Doctrinal Statement Grace Bible Church
Baytown, Texas
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT 

I.      We believe that the HOLY SCRIPTURES are the inspired Word of God, that they are authoritative free of error and God- breathed. (II Tim. 3:16-17, II Peter 1:20-21, Matt. 5:18, John 16:12) 

II.     We believe in ONE GOD .... one in essence or character, yet three in persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity or God-head are eternal in being, identical in essence, equal in power and glory, and have the same attributes and perfections. (Deut. 6:4, II Cor. 13: 14) 

III.    We believe that MAN was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam's sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, became alienated from God, and man is totally unable to retrieve his lost condition. (Gen. 26-27, Rom. 3:22-23, 5:12, Eph. 1:12) 

IV.    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 man; that He accomplished our redemption through His spiritual death on the cross as a substitutional sacrifice; that our redemption is made sure to us by His literal physical resurrection from the dead (John 1: 1-2, 14, Luke 1:35, Rom. 3:24-25, 4:25, I Peter 1:3-5); that the Lord Jesus Christ is now in Heaven exalted at the right hand of God the Father, where, as the High Priest for His people, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor and Advocate. (Heb. 9:24, 7:25, Rom. 8:34, I John 2: 1-2) 

V.      We believe that the HOLY SPIRIT is a Person who convicts the world of sin, indwells all believers in the present age, baptizes them into the Body of Christ, seals them unto the Day of Redemption, and that it is the duty of every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8:9, I Cor. 12: 12-14, Eph. 1: 13-14, 5: 18)

VI.     We believe that SALVATION is the Gift of God brought to man by Grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood shed for the forgiveness (remission) of sins. (Eph. 2: 8-10, John 1: 12, Eph. 1:7) 

VII.   We believe that all believers are KEPT SECURE forever, (Rom. 8: 1, 38-39, John 10:27-30, I Cor. 1:4-8) 

VIII.  We believe that the CHURCH, which is the Body and Bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons of this age irrespective of their affiliations with Christian organizations (Eph. 1:22-23,5:25-27, 1 Cor. 12: 12-14) 

IX.    We believe in the personality of SATAN, who is the open and declared enemy of God and man. (Job. 1:6-7, Matt. 4:2-11, Isaiah 14:12-17) 

X.     We believe that the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST in the air to receive to Himself the dead in Christ and believers who are alive at His coming, otherwise known as the RAPTURE and translation of the Church (I Cor. 15:51-57, I Thess 4: 13-18, Titus 2: 11-14) 

XI.    We believe that the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at DEATH immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming when the soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the Millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and from the Glory of His power, (Luke 156: 19-26, 23:43, II Cor. 5:8, Philip. 1:23, II Thess. 1:7-9, Jude 6-7, Rev. 20: 11-15)

XII.   We believe that all believers should WALK in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon the Lord and that separation from worldly pleasures and practices is commanded of God (Rom. 12:1-1, II Cor. 6:17-17:1); that it is the obligation of every believer to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scripture and to seek to proclaim the Gospel to all the world (Acts I: 8) that it is the responsibility of all believers to remember the work of the Lord in prayer and to support it with their means as the Lord has prospered them (I Cor. 16: 12) 

XIII.   We believe that God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is SOVEREIGN and exercises supreme and absolute rule over all creation as part of and consistent with the essence and attributes of Deity (I Chron. 29:11-12, Dan. 4:35, Psa. 24:1, Eph. 1:11, I Tim. 6:15). 

XIV.   We believe that SPIRITUALITY is an absolute condition in the life of every believer in this Age wherein he is controlled by or filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in love and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and is contrasted to CARNALITY which is the opposite absolute condition of the life of the believer wherein he is no longer controlled by or filled with the Holy Spirit. We believe that a believer becomes carnal through any act of mental, verbal, or overt sin; that spirituality or fellowship with Christ is restored solely by confession of sin to God. (I John 1:9, John 15:7-8, II Cor. 5:7, Gal. 5:16, Eph. 5:18, Rom. 6:11-13, I John 1:5, I Cor. 11:30-31)

XV.    We believe that SPIRITUAL MATURITY is a relative condition in the life of the believer, is distinct from spirituality and is attained only by the consistent reception, belief in, and application in the believer’s life of the divine principles revealed by consistent study over time of the Word of God. We believe that we are commanded by God to attain spiritual maturity in this life (2 Tim. 2:15).