Position Statements

ARTICLE XI - POSITION STATEMENTS

The intent of the Position Statements is to provide a format at Grace Bible Church of Hattiesburg for addressing theological and/or ethical issues in addition to those addressed in Article III (Doctrine) of the Bylaws of Grace Bible Church.

Elders must agree with and support all Position Statements.All teaching must be in agreement with the Position Statements.

HERMENEUTICS – Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation. The goal of the Biblical interpreter is to discover what the text (the Bible) meant in the mind of its original author for his intended audience. The means of accomplishing this is by applying a literal, grammatical, historical approach to interpretation. By literal, grammatical, historical we mean the customary, socially acknowledged meaning of a word or phrase within its context. The Bible uses figurative and poetic language and these portions should be interpreted accordingly. However, we reject any attempt to allegorize or spiritualize scripture which is not so intended.
DISPENSATIONS – A Dispensation is a specific manner in which God governs during a particular period of time. We are a dispensational church. That is, we believe that God has chosen to administer or govern His purpose on earth through man under varying dispensations. These changes in government are a result of God’s choice, and do not indicate that His character ever changes. At least three of these dispensations are mentioned in the Bible and are the subject of extended revelation, viz.: the Dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present Dispensation of Grace, and the future Dispensation of the Millennial Kingdom. In interpreting the Bible, we believe that these are distinct and should not be intermingled or confused.
ESCHATOLOGY – Eschatology is the doctrine of future things. As a framework for interpreting and teaching prophesy, we hold to a pre-tribulational, pre-millennial position. That is, we teach that a literal thousand-year period of time (the millennium) lies ahead in the future (Revelation 20:1-8). At the conclusion of this time period, there will be a final judgment of non-Christians and then the eternal state will begin (Revelation 20:11-15). Immediately preceding this millennial period, a period of tribulation, lasting seven years, will dominate the earth (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 6:1-19:21). However, just prior to this, all believers will be removed from the earth (the rapture) and thus escape this period of tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
REPENTANCE – The New Testament word for repent (metanoao) means to “change one’s mind.” It does not mean to “turn from sin”, a current day definition. We believe that salvation is based upon the one condition of faith of which repentance is a vital part. In the New Testament when a person heard the gospel and agreed with it, he was changing his mind, thus in the process of repenting. He was going from doubt, confusion, or unbelief to belief in Christ as Savior. It is in this way that repentance is related to salvation. It should be made clear that it is possible for a person to understand the gospel and yet choose to refuse to accept Christ as Savior. However, one cannot truly believe in Christ without having first repented. Additionally, turning from sinful acts should result from repentance and faith in Christ, but is neither a requirement for nor a part of salvation. In the same way, a sorrow for sin is neither a requirement for nor a part of salvation. Were this the case, then our salvation would rest, at least in part, on our own works and merit, something that is quite foreign to the Scriptures.

5. GOD & CREATION

The Triune Godhead and Deity of Christ

We believe God is one being in three coequal, coeternal persons. This short statement expresses the Christian definition of the Trinity, or the triunity of the Godhead.

Christianity is monotheistic. We believe there is only one God. However, there are three persons who are God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These statements are not contradictory. Being and person do not mean the same thing in this definition. Being refers to the essence of God. Person refers to function and relationship within the Godhead.

It’s relatively easy to show the Bible teaches there is only one God. The Israelites were told in the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob alone is God. The famous Shema (Dt. 6:4) says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!”

The New Testament also affirms there is only one God. In 1 Corinthians 8, the apostle Paul taught, “There is no other God but one” (v. 4) and “for us there is one God” (v. 6). In 1 Timothy 2:5, the text states plainly there is one God. James 2:19 affirms that we do well to believe in one God.

However, three distinct persons are shown to be God:
→The Father. In the same verses (1 Cor. 8:4, 6; 1 Tim. 2:5), the Father is called God. The many times Jesus referred to “your heavenly Father” adds to the evidence in this regard.1
→The Son. The New Testament heavily supports the deity of Christ, the most famous passage being John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In addition, “in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). Further, Christ “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6). In Hebrews 1, the Son (Jesus) is the Creator (v. 2), the “express image of His person” (v. 3), and He is addressed as God (v. 8).
→The Holy Spirit. In the account of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), the designation “God” is used interchangeably with the Holy Spirit (vv. 3–4). Moreover, the Holy Spirit is said to possess divine attributes, such as omnipresence (Ps. 139:7), and perform divine actions, such as resurrection (Rom. 1:4).

Scripture also contains passages that relate all three of the persons together. At Christ’s baptism, the Father speaks, and the Spirit descends as a dove (Mt. 3:16–17).

Two trinitarian formulas can be cited as well: In the Great Commission, we are to baptize “in the name [singular] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). In the benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14, the Bible significantly says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

In short, there is much biblical evidence to derive the doctrine of the triune God. It is not an abstraction from Greek philosophy but, rather, a faithful expression of the information God has given us in His Word.

Endnote 1: Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998), 350.

Creation

We believe an eternal, self-existent, omnipotent, and holy God created the world out of absolutely nothing in six literal days; and on the seventh day He rested.

The book of Genesis declares that in the beginning, there was God. On the first day, He created light and separated it from the “darkness [which] was on the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2). God ultimately “called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (v. 5).

The word for “day” is the Hebrew word yom, as in Yom Kippur, the (24-hour) Day of Atonement. This verse clearly refers to a 24-hour period that begins in the evening. For this reason, all Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the evening prior to the holiday. This year Yom Kippur begins on the evening of October 8 and ends on the evening of October 9.

As God’s creation process continued, God separated the land and the seas and created the moon, stars, and galaxies. He also created everything with apparent age—mature, fruit-laden trees with the seed in the fruit, for example, rather than saplings that had to grow to maturity. He also created fully mature animals, birds, and fish. But His crowning achievement appeared on the sixth day when God created Adam and later Eve—also fully mature.

Interestingly, it was God who named this planet “Earth” (1:1). He also named the first man Adam, which means “ground” or “soil” in Hebrew. Genesis 2:7 reads, “And the LORD God formed man [Hebrew, et ha’adam] of the dust of the ground [Hebrew, meen ha’adamah].” (The Hebrew actually says God formed “the man.”) Then God allowed the man to name everything else.

Jesus repudiated the theory of evolution when He told the Pharisees, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female’?” (Mt. 19:4). People did not evolve from other species, such as apes. God created apes, and He created humans.

The apostle Peter said God’s word alone created the universe: “By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water” (2 Pet. 3:5). But to believe the truth requires faith: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Heb. 11:3).

God created everything in six days, then “blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:3). The seventh day is the Sabbath, which He gave to the Jewish people as the sign of the Mosaic covenant.

Satan and His Demons
We believe Satan (the Devil) is very much alive and active in our world and deceives the hearts and minds of those who love “darkness rather than light” (Jn. 3:19).

Jesus called Satan “a murderer from the beginning, . . . a liