About New Life Baptist Church

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally written were God-breathed, both verbally and in every part. We believe God, who is Truth, communicated through Spirit-controlled men so that the Scriptures are without error and therefore authoritative in all they teach and in all matters they touch. We believe the Bible is the supreme revelation of God’s will for man and constitutes the only infallible guide for faith and life.

We believe in one God, the creator of heaven and earth; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory and executing distinct and harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary as no other man was ever nor can be born of a woman. He is very God of very God, being “God manifest in the flesh.” He lived a life of absolute sinlessness and in His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins, dying not as a martyr, but as a voluntary substitute in the sinner’s place. He rose from the dead on the third day and ascended bodily into heaven. He is coming again to rapture His saints and to set up the throne of David and establish His kingdom. The rapture coming is imminent and will be personal, pre-tribulational, and pre-millennial.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person possessing all the attributes of personality and of deity. He is equal with the Father and the Son and is of the same nature. His relation to the unbelieving world is that He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. He is the agent of the new birth, and His work among believers is that He seals, indwells, fills, guides, and teaches them the ways of righteousness. We believe there is a distinction between the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and His ministry in the New Testament. There is a new and unique work of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Body of Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit endues believers with service gifts upon conversion.

We believe the Scriptures teach that man was created by a direct act of God and not from any previously existing form of life. Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. All human life, therefore, is sacred from conception to death. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. By voluntary transgression he fell from his state of innocence, in consequence of which all men are now sinners by nature and by choice, utterly devoid of the holiness required by law, positively inclined to evil, and therefore under just condemnation to eternal punishment and everlasting existence separated from God without defense or excuse.

We believe the Scriptures teach that salvation of sinners is divinely initiated, wholly of grace, and accomplished only through the mediating work of the Son of God; that it is wholly apart from works and is upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and never without genuine repentance; that in order to be saved the sinner must be born again, being regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in God’s Word and becoming the recipient of a new nature; that the great gospel blessing which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification, that judicial act of God accompanied by the pardon of sin and the imputation of divine righteousness, not because of any works of righteousness on our part, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood; that the believer who has exercised personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is completely justified and in possession of a salvation which is eternally secure.

We believe the Scriptures teach that the Church of Jesus Christ, distinct from Israel in the Old Testament, was inaugurated at Pentecost and must be considered in two aspects: the local church and “the church which is His body.” The local church is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by a covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word. Its Scriptural officers are pastors, sometimes called bishops or elders, and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are defined in the epistles to Timothy and Titus. The pastoral office is clearly limited to men. God specifically assigned the headship and authority in the local church to men. This definition of the local church leads to these Scriptural distinctives:

1. Biblical Authority – the Scriptures are the rule for faith and practice;
2. Autonomy of the local church
3. Priesthood of the believer
4. Two offices, pastor (elder, bishop) and deacon;
5. Individual soul liberty
6. Saved church membership
7. Two symbolic ordinances of the church (baptism and the Lord’s supper)
8. Separation of church and state.

The “church which is His body” is the entire company of believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, regardless of denominational affiliation and present position in heaven or on earth.

We believe the Scriptures teach that Christian baptism is the single immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem his identification with Christ and illustrating the believer’s death to sin and his resurrection to a New Life. It is a prerequisite to membership and privileges in a local church. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He comes and should be preceded by solemn self-examination. Observance of the Lord’s Supper is for believers only. The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper must be observed under the authority of the local church.

We believe the Scriptures teach the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust. All those who through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will spend eternity in full enjoyment of God’s presence and those who through impenitence and unbelief refuse to accept God’s offer of mercy will spend eternity in everlasting punishment.

We believe the Scriptures teach that there is a personal devil who is “the god of this age” and “the prince of the power of the air”, who is full of all subtlety, who seeks continually to frustrate the purposes of God and to ensnare the sons of men, and who was conquered by Christ on the cross and condemned to everlasting punishment.

We believe the Scriptures teach that every believer should be separated unto God from the world, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit, should walk in Christian love and holiness, exhibiting qualities of honesty, integrity, forgiveness, and lovingkindness. We further believe that any achievement in these characteristics will be evidenced by sincere humility and genuine zeal for the advancement of the cause of Christ. We also believe the Scriptures admonish every believer not to love the world or the things of the world, but rather to flee evil desires, avoid every kind of evil, and refrain from questionable practices that destroy one’s testimony, offend one’s brother, and fail to glorify God.

We believe the Scriptures teach that the believer should be separated from apostasy as exemplified in ecclesiastical organizations which include radicals, liberals, and those who sanction theological compromise. This doctrine is based upon God’s eternal principle of division between truth and error and His specific command to be separate from unbelievers and disobedient brethren. This truth is to be practiced with an attitude of devotion to God, humility, compassion, and yet with conviction, to create the proper condition and atmosphere for the main objective, i.e., the salvation of the lost through the gospel of God. We believe ecumenical evangelism which involves apostates violates the principles taught in God’s Word.

We believe that the interpretational and theological foundations, together with their accompanying practical application in the contemporary movement in Christendom referred to as the Charismatic Movement, are not in keeping with the New Testament teachings that are the true foundation for post-apostolic church faith and practice. As a result, we as a church will remain separate from that movement and its variously stressed emphases on the necessity of a “second blessing,” tongues speaking, healing, personal revelation, and the working of miracles and signs. We believe that the gifts of speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, working of signs or miracles, healing, etc., were temporary gifts given for revelation and authentication of revelation in the early church prior to the completion of the writing of the New Testament, and that they are no longer given as spiritual gifts today.

In light of God’s creative design, we believe that the Bible teaches that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman and that sexual intimacy is to be expressed only within the bonds of a Biblically defined marriage. Any other form of marriage or sexual intimacy is immoral and a perversion of God’s gracious will.