The Bible

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and contain no errors (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21), and they are our highest authority for faith and life (1 Cor. 2:13; 10:11; 2 Timothy 3:17). Calvary Baptist Church uses the KJV in its preaching and teaching because of the degree to which the translators earnestly sought to provide a literal, word-for-word translation from the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic languages into English. We reject the notion that any English Bible is supreme to the autographs written in the original languages of Hebrew, Aaramaic and Greek, yet we affirm God’s promise to preserve His Word (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35).  He is Sovereign and has easily exercised His providential control over historical events so that His Word has been fully preserved (Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 46:8-11).

God the Creator and the Trinity

We believe the Genesis account of creation (Gen. 1 and 2; Ex. 20:2-3), and specifically emphasize that man came by direct creation of God and not by evolution (Col. 1:16, 17; John 1:3; Rev. 4:11). We believe in one God, who eternally exists in Three Persons (Trinity).  While the Trinity is an amazingly difficult doctrine to grasp, it is clear that the Father is God, Jesus the Son is God (John 10:30) and the Holy Spirit is God (Gen. 1:2), yet the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father.  They are three separate Persons, yet perfectly united.

Jesus Christ: God’s Son

We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God- yet fully Man (the Hypostatic Union), and that He is the Eternal Word manifested in flesh (John 1). We believe that He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Matt. 1:18-25; Luke 1:30-35), and that He is both the Son of God and God the Son (John 1:1-2,14,18; 3:16; Phil. 2:5-8). We believe that our Lord arose from the dead, according to the Scriptures, and in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:20; Acts 2:32), and that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which, at the return of Christ, will be given to all resurrected believers (I Cor. 15:23, 42-45: Phil. 3:20-21). We believe that our Lord ascended to heaven (Heb. 1:3), is seated at His Father’s right hand (Heb. 1:13) assuring us of the perfection of His work of redemption, and that He now as Head over all things to the Church (Eph. 1:22-23) is engaged on behalf of the saved as Intercessor (Heb. 7:25) and Advocate (I John 2:1).

The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit is plentiful.  Being the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit convicts men of sin (John 16:7-11), regenerates (John 3:6), indwells (John 14:17; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19), baptizes (1 Cor. 12:13), comforts (John 14:26), seals (Eph. 1:13; 4:30), and fills (Eph. 5:18)—setting believers apart to a holy life; and that He keeps and empowers believers day by day (Rom. 8:2,4,12,14). We believe that He is the Teacher of the Word of God and our Guide for daily life (1 John 2:20-27; 1 Peter 1:1). We believe that God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the giving of spiritual gifts to every believer for the equipping of the saints (Rom. 12:3-8, 1 Pet.4:10-11), and that these gifts are to be used to dispense God's grace and glory.

Satan: the Fallen One

We believe there is a personal devil, a being of great cunning and power (Job 1:6-7; Ezek. 28:11-19; Isaiah 14:12-17; Matt. 4:1-11) who is “The prince of the air” (Eph. 2:2), “The prince of this world” (John 12:31), and “The god of this age” (II Cor. 4:4), and that he seeks to destroy believers (1 Peter 5:8).  We believe that he can exert vast power but only so far as God suffers him to do so and that he shall ultimately be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone and shall be tormented day and night forever (Rev. 20:10).

Man and His Sin

We believe that man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God (Gen. 1:26), and that he fell through sin (Gen. 2:17); that he, as a consequence of His sin, lost his spiritual life (John 6:53), becoming dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-3; I Tim. 5:6), and that he became subject to the power of the devil (I John 3:8). We also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature (Gen. 6:5, John 3:6; 5:40), has been transmitted to the entire human race of man (Ps. 14:1-3; 51:5; Jer. 17:9), with the exception of the God-Man Christ Jesus; 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 corrupt in body, mind, and soul (Rom. 3:10-19; 8:6,7), and is marked for God's condemnation apart from Christ's redemption.

God’s Salvation of Mankind

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18) according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice (John 1:29; II Cor. 5:14; Heb. 10:5-19), and that all who believe in Him (Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9,10) are justified on the ground of His shed blood (Romans 3:25-26; I John 1:7). We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are instantaneously born again of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3-8) and thereby become the children of God (John 1:12, 13; 3:16; 5:24; 14:16; Romans 8:16). We believe in the eternal security (John 10:28, 29; 8:31; 13:1; 17:11) and everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the eternal conscious punishment of the lost (Matt. 25:41; Mark 9:42-48; Rev. 20:11-15).

The Church

We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:16-18; Titus 3:7) is composed solely of those who have been redeemed (Titus 2:14),  washed in His blood (Rev. 1:5), regenerated (Titus 3:5), and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14).  Those that are redeemed are called the household of God (Eph. 1 and 2), and are to relate to God as their Heavenly Father, and to one another as brothers and sisters in His family.  Believers are saved to worship and to serve; and should seek to live a holy life by separating themselves from and forsaking all that might dishonor God, cast discredit on His cause, or weaken their testimony.  We further believe that it is the responsibility and privilege of all who are saved to seek to win others to Christ, to the “Uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8) and that this is further reinforced by God through His Great Commission given to His disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). We believe that Christ instituted the ordinances of Baptism by immersion (Acts 10:47; 19:5) and the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19, 20) to be observed until He comes (I Cor. 11:23-26).

End Times: The End of the Beginning

We believe in our Lord’s personal, imminent and pre-millennial return for His redeemed ones (John 14:1-3; I Cor. 15:51-52; Phil. 3:20: I Thess. 1:10; 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14) followed by His coming in glory to judge the rebellious and to establish His millennial reign on earth. (Zech. 14:4-11; Matt. 24:29-31; II Thess. 2:7-10).