The Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of GOD and God the son, who rules our redemption and will return.
The doctrinal position of ST. MATTHEW’S BAPTIST CHURCH is historically that of conservative, evangelical Christianity. ST. MATTHEW’S BAPTIST CHURCH rests firmly upon the integrity and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures and, therefore, wholeheartedly accepts the great basic doctrines of the historic Protestant Christian faith. ST. MATTHEW’S BAPTIST CHURCH has also been in the forefront of the non-charismatic, dispensational, pre-millennial movement. ST. MATTHEW’S BAPTIST CHURCH is a Bible centric Church that will stand on these great truths and it is the desire of ST. MATTHEW’S BAPTIST CHURCH to continue to provide these great truths to all. The Doctrinal Statement in which every associate, every member, administration, staff, and faculty must sign, is as follows:
01.
We believe in the divine inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. By this is meant a miraculous guidance of the Holy Spirit in their original writing, extending to all parts of the Scriptures equally, applying even to the choice of words, so that the result is the very Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Moreover, it is our conviction that God has exercised such singular care and providence through the ages in preserving the written Word that the Scriptures as we now have them are in every essential particular as originally given and contain all things necessary to salvation.
02.
We believe in the one God revealed as eternally existing in three equal persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit as a divine person, a personality distinct from the Father and the Son.
03.
We believe that God created an innumerable host of angels, some of whom followed the lead of Lucifer, now called Satan, in rebelling against God, thereby bringing sin into the universe. We believe in Satan’s complete defeat by the Lord Jesus Christ.
04.
We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also that spiritual death which is separation from God; and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and, in case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word and deed. And with such a nature, they are incapable of producing anything acceptable to God.
05.
We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. We believe that He died for the sins of men as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and that His death was a sufficient expiation for the guilt of all men. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven and in His present life there for us as High Priest and Advocate.
06.
We believe that men are justified by grace through faith, on the grounds of the shed blood of Christ, and that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God.
07.
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost.
08.
We believe that it is the supreme responsibility of believers to testify to the saving power of Christ’s gospel, both personally and by proxy, at home and to the uttermost part of the earth.
09.
We believe that it is the duty of each believer to live a holy life unto God, keeping himself unspotted from the world, and that it is God’s intention that this shall be accomplished in the believer’s life by his constant dependence on the divine enablement of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We believe that this experience of deliverance from sin and empowerment for service is designated in the Scriptures as the filling with the Spirit rather than His baptism. Thus the baptism with the Spirit is not an experience to be sought subsequent to regeneration, but is already an accomplished fact.
10.
We believe that God in the Scriptures has progressively revealed HIMSELF through successive ages, during each of which man has been tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God; and we believe further that this dispensational viewpoint provides the key to correct interpretation of the plan and purpose of God in the world, past, present and future, as it relates to the Church, to Israel and to the nations. We believe in the actual offering of a kingdom to Israel by Christ at His first coming, and His postponement thereof as a result of their rejection. We believe that Israel, as well as the Church and nations, is included in the future aspects of God’s program.
11.
We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ had its historical beginning at Pentecost; is composed solely of believers; is the Body and Bride of our Lord; is distinct from Israel; and that it will be completed as believers fulfill their duty by making Christ known.
12.
We believe that at any moment the Rapture of the saved may occur, when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven” to catch up His people to meet Him “in the air” and deliver them from the period of judgment on the earth designated in Scripture as the 70th Week of Daniel.
13.
We believe in the personal, bodily and pre-millennial return of our Lord Jesus Christ after the 70th Week of Daniel. He will then set up His kingdom upon the earth for His thousand-year reign, after which He will deliver the kingdom to the Father that the Godhead may be all in all.