WHAT WE BELIEVE

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE CORE BELIEFS OF THE CHURCH AT PLEASANT RIDGE BASED ON THE FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS TAUGHT IN THE WHOLE BIBLE FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION!

THE BIBLE

The Holy Bible is the inspired word of God and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25;

GOD

There is one and only one living and true God. He is the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him, we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

GOD THE FATHER

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8 Matthew 28:19; 1 Timothy 1:17; 

GOD THE SON

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature and identifying Himself completely with man yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross Man’s only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man by his blood. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.

Isaiah 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 11:27; 14:33; 28:1-6,19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18;Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 19:16.

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination, He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour and effects regeneration. The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is a gift from God as promised to the Lord Jesus to every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Genesis 1:2; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 24:49; John 14:16-17, 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 6:3; 7:55; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11, 1 Corinthians 12:3-11,13; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

SALVATION

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, and sanctification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer into a relationship with God.

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. 

Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; Luke 1:68-69; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; ; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.,10:9-10,13; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 

THE CHURCH

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. Observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. Both men and women are gifted for service in the church. Matthew 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 16:5; Romans 1:7; Ephesians 2:19-22; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4

BAPTISM AND COMMUNION

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in the newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread- his body that was broken for us, and the cup- his blood that was shed for us, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 1:9-11; 14:22-26; Luke 3:21-22; 22:19-20; John 3:23; Acts 2:41-42; 20:7; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.

JUDGMENT

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

Matthew 18:8-9; 19:28; 24:27,30,36,44; 25:31-46; 26:64; Revelation 1:18; 3:11; 20:1-22:13.