Our Beliefs...
Home Bible Study Fellowships is guided by a well-defined
philosophy that fosters a devotion to learning and a
commitment to growth. At our core, we desire that Jesus
Christ be proclaimed to all nations.
To accomplish
this, we provide the education essential to equip our home
Bible study leaders to teach the uncompromised Word of God. Here we stand…There are
many fine religions and philosophies, but they will not save
mankind. Jesus is the only way to reach God. He is the
Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament. He is the only
savior of mankind. We teach the
full council of God's Word and believe every truth is
essential to the spiritual health of individuals and
Fellowships.
We believe
that God is unchanging, as scripture states, "…the same
yesterday, today, and forever." The sole
basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's written Word, the
66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it
was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit
and is God's complete written revelation to mankind. All
Truth must be lined up with Scripture. It is the
supreme and final authority in all matters on which it
speaks, both for faith and practice. Many people add
the phrase, "...in the original manuscripts." We
believe that statement infers the Bible we have today may
contain errors. If this is the case, it would prove
unreliable. Therefore, we omit this phrase from our
statement of faith. We believe that God preserved His
Word and the Bible we have today is fully reliable, not only
in the original manuscripts, but in the form that has been
passed down to us today. Sola Scriptura! We are not
against denominations, but we are against the modern
divisions that have split the church because of
denominations. We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching
on which, historically, there has been general agreement
among all true Christians. We believe there should be unity
in the church, but no compromise on doctrinal truth. 1.There is
one true God, eternally existing in three persons - Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit - each of whom possesses equally all
the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of
personality.
2.Jesus
Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His
miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin
birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united
in one person forever.
3.He lived a
sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by
dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying
divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust
in Him alone.
4.He rose
from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which
He lived and died.
5.He ascended
bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the
Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man,
continually makes intercession for His own.
6.Man was
originally created in the image of God. He sinned by
disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator.
That historic fall brought all mankind under divine
condemnation.
7.Man's
nature is corrupted, and he is thus totally unable to please
God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the
Holy Spirit.
8.The
salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is
not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or
goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His
righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone
for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His
sight. 9.It is the
privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be
assured of their salvation from the very moment in which
they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not
based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the
witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the
testimony of God in His written word.
10.The Holy
Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ
and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts
and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them,
continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth
and seals them until the day of redemption. He enlightens
the Bible to those who read it in faith.
He empowers
believers and bestows gifts on them through the laying on of
hands and /or the Baptism given to all who ask, for the
purpose of becoming active in the service of Jesus Christ as
'royal priests'. His fullness, power and control are
appropriated in the believer's life by faith, daily
indwelling and filling us.
11.Every
believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling
Spirit that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but
will bear fruit to the glory of God. Sin should be a
stumbling in our walk, not a way of life or a practice. We
are to pursue purity and holiness in our individual lives.
12.Jesus
Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is
composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined
to Him through saving faith.
13.God
admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for
worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification
through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.
14.At
physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal,
conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the
resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.
15.At
physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into
eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the
resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment.
16.Jesus
Christ will come again to the earth - personally, visibly
and bodily - to consummate history and the eternal plan of
God. He will 'rapture' the Church prior to the wrath that
will come during the 70th week of Daniel. At the end of the
70th week He will come, with His Church, to establish His
kingdom on earth. We are 'pre-millennial' as a matter
of dogma, but we will not divide the Church on issues
relating to the timing of the rapture. We believe we
must live in a state of readiness and attempt to fulfill the
great commission - taking the Gospel to all nations.
(We accept people with other views on this point) 17.The Lord
Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the gospel
throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation.
The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all
worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total
commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us."
18. The
Vision of Home Bible Study Fellowship is to empower and
support individuals, Churches, and families to grow in their
knowledge of Biblical and Theological truth to make them
more effective in reaching the lost with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We see a campus that is committed to being a light
to the world. We see Home Fellowships that encourage
people in the faith. Our purpose is to glorify God, teach
the Word of God, lift up the name of Jesus, build up the
Body of Christ, and to compel others to find true life in
Christ.
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