STATEMENT OF FAITH

BLESSED HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH

Coon Rapids, Minnesota, USA


No attempt is made in this statement of faith to list scripture references for the doctrines and convictions herein listed as such a practice is more becoming a text of theology than a creedal statement such as this. Neither should these beliefs as listed be necessarily viewed as if in an ascending or descending order of magnitude or importance.


I) We believe the AV 1611 King James Bible to be the perfect and infallible word of God. We believe the Bible was inspired in its origination and then divinely preserved throughout its various generations and languages until it reached us in its final form. By this we mean that the AV 1611 preserves the very words of God in the form in which He wished them to be represented in the universal language of these last days: English. Each word is therefore sacred and as such is, in our minds, exempted from the pilferage of presumptuous scholars, whether they be of the Alexandrian variety or of the "conservative," Traditional (Byzantine) type.

II) We believe in the right division of the word of truth, carefully noting doctrinal differences that exist between the various ages in which God has worked. As such, we embrace a moderate dispensationalism akin to that of C. I. Scofield of a generation ago and that of P. S. Ruckman of this generation. As dispensationalists, we are careful not to over divide and thereby reject scriptural doctrines such as water baptism, repentance, confession of sins to God, assembly at the local church with other saved people, which rejection has become the habit of some of the brethren of hyperdispensationalistic persuasion. We believe this moderate division of the word is the only legitimate solution to many of the supposed discrepancies in the scriptures which lead to such a mixture of truth and error, and which so often lead to grave heresy.

III) We believe that salvation in this age (church age) is by grace through faith in the blood and finished atonement of Jesus Christ at Calvary.

IV) We believe that believers should be immersed in water after being saved. Such believers baptism is an ordinance but is not a means of grace.

V) We believe the other ordinance to be the Lord's Supper or Communion. This is a memorial and again, not a means of grace.

VI) We believe in a premillenial, pretribulational translation or rapture of the Church.

VII) We believe in a universal and invisible Church which is entered into by an individual at the moment of salvation. The agent of this transaction is the Holy Spirit who baptizes that believer spiritually into the Church invisible: the Body of Christ. We reject the so-called Baptist Bride positions and their theories on the Church, Baptism, the nature of John Baptist's work, etc.

VIII) We believe the miracle signs and gifts to belong primarily to Israel, dispensationally speaking, and that these signs as practiced by the Charismatics and Apostolics are exercised mainly in the flesh, are most often fraudulent, and sometimes demonic and devilish in nature.

IX) We believe that a depraved and sinful nature and a naturally dead spirit does not hinder a man from being a free moral agent who is capable and expected by God to will and believe and respond to the admonitions of the Gospel. Men are free to reject God's graciousness in providing a free salvation. Further, Jesus Christ died for "all" without exception.

X) We believe a man is secured in his salvation eternally and unconditionally in this age at the moment he believes. This condition is secured by the numerous irreversible works of God and the Holy Spirit.

XI) We believe that the saints should be separate from the world as pilgrims and sojourners, that the world is evil in its nature and that Satan is its primary god and governor.

XII) We believe in the active and vigorous pursuit of lost sinners by street preaching, tract distribution, door-to-door witnessing and any other reasonable and appropriate methods of sowing the seed of the word of God.

XIII) We believe the trinitarian doctrine of the Godhead and therefore believe Jesus Christ not only to be the Son of God but also God Himself, the image of God, God manifest in the flesh. We also find abundant evidence that the Holy Spirit as both God's and Christ's Spirit is Himself God, as well.

XIV) We reject ecumenicism in all of its various forms.

XV) We believe in a literal, hot and burning Hell. It is the abode of the Devil, his angels and the damned.


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