Doctrine

[From the Nolichuckey Baptist Church Bylaws, Article Three, pages 1-9]

1. The Scriptures – We believe the Old and New Testaments to be verbally inspired by God, inerrant in the original writings, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:19-21). We insist that the King James Translation of the Bible be used both in the Sunday school and from the pulpit, and in all other meetings associated with this church.

2. The Godhead – We believe the Godhead eternally exists in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections; and that They execute distinct offices in the work of redemption (Genesis 1:1, 26; Matthew 3:16, 17; 28:19, 20; John 10:30; Acts 5:30-32; Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

3. The Lord Jesus Christ – We believe in:

1) His eternal existence as God (Hebrews 1:8);

2) His incarnation by means of the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:35);

3) His death on the cross as the substitutionary atonement for sin (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:14);

4) His literal bodily resurrection from the dead (Luke 24:36-43; Acts 10:40, 41);

5) His present ministry of intercession in Heaven (Acts 1:9; Hebrews 7:25; 8:1, 2; 1 John 2:1);

6) His personal return to Earth (Zechariah 14:4, 10; Matthew 26:24; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 9:11-16).

4. The Holy Spirit – We believe the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, convicts men of sin (John 16:8); that He regenerates, indwells, seals (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 1:13, 14), and sets believers apart unto a holy life; that He keeps and empowers believers day by day; and that He is the teacher of the Word of God and guide for our daily lives. Anyone who does not have the Spirit living in him is not a child of God (Romans 8:9).

5. Man – We believe:

1) Man was created innocent and pure (Genesis 1:26, 27);

2) Adam fell through the sin of disobedience (Romans 5:19);

3) Thereby, all men are corrupted in body, mind, and soul (Romans 5:12);

4) Therefore, all are in need of redemption.

6. Satan – We believe in the reality and personality of Satan (Job 1:6-9; 2:3; Matthew 4:1-11; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8).

7. Salvation – We believe:

1) That salvation is solely by grace through the blood sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

2) That Jesus died for all people;

3) All who receive Him are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and become children of God;

4) All who are truly saved are kept forever;

5) However, God cannot overlook sin in His children and will chasten and correct them in love (Hebrews 23:5-8).

8. The Universal Church – All New Testament believers are unified in the Church which is the Body of Christ (Ephesians 5:23). Also, it is the Bride of Christ.

9. The Local Church – We believe:

1) That the local church is composed of regenerated, baptized believers, voluntarily united together for the purpose of worship, edification, fellowship of believers, and spiritual growth and service (1 Corinthians 12:12-14; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:25-27);

2) It has been commissioned by Christ to propagate the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the Earth (Acts 1:8);

3) We believe that the local church has absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; and that the one and only superintendent of the church is Jesus Christ, ministered through the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:28; 13:1-4; 15:19-31; Romans 16:1, 4);

4) That on all matters of membership, or policy of government, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final (Acts 2:41-47; 4:33-37; 5:1-20).

10. The Security of the Believer – We believe that those who receive Jesus Christ as Savior are eternally secure. Our security rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ. As a result, we have assurance. We believe that the true believer is forever secure as a redeemed possession of God. This security is founded on the full payment of the believer's sin by the cross of Christ. The sole condition of salvation is faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work. The positive expression of faith has as its basis repentance and rejection of any other means of salvation (Acts 4:12). Therefore, the security of the believer is not conditioned upon his circumstances, or emotional experiences, or strength, but it is an an acceptance of the basis of reconciliation which has already been accepted by God. The believer is the possession of God, which is the opposite of the lost. He is secure because God has taken the responsibility for His own (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 31-34, 38-40; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8; 6:19; Hebrews 2:10; 1 Peter 1:4-5; 1 John 2:1, 2).

