UNION CHURCH OF LAVALLETTE BELIEFS
INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES
We believe in the verbal, plenary, infallible, inerrant inspiration of the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments. All Scripture, the entire Bible is inspired, God-breathed and profitable. (2Tim 3:16) The Bible is the result of the breath of God. The entire Bible is profitable, which is the understanding that its profit consist in teaching, reproving, correcting, restoring, and training in righteousness in order that the believer may be fitted, capable, or proficient, and completely furnished in every area of his being. The entire Bible came from God in order to show us how to live and for our practical instruction. God superintended the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error His message to mankind in the words of their original writings. (2Peter 1:21; 1Cor 2:13) We believe that divine inspiration has equality in all extent to all parts of the writings as composed in the original manuscripts. This includes researched material, historical, poetical, prophetic, doctrinal, and material that came directly from God such as the two stones of the ten commandments. We believe all Scripture centers around the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work. (John 5:39; Acts 1:16, 17:2-3, 18:28, 28:23; Rom 15:4; 1Cor 10:11)
FULL DEITY AND HUMANITY OF JESUS CHRIST
We believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the very God of God, the second person of the Triune Godhead having precisely the same nature, attributes, eternal existence and perfections as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is the unique Divine Son of God. We believe the Lord Jesus was conceived supernaturally by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary being God manifest in human flesh. He received a human body and a sinless human nature. He became and remained a perfect man and was sinless throughout His life. He retained His absolute deity, being at the same time very God and very man. (Luke 2:40; John 1:1-2; Phil 2:5-8) His death on the cross is the permanent sacrifice and complete payment for our sins. His resurrection was bodily. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father and intercedes on our behalf as our High Priest and Advocate. He is the image of the invisible God; all things were created by Him and for Him and through Him we live. He is the head of the body, the church. He is exalted as Lord both in heaven and on earth. He is the author of life, the one true Savior, giver of both repentance and forgiveness and the final judge of the living and the dead. He is coming again to this world to take His Church and later to establish His Kingdom. His premillennial return is personal, bodily, and imminent. We believe in the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, 100% God and 100% man, essentially the hypostatic union of the human nature and divine nature in one man, Jesus Christ. (Isa 7:14; Mat 1:18-25, 28:17-19; Mark `12:29; John 1:1, 14, 14:3; Acts 2:36, 3:15, 4:12, 5:31, 10:42, 13:38, 17:31, 22:10; 1Cor 8:6, 2Cor 13:14; Col 1:15-20; 1Thess 4:16; 1Tim 3:16; Heb 1:1-3; Rev 1:4-6).
TRINITY
We believe that the Godhead exists eternally in three persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that these three are one of God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and being worthy of precisely the same worship, reverence, adoration, confidence, and obedience. The three are distinct and co-equal, yet one in essence. (Matt 28:18-19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3-4; 2Cor 13:13, 14; Heb 1:1-3; Rev 1:4-6).
ANGELS – UNFALLEN, FALLEN AND SATAN
We believe that God created into existence an incalculable company of sinless, spiritual beings, known as angels. It was one known as “Lucifer, son of the morning” who held the highest in rank and sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan. In this rebellion against God, a great company of the angels followed him in
his moral fall, some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day”. (Isa 14:12-17; Ezek 28:11-19; 1Tim 3:6; 2Pet 2:4; Jude 6).
