Matthew 25:41; Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 20, 21-8
K. THE CHURCH
We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ began at Pentecost and will be completed at the rapture. The local church is a congregation of believers, associated by a covenant in the faith and fellowship in the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His Word and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word. Its scriptural officers are pastors (sometimes called elders or bishops) and deacons, whose qualifications, claims and duties are defined in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
The “Church which is His Body” is the entire company of believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, regardless of denominational affiliation and present position in Heaven or on the earth. Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:5, 2:1-4, 41-42, 10:44-45, 11:15-16; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 1:22-23; Philippians 1:1; Hebrews 12:23
L. BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER
We believe that there are two ordinances for the New Testament church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper (communion).
We believe that baptism is the single immersion of the believer in water in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism plays no part in salvation but is an act of obedience to the command of Christ and a testimony to the world of the believer’s faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It illustrates the believer’s death to sin and his resurrection to a new life. Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:38, 41, 8:26-39; Romans 6:3-5
We believe that the Lord’s Supper (communion) is symbolic of our Lord’s body and His shed blood as He suffered on the cross for us. It is to be observed as a memorial to Him and His death until He comes again, and should be preceded by self-examination and confession of sins. Matthew 26:20-30; I Corinthians 11:2, 20-34
M. FUTURE EVENTS
The righteous and the wicked
We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked, that such only as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and sanctified by the Spirit of our God, are truly righteous in His eyes, while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse, and this distinction holds among men both in and after death in the everlasting happiness of the saved and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost.
The Rapture of the Church
We believe in the personal, imminent, pre-tribulational and pre-millennial appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His redeemed ones of the church (also commonly referred to as the blessed hope). I Corinthians 15:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; II Thessalonians 2:1-2; Titus 2:13; I John 3:2
The Judgment Seat of Christ
We believe that every saved person of the Church Age will appear before the “Judgment Seat of Christ” to be judged by the Lord in regard to his service and receive rewards according to his works. Matthew 6:1-4; Romans 14:10; I Corinthians 3:11-15; II Corinthians 5:10
The Millennial Kingdom
We believe that Christ will return to earth after the tribulation with His saints to establish the Millennial Kingdom, which literally will be on earth and will be ruled by Christ from the throne of David. Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:32; Acts 2:29-30; II Thessalonians 1:6-12; Revelation 20:1-6, 11-14
The Eternal State
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment in the lake of fire. The souls of the redeemed are at death absent from the body and present with the Lord where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when spirit, soul and new body are reunited, to be forever glorified with the Lord. The souls of the unbelievers after death remain in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when with spirit, soul and body reunited they shall appear before the Great White Throne Judgment and will be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment. Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:19-26; John 5:28-29; II Corinthians 5:8 & 10; Philippians 1:23; Revelation 20:1-6