We Believe

 

1. We believe the scriptures, comprised of both Old and New Testaments, containing 66 books, are the infallible and final authority for all spiritual and doctrinal truths. They are inspired by God to be useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in right living and thinking (II timothy 3:16; I Corinthians 2:13).

2. We believe that God has revealed Himself as One God existing in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, distinguishable but indivisible. Theologians have historically referred to these three aspects of God as ‘persons’ in a doctrine known as the trinity.  The term persons may prove challenging for some to understand, because we normally use the term persons to mean physical individuals who exist as separate beings from other individuals.  However, in the doctrine of the trinity, the term ‘person’ does not describe a physical entity, but rather a spiritual subsistence or aspect within the one true and living God.  There are not three beings, nor three entities that exist separately from each other.   There are not three gods, nor three Lords.  There is only one true and living God, who is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Each person of the trinity has all the attributes of God. Their differences are not in being but in how they relate to each other and creation. (Deuteronomy 6:4; John 6:27; John 1:1, 18; Acts 5:3, 4; Matthew 28:19, II Corinthians 13:14).

3. We believe man was created in God’s image at creation but fell by disobedience from that glorious position as recorded in Genesis 1-3. Man’s sinful condition has left him without any ability to please God or to attain to any standard of being righteous, thus in need of a Savior. (Romans 3:23; 5:6-12)

4. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of men, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, fully God and fully man (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:14-18; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6)

5. We believe Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day, and personally appeared unto His disciples. Christ has personally taken away everything that has separated us from the Father by His death and resurrection and that this salvation can not be earned in any way, other than through the exercise of faith in Christ (I Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 4:25; Colossians 2:13-15)

6. We believe in the bodily ascension of Jesus to heaven, His exaltation, and personal, literal bodily coming again the second time for His Church (John 14:2, 3 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18)

7. We believe in salvation of sinners by grace, through faith and repentance in the perfect and sufficient work of Jesus on Calvary by which we obtain remission of sins, referred to as being; “justified, made righteous, born again or saved”. This is being “born of the Holy Spirit, who then is able to lead the new believer into all truth, being their comforter and guide, (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Hebrews 9:12, 22; Romans 5:11; John 3:3-7; 14:17).

8. We believe in the necessity of water baptism by immersion in the name of the Eternal Godhead, fulfilling the command of the Lord Jesus Christ and helping to provide public testimony. It is our practice to baptize new Christians by immersion as a visual celebration of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. With respect to infants, it is our custom to anoint and dedicate them to God. (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-5)

9. We believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to empower us to be His witnesses, as a real experience at or subsequent to salvation, with the scriptural evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. As Jesus was born of the Spirit, so, must we be born of the Spirit. At age 30, Christ was then filled with the Spirit and began His public ministry. We believe that this filling of the Spirit is necessary for all believers, to carry out the ministry of Christ. (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4; 8:14-17; 10:44-46; Galatians 3:14-15).

10. We believe, because “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are as much needed and available today as ever. (John 14:12; Hebrews 13:8; I Corinthians 12-14).

11. We believe the goal of God for us, is to be like Christ, in being born of the Holy Spirit, a partaker of His nature and continuing to grow in His likeness. Growth demands maturity, as being righteous leads or empowers us to holiness. We choose to put off certain worldly patterns of living and put on Christ (John 3:7; 2 Peter 1:4; 1John 4:17; Eph. 4:22-24).

12. We believe Christ took stripes for the healing of the body and through faith in His name, healing can be received (Matthew 8:17; Mark 16:17, 18; James 5:14-16).

13. We believe in the celebration of Communion or the Lord’s Supper, for believers (I Corinthians 11:28-32; Matthew 26:26-28).

14. We believe in eternal life for believers, with a new heaven and a new earth and eternal punishment for the unbelievers (John 3:16; 5:24; II Thessalonians 1:8, 9; Revelation 20:10-15; 21:1-8). 

15. We believe in the reality of the Devil and eternal judgment in the Lake of Fire for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20).

16. We believe that there is one true universal Church, made up of genuine believers, but this one universal Church is also composed of many local Churches in given localities. These Churches are under the sovereign Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, exercising autonomous government under Him, administering all its local affairs and ministry, as well as the propagation of the Gospel (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22, 23; 4:11, 12; 1Corinthians 3:10-4:1).

17. We believe that Government is ordained of God, and the powers that be are ordained as ministers of God to us for good. To resist the powers and the ordinances is to resist the ordinance of God. We are subject not only for wrath sake but for conscience sake, rendering to all their dues, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. We declare our loyalty to our Government and its leaders and will assist in every way possible consistent with our faith to the Scriptures as Christian citizens (Luke 20:25; Acts 5:29; Romans 13; 1 Timothy 2:1, 2; 1 Peter 2:13, 14).
 
18. We believe the Bible recognizes marriage as exclusively the legal union of one naturally born man and one naturally born woman (Titus 1:6). Therefore, Community Chapel shall not recognize, perform or condone any marriage between individuals of the same biological gender or between more than one man and woman. The Bible also teaches that legitimate sexual relations are exercised solely within the biblical model of marriage. Sexual activities such as homosexuality, adultery, fornication, viewing pornography, altering one’s biological gender, incest, pedophilia and bestiality violate teachings of the Bible and are therefore sinful and incompatible with Christian behavior, (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom.1:26-27).