One:16 Church Doctrinal Statement

The Scriptures

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God ⁽¹⁾, are inerrant ⁽²⁾, are preserved ⁽³⁾, are clear ⁽⁴⁾, and are the only sufficient, certain, and authoritative rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and practice⁽⁵⁾. The Scriptures are powerful to save the elect and sanctify the saved, making them complete and preparing them for every good work ⁽⁶⁾. One:16 Bible Church Fellowship’s certain confidence is that the Scriptures alone are able to make men wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, and that both saving and sanctifying faith comes by hearing the Word of God. We don’t just give that lip service, but actually believe the Spirit of God illuminates the Scriptures unto repentance and saving faith for all those He is sovereignly regenerating. We therefore joyously embrace Sola Scriptura and proclaim the Scriptures in the pulpit, on the street, at abortion clinics, in the city square, and in the open air—wherever perishing sinners are found. It is impossible to push God’s elect, those for whom Christ pronounced, “It is finished!” away through the loving and bold proclamation of His Word. Quite to the contrary, all those for whom Christ died will hear His Word, His Word will be sweet to their regenerated souls, and they will come! This is the doctrinal conviction and methodology of Christ Himself, His Apostles, and all the George Whitefield’s throughout church history ⁽⁷⁾. Here we stand!

God

There is one true God: holy ⁽¹⁾, eternal ⁽²⁾, omnipotent ⁽³⁾, omniscient ⁽⁴⁾, omnipresent ⁽⁵⁾, triune ⁽⁶⁾, and known by every man ⁽⁷⁾. He alone is the Creator, Preserver, Law-Giver, and Ruler over all things and all living creatures, material and immaterial, and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, allegiance, obedience, and fear ⁽⁸⁾. All other supposed gods are worthless idols that cannot save—whether they be the innumerable idols of Hinduism, the deceptive idols of Mormonism, the sacramental idols of Roman Catholicism’s ancient antichrist system of works righteousness, the austere idol of Islam, or any other—they are soul-damning abominations and the vain worship of them is hatred toward God ⁽⁹⁾. The one true God (the only God there is) is beyond mankind’s full comprehension and yet He has made Himself known through both Natural and Special Revelation ⁽¹⁰⁾. He is revealed through His creation and in every man’s conscience in such a way that all men are accountable for this knowledge of God (Natural Revelation) ⁽¹¹⁾. He is preeminently revealed through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, and through the Holy Scriptures (Special Revelation) ⁽¹²⁾. Scripture is clear that all men know God through the dual revelation of creation and conscience and that without the Holy Spirit’s regenerating and illuminating power all men willfully suppress that knowledge and remain haters of God unto their eternal judgment in Hell. No one is ignorant and no one is innocent. The revelation of God in Scripture is the only and all sufficient means of making men wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus ⁽¹³⁾. The Lord Jesus Christ modeled this theological conviction and evangelistic methodology throughout His entire life and ministry. The mission Christ exemplified, trained his disciples for, and entrusted to us with His standing Great Commission Command—is to call all men everywhere to repent of their idols and bend their knees to the one true God; the only God there is; the God they know; the God revealed in creation, conscience, Christ, and Holy Scripture ⁽¹⁴⁾!

God the Father

God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own sovereign will, divine purpose, and grace ⁽¹⁾. He is the Creator of all things ⁽²⁾. As the only absolute and omnipotent ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and salvation ⁽³⁾. His Fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind ⁽⁴⁾. As Creator He is Father to all men, but He is spiritual Father only to regenerate, born again believers. Every man has a spiritual father whom he serves and Satan is the spiritual father of every unregenerate man ⁽⁵⁾. He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events ⁽⁶⁾. In His sovereignty He is neither author nor approver of sin, nor does He diminish the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures ⁽⁷⁾. God our Father has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own according to His own immutable and free will; He saves from sin all those who come to Him; and He becomes, upon spiritual adoption, through regeneration, repentance, and faith—the eternal Father of His blood bought children ⁽⁸⁾. All those whom the Father set His eternal love upon in eternity past and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son—will hear His Son’s Gospel, will repent, and will confess Him as Lord and be saved. How will they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach unless they are sent? The preaching of the Gospel is the Father’s means of calling His children from every tribe, tongue, and nation to Himself ⁽⁹⁾.