11. The Sanctification of the Believer – We believe that Biblical sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, the believer is set apart from sin, unto Christ, and has three aspects:

1) The believer has been set apart positionally before God the moment he believes (1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 10:10, 14);

2) The believer has been set apart progressively in his walk day by day as he grows in grace toward the likeness of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the continual use of the appointed means; especially the Word of God, self-examination, watchfulness, prayer, and yielding to the Holy Spirit through Biblical change (John 17:17; Romans 8:13, 28-29; 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:11-16, 22, 24; 1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Peter 3:18; 1 John 3:3);

3) The believer is set apart prospectively from the very presence of sin when his sanctification is completed at the coming of Christ for the Church (1 Thessalonians 3:13; 5:23; 1 John 3:2).

12. The Ordinances – We believe that Christ gave only two ordinances to the Church to be observed "till He come."

1) The Lord's Supper – It was left to us as an ordinance by the Lord Himself. (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25). [The Lord's Supper shall be observed on the fifth Sunday, Easter, and Christmas.]

2) Believer's Baptism – We practice baptism because of the example of our Lord Jesus while He was here on earth (Matthew 3:13), and because of the command given by our Lord to be baptized (Matthew 18:19). We accept as the Scriptural mode of baptism to be immersion. It should be made clear that there is no saving power in baptism – it is meant for those who are already saved – giving a clear picture of the fact that the believer is dead, buried, and raised spiritually with Jesus Christ by faith in Him.

13. Future Things

1) The Second Advent of Christ

a. The Return of Christ for His Church – We believe in the blessed hope, the personal, imminent return of Christ, who will rapture His Church prior to the seven-year tribulation period.

b. The Return of Christ with His Church – We believe at the end of the tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return with His saints to establish His earthly Messianic Kingdom which was promised to the nation of Israel (Psalm 89:3, 4; Daniel 2:31; Zechariah 14:4-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Revelation 3:10; 19:11-16; 20:1-6).

2) The Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church – We believe the Church shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before the seven years of tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:51-58; Revelation 3:10; 4:1).

3) The Pre-millennial Return of Christ – We believe that Christ will return to the Earth in great power and glory after the tribulation to establish His Kingdom (Matthew 24:29-31).

4) The Millennial Reign of Christ – We believe that Christ will return to the earth and will establish His Kingdom for one thousand years, and He will sit on King David's throne (Revelation 20:1-4).

5) Heaven and Hell – We believe in the eternal blessedness of the saved in Heaven and the eternal punishment of the lost in Hell. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both saved and lost, secured by the bodily resurrection of Christ. The spirits of the saved at death go immediately to be with Christ in Heaven. Their lives and works shall be evaluated at the Judgement Seat of Christ for the determination of rewards which will take place when Christ comes for His own in the rapture. They will experience the blessedness of God's presence for all eternity. The spirits of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hell where they are kept under punishment until the Great White Throne of Judgement. At this time, their bodies shall be raised from the grave and be cast into the eternal Lake of Fire, the place of final and everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28, 29; 11:25, 26; 14:2; Revelation 20:5, 6, 12-14, 15; 21:4).

14. Separation – We believe it is our duty to call attention of believers to the Scriptural teaching of separation and that we should abstain from worldly practices and live a life devoted unto the Lord. We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord. God commands His people to separate from all religious apostasy and all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices, and associations, and to refrain from all immodest appearances (Romans 12:1-2; 14:13; 2 Corinthians 6:14-17; Galatians 6:6; Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:22; 1 Timothy 5:17, 18; 1 John 3:17).

15. Missions – We believe all men everywhere without Christ are lost and bound for the eternal punishment (Romans 1:18-20), and because men cannot believe on Him in Whom they have never heard (Romans 10:14), we believe that we are debtors to all men and have the responsibility of giving them the Gospel, and that Jesus commanded us that all be witnesses for Him (Acts 1:8). Thus, we believe we should take the good news of the Gospel to every place where men are to be found (Matthew 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:46-48; John 20:21). We believe that to carry out this command we must ourselves be witnesses by life and word to tell all lost men about Christ, and we must support by prayer and financial aid those who go out under sound missionary agencies to represent us in other parts of the world (Acts 1:8).

16. The Family

1) We believe marriage was ordained by God as one man – male – and one woman – female – becoming one flesh. We believe it was God's design that a man and woman enter the marriage union for life (Genesis 2:18-25; Matthew 19:3-9; Romans 7:2; Ephesians 5:22-32).

