Bedford ​Baptist Church

Caring About Souls

Preaching The Truth From The Word Of God

What We Believe…

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           The very core of our faith and head of our church is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Our sole purpose is to glorify him and to fulfill his great commission found in Matthew 28:19.  The following statements summarize our position on essential Bible truths:

 

TRUE GOD - We believe in God the Father, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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   God the Father – We believe in God the Father, eternally existing, perfect in holiness, boundless in love, infinite in wisdom, infinitely being of independent existence, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient.   We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men; that He hears and answers prayers; and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.  (Genesis 1:1; Exodus 3:14; Psalm 90:2, 119:137; Proverbs 15:3; Isaiah 59:1-2; Jeremiah 23:24; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 10:29, 19:26; John 3:16, 4:24)
   God the Son – We believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son, is God, is pre-existent with the Father, begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, sinless in His nature and life, and infallible in His teachings.  We believe that His death on Calvary’s cross is the only means of man’s redemption-as ransom, as propitiation for the sins of men, as reconciliation, and as a substitution.  We believe in His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension to Heaven, and His presence at the Father’s right hand as our Intercessor and Advocate.  We believe that the promise of His Second Coming includes first the blessed hope of the believer, namely the personal, pre-millennial, and pre-tribulational return of our Lord Jesus Christ to rapture His Church according to I Thessalonians 4:13-18, and second, His return later to earth with His Saints to set up His millennial reign.  (Isaiah 53:6; Luke 1:35; John 1:1, 8:58, 20:6-7; Acts 1:9-11, 2:32-36; Romans 3:25, 5:10, 8:34; II Corinthians 5:18; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 3:20; Colossians 2:9; I Peter 1:18-19, 2:24, 3:18; I John 2:1-2, 3:5)
   God the Holy Spirit – We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, regenerates, illuminates, indwells the believer, sanctifies, comforts, and abides forever.  We believe that the gift of tongues, which Biblically is known as languages, has ceased in operation (John 16:8; Acts 5:1-4; I Corinthians 3:16, 13:8)

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SCRIPTURES – We believe the Old and New Testaments-that they are verbally inspired of God and inerrant in the original writings, that they are the final and complete revelation of God’s will to man, and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life.  (Isaiah 8:20; I Thessalonians 5:21; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21)  As a matter of practice, we further understand that the Authorized Version, also known as the King James Version, of the Bible represents the best available translation in the English language and is used exclusively in all of our services.

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MAN - We Believe, according to the scriptures, that man was created in the image and likeness of God and that he voluntarily sinned by disobeying God and fell, resulting in not only physical but spiritual death, which is separation from God.  We believe that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and, upon reaching the age of accountability, become sinners through thought and deed by choice.  (Genesis 1:27-31, 3:6-24; Isaiah 53:6; Ezekiel 18:19-20; Romans 1:20, 3:9, 3:23, 5:12, 5:19)

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SATAN – We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the fall, that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man, and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire (Genesis 3:14-15; Job 1:6-7; Matthew 25:41; John 8:44; Revelation 20:10)

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SALVATION – We believe salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ who died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and that all who by faith receive Him as their personal Savior are justified on the grounds of His blood shed on Calvary and His resurrection from the dead and are born again of the Holy Spirit, thus becoming children of God.  We believe salvation is available to the entire world, but only those who call upon His name shall be saved.  (Isaiah 53:4-5; John 1:16, 3:16, 10:28-29; Romans 5:9, 10:13; Ephesians 2:8-9; Colossians 2:9; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 2:17-18, 7:25; I Peter 1:18-29; I John 2:2)

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ETERNAL SECURITY – All the redeemed ones saved are kept by God’s power and thus are secure in Christ forever.  (John 10:27-30; Romans 8:35-39; II Timothy 1:12; I Peter 1:5; Jude 1; Jude 24)

THE CHURCH – We believe the Church consists of believers who, upon confession of faith have been united by the Holy Spirit to make up the Body of Christ of which Christ is Head. This assembly meets to worship, work, and fellowship.  (John 3:29; Romans 10:9-10; I Corinthians 3:9-17, 12:1-31; II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23, 2:20-21; 5:25-27; Colossians 1:18, 2:19)

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LAST THINGS – We believe in the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to catch up His people to meet Him in the air.  The Rapture is imminent, pre-tribulational, and pre-millennial.  We believe in the Second Coming of Christ to earth to set up His bodily kingdom.  We believe in the bodily resurrection of the saved and the lost – the saved to the everlasting blessedness of heaven and the lost to the everlasting conscious suffering, woe, and punishment of hell.  (Matthew 25:46; John 5:29, 14:1-3; I Corinthians 15:51-57; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20:1-6)

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CHRISTIAN LIVING – We believe that every saved person should manifest the Christian life with a consistent walk so that he may always, in life and word, show forth the praises of Him that called him out of darkness into His marvelous light.  We believe that the ordinances of the Church are Baptism by immersion, as a mark of identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, and the Lord’s Supper, remembering the Lord’s death until He comes.  (Proverbs 4:14-15; Haggai 2:8; Malachi 3:8-11; Romans 12:1-2, 13:9-14; I Corinthians 16:2; II Corinthians 6:14-18, 7:1, 9:7; Ephesians 5:11; I Thessalonians 5:22; II Timothy 2:19; James 4:4; I John 2:15-16)

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CHURCH AND STATE – We believe that civil government is of Divine appointment and the leaders should be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed – providing their demands are not contrary to the will of God, as recorded in the Scriptures.  We believe that each local church is to be independent and autonomous and must be free from any interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority; the Church and State must be kept separate as having different functions, each fulfilling its God-ordained duties, free from the dictation or patronage of the other.  (Daniel 2:37-40; Matthew 22:17-21; Acts 5:29; Romans 13:1-8; Galatians 1:6-9; I Peter 2:13-15; II John 7, 11)

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THE FAMILY – We believe in the traditional family structure as given by God in His Word, the authority of parents with their children, and the sanctity of human life from conception through the elderly adult years.  Any and all practices, regardless of their acceptance by the culture at large, that deny these truths from God’s Word, are sin.  (Genesis 1:27, 2:18-25, 19:5, 19:13; Exodus 20:13; Leviticus 18:1-30, 19:32; Deuteronomy 6:6-7;  Job 12:12; Psalms 78:4-7, 127:3, 139:13-14; Proverbs 22:6, 22:15; Isaiah 44:2, 44:24; Jeremiah 1:5; Matthew 19:3-9; Romans 1:18-32, 7:2, 9:20-22; I Corinthians 6:6-10, 7:3-5; Ephesians 5:3-5, 5:22-32, 6:4; I Thessalonians 4:8; I Timothy 5:1-2;  Hebrews 13:4)

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If more detail is desired on any of these topics, please contact the church.  We will be happy to discuss them with you.