Lakecrest Baptist Church General Doctrinal Statement

I. The Inspiration of the Bible

We believe the Holy Scriptures, composed of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, are the verbally inspiredWord and Revelation of God. The Bible is inerrant, infallible-God-breathed. The Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus Receptus were used to give us the King James Bible. We have, therefore, the Inspired and Preserved Word of God in The King James Bible. Psalm 19:7-11; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Luke 24:13-28; John 16:12-16; Psalm 12:6-7; Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 138:2.

II. The Trinity

We believe in the Triune God, One God in three personalities-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit-coequal and coeternal.

III. The Deity and Virgin Birth of Christ

We believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ. He is the only begotten, virgin-born Son of God, the second Person in the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, God manifest in the flesh. Christ is coequal with The Father. 1 Timothy 3:16; John 1:1-14; John 14:9; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; John 10:36.

IV. The Blood Atonement

We believe in the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. He, by the grace of God, tasted sin and death for every man, and all must be born again or be forever lost. Hebrews 2:9; John 6:44-69; John 3: 118; Romans 3:25; Revelation 1:5; Hebrews 9:22; 1 Peter 1:18-19. The Lord’s atonement was not limited with respect to whom God’s salvation is offered, i.e., His shed blood is sufficient for all sin and, therefore, “whosoever will” may believe and be saved to the uttermost. 1 John 2:2; Hebrews 7:22-25; Revelation 22:17. Also, the text “with His stripes we are healed” speaks of God’s remedy for the sin-sick soul through the suffering and substitutionary sacrifice of the Lamb of God, and is not referring to the healing of the body as proposed by false charismatic teaching. Isaiah 53:4-6.

V. The Resurrection

We believe in the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He ascended bodily into the heavens and is now at the right hand of God as our Mediator, Priest, and Advocate. Acts 3:12-26; John 20; Hebrews 9:24; 1 Corinthians 15:12-28; 1 John 2:1.

VI. The Second Coming

We believe in the Rapture-the personal, premillennial, pretribulational and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ “in the air.” This has been the “Blessed Hope” of every born-again believer in the Church Age. At that time He will receive to Himself the resurrected bodies of those who have “died in Christ” and also all those who are presently alive and “in Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 5:6-10; 1 Corinthians 15:50-55; Acts 1:11; Titus 2:13

VII. The Personality of Satan

We believe in the personality of Satan, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” He is actively opposing the cause of Christ on every hand and is the archenemy of every true believer. His warfare incorporates the deception of mixing error and truth as well as that which is flagrantly vile and evil. 2 Corinthians 11:1-15; 2 Peter 5:8-9; Revelation 12:9-10; Matthew 4:2-11; Isaiah 14:12-17; John 8:24. He marshals a host of fallen angels that can also serve to deceive the unsuspecting by “transforming themselves into…apostles of Christ [and] ministers of righteousness…”            2 Corinthians 11:3-4.

VIII. Heaven and Hell

We believe that Heaven is a real place of eternal blessedness prepared by God for those whose garments have been “made white” through faith in the shed “blood of the Lamb.” Hell is a real place of eternal suffering for those whose names are not written in the “book of life.” There is no intermediate state in which the unsaved can atone for his own sins. John 14:1-6; Revelation 7:13-17; 20:11-15; 21:22-27; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Luke 16:19-31.

IX. Creation and Man’s Fall

We believe God created all things in a time frame of six literal, twenty-four hour days. We believe evolution in any form (including so called “theistic evolution”) is contradictory to the clear teaching of Scripture. We believe in the universality and exceeding sinfulness of sin. In Adam all have sinned and, therefore, are guilty before God by nature as well as by deed. Man was created by a direct act of God and subsequently fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. Romans 5:12-21 Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 3:10-26; 6:23; Psalm 51:5 Genesis 1-3.

X. Justification by Faith

We believe that man is justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood and bodily resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 Ephesians 2:8-9. The all-sufficient and completed work of Redemption accomplished through His death and resurrection is fully appropriated at the moment in time by those who receive by faith the free gift of salvation offered in the one true Gospel. The adding of works, baptism, sacraments, or any other condition placed upon man in order to obtain God’s gift of salvation by faith alone in the finished work of Christ results in “another gospel” that is under God’s curse. Galatians 1:6-10; Romans 1:16 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; John 5:24; Ephesians 5:8.

XI. Eternal Security

We believe in the eternal security of all believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. Once a lost sinner has be come a “new creature in Christ,” he can never lose that new relationship in the family of God which is based upon Christ’s imputed righteousness and not his own. The life that God imparts to the believing sinner is not “eternal life” if it can be terminated. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; John 10:25-29. Sin in the life of the believer affects his fellowship with the Father, not His sonship. All who are truly born of the Spirit and who continue in sin will be dealt with by the chastening hand of God. 1 John 1:5-10; Hebrews 12:6-13 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. All who are in Christ are sealed unto the day of redemption and will be glorified.

XII. The Holy Spirit and Body of Christ

We believe all regenerated people are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit the moment they receive Christ as their Saviour. 1 Corinthians 12:13; 1 Corinthians 10:32; Ephesians 2:13-18. The Holy Spirit indwells all who have been born again from above. Also, the baptism of the Spirit is not a separate event apart from the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit upon believing on Christ unto salvation. Acts 15:6-11; Galatians 3:2,14; Romans 10:1317; Romans 8:9

XIII. Separation

We believe that all Christians are first to be separated wholly unto the Lord, and as a necessary result, they should strive to live a separated life from the world.

XIV. The Local Church and Its Mission

We believe God has ordained the ministry of local, independent, indigenous assemblies of believers to accomplish His work in this the church age. The church’s membership is to be composed of regenerated, baptized believers. The two ordinances of the local church are believer’s baptism by immersion, and the memorial of the Lord’s supper until He returns. The church’s two Offices are Pastor and Deacon as described in the Pastoral Epistles. The church is to be missionary and evangelistic in spreading the Gospel into all the world. We believe the mission of the church is the Great Commission. This Mission is to be carried out through personal soulwinning of the believer, and through the church supporting by finances and prayer the sending of missionaries to those regions beyond our immediate reach.