What We Believe
1. THE BIBLE:
Greater Glens Falls Bible Baptist Church stands on the King James Bible as the inerrant, inspired, infallible Word of God, preserved in the English Language miraculously by God's Sovereign action.
2. THE SECOND COMING:
The Church believes in the premillennial, pretribulational Return of Jesus Christ, including a sudden rapture, a literal seven-year tribulation period, and the revelation of the Son of God at the end of the tribulation, followed by the establishment of His literal earthly Kingdom for one thousand years.
3. SOULWINNING:
Our position on soulwinning is that Jesus used both confrontational soulwinning and friendship evangelism (therefore, we do the same). It is vital that each believer duplicate himself by winning others to Christ.
4.HEAVEN AND HELL:
Our church believes in a literal Hell and a literal Heaven, both actual places prepared by God for real souls for eternity.
5.THE TRINITY:
The Bible Baptist Church believes in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, equal in their deity, but individual in their expression).
6. THE SIN NATURE:
We believe in each person's being born with a sin nature and condemned to spend eternity separated from God unless born again.
7. THE NEW BIRTH:
We believe the New Birth occurs when one recognizes he is a sinner, acknowledges the fact, repents of his sin against God, and confesses faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary (shedding His own blood to pay for our sins).
8. THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST:
We believe that Jesus rose literally from the dead the third day after His crucifixion, and that he appeared to His disciples just as the Biblical account states, providing the hope of a literal resurrection for those of us who believe in and accept His finished work for our redemption.
9. SPIRITUAL GIFTS:
Our church believes that spiritual gifts were given to the church for internal ministry between the saints within the church (some gifts having faded away--as the Scriptures teach--while others exist today for the edification of the believers). We reject the need for "speaking in tongues" as evidence of the possession of God's Holy Spirit, and we reject the notion that extra-Biblical revelation is ongoing through what some "charismatics" term "the word of knowledge."
10. CHURCH DISCIPLINE:
We believe that reproving, rebuking, and exhorting are Biblical mandates which can lead to church discipline, the goal of which is exposing sinful conduct, correcting wrong action, teaching proper behavior, and restoring to service to the honor of our Lord. We do not knowingly accept into membership people who are under discipline in other churches. Neither do we counsel those of other churches without specific approval of their pastor.
11. BIBLICAL RECONCILIATION:
We accept the doctrine of Biblical Reconciliation as based upon the Blood of Christ, just as the NEW BIRTH is (for that reason, we do not automatically accept errant members from other churches without communicating with the pastor in that church to pursue the possibility of reconciliation).
12. SOCIAL ISSUES:
Greater Glens Falls Bible Baptist Church believes Christ gave the command to present His truth into all the world (Matthew 28:18-20). Therefore, we believe that our faith should be lived out publicly. This means that belief in what the Bible actually teaches will often be in conflict with what society approves and practices. When that occurs, we stand upon what God's Word teaches.
A. Divorce:
The Bible clearly presents God's will for marriage as one man and one woman entering into a relationship which should only be broken by the death of one of the partners (Matthew 19:3-10).
When divorce does occur, the church is required to do two things: (1) minister to the ones injured, Galatians 6:1ff, and (2) restrict the entrance into some offices (pastor and deacon), I Timothy 3:1ff.
B. Sodomy:
Leviticus 18:22ff forbids same sex alliances and beastiality. It is said to be a "defiling" when one does engage in same sex activity or sex with a beast. Leviticus 20:13-15 further confirms the "abomination" as condemned by God. These references to "abomination" are to the Jewish moral law.
Romans 1:21-32 confirms in the New Testament the continuing condemnation by God of the same sex activity and the perversion of the created purpose of the one-man-one-woman relationship condoned by God, the Creator.
I Corinthians 6:9 also condemns the sexual perversion using a different term: "effeminate." The context reveals that those who had trusted Christ should have abandoned their perverted lifestyles.
Revelation 21:8 goes so far as to state that "the abominable" will not be allowed into heaven, but will be relegated to "the lake which burneth with fire."
C. Transgenderism
Psalm 129:13-16 details how God is working within the womb with the elements He plans to become a baby to be born. All of the needed traits are there in embryonic form which can lead to the development of the person in the womb. This includes the gender of the newly formed human in the womb. We do not accept "choice of gender" by the new born at some later date.
NOTE: As in the case of all sins, we follow God's mandate to "love the sinner" while hating the sin. To condemn sin is not an act of hate; rather, it is clearly an act of love. Condemning sins for what they are opens the door for Biblical reconciliation to both God and any person wronged by the sins.
13. FELLOWSHIP:
"Fellowship" is a word which means "to hold in common, to share, to be in agreement." When pastors of churches refuse to support another church's authority in the disciplinary process, that is "not holding in common" the belief that sin should be handled Scripturally.
We only engage in "Biblical Fellowship" with those churches which embrace and practice the above basic Biblical positions, including the reconciliation process Jesus taught in Matthew 18:15ff and Matthew 5:21ff.
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT: A more extensive "Doctrinal Statment" can be secured by request.
