What We Believe

God exists eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three have distinct personalities and yet are of the same substance, one God. (Gen. 1:1; John 10:30; John 4:24; Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14)

The first person of the Trinity orders and directs all things according to His purpose and pleasure. He has created humanity to bring Him glory and honor, through His grace. While He is transcendent, He is also actively involved in His creation, offering an eternal relationship with us through His Son Jesus Christ. (Matthew 6:9; John 5:19-24; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:1-10)

The eternal Son of God became incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ, being born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. He died physically on the cross and was bodily resurrected three days later. (John 1:1, 14, 18; Heb. 1:1-9; 1 John 5:20; 1 Timothy 2:5; I Cor. 15:1-5)

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He regenerates, indwells, baptizes, and seals all believers in Christ and empowers those yielded to God. (Matt. 28:19; John 3:3-7; Titus 3:5; 1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 2:12, 12:13; Eph. 4:30; Col. 3:14)

Every word in the original writings is inspired by God and is without error. It is accurate in all matters to which it speaks. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the foundation of the faith and practice of Legacy Bible Church. (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21)

Man is created in the image and likeness of God. In Adam, all mankind fell into sin with the result that all men are sinners. Men are justly condemned to eternal judgment and can do nothing to merit salvation. (Rom. 2:2,3,5; Eph. 2:8,9; Gen. 1:27, 9:6; Rom. 5:12, 3:23; Eph. 2:1)

Salvation is given to those men chosen by God and drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit. The only means to their salvation is belief in Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection. (Acts 4:12, 13:38-39; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 4:4-5, 5:1; John 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9; Acts 16:31; Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:29-30)

Every believer is promised positional, progressive, and ultimate sanctification. (Heb. 10:10, 14; John 17:15-17; Eph. 5:26-27; 1 Thess. 4:3-4; 1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 6:11)

All who are born of the Spirit through faith in Christ can have assurance of salvation and are eternally secure in Christ. (Rom. 5:1; 1 John 5:13; John 10:27-29, 17:12, 2 Tim. 1:12; Eph. 4:30; John 6:37)

The Church is composed of all believers. It is the body and the bride of Christ, formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and existing in two aspects, universal and local. The universal Church is an elect company of believers, baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body. Its mission is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ among all nations. The local church is a group of believers voluntarily joined together in love to worship God with praise and thanksgiving and to glorify Jesus Christ through an aggressive effort to disciple others by the preaching of the gospel and the exercise of spiritual gifts. (Eph 1:22-23, 5:24-30;1 Cor. 12:4-13, 27)

Christian are called to a holy life of service and testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit. This service includes the proclaiming of the gospel message to the whole world. All believers are promised rewards in heaven for their faithfulness in service. Through spiritual gifts, ordinances and marriage, we can more fully understand who God is and how He loves us. (1 Pet. 1:15-16; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 3:12-17; John 14:1-3)

Spiritual gifts are God-given abilities for service, i.e., “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.” It is our desire as elders and staff to focus on equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. (Eph. 4:1-16; 1 Cor. 12:7, 11; 1 Peter 4:10; Rom. 12:1-6)

The Bible sets forth two ordinances, the Lord’s Supper and water baptism. The Lord’s Supper is to be celebrated regularly in remembrance of Christ’s death on the cross and in expectation of His return. Water baptism is an outward testimony of a person’s belief in Christ. Immersion is the ideal means set forth in Scripture. (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16: 15-16; Acts 8:12,36-38, 9:18, 10:47; 1 Cor. 11:23-26)

The Bible says that from the beginning God established the sacred covenant of marriage as one man and one woman faithfully joined together by God as one flesh until death. Therefore, sexual intimacy is to be pursued and enjoyed within the confines of marriage. (Gen. 1:27, 2:24, Matt. 19:1-9, Mark 10:1-12, Heb. 13:4, Eph. 5:22-33, Rom.7:2,3)

We believe that the next great event in human history will be the return of Jesus Christ for His church. This is the blessed hope for all followers of Jesus Christ. While this event is a prophetic truth of Scripture, we acknowledge that the point of Christ’s return is not for believers to passively await this event, but to labor with all of our might in the power of the Spirit to fulfill His will in our lives through righteous living, evangelism and discipleship. After the return of Christ, those who accepted God’s gracious gift of salvation will worship God forever in heaven. Those who did not will spend an eternity separated from Him in hell. (Matthew 24:36; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; John 14:1-3; Matthew 24-25)

We affirm that the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His bodily resurrection, His atoning work on the cross, His imminent return and salvation by grace through faith in Christ make up the essential, distinctive nature of Christianity. In regard to these essential doctrines, there can be no conflicting opinions among those who call themselves true followers of Christ. However, we do acknowledge that there are peripheral or non-essential doctrines that are important, but not critical to the follower of Christ as it relates to salvation. These doctrines include:

• the relationship between God’s election and our free will in salvation

• the exact timing and order of End-Times events

• the nature of God’s relationship with ethnic Israel after the birth of the Church

• the specific functions of women in ministry

• the extent and use of certain gifts of the Spirit

While our church will be diligent to establish positions relating to these issues, we will not allow any peripheral doctrines to cause division within the church. We will accept into our body those who have differing views on non-essentials, but we will not allow those differences of opinion to fracture the church.