Charity Baptist Bible Institute is a ministry of Charity Baptist Church. The following is the Church’s statement of faith to which the Institute adheres.
GOD
We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God, an infinite, intelligent Spirit, the maker and supreme ruler of heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence, and love; and that in the unity of the Godhead, there are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, a virgin, in order that He might redeem and reveal God to sinful people. He was subject to temptation, yet was without any sin. We believe that Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead.
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Intercessor and Advocate. He is the Messiah for Israel, the Saviour of the world, and the only way anyone can come to God the Father for forgiveness of sins and everlasting life; and He is to be worshiped and glorified as the Lord.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in our preaching and testimony; that He is the agent of the New Birth; and that He seals, fills, leads, intercedes, teaches, sanctifies, and comforts the believer.
THE BIBLE
We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as inspired by God, inerrant, and preserved in the English language in the KJV, and that God’s word is supreme and our final authority in faith and life.
CREATION
We believe the Genesis account of creation as being neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical account of the direct, immediate creative acts of God without any evolutionary process; that man was created by a direct work of God and not from previously existing forms of life; and that all people are descended from the historical Adam and Eve, first parents of the entire human race.
MANKIND
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. We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state, in consequence of which all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint, but by choice, and therefore under just condemnation and without excuse.
SALVATION
We believe that the salvation of a soul requires a belief in God; repentance towards God, which involves genuine sorrow for sin and a willingness to turn from it; and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that this salvation is thereafter permanent and eternal to the believer.
THE NEW BIRTH
We believe that the new birth (being born again) is the regenerative act of the Holy Spirit upon sinners when they repent of their sins and believe the Gospel according to the Scriptures, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. As a result of the new birth, the sinner is made a new creature in Christ Jesus, partaking of the divine nature and receiving eternal life as a free gift of God. Regeneration of the spirit, resulting in the “new man” and consequently partaking of the divine nature in the spirit is brought about in a manner above comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth.
JUSTIFICATION
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and rose again for our justification; and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood and are saved by grace through faith wholly apart from human merit and works.
THE CHURCH
We believe in the unity of all true believers in the Church, which is the Body of Christ, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture (the resurrection of the church), both Jews and Gentiles, are added to this Church by the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the exact time that they trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour.
We believe that this true Church is manifested through the local church, which is a congregation of believers associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws in accordance with Pauline revelation; exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His word; and that its officers are pastors (also called elders) and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in Scripture. We believe the true mission of the local church is for the edification, perfection, exhortation, and comfort of its members in spiritual matters; and the faithful witnessing of Christ to all people as we have opportunity.
ORDINANCES
We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, to show in a solemn and beautiful emblem our submission to and faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, through Whom we died to sin and rose to a new life.
We believe that believers commemorate together Christ’s death until He comes through the Lord’s Supper, which should be preceded always by serious self-examination and personal confession. His great sacrifice of love is illustrated through the unleavened bread, which pictures His body that was broken for us; and the pure fruit of the vine, which pictures His blood that was shed for us.