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Statement
of Faith
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We
believe in the authority and sufficiency of the Holy Bible, consisting
of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, as originally
written; that it was verbally and plenarily inspired and is the
product of Spirit-controlled men, and therefore is infallible
and inerrant in all matters of which it speaks.
We
believe the Bible to be the true center of Christian unity and
the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creed and opinions
shall be tried. 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:19-21. |
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We believe there is one and only one living and
true God, an infinite Spirit, the Maker and supreme Ruler of
Heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy
of all possible honor, confidence and love; that in the unity
of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and
the Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection and executing
distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
Exodus 20:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11. |
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We
believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God
the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was
active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving
world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled;
that He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; that
He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and
testimony; that He is the Agent in the new birth; that He seals,
endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the
believer. John 14:16, 17; Matthew 28:19; Hebrews 9:14; John
14:26; Luke 1:35; Genesis 1:1-3; John 16:8-11; Acts 5:30-32;
John 3:5, 6; Ephesians 1:13, 14; Mark 1:8; John 1:33; Acts 11:16;
Luke 24:49; Romans 8:14, 16, 26, 27. |
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We
believe in the reality and personality of Satan, the Devil; and
that he was created by God as an angel but through pride and
rebellion became the enemy of his Creator; that he became the
unholy god of this age and the ruler of all the powers of darkness
and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the
lake of fire. Matthew 4:1-11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation
20:10. |
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We
believe the Biblical account of the creation of the physical
universe, angels, and man; that this account is neither allegory
nor myth, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate
creative acts of God without any evolutionary process; that man
was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing
forms of life; and that all men are descended from the historical
Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race. Genesis
1; 2; Colossians 1:16, 17; John 1:3. |
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We
believe that man was created in innocence (in the image and likeness
of God) under the law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression
Adam fell from his sinless and happy state, and all men sinned
in him, in consequence of which all men are totally depraved,
are partakers of Adam’s fallen nature, and are sinners by
nature and by conduct, and therefore are under just condemnation
without defense or excuse. Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 3:10-19; 5:12,
19; 1:18, 32. |
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We
believe that Jesus was begotten of the Holy Spirit in a miraculous
manner, born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever born
or can be born of-woman, and that He is both the Son of God and
God, the Son. Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25;
Luke 1:35; John 1:14. |
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We
believe that the salvation of sinners is divinely initiated and
wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, Who, by the appointment of the Father, voluntarily
took upon Himself our nature, yet without sin, and honored the
divine law by His personal obedience, thus qualifying Himself
to be our Savior; that by the shedding of His blood in His death
He fully satisfied the just demands of a holy and righteous God
regarding sin; that His sacrifice consisted not in setting us
an example by His death as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution
of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the
unjust, Christ the Lord bearing our sins in His own body on the
tree; that having risen from the dead He is now enthroned in
Heaven, and uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies
with divine perfection, He is in every way qualified to be a
suitable, a compassionate and an all-sufficient Savior.
We
believe that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only condition
of salvation. Repentance is a change of mind and purpose toward
God prompted by the Holy Spirit and is an integral part of saving
faith. Jonah 2:9; Ephesians 2:8; Acts 15:11; Romans 3:24,
25; John 3:16; Matthew 18:11; Philippians 2:7, 8; Hebrews 2:14-17;
Isaiah 53:4-7; 1 John 4:10; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians.
5:21; 1 Peter 2:24. |
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We
believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ and in His ascension
into Heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of the Father
as our High Priest interceding for us. Matthew 28:6, 7; Luke
24:39; John 20:27; 1 Corinthians 15:4; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:2-6,
51; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 8:6; 12:2; 7:25; 1
Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1; Hebrews 2:17; 5:9, 10. |
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We
believe that in order to be saved, sinners must be born again;
that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it
is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the
one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the
divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God;
that the new creation is brought about by our sovereign God in
a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the
Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure
our voluntary obedience to the gospel; that its proper evidence
appears in the holy fruits of repentance, faith and newness of
life. John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 5:1; Acts 16:20-33;
2 Peter 1:4; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Colossians 2:13;
John 3:8. |
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We
believe that justification is that judicial act of God whereby
He declares the believer righteous upon the basis of the imputed
righteousness of Christ; that it is bestowed, not in consideration
of any work of righteousness which we have done, but solely through
faith in the Redeemer’s shed blood. Romans 3:24; 4:5;
5:1, 9; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 3:9. |
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We
believe that sanctification is the divine setting apart of the
believer unto God accomplished in a threefold manner; first,
an eternal act of God, based upon redemption in Christ, establishing
the believer in a position of holiness at the moment he trusts
the Savior; second, a continuing process in the saint as the
Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to the life; third, the final
accomplishment of this process at the Lord’s return. Hebrews
10:10-14; 3:1; John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Corinthians
1:30; Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 4; 5:23, 24; 1
John 3:2; Jude 24, 25; Revelation 22:11. |
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We
believe that all who are truly born again are kept by God the
Father for Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6; John 10:28, 29;
Romans 8:35-39; Jude 1. |
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We
believe that a local church is an organized congregation of immersed
believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of
the gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His
laws; and exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested
in them by His Word; that its officers are pastors and deacons,
whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in
the Scriptures. We believe the true mission of the church is
the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity.
