Our Articles of Faith
For the most part, the following paragraphs summarize those beliefs which we consider to be absolutely essential to our Christian identity, serving as the formal basis and/or material substance of the Gospel. A complete listing of other (more distinctive) tenets may be found in the PBC Constitution.
The Scriptures
We believe the Bible to be the Word of God, verbally and plenarily inspired of God and therefore -- in the original writings -- without error in all that it affirms. The Bible is the only complete and final revelation of God's will to man, and the supreme standard of all faith and practice (2 Tim 3:16-17, 2 Pet 1:19-21).
The Triune God
We believe in one God eternally existing, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; and manifesting Himself in three persons -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- and that these three are equal in every divine perfection (Gen 1:1, Deut 6:4, Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14).
Jesus Christ
We believe that the eternal Son of God became incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man; that He lived a sinless life, gave Himself in death as a perfect substitutionary sacrifice for our sins, arose bodily from the grave, and ascended to heaven at the right hand of the Father, where He presently makes intercession for the saints. We believe in the personal, visible, and bodily return of Christ to the earth at the end of the age (Matt 1:18; John 1:1, 14; Matt 20:28; 1 Pet 1:18-19; 1 Cor 15:3-4, 14; Acts 1:11; Rom 8:34; 1 Thess 4:16-17).
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person possessed of all the divine perfections, and that He regenerates, baptizes (i.e., joins), indwells, and seals all believers in Christ immediately upon salvation. He is the administer of the things of God -- convicting of sin, revealing truth, energizing believers in matters of prayer and service, and restraining evil "until He is taken out of the way" (Psa 139:7-10, John 16:7-14, 2 Thess 2:7).
Man
We believe that God made man in His own image, and that man came into the world by a direct creative act of God and not evolution. We believe in the scriptural record concerning the fall of man through disobedience to God, and that by nature and apart from God's grace, man is now "dead in trespasses and sins" and alienated from God (Gen 1:26-27, 9:6; Psa 51:5; Rom 5:12, Eph 2:1; Col 1:21).
Salvation
We believe that salvation is received by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, on the ground of His shed blood and altogether apart from human merit, and that every person is a sinner by birth and by choice and therefore must exercise personal faith in Christ in order to be saved (Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; Psa 51:5; Rom 3:23,10:9-10).
The Church
We believe that the Church is composed of all true believers joined by the Holy Spirit into one body that is Christ's; and that the local church is an assembly of saved, baptized believers who regularly gather for the purposes of worship, fellowship, administration of the ordinances, edification, discipline, and effective promotion of the work of Christ throughout the world (Acts 2:41-42; Eph 1:22; Heb 10:24-25).
Heaven and Hell
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to a heaven of everlasting blessedness in the presence of God, and the unsaved to the lake of fire of judgment and everlasting punishment, which is the second death (Rev 21:1-8).
Evangelization
We believe it is the solemn obligation of every believer to commend Christ to the unsaved by a holy lifestyle and active verbal witness, in obedience to the Savior's command to give the Gospel to the whole world (Matt 28:19).