2) We believe God has provided for intimate, sexual relations between man and woman within the covenant of marriage; sexual relations outside of marriage, including adultery, bestiality, bisexuality, fornication, homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, among others alluded to in God's Word, are sin. We believe acts that defile God's human creation, such as gender modification, through medical procedures or by appearance, and participation in the sexual degradation of others through pornography, are attacks against the family unit, are against the will of God, and are sins (Genesis 2:24; 19:5-9; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:6-10; 7:3-5; Ephesians 5:3-5; 1 Thessalonians 4:8; Hebrews 13:4).

17. Israel – Scriptures refute the idea that God has replaced Israel. Therefore, we believe that God has not forsaken His ancient people (Romans 11:1-2).

[This Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible is the sole and final source of all that we believe. We do believe, however, that the foregoing Statement of Faith accurately represents the teaching of the Bible and, therefore, is binding upon all members. All literature used in the teaching ministries of the church shall be in complete agreement with the Statement of Faith. The interpretation of the Statement of Faith will be made by the pastor and the deacons of Nolichuckey Baptist Church.]

[Historic Baptist belief]

B – Bible as the sole authority for faith and practice

A – Autonomy of the local church

P – Priesthood of all believers

T – Two church offices – pastor and deacon

I – Individual soul liberty

S – Separation of Church and state

T – Two ordinances – the believer's baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper

S – Saved and baptized church membership

[Historic Baptist document]

Having been led, as we believe by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and, on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now, in the presence of God and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another as one body in Christ.

We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together in Christian love, to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations.

We also engage to maintain family and secret devotions; to religiously educate our children; to seek the salvation of our kindred and acquaintances; to walk circumspectly in the world; to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment; to avoid all gossiping, backbiting, and excessive anger; to abstain from the sale of, and use of, destructive drugs or intoxicating drinks as a beverage; to shun pornography; to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Saviour.

We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember one another in prayer; to aid one another in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling and Christian courtesy in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Saviour to secure it without delay.

We moreover engage that when we remove from this place we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God's Word.

[Courtesy of Zac Bennett]

God created us to be with Him (Genesis 1-2):In these two chapters God creates all of the universe and everything in it (Genesis 1:1), including the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. God created Adam and Eve with purpose. He called them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28) and fill the earth with their offspring. He gave them the mission of taking care of the earth and tending the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). God made them to be in complete fellowship with Him and with each other. Their nakedness (Genesis 2:25) represented the fact that they had no sin, therefore no shame, therefore nothing to hide before God or each other. They regularly communed with God in the garden and had sheer bliss, pure happiness and unadulterated joy. It was during this time that they were living everyday as God intended, in right relationship with each other, God and His creation. The only command God gave to them was not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the same way God made us to be in fellowship with Him. His original plan was that you and I were in absolute and perfect relationship with Him and with each other in total unity. God created us to be in harmony with all of heaven and all of earth. But that plan was disrupted by one evil act thousands and thousands of years ago.

Our sins separate us from God (Genesis 3): When Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:6), and thereby sinned, they immediately became aware of their “error.” They sewed fig leaves together to cover their shame and hid in the garden from God (Genesis 3:7,8). Now they were hiding from the one that they used to fellowship with regularly. Men and women have been hiding from God ever since, covering their sin and shame with the fig leaves of religion or philosophy. God confronted them face to face. As a result of their sin there were immediate and future consequences. The immediate consequences were being banished from the garden (Genesis 3:23,24), having difficulty in childbirth (Genesis 3:16) and our work turning from a joy that we love to a job that we hate (Genesis 3:17-19). The future consequence for Adam and Eve was physical death. God had promised in Genesis 2:17 that the day he sinned by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would “surely die.” Spiritually Adam and Eve died the day they sinned in the garden. Their souls became immediately polluted by sin and selfishness. As a result, all of their offspring (and that includes you and me) were born sinful and selfish. Through Adam every person ever born is born deprived and depraved, deprived of God’s fellowship and depraved to the core (Romans 5:12-14). When confronted by God the blame, Adam blames Eve (Genesis 3:12) and Eve blames the snake (Genesis 3:13). Humanity has been playing the blame game ever since. What began as paradise unraveled with a single choice to disobey God and listen to Satan instead. Every war, famine, argument, sin and tragedy can be traced back to the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve chose to turn their backs on God for a taste of fruit.