We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government
free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or
organizations; and that the one and only Superintendent is Christ
through the Holy Spirit; that it is Scriptural for true churches
to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and
for the furtherance of the gospel; that each local church is
the sole judge of the measure and method of its cooperation;
that on all matters of membership, of polity, of government,
of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is
final. 1 Corinthians 11:2; Acts 20:17-28; 1 Tim. 3:1-13; Acts
2:41, 42.
We believe in the unity of
all New Testament believers in the Church which is the Body of
Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13; Ephesians 1:22, 23; 3:1-6;
4:11; 5:23; Colossians 1:18; Acts 15:13-18. |
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We
believe that Christian baptism is the single immersion of a believer
in water to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our identification
with the crucified, buried and risen Savior, through Whom we
died to sin and rose to a new life; that baptism is to be performed
under the authority of the local church; and that it is prerequisite
to the privileges of church membership.
We
believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His
death until He come, and should be preceded always by solemn
self-examination. We believe that the Biblical order of the ordinances
is baptism first and then the Lord’s Supper, and that participants
in the Lord’s Supper should be immersed believers. Acts
8:36, 38, 39; John 3:23; Romans 6:3-5; Matthew 3:16; Colossians
2:12; 1 Corinthians 11:23-28; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:41, 42. |
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We
believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate ourselves
unto God from worldliness and ecclesiastical apostasy. 2 Corinthians
6:14—7:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:9, 10; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; Romans
16:17; 2 John 9-11. |
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We
believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the
interests and good order of human society; that magistrates are
to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed; except
in those things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ
Who is the only Lord of the conscience, and the coming King of
kings. Romans 13:1-7; 2 Sam. 23:3; Exodus 18:21, 22; Acts
23:5; Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:29; 4:19, 20; Daniel 3:17, 18. |
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We
believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God’s eternal
covenant people, that she is now dispersed because of her disobedience
and rejection of Christ, and that she will be regathered in the
Holy Land and, after the completion of the Church, will be saved
as a nation at the second advent of Christ. Genesis 13:14-17;
Romans 11:1-32; Ezekiel 37. |
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We
believe in the premillennial return of Christ, an event which
can occur at any moment, and that at that moment the dead in
Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in
Christ shall be given glorified bodies without tasting death,
and all shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air before
the seven years of the Tribulation. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18;
1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 51-54; Philippians 3:20, 21; Revelation
3:10.
We
believe that the Tribulation, which follows the Rapture of the
Church, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in power
and great glory to sit upon the throne of David and to establish
the millennial kingdom. Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 24:29-31;
Luke 1:30-33; Isaiah 9:6, 7; 11:1-9; Acts 2:29, 30; Revelation
20:1-4, 6. |
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We
believe that there is a radical and essential difference between
the righteous and the wicked; that only those who are justified
by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Spirit
of our God are truly righteous in His esteem; while all such
as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked
and under the curse; and this distinction holds among men both
in and after death, in the everlasting felicity of the saved
and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost in the lake
of fire. Malachi 3:18; Genesis 18:23; Romans 6:17, 18; 1 John
5:19; Romans 7:6; 6:23; Proverbs 14:32; Luke 16:25; Matthew 25:34-41;
John 8:21; Revelation 20:14, 15. |
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EBFC adopted the Articles
of Faith of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches
since it finds it more specific than other Baptistic Articles
of Faith. However, EBFC adheres to basic Baptist distinctives.
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