Our Beliefs

 

 

At its founding, the Glendale Baptist Church acknowledged the Baptist Faith and Message, supported by most Southern Baptist churches, as a general statement of beliefs on a number of doctrines. More particularly, the Glendale Baptist Church believes:

 

 

 

The Holy Bible:

 

We believe the Holy Bible is a special revelation from the Creator of the universe that explains the origin and purpose of all the matter, energy, space and time we experience in this universe. In particular the Bible is a revelation regarding the direct creation of mankind and the earth, the reign of God over this earth, and His special revelation of Grace. With God’s creation of the Church He chose to exhibit His characteristic of grace by redeeming men and women from a fallen condition by coming to earth Himself. In the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ chose to rescue those among us who would believe God’s testimony regarding Jesus found in the Bible and based upon what Jesus accomplished in coming to earth.

 

As a book from God Himself, we would expect to find perfection in all that the Bible reveals about history, archaeology, cosmology, and in all that the Bible claims to be true in the spiritual realm as well as the physical. To expect to work around errors and un-trues in the transmission of this book is to accept forms of imperfection in God Himself, a claim this church denies wholeheartedly.

 

Nature:

 

With regard to the sciences that study the laws and realities of nature, we believe when properly understood we should expect to find complete harmony between the claims of Scripture and the observable laws and history of the natural world. Since God created the cosmos we expect to find, without error, any statements made with regard to how nature works. Nature serves as what is termed natural revelation. Natural revelation from God is powerful enough that man will be held accountable for suppressing this revelation, if we indeed do so.

 

Eternal Salvation:

 

The Bible teaches that we humans are born spiritually separated from God that is caused by the possession of a sin nature. Because of this fallen estate people are born without the life of God (eternal life). It is because we are without eternal life that the Old Testament predicted a Messiah, or deliverer would come into the world. The identity of this deliverer was stated to be Jesus of Nazareth and He came into this world offering eternal life to “whosoever believeth in Him” for eternal life (John 3:16).

 

According to Revelation 20:15 we humans have the problem of being without life.  Jesus came into the world to offer that life to anyone who would simply trust in Him for it (John 6:47). The life that Jesus offers each of us is His to give (John 11:25), but to make us acceptable to the Father required a righteous offering or sacrifice whereby God could declare fallen individuals to be justified or acceptably righteous in His sight. This required the sacrifice of a perfect human, of which there were none, until God himself came physically into our world being born of a virgin, without a human father that would taint His perfection, then allow Himself to be ridiculed and crucified by His own people. In this terrible act of human history God was at work placing the guilt of all mankind on His own sinless/holy Son, and required Jesus life (blood) as a substitution for the guilt of mankind. Because Jesus was qualified as a human sin-bearer, was crucified, then raised from the dead, He came forth from the grave qualified to offer eternal life to anyone who would simply believe His testimony (John 4:26).

 

The Bible teaches that eternal salvation is made available to any and everyone on the basis of grace and that it is received by believing a message, not due to any kind of works or goodness we produce, but is a gift that once received is a current possession (John 5:24) and lasts forever (John 4:14).

 

This teaching is referred to as a free grace perspective on eternal salvation and is proudly proclaimed by the Glendale Baptist Church.

 

Baptism:

 

Water baptism is recommended as one of the first acts of a new believer in Jesus Christ. Baptism serves as a public profession of our faith in Jesus Christ for the free gift of eternal life and serves in Southern Baptist churches as the means of qualifying for local church membership. Baptism should be performed by immersion and in the presence of a church or congregation that practices baptism for like reasons to be obedient to Jesus command (Matt 28:19, Acts 10:47-48). Baptism is an act of obedience on the part of each believer in Jesus Christ and is effective as a first step in being a disciple of Jesus Christ, but is in no way effective in procuring eternal life.

 

The Lord’s Supper:

 

Glendale Baptist Church observes the Lord’s Supper on at least a quarterly basis. As with water baptism, the Lord’s Supper is celebrated as a memorial, not a sacrament, and practices what is called close communion. We invite all believers present of like faith and baptism to participate in observing the Lord’s Supper with us, but refuse no one who desires to participate.

 

Eschatology:

 

Since a large portion of the Bible was predictive in nature when written, we believe that an emphasis on the study of last things is only expected in any New Testament church. God has revealed His plan for the future of the nations of the world, for the nation of Israel, and for the Church. In proclaiming the teachings of the Bible, we subscribe to predictive prophecy relating primarily to these three programs revealed in Scripture.

 

As a special section of eschatology, the Glendale Baptist church, throughout its history has been a continual voice proclaiming the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Rapture of the Church. The Second Coming relating to God’s programs for Israel and the Nations, and the Rapture of the church related exclusively to believers in this church age in which we are currently living. The next prophetical event is this Rapture that will take place and remove the Church from the earthly scene before the judgments begin to fall as God begins to conclude predictive prophecy relating to Israel and the Nations.

 

Liturgy:

 

As most Southern Baptist Churches operate, the hierarchy of human authority in Glendale Baptist Church flows at the top from the congregation, who has final say on all matters within the church, to the deacons and committees who advise the congregation and Pastor, and finally to the Pastor, who seeks to serve the Lord by serving our congregation and others.