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Historic Christianity has held for over two millennia that the Bible is the revealed Word of God, and as such is our ultimate and infallible standard of authority. How can we know this to be true?
There is one living and true God who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in all His attributes. He is eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these three being coequal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections.
God created the world and all things out of nothing by His powerful Word, planned all things by His wisdom, and controls all things by His sovereign power — all for His own glory. Mankind, and all life on earth, did not evolve from micro-organisms but was created by a direct act of God.
Man was created in the image of God, male and female, to have fellowship with Him and to glorify and serve Him by multiplying godly offspring, taking dominion over the earth, and reflecting His holy character.
Sin
By Adam’s willful sin all mankind came under God’s wrath and condemnation, were separated from God, and became spiritually dead and therefore unable to please God or merit salvation.
By Adam’s willful sin all mankind came under God’s wrath and condemnation, were separated from God, and became spiritually dead and therefore unable to please God or merit salvation.
Jesus Christ became the representative of His people, taking their sins upon Himself, having offered Himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile them to God. All who were chosen in Christ from eternity past are born again by the Holy Spirit, respond from their new hearts with repentance and faith in Jesus, are justified on the basis of the shed blood of Christ, become children of God, and are indwelt, sanctified, and sealed by the Holy Spirit until they are glorified at Christ’s return.
Jesus Christ is true God and true man, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died on the cross a sacrifice for the sins of His people. He arose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven where, at the right hand of the Father, He is now interceding for His Church and ruling all things for her benefit.
All of history after man’s fall into sin is a progressive outworking of God’s covenant of grace. Beginning with the first promise to Adam after the Fall and continuing throughout history to the end of the ages, God orders all things in view of his single purpose of redeeming a people to Himself through Christ.
Salvation is completely by God’s grace, an unmerited gift to the believer. This gift activates faith in the believer, and cannot be earned by any works. Genuine faith in Christ is always accompanied by repentance and purpose to follow Jesus in a life of obedience and good works.
There is one universal Church of which Christ is the Head, made up of true believers in all places and in all times from all ethnicities. The visible local church is the ordinary means of the spread of God’s Kingdom and the building up of God’s people in Christ. The primary means by which God extends His grace are the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. The marks of a true church are the proclamation of the whole revelation of God in Scripture, the biblical administration of the sacraments, the exercise of biblical government and discipline, the edifying use of the spiritual gifts given to the members of the body, and a manifestation of unity and love among the members.
Christ has ordained two sacraments for the church in the present age: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They are not means of earning salvation, although they serve as a means of grace. They are signs and seals of the covenant of grace and are properly given to every member of the visible church.
Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly at the end of the age. The righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected to face final judgment. The righteous will enjoy eternal blessedness in heaven, and the unrighteous will suffer eternal punishment in hell.
The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are the inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings. The Bible is the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of man and the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and life. The Scriptures are a unified whole. The Old and New Testaments must each be understood in light of the other.
" … elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied."
" All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ."
"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence."
"For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come."
"And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us."
"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