God the Son

Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal (equal in person, authority and power), consubstantial (of the same substance), and coeternal (equally eternal) with the Father ⁽¹⁾. God the Father created “the heavens and the earth and all that is in them” according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation ⁽²⁾. In Christ’s incarnation (God becoming man) He surrendered only the prerogatives of deity but nothing of the divine essence, either in degree or kind. In His incarnation, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-man ⁽³⁾. Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness ⁽⁴⁾. He was virgin born ⁽⁵⁾. He is God incarnate ⁽⁶⁾. The purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom ⁽⁷⁾. In the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity laid aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God, and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes ⁽⁸⁾. Jesus Christ accomplished and obtained our eternal redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross. His death was voluntary, vicarious (on our behalf), substitutionary (in our place), propitiatory (appeased God’s wrath for our sin), and redemptive (paid the debt of our sin) ⁽⁹⁾. On the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin. At the point of salvation every believer is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God for all eternity based upon the work and merit of Christ alone ⁽¹⁰⁾. Our justification is made sure by Christ’s literal, physical resurrection from the dead ⁽¹¹⁾. He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our only Advocate and High-Priest ⁽¹²⁾. Furthermore, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, God confirmed the deity of His Son and gave proof that He has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross ⁽¹³⁾. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrected life for all believers and future condemnation for all unbelievers ⁽¹⁴⁾. Jesus Christ will soon return, in all His omnipotent glory, King of kings and Lord of lords, with eternal salvation for His Church and eternal judgment for all who do not confess Him as Lord ⁽¹⁵⁾. All those who were predestined by the Father, for whom Christ suffered and died—will hear His Gospel, will repent, and will confess Him as Lord and be saved. The plan is simple. Go therefore. Preach Christ everywhere to everyone. Thus we go! Thus we preach ⁽¹⁶⁾!

God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is divine, eternal, non-derived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect, emotions, will, eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, and truthfulness ⁽¹⁾. In all the divine attributes He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father and the Son ⁽²⁾. We celebrate the Holy Spirit’s sovereign activity in the creation, the incarnation, the written revelation of Scripture, the work of illuminating Scripture, the work of salvation, and the work of sanctification in every believer’s life ⁽³⁾. A unique work of the Holy Spirit in this age began at Pentecost when He came from the Father as promised by Christ to initiate and complete the building of the body of Christ ⁽⁴⁾. His activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, and transforming believers into the image of Christ ⁽⁵⁾. The Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption ⁽⁶⁾. The Holy Spirit is the divine teacher who guided the apostles and prophets into all truth as they inscripturated, or committed to writing, God’s revelation of Himself, the Bible ⁽⁷⁾. Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit ⁽⁸⁾. The Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of the saints; the gift of languages, interpreting languages, healing, and prophecy were for the purpose of delivering and authenticating the New Testament message of Christ, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers for all time⁽⁹⁾. The fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—are for all believers for all time. The chief fruit of the Spirit is love toward God and our fellow man ⁽¹⁰⁾. All those who were predestined by the Father, for whom Christ suffered and died, whom the Holy Spirit regenerates—will hear His Gospel, will repent, and will confess Him as Lord and be saved. The Holy Spirit’s sovereign regenerating work will not fail! The Holy Spirit’s sovereign call will not be denied ⁽¹¹⁾! And yet—how will they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach unless they are sent by Christ’s praying and supporting Church ⁽¹²⁾?

The Trinity

Scripture clearly reveals God to us in three distinct Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal ⁽¹⁾. The Triune nature of God is not a debatable or optional doctrine, it is a central truth of Christianity and an essential element of saving Christian faith. To deny the Trinity is to deny God. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Oneness Pentecostals, and others who deny the Trinity, are actively suppressing God’s truth and saving revelation of Himself. Unless they repent and believe in the Triune God of Scripture, they will abide forever under the wrath of God as idolaters ⁽²⁾. Thus, we call all men in every place to repent and believe upon the Triune God, the only God there is! We unashamedly preach the God of the Bible, the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—as the one, true, and only God ⁽³⁾!

The Mediator

Jesus Christ is the only Mediator between God (holy, holy, holy) and sinful mankind. Outside of faith in Christ there is no salvation. All attempts to approach God outside of faith alone in Christ alone will fail ⁽¹⁾. Being fully and eternally God, Jesus was able in six hours, one Friday, two thousand years ago, to bear the sins of all those whom He came to save, taking the full and eternal wrath that their sins deserve ⁽²⁾. Being fully man, born of a woman—yet without sin—Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, suffered, and died upon the cross, providing a substitutionary atonement for the sins and salvation of all those He came to save ⁽³⁾. He was buried, rose again on the third day, and ascended to His Father, at whose right hand He lives forever to make intercession for His purchased people ⁽⁴⁾. Jesus is the only Mediator of His Church. We deny and declare all manmade mediators to be abominations and antichrists —be they Pope, priest, Mary, or any other crafted by sinful men. All those who profess to trust in Jesus as their Mediator while simultaneously trusting in other so-called mediators have yet to repent and believe the Gospel and must repent or perish in their sins as unbelievers and idolaters ⁽⁵⁾. It is our duty and privilege to proclaim to every man, in every place, without apology, that “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Providence

God, from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events ⁽¹⁾; yet not in any way as to be the author or approver of sin ⁽²⁾, nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures ⁽³⁾. God’s gracious providence works in all things, even those that appear otherwise, for His own glory and the eternal good and salvation of His elect ⁽⁴⁾. In our Triune God’s sovereign, gracious, and perfect providence all those whom the Father predestined, for whom Christ died, and whom the Holy Spirit is regenerating—will receive the Holy Scriptures which are able to make them wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, thus we indiscriminately herald forth God’s Word wherever perishing sinners are found ⁽⁵⁾.

