Valley Bible Baptist Church
Our Doctrinal Statement
What We Believe
At Valley Bible Baptist Church, our beliefs are founded firmly on the Word of God.
(II Timothy 3:16)
God’s Word is our unchanging anchor. We unashamedly believe, teach, preach, and seek to live by the Scriptures.
The Bible
We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and New Testament and that they compose the entire Word of God. The Bible is God-breathed; it is inerrant and infallible. We believe that the Bible is not only inspired of God but that God has promised to preserve His Word from this generation and forever. We believe the King James Bible to be the Word of God and is the English version that we accept and use.
(I Thessalonians 2:13; II Timothy 3:16,17; I Peter 1:20, 21; Psalm 12:6-8)
The Word of God is our sole authority for faith and practice. It is the basis for our beliefs and behavior.
The Godhead
We believe in the one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- each co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.
(Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14; John 14:10,26; I John 5:7)
Jesus Christ
We believe that Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and from of the virgin Mary. We believe that Jesus Christ came that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men.
(John 1:1-3,14; Luke 1:35; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6; Philippians 2:5-8, Galatians 4:4,5).
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His finished work on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice and that our justification is made sure through His atoning blood by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
(Romans 3:24,25; I Corinthians 15:1-4; I Peter 2:24; Ephesians 1:7; I Peter 1:3-5)
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of the Father, where as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate.
(Acts 1:9-11; I Timothy 2:5,6; Hebrews 7:24,25; Hebrews 9:24-26; Romans 8:34; I John 2:12)
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, equal with God the Father and God the Son. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the person who reproved the world of sin, of the righteousness and judgment, and that He is the supernatural agent in regeneration. It is He that indwells all believers, sealing them unto the day of redemption.
(Acts 5:34; John 16:8-11; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13,14).
We believe that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and the gift of healing, were temporary. We believe that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit and that the ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayer of believers for physical healing.
(I Corinthians 12:12; I Corinthians 13:8-13; I Corinthians 1:22; I Corinthians 14: 21,22, 40).
The Local Church
We believe that the New Testament Church is a local assembly of baptized believers who have voluntarily joined themselves together to carry out the Great Commission. The Lord is doing His work in this world through local churches. The establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures.
(Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:41,42,47; Ephesians 5:23; Ephesians 1:22,23; Acts 14:27; Acts 20:17,28-32; I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)
We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control. Christ is the only head of the church. The pastor is the under-shepherd.
(Acts 13:1-4; Acts 20:28; Romans 16:1-4; I Corinthians 5:4-7,13; I Peter 5:1-4)
Church Ordinances
We recognize the ordinances of baptism by immersion in water following genuine salvation and the Lord’s supper as Scriptural means of testimony for local churches in this age. We practice closed communion and accept only Baptist baptism.
(Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 2:41,42; I Corinthians 11:23-26)
The Return of Christ
We believe that the “Blessed Hope” of our Lord’s return is literal, personal, visible, imminent, premillennial, and pretribulational. Believers will be caught up to be with the Lord prior to the seven years of tribulation, and at the end of the tribulation, Christ will return with His saints to establish His thousand-year reign on earth.
( I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; I Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10; Zechariah 14:4-11; Revelation 19:11-16: Revelation 20:1-6; Psalm 89:3,4)
Our Eternal State
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgement and everlasting punishment.
(Matthew 25:46; John 5:28,29; John 11:25,26; Revelation 20:5,6,12,13)
We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when the spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord
(Luke 23:43; Revelation 2:4-6; II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Philippians 3:21; I Thessalonians 4:16,17)
We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain after death, in conscious torment until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgement, and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment.
(Luke 16:19-26, Matthew 25:41-46; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6,7; Mark 9:43-45; Revelation 20:11-15)
Biblical Morals
We believe that human life begins at conception and that the unborn child is a living human being. Abortion constitutes the unjustified, inexplicable taking of unborn human life. Abortion is murder.
(Job 3:16; Psalm 51:5; Psalm 139:14-16; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 49:1,5; Jeremiah 1:5; Jeremiah 20:15-18; Luke 1:44)
We believe that God has commanded that no intimate physical activity be engaged outside of marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, polygamy, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography, is a sinful perversion of God’s original intent for the physical relationship between a husband and a wife.
(Genesis 19:5,13; Leviticus 18:1-30; Romans 1:26-29; I Corinthians 5:1; I Corinthians 6:9; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; Hebrews 13:4)
Salvation
We believe that the clear message of salvation is repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that salvation is by grace plus nothing minus nothing. We believe that men are justified by faith alone and are accounted righteous before God only through the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
(Ephesians 2:8,9; John 1:12; I Peter 1:18,19)
We believe that all the redeemed, once saved are kept by God’s power and are secure in Christ forever. We believe that eternal life is the present posession of every born-again believer.
(John 6:37-40; John 10:27-30; Romans 8:1, 35-39; I Corinthians 1:4-8 ; II Timothy 1:12; I Peter 1:4,5)