We believe that Satan is the originator of sin, and that, under the permission of God, he, through subtlety, led our first parents (Adam and Eve) into transgression, thereby accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting them and their posterity to his own power. We believe that his is the enemy of God and the people of God, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped. It is Satan that proclaimed and boasted, “I will be like the most High,” and in his warfare appears as an angel of light, deceiving and counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and systems of doctrine, whose systems in every case are characterized by a denial of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the denial of salvation by grace along. (Gen 3:1-19; Rom 5:12-14; 2Cor 4:3-4, 11:13-15; Eph 6:10-12; 2Thess 2:4; 1Tim 4:1-3)
We believe that Satan was judged at the Cross, though not then executed, and that he, a usurper, now rules as the “god of this world”; that, at the second coming of Christ, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years, and after the thousand years he will be loosed for a little season and then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone”, where he “shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever”. (Col 2:15; Rev 20:1-3, 10)
We believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are before the throne of God and serve God, from where they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. (Luke 15:10; Eph 1:21; Heb 1:14; Rev 7:12)
We believe that man was made lower than the angels; and that, in His incarnation, Christ took for a little time this lower place that He might lift the believer to His own sphere above the angels. (Heb 2:6-10)
THE CREATION OF MAN AND THE FALL
We believe that God created man originally in the image and after the likeness of God, and that man fell through sin. Sin, the rebelling against God, had consequence, and the consequence of his sin was a loss of his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and he entering into subjection to the power of the devil. We also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus alone being excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace. (Gen 1:26, 2:17, 6:5; Pss 14:1-3, 51:5; Jer 17:9; John 3:6, 5:40, 6:35; Rom 3:10-19, 8:6-7; Eph 2:1-3; 1Tim 5:6; 1John 3:8)
THE DISPENSATIONS
We believe in the normal, literal interpretation of the Bible, which recognizes the various dispensations to be stewardships by which God administers His purpose on the earth through man under varying responsibilities. In every dispensation or age, salvation is the gift of God by grace, which is obtained through faith, and based upon the vicarious or substitutionary blood atonement of Jesus Christ. These dispensations are distinct and are not to be intermingled or confused, as they are chronologically successive. (1Cor 9:17; Eph 1:10, 3:2-11; Col 1:25; Heb 11:6)
THE FIRST COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that, as provided and purposed by God and as preannounced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to men, fulfill prophecy, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. To this end, He was born of the virgin and received a human body and sinless human nature. (Luke 1:30-35; John 1:18, 3:16; Heb 4:15)
We believe that, on the human side, He became and remained a perfect man, but sinless throughout His life; yet He retained His absolute deity, being at the same time very God and very man, and that His earth-life sometimes functioned within the sphere of that which was human and sometimes within the sphere of that which was divine. (Luke 2:40; John 1:1-2; Phil 2:5-8)
We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy He came first to Israel as her Messiah-King and that being rejected of that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all. (John 1:11; Acts 2:22-24; 1Tim 2:6)
We believe that, in infinite love for the lost, He voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world, bearing the holy judgments against sin which the righteousness of God must impose. His death was therefore substitutionary in the most absolute sense - the just for the unjust - and by His death He became the Savior of the lost. (John 1:29; Rom 3:25-26; 2Cor 5:14; Heb 10:5-14; 1Pet 3:18)
We believe that according to Scriptures, He arose from the dead in the same body though glorified in which He had lived and died, and that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which ultimately will be given to all believers (John 20:20; Phil 3:20-21). We believe that on departing from the earth, He was accepted of His Father, and that His acceptance is a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished. (Heb 1:3)
We believe that He became Head over all things to the church, which is His body, and, in this ministry, He constantly intercedes and is advocate for the saved. (Eph 1:22-23; Heb 7:25; 1John 2:1)
SALVATION ONLY THROUGH CHRIST
We believe that owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the word, is absolutely essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are sons of God. We believe, also, that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying in our place; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of His blood, or to the merit of the finished work fashioned for us by Him who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity. (Lev 17:11; Isa 64:6; Matt 26:28; John 3:7-18; Rom 5:6-9; 2Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13, 6:15; Eph 1:7; Phil 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1Pet 1:18-19, 23)
We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ, by grace, and that repentance is a vital part of believing, and is in no way, in itself, a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. Salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ alone. (John 1:12, 3:16, 18, 36, 5:24, 6:29; Acts 13:39, 16:31; Rom 1:16-17, 3:22, 26, 4:5, 10:4; Gal 3:22)
THE EXTENT OF SALVATION – REGENERATION, JUSTIFICATION, SANTIFICATION & GLORIFICATION
We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises that faith in Christ which is illustrated and described as such in the New Testament, he passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and from the old creation into the new; being justified from all things, accepted before the Father according as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having his place and portion as linked to Him and one with Him forever. Though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and is therefore in no way required by God to seek a so-called “second blessing” or a “second work of grace”. (John 5:24, 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom 5:1; 1Cor 3:21-23; Eph 1:3; Col 2:10; 1John 4:17, 5:11-12)
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
- Regeneration or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior.
- Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
- Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life. We believe that sanctification is a setting-apart unto God and is threefold in nature: it is already complete for every saved person because his position toward God is the same as Christ’s position. Since the believer is in Christ, he is set apart unto God in the measure in which Christ is set apart unto God. We believe, however, that he retains his sin nature, which cannot be eradicated in this life. Therefore, while the standing of the Christian in Christ is perfect, his present state is no more perfect than his experience in daily life. There is, therefore, progressive sanctification wherein the Christian is to “grow in grace”, and to “be changed” by the unhindered power of the Spirit. We believe also that the child of God will yet be fully sanctified in his state as he is now sanctified in his standing in Christ when he shall see his Lord and shall be “like Him”. (John 17:17; 2Cor 3:18, 7:1; Eph 4:24, 5:25-27; 1Thess 5:23; Heb 10:10, 14, 12:10)
- Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed when we shall see the Lord and be “like Him” and the sin or old nature will be gone.
ETERNAL SECURITY
We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all true believers everywhere, once saved shall be kept saved forever. We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father and that, since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will in the end present every one of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. (John 5:24, 10:28, 13:1, 14:16-17, 17:11; Rom 8:29; 1Cor 6:19; Heb 7:25; 1John 2:1-2, 5:13; Jude 24)
ASSURANCE
We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience. (Luke 10:20, 22:32; 2Cor 5:1, 6-8; 2Tim 1:12; Heb 10:22; 1John 5:13)
GOD – THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that God the Holy Spirit is a real person with all the attributes of personality and deity. We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer, and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body, and that He, as the Indwelling One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service. Concurrently, we believe that He never takes His departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the Saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ; seeking to occupy believers with Him and not with themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His abode in the world in this special sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the church. (John 14:16-17, 16:7-15; 1Cor 6:19; Eph 2:22; 2Thess 2:7)
We believe that, in this age, certain well-defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand them and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience. These ministries are the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will; the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment; the regenerating of all believers; the indwelling and anointing of all who are saved, thereby sealing them unto the day of redemption; the baptizing into the one body of Christ of all who are saved; and the continued filling for power, teaching, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him and who are subject to His will. (John 3:6, 16:7-11; Rom 8:9; 1Cor 12:13; Eph 4:30, 5:18; 2Thess 2:7; 1John 2:20-27)
The Spirit’s ministry to the Christian includes teaching Biblical truth, guiding us into righteous living according to the will of God, and assuring the Christian of his salvation. Furthermore, He convicts us of sin, restrains us from evil and controls those yielded to Him. He produces spiritual fruit in the life of the believer and gives spiritual gifts, as He chooses, to every believer. These God-given abilities equip us for a ministry of edification to and for the church. (John 16:12-15; Rom 8:14-26; 1Cor 12:7-11, 13:8-13; Gal 5:22-23; Eph 5:18; 2Thess 2:7)
THE CHURCH, A UNITY OF BELIEVERS
We believe that the Church is the Body and Bride of Christ, composed of all who have placed their trust in Jesus, the Son of the Living God, irrespective of denominational or organizational affiliation. We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God are members of the church whose beginning took place at Pentecost and is distinct from Israel. We believe that by the same Spirit all believers in this age are baptized into, and thus become, one body that is Christ’s, whether Jews or Gentiles, and having become members, one of another, are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian differences, and loving one another with a pure heart fervently. Members of this spiritual body are directed in Scripture to associate together in local assemblies. The mission of the Church is to make disciples of all peoples and nations, and to bring them to maturity in Christ. (Matt 16:16-18, 28:18-20; Acts 2:42-47; Rom 12:5; 1Cor 12:12-27; Eph 1:20-23, 2:11-22, 4:3-10, 11-16; Col 1:28, 3:14-15; He 10:23-25)
THE SACRAMENTS OR ORDINANCES
