Tabernacle Baptist Church

Articles of Faith

Reposing our faith wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, and trusting only in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit for guidance, accepting the general summary of doctrines and duties of the Church Covenant; we, therefore band ourselves together as a body of baptized (immersed) believers in Jesus Christ and adopt for our government, plan of worship, and service, the following articles:

 

1. The Scriptures - We believe the Old and New Testaments to be verbally inspired of God, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life. (II Timothy 3:16, 17; II Peter 1:19-21) We reject the R.S.V. or the New English Bible, etc. as being a true translation of the Word of God and insist that the King James Translation of the Bible be used in both the Sunday School and from the pulpit and in all other meetings associated with this church.

 

2. The Godhead - We believe the God head eternally exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections. (Genesis 1:1, 1:26; Matthew 3:16, 17; Matthew 28:19, 20; John 10:30; II Corinthians 13:14; Romans 8:9)

 

3. The Lord Jesus Christ - We believe in: 1. His eternal existence as God (Hebrews 1:8) 2. His incarnation by means of the Virgin Birth (Luke 1:35; Isaiah 7:14) 3. His death on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for sin (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:14) 4. His literal, bodily resurrection from the dead (Luke 24:36-43; Acts 10:40, 41) 5. His present ministry of intercession in Heaven (Acts 1:9; I John 2:1; Hebrews 8:1,2) 6. His personal return to earth (Acts 1:11; I Thessalonians 4:16; Colossians 2:9; Matthew 26:64).

 

4. Holy Spirit - We believe the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead convicts men of sin (John 16:8), regenerates, indwells, seals (I Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:13, 14), and sets believers apart unto a holy life; that He keeps and empowers believers day by day; that He is the teacher of the Word of God and guide for our daily life. Anyone who does not have the Spirit living in him is not a child of God (Romans 8:9).

 

5. Man - We believe: 1. Man was created innocent and pure, (Genesis 1:26) 2. Adam fell through the sin of disobedience, (Romans 5:19) 3. Thereby all men are corrupted in body, mind, and soul, (Romans 5:12) 4. Therefore, all are in need of redemption.

 

6. Satan - We believe in the reality and personality of Satan. (Job 1:6-9; Job 2:3; Matthew 4:1-11; I Peter 5:8; James 4:7)

 

7. Salvation - We believe: 1. That salvation is solely by grace through faith in the blood sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God; 3. All who are truly saved are kept forever; 4. However, God cannot overlook sin in His children and will chasten and correct them in love. (Hebrews 12:5-8)

 

8. The Church - We believe: 1. That the local church is composed of regenerated baptized believers, voluntarily unit purpose of worship, edification; 2. It has been commissioned by Christ to propagate the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth; 3. That the local church has absolute right of self-government, free from interferences of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; and that the one and only superintendent is Christ, through the Holy Spirit; 4. That on all matters of membership, of policy of government, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final. (Acts 2:41-47; 4:33-37; 5:1-20)

 

9. The Ordinances - We believe that Christ gave only two ordinances to the church to be observed “til He comes”:

 

A. The Lord’s Supper: It was left to us as an ordinance by the Lord Himself (Matthew 26:26; 27:28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19,20; I Corinthians 11:23-25) for a memorial of His death until He comes and should not be taken unadvisedly, but with the examination of one’s life.

 

B. Believers Baptism: We practice baptism because of the example of our Lord Jesus while He was here on earth (Matthew 3:13) and because of the command given by our Lord to be baptized. (Matthew 28:19) We accept, as the scriptural mode of baptism, immersion. It should be made clear that there is no saving power in baptism–it is meant for those who are already saved–giving a clear picture of the fact that the believer is dead, buried and raised spiritually with Jesus Christ by faith in Him.

 

10. Separation - We believe it is our duty to call the attention of believers to the scriptural teaching of separation and that we should abstain from worldly practices and live a life devoted to the Lord. (Romans 12:1, 2)

 

11. The Future - We believe the personal pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ. He will come: (a) for His saints to gather them unto Himself, (b) with His saints to judge the nations and to eternal abode in the glory of His presence. The bodily resurrection of the unjust unto judgment and everlasting, conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

12. Missions - Because all men everywhere without Christ are lost and bound for the eternal punishment, (Romans 1:18-20) and because men cannot believe in Him of whom they have never heard, (Romans 10:14) we believe that we are debtors to all men and have the responsibility of giving them the Gospel. Jesus left us command that we should all be witnesses for Him, (Acts 1:8) and should take the good news of the Gospel to every place where men are to be found.