Election

Election is God’s eternal choice of some sinners unto everlasting life according to His free and sovereign will—not because of foreseen merit in them, but of His grace and mercy in Christ—in consequence of which choice they are called, justified, and glorified. The One:16 Bible Church Fellowship embraces the doctrine of election consistently and actively, preaching Christ and His Gospel in the pulpit and in the open air, knowing that all of God’s elect will be called, will be justified, and will be glorified. Election condemns man centered, pragmatic approaches to church growth, missions, and evangelism as futile. Election condones and establishes the rock solid foundation of Biblical church planting, missions, and evangelism compelling us to go to our Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth preaching repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ for salvation with confidence that all of God’s elect will be saved ⁽¹⁾. C.H. Spurgeon understood that the bedrock, Biblical doctrine of election is the foundation of our unwavering confidence in the success of the Christ’s Great Commission message and methodology:

“The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach today, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox’s Gospel is my Gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.”

Mankind

The Holy Scriptures reveal that God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) created mankind, male and female, a literal man named Adam and woman named Eve, in His own image, without sin. It is from the revelation of Scripture alone that mankind finds innate value, dignity, and worth as the pinnacle of God’s creation crafted in His own image. Thus, every human life is precious: born and unborn, sick and well, weak and strong, young and old, injured and whole, sinner and saint. Being literal descendants of Adam and Eve, we are all one race (mankind) and one blood, with mere aesthetic differences that do not determine or diminish value, dignity, or worth. ⁽¹⁾ Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby all Adam’s descendants inherit his sin nature, are wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action become actual transgressors ⁽²⁾. Mankind is spiritually dead in sin ⁽³⁾. There are no neutral men, all unregenerate men are haters of God by nature. This condition has been historically referred to as Total Depravity, meaning all of man’s faculties are radically corrupted so that no thought or deed is untainted with sin, no man can seek God, no man can understand God, no man can repent before God, and no man can savingly confess Christ as Lord and believe the Gospel—except through the regenerating and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit ⁽⁴⁾. Thus, modern attempts to see men morally improved or genuinely saved through benevolent acts, through intellectual debate, through friendship, or through making the church appealing to worldly desires will only serve to prop up spiritually dead men in church pews and distract Christ’s Church from the God ordained ministry of proclaiming the Scriptures everywhere to everyone. The Holy Spirit alone regenerates, saves, and sanctifies sinners—He condescends to do so through the proclamation of God’s truth, God’s Law, and God’s Gospel from the Holy Spirit inspired and illuminated Scriptures. Thus we confidently and unashamedly preach God’s Word to spiritually dead men of every hue, in every place, knowing God’s grace must and will regenerate and raise the dead that they might repent and believe unto salvation ⁽⁵⁾.

Regeneration

Regeneration is a miracle of the Holy Spirit, who makes alive those who are dead in sin and trespass, illuminating their minds savingly to understand the Word of God and the Gospel, renewing their whole nature, so that they love the God they once hated and hate the sin they once loved. Regeneration is a work of God’s free and special grace alone. Regeneration precedes repentance and faith. Regeneration is not the synergistic response of God to the sinner—or the result of what is commonly called The Sinner’s Prayer, or the sinner repenting of their sin, or even the sinner placing his faith in Jesus. Regeneration is the monergistic work of God, through the Holy Spirit, that empowers and compels sinners to genuinely repent and confess Jesus Christ as Lord ⁽¹⁾. The unbiblical belief that unregenerate men can be compelled to repent and believe unto salvation through human ingenuity, emotional manipulation, evidence of miracles, evidence of divine prophecy being fulfilled, evidence of Creation, intellectual reasoning, or logical evidence of the absurdity of unbelief—is Arminian error, sometimes unthinkingly embraced by inconsistent Calvinists, that tends toward many dangerous theological, moral, and methodological compromises and compounded errors ⁽²⁾. The heretical belief that baptism or any work of man regenerates the dead soul is a denial of the Gospel. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Oneness Pentecostals, Mormons, and others who believe adults, and/or babies, and/or the dead are regenerated through baptism—do not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, have nullified grace, and remain under God’s judgment as unbelievers ⁽³⁾. C.H. Spurgeon summarizes our Great Commission confidence built upon the Biblical doctrines of election, predestination, and regeneration:

“This should be a great encouragement in proclaiming the Gospel, since among the people in our communities—the disinterested, the rebellious, the careless—God has an elect people who must be saved. When you take the Word to them, you do so because God has ordained you to be the messenger of life to their souls, and they must receive it, for so the decree of predestination runs. They are as much redeemed by blood as the saints before the eternal throne. They are Christ’s property, and yet perhaps they are lovers of selfish pleasures and haters of holiness; but if Jesus Christ purchased them, He will have them. God is not unfaithful to forget the price that His Son has paid. He will not suffer His substitution to be in any case an ineffectual, dead thing. Tens of thousands of redeemed ones are not regenerated yet, but regenerated they must be; and this is our comfort when we go to them with the quickening Word of God.”