We believe that water baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only sacraments and ordinances of the church and that they are a scriptural means of testimoNy for the church in this age. Water baptism follows belief in Jesus Christ as personal Savior and is an act of identification with an obedience to Christ entered into by the believer upon personal conviction through the Holy Spirit, and the Lord's Supper symbolizes the believers fellowship with Christ, while memorializing His sacrifice for us. (Matt 28:19; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 10:47-48, 16:32-33, 18:7-8; 1Cor 11:26)
THE CHRISTIAN WALK
We believe that the Christian is called to conduct oneself with holiness according to the standard of God's righteousness through the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that we are called with a holy calling, to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh with its fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being with us to the end of our earthly existence, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly and subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to the dishonor of our Lord. We should not pursue, make provision for, or fulfill the sinful desires of the flesh and its nature. When sin occurs, the Christian’s fellowship with God is interrupted, but may be restored by simple repentant confession. However, we believe that our position with God as His child is constant and unbroken. (Rom 6:11-13, 8:2, 4, 12-13; 2Cor 6:14-18, 7:1; Gal 5:16-23; Eph 4:22-24; Col 2:1-10; 1Pet 1:14-16; 1John 1:4-7, 2:1-2, 3:5-9)
THE CHRISTIAN’S SERVICE
We believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit upon all who are saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, the same Spirit energizes each believer, and each is called to his own divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church, there were certain gifted men - apostles, profits, evangelists, pastors, and teachers - who were appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints unto their work of the ministry. However, for the church today, we believe some men are especially called of God to be evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling of His will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and encouraged in their service for God. (Rom 12:6; 1Cor 12:4-11; Eph 4:11)
We believe that, wholly apart from salvation benefits which are bestowed equally upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer in his service for his Lord, and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to receive His own to Himself. (1Cor 3:9-15, 9:18-27; 2Cor 5:10)
THE GREAT COMMISSION
We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has redeemed, that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. We believe that, after a person is saved, they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors, and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the world. It is also the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit means a birthing of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all, rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ. (Matt 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2Cor 5:18-20; 1Pet 1:17, 2:11)
THE BLESSED HOPE
We believe that, according to the Word of God, the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His coming, and also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and that this event is the blessed hope set before us in the Scripture, and for this we should be constantly looking. (John 14:1-3; 1Cor 15:51-52; Phil 3:20; 1Thess 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14)
THE TRIBULATION
We believe that the translation of the church will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel’s seventieth week (Dan 9:27; Rev 6:1-19:21) during which the church, the body of Christ, will be in heaven. The whole period of Israel’s seventieth week will be a time of judgment on the whole earth, at the end of which the times of the Gentiles will be brought to a close. The latter half of this period will be the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer 30:7), which our Lord called the great tribulation (Matt 24:15-21). We believe that universal righteousness will not be realized previous to the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day by day ripening for judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy.
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that the great tribulation period on the earth will come to its climax with the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth just as He went, in person on the clouds of heaven. His return will be marked with power and great glory to introduce the millennial age, the binding of Satan and his placement into the abyss, the lifting of the curse which now rests upon the whole creation, the restoration of Israel to her own land and the realization of God's covenant promises to her, and conveyance to the whole world of the knowledge of God. (Deut 30:1-10; Isa 11:9; Ezek 37:21-28; Matt 24:15-25:46; Acts 15:16-17; Rom 8:19-23, 11:25-27; 1Tim 4:1-3; 2Tim 3:1-5; Rev 20:1-3)
THE ETERNAL STATE
We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory; but the spirits and souls of the unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery 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 with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-26, 23:42; 2Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23; 2Thess 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Rev 20:11-15)