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Genesis 4 - Malachi 4): From the beginning humanity has attempted to remove the stain of sin by good deeds. When Cain offered God vegetables as an appeasement for his sin God rejected it (Genesis 4:1-4). Cain was infuriated and killed his brother Abel. In Exodus, the second book of the Bible, God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), not to save them from their sin, but to show them that they couldn’t live up to his perfect standards on their own (Galatians 3:23-24). Instead of looking to Him in faith many of the Jews looked to themselves and thought they could please God in their own strength. But God saw their “righteous” deeds like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Even the best of their good deeds were corrupted by selfish motives. In Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, God gave the Israelites the sacrificial system. Every time a Jew sinned he or she was to sacrifice a goat without any blemishes (Leviticus 4:27-31). Think about that. If you were a Jew in the Old Testament and had to make a sacrifice every time you lied, lusted, gossiped, complained or argued you would soon run out of goats. Other offerings included offerings of bulls and sheep. The sacrificial system was meant to point inward, upward and forward. It pointed inward to convince you of your sinfulness. If you were honest before God, then you would soon realize that you could never make enough sacrifices for your sin. It pointed upward to make you trust in God for your salvation instead of sacrifices that you could make (Psalm 51:16,17). It pointed forward to the ultimate sacrifice of the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would someday come to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). The rest of the Old Testament tells the story of the Jewish people, some of whom realized they were sinners and needed God to save them (Psalm 51:1,2) and most of whom trusted in their own goodness instead of the mercy and grace of God (Isaiah 64:6).

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again (Matthew - Luke): When Jesus came to the earth he came as the fulfillment of the law (Matthew 5:17) and the ultimate sacrifice (Luke 24:46). He lived the perfect life that we could not live and died in our place, for our sin. When he died upon the cross he screamed the words “It is finished” (John 19:30). What he meant by these three words was that the price for our sins was paid completely. He was fully God and entirely man. As a perfect human he could die for other humans. As the true and living God his payment for sin was infinite. Jesus rose from the dead three days after he was murdered on the cross (Mark 16:6). He was seen by over 500 witnesses (I Corinthians 15:6) on at least 12 separate occasions over the course of forty days (Acts 1:3). Because he died our sins are paid for entirely. Because he rose from the dead we know that Jesus was who he claimed to be, God in the flesh.

Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life (John): The amazing thing about eternal life is that it is a free gift given to us by God through faith alone and not by any of our good deeds (Ephesians 2:8,9). Jesus paid the price for our sins when he died on the cross and all we must do is receive the gift of forgiveness through faith. When we believe that Jesus died for our sins and trust in Him alone we receive eternal life, are passed out of death into life and are guaranteed a home in heaven (John 5:24). Eternal life is not achieved by good deeds but received through faith. It’s not a matter of trying but trusting. When we believe we receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. Almost the entire New Testament is dedicated to talking about this eternal life and the implications of it in our everyday lives. From John through Jude the disciples of Jesus show us how to live like Jesus intended, serving each other in love. This is the heart of eternal life!

Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever (Acts - Revelation): Because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead we will be with Jesus forever in heaven. When we trust in Jesus we enter into a personal, permanent relationship with God called “eternal life.” Part of the reality of eternal life is that it doesn’t start after you die but as soon as you believe (John 10:10). This life is the joy of a real, exciting relationship with Jesus every single day through prayer, worship and living in the strength that God provides through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). The other part of the reality of eternal life is that all who have it will be with Jesus forever and ever in heaven someday. Once we receive it is ours forever and we are his forever! The last chapter of the last book of the Bible makes it clear that we will “rule and reign forever” with Jesus (Revelation 22:5).