Repentance

Repentance is not a work of man but an amazing grace and gift of God, that always accompanies the gift of faith, wherein the Holy Spirit reveals and convicts those He has regenerated of God’s infinite holiness and their own radical depravity, so that he humbles himself with godly sorrow, detesting sin, abhorring self, manifesting a genuine fear of God and a desire to walk before God so as to please Him in all things. Repentance is a Holy Spirit empowered change of heart and mind that is evidenced in the forsaking of works of darkness and the embracing of works of righteousness. The Lord Jesus preached that all men should “Repent and believe the Gospel.” The Apostle Paul preached that all men should “repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.” James warns us of the unrepentant faith of demons, who believe in God and even fear Him sufficiently to cause them to tremble—and yet remain eternally damned rebels still ⁽¹⁾. There is no saving faith in Jesus Christ that is not accompanied by repentance of sin. Those who profess salvation through faith in Christ while rejecting Christ’s dual command to repent and believe the Gospel—have not confessed Christ as Lord, have not believed the Gospel, are not regenerated or born again, and are not saved. You cannot be an unrepentant drunkard, fornicator, adulterer, homosexual, lesbian, thief, murderer, or idolater and savingly believe the Gospel. God’s sovereign and saving grace supernaturally and simultaneously enables both repentance and faith. All anti-repentance, “radical grace” doctrine typified by arguments that unrepentant homosexuals or unrepentant Roman Catholic idolaters are saved sans repentance—through a simple faith and trust in Jesus—blaspheme God’s amazing grace, blaspheme the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, blaspheme the Gospel of Jesus Christ—and damn unrepentant sinners to Hell. All such arguments are doctrines of demons and are akin to arguing that unrepentant demons, who believe in God and tremble, are saved through a simple faith and trust in Jesus ⁽²⁾. The Lord Jesus preached repentance, trained His disciples to preach repentance, and commanded His Church to go unto all the world and preach repentance. Therefore, we love our neighbors with action and truth by going therefore under the command of the Great Commission and calling all people from all cultures in all places to repent of sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. We don’t preach comfort and assurances of God’s love to unrepentant rebel, sinners. We lovingly and unashamedly preach repentance like the Lord Jesus, His Apostles, John the Baptist, and all the prophets of old—with the same certitude the Lord Jesus had—that God will grant repentance unto all His elect ⁽³⁾.

The Devil

The fallen angel known as Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, the Deceiver, the Dragon, and the Serpent of old is not an allegory, metaphor, or symbol for evil. He is a created being, spoken into existence by God during the six days of creation ⁽¹⁾. In accordance with God’s all-wise divine will and perfect providential outworking of all things, God allowed Lucifer to rebel and lead one-third of the angels into rebellion with him, thus they became the Devil and his demons ⁽²⁾. The Devil is powerful, but not omnipotent ⁽³⁾; wise for evil, but not omniscient ⁽⁴⁾; often present (like a lion roaming to and fro seeking to devour), but not omnipresent ⁽⁵⁾. The Devil is the crafty tempter, the great deceiver, the father of lies, the accuser of the brethren, and the greatest enemy of both God and man ⁽⁶⁾. The Devil operates today as the god of this world and the prince of the power of the air, and yet Martin Luther accurately said, “The Devil is God’s Devil.” God rules over Satan without Himself being guilty of sin. We can be certain that whatever we suffer from the Devil and his demons is not arbitrary or purposeless, but will ultimately lead to our blessing and God’s glory ⁽⁷⁾. The Devil’s doom is sure, he is a defeated foe, and he shall be cast into the lake of fire, the eternal place of punishment God has prepared for the Devil and his demons ⁽⁸⁾. Knowing we fight not against mere flesh and blood of sinful mankind but against the Devil and his demons as well, we stand firm against the wiles of the Devil in the omnipotent power of the Lord’s might, we put on the whole armor of God, we take up the Sword of the Spirit, and we march to evangelistic war with unceasing prayer, knowing that all those whom Christ died for and pronounced “Tetelestai!” over will be rescued from their sin and Satan’s lies— for Christ has conquered sin, conquered death, and crushed the Serpent’s head ⁽⁹⁾

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