“The Lord hath done great things for us: whereof we are glad.” Psalm 126:3
praying hands   Bible
 
Our Beliefs - Confessions of Faith
   
     

The Holy Scriptures
God says

2 Tim 3:16-17 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

2 Peter 1:20-21 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
 

Therefore we believe:
The Holy Scriptures, consisting of the Old and New Testament, to be the complete and final revelation to man.  They are the Word of God and not just contain the Word of God.  They are the verbal, plenary, inspired Word of God, the Final Authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible and God-Breathed.

The Godhead
God says

Matthew 28:19 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Luke 3:22 “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”

Therefore, we believe:
There is one triune God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.

God The Father
God says

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Exodus 3:14 “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”  

Ex 3:6, John 17:3, John 4:24

Therefore we believe:
God is an eternal person, having no beginning and no ending, and that He is Creator of all, infinite and infallible.

God The Son
God says

Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 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: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:  After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep."

1 Thess 4:13-18 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Romans 8:3, 1 John 3:5, Col 1:16, 1 Tim 2:5, Luke 1:35, John 8:58, Mark 16:1-8, Hebrews 1:8,
John 14:3, 1 Thess 1:10,
1 Cor 15:52, Zech 14:4-11, Matt 24:27-30, Titus 2:11-14, Rev 3:10,
Rev 3:11,
Rev 19:11-16, Rev 20:1-6,  1 Cor 15:24-25, John 14:6, Matt 1:18

Therefore we believe:
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God the Son.  He is the only Savior of mankind, He is God incarnate in human flesh, He is Very God of Very God, for whom and by whom all things were created.  He is the mediator between God and man.  He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed many miracles, died on the cross and was bodily resurrected.   And that the premillenial, pretribulational return of Jesus Christ for His Church is imminent and He will come again to rule and reign on the earth for a thousand years during the millenial kingdom.

God The Holy Spirit
God says

John 14:16, 17 and 26 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Gen 1:1-3 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

Romans 8:14, 1 Cor 12:13

Therefore we believe:
The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person; equal to God the Father and God the Son, and of the same nature, that He was active in the Creation, and in His relation to the unbelieving world; He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of unrighteousness, and of judgement to come, that He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth, that He seals, fills, motivates, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and controls the believer.

Creation
God says

Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Acts 4:24 “And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:”

 

Col 1:16-17 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

John 1:3 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Acts 17:23-26, Jer 10:12, Neh 9:6, Gen 1:26-27, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:21-23, Gen 1:11, Gen 1:24
1 Cor 11:7, Heb 11:3,
Rev 10:6, Rom 1:20

Therefore we believe:
The 6 day Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created directly in God’s own image and after His own likeness; that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species, or development through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; that all animal and vegetable life was made directly; and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only “after their kind”

The Depravity of Man
God says

Gen 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Romans 5:12 “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:”

Romans 3:22-23,  Ephesians 2:1-3,  Mark 7:20-23

Therefore we believe:
Man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin, the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; man is totally depraved and, of himself, totally unable to change his lost condition.

Salvation
God says

John 3:5-7, 16 ”Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Eph 2:8-10 “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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”


John 1:12-13,  Eph 1:7, 1Peter 1:18-19

Therefore we believe:
One must be born from above and that this salvation is the gift of God, not of works, brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.

Two Natures of the Believer
God says

Gal 5:16-25 “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Eph 4:22-24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”


Rom 6:13,  Rom 8:12-13,  Col 3:10, 1 Peter 1:14-16

Therefore we believe:
Every saved person possesses two natures with provision made for victory of the new man over the flesh through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and all claims to the eradication of the flesh in this life are unscriptural.  Because man is born in sin, he will continue in sin until he receives his glorified body.  While on this earth, man will struggle with the sin nature and need to strengthen the new nature.

Eternal Security and Assurance of Believers
God says

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.”

Rom 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

John 6:37-40, Rom 8:1, 1 Peter 1:5, Rom 3:13-14, Gal 5:13, Titus 2:11-15

Therefore we believe:
All the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever.  We also believe that it is the privilege of the believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh.

The Eternal State
God says

John 11:25-26 "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

1 Thess 4:16-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

1 Cor 15:26, 51, 54 “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Rev 20:11-15 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Matt 25:46, John 5:28-29, Rev 20:5, 6, 12, 14, Luke 23:43, Rev 20:4-6, 2 Cor 5:8, Phil 1:23,
Luke 16:19-26, Matt 25:41-46, 2 Thess 1:7-9, Jude 6-7,  Mark 9:43-48, Rev 19:20, Rev 21:8

Therefore we believe:
Bodies of all men are resurrected: the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.  We believe that the souls of the redeemed are at death absent from the body and present with the Lord at death, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.  We reject all theories of soul sleep and believe that the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment.

 

 

 

     
     
   
     
   
       
Village Chapel Baptist Church
15 Twin Bridge Road
Weare, NH 03281
Church (603) 529-6788
vcbc@gsinet.net
 
© 2010 Village Chapel Baptist Church, Weare, NH. All rights reserved. | Site by www.pettitdesign.net