Statement of Faith

Those called to the role of elder or deacon within Bellbrook Bible Church should be in full and substantial agreement with the Statement of Faith. Those in covenant membership should be unified in the essentials of our faith, while allowing for some diversity in non-essentials when approved by the elders. In all discussion regarding theological issues, we promote clarity, charity, and humility.

God

We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are one in nature and attributes. This one true and living God is perfect in love and holiness. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all things, worthy to receive all glory and adoration. He perfectly knows the end from the beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about His eternal good purposes to redeem a people for Himself and restore His fallen creation to the praise of His glorious grace.

Revelation

We believe God has revealed His existence and power in creation, and He has most fully revealed Himself in the Son. Additionally, God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. These writings alone are the verbally inspired Word of God, which is without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of His will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every area of knowledge to which it speaks.

Creation & Humanity

We believe that the Scriptures provide a literal and historical account of God’s creation of all things. The climax of the six days of creation was a special, immediate, and personal creation of human life. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were directly created, not evolved from previous life forms. God created humans, male and female, in His image. These two genders together reflect the image of God, and rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of creation in the image of God. Adam and Eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes God’s design for sexual relations. Thus, marriage, which is the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union as taught in Scripture, ultimately points to the union between Christ and His church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not interchangeable, but complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, are both called to move beyond self-indulgence to significant engagement in family, church, and civic life. In the ministry of the church, both men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in doing so. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption.

The Fall

We believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original happy and holy state – for himself and all his descendants – by falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g., physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually), and justly condemned to death—apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The greatest need of all human beings is to be reconciled to God. The only hope of all human beings is the undeserved love of God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to Himself.

The Plan of God

We believe that from eternity past, God graciously determined to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation. To this end, God foreknew and chose them. God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and He will one day glorify them, to the praise of His glorious grace. In love, God commands and urges all people to repent and believe. This involves being deeply convinced of their guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, such that they turn to God with genuine remorse, confession, and prayer for mercy. God has set His saving love on those He has chosen and has ordained Christ to be their Redeemer.

The Gospel

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, the power of God to those who are being saved. This good news centers on the truth that Christ died for our sins and was raised to reconcile us to God. The blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel, and all who receive, believe, and hold firmly to it are saved.

The Redemption of Christ

We believe that, in love, the eternal Son became flesh, fully God and fully human, one Person in two natures. Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived miraculously through the Holy Spirit, and was born of the virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed His heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculous signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High Priest and righteous Advocate. By His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. On the cross, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, He reconciled to God all those who believe. By His resurrection, Christ Jesus was vindicated by His Father, broke the power of death, defeated Satan, and brought everlasting life to all His people. By His ascension, He has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with Him. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

The Justification of Sinners

We believe that Christ, by His obedience and death on the cross, fully paid the debt of all those who are justified. He satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, and by faith alone His perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. This justification is given solely of free grace, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, in order that both the justice and grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for obedience flows from this free justification.

The Power of the Holy Spirit

We believe that this salvation is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith. In Him, they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s work, believers are renewed, sanctified, adopted into God’s family, and given His sovereignly distributed gifts. The Holy Spirit is Himself the down payment of the promised inheritance, securing the perseverance of real believers, and in this age indwells, guides, instructs, equips, revives, and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

The Kingdom of God

We believe that those who have been saved enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant: the forgiveness of sins; the inward transformation that awakens a desire to increasingly know, love, serve, glorify, trust, and obey God; the establishment of a new community; and the anticipation of the glory yet to be revealed. Good works are indispensable evidence of saving grace. Believers should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world nor become indistinguishable from it. Instead, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, to work to spread the gospel near and far, and to do good to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God.

The Church

We believe that the universal church is expressed in local churches. Thus, each local church is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is the body of Christ, with Christ as the Head, and He has pledged Himself to her forever. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her ordinances, her discipline, her mission, her love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world. Christ Jesus has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. The church serves as a sign of God’s future new world when its members live for the service of one another and their neighbors rather than for self-focus. The church is the dwelling place of God’s Spirit and God’s witness in the world.

Elders & Deacons

We believe that elders and deacons are the two offices of the church. The former are men called by God to shepherd the flock, preach and teach the word, pray, and exercise leadership in the body. The latter minister to the church body through specific acts of service.

Baptism & the Lord’s Supper

We believe that baptism of believers and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with ongoing covenant renewal, and neither saves a person or is necessary for salvation. They are God’s pledge to us, divinely-ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to Christ, and anticipations of His return and of the consummation of all things.

The Second Coming of Christ & the Eternal State

We believe in the personal, imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for the church to be followed by the tribulation on earth which will culminate in the return of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom. The souls of believers at death immediately pass into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming for the church when soul and body reunited shall be with Him forever in glory. The souls of unbelievers remain after death in constant misery in Hades 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 forever.

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