Grace Bible Fellowship's Statement of Faith

Grace Bible Fellowship’s

Statement of Faith

(The points that follow are biblical, as well as dispensational, parameters within which Grace Bible Fellowship will operate and function.)

· We believe that Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was born of a virgin, was without sin, and has always possessed all of the qualities and attributes of God, even during his earthly ministry.

· We believe in the one true God that is comprised of three distinct persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

· We believe that sin entered mankind through Adam’s disobedience, therefore all are born in Adam and are guilty of sin, leaving the individual deserving of an eternal judgment of hell.

· We believe that salvation is not obtained by work or deed, but only “by grace, through faith,” in the shed blood of Christ’s finished work on the cross for forgiveness of sins and in Christ’s bodily resurrection for justification unto eternal life.

· We believe that God has inspired His Word through the penmanship of man, and has  preserved His complete Word in the English language by way of the King James Bible and is our final authority in all matters; we can trust our bible.

· We believe that all of scripture is useful for our learning and is to be taken literally, unless the direct context of the passage requires allegorical or metaphorical usage.

· We believe that God has progressively revealed his instructions to mankind over the course of time and that proper Bible study occurs when attention is paid to the details of these revelations, specifically marking the difference between prophecy information, which had been spoken about since the world began and mystery information, which had been kept secret until revealed to the Apostle Paul.

· We believe that God has purpose to have dominion in both heavenly places and on the earth and has made a distinction between Israel and the body of Christ to accomplish this purpose.

· We believe that in time past, God dealt with mankind through his earthly people, Israel, through covenants and promises, but today God is dealing with mankind in this dispensation of grace through his heavenly people, who fill the role of ambassadors, which is the church, the body of Christ, who are a “new creature,” and not individuals grafted into Israel or partakers of their covenants.

· We believe that God specifically set aside the Apostle Paul to be the apostle of the Gentiles and that the instructions for the order and operation of the church today are found only in Paul’s epistles.

· We believe that God has, until the conclusion of the dispensation of grace, suspended Israel as His conduit of blessing to the world, but will someday continue his prophesied operation with His chosen nation, making true the statement, “all Israel shall be saved.”

· We believe that the church is the “pillar and ground of truth;” compromising this biblical definition, which would be anything outside of the order of the Pauline instruction set forth as “for the perfecting of the saints,” “for the work of the ministry,” “and for the edifying of the body of Christ,” causes the assembly to no longer be a properly functioning establishment of God.

· We believe the one baptism for the church today is the baptism into Christ’s body by the Holy Spirit and that baptism occurs at the moment of salvation of the individual.

· We believe that old covenant tithing is obsolete in this dispensation of grace, but we readily encourage the cheerful giving, not of necessity, of the believer for all intended purposes of supporting the ministry of God; each individual should give, if he or she gives at all, as purposed within that individual’s heart.

· We believe in a future heaven where the body of Christ will forever reign, a damnable place called hell that has been created for the literal Satan and those who also continue in rebellion towards God, and a future earthly kingdom that will be established and maintained by Jesus Christ, in which does not include those saved in the dispensation of grace.