Bible Baptist Church of Thomas
Statement of Faith
The Scriptures
We believe the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments to be the Bible, and that the Bible is the Word of God. We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration in the original writings and that the Scriptures are inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed.
The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections. We believe that God created the entire universe in six literal, twenty-four hour days.
The Person and Work of Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His finished work on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised bodily and that He ascended to Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Person who reproves the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and that He is the Supernatural Agent in regeneration, indwelling all believers and sealing them unto the day of redemption.
Satan
We believe in the reality of the person of Satan and that he and the fallen angels wage a spiritual warfare against the plan and purposes of God. We believe that Satan is a created angelic being who rebelled and who tempted man to join him in rebellion against God. We believe his power is supernatural, yet limited, and that he cannot act without the permission of God. Satan’s eternal end is everlasting torment in the Lake of Fire.
Man
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God, and therefore man is totally depraved, and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.
We believe that the only marriage recognized by Scripture is the joining of one born man and one born woman. We believe that God expressly forbids intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of the marriage bond.
The Way of Salvation
We believe that the clear message of salvation is “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” We believe that salvation is “by grace” plus nothing minus nothing. We believe that Jesus Christ died for every man, and that each individual chooses to accept or reject the grace of God.
We believe that men are justified by faith alone and are accounted righteous before God only through the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We believe that all the redeemed once saved are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever and that eternal life is the present possession of every believer.
The Return of Christ
We believe the “Blessed Hope” of our Lord’s return is literal, personal, visible, imminent, premillennial, and pretribulational. Believers will be caught up to be with the Lord prior to the seven years of tribulation, and at the end of the tribulation Christ will return with His saints to establish His thousand-year reign on the earth.
Our Eternal State
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. We believe that 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 body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.
We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious misery in hell until the second resurrection, when soul and body are reunited and shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment to be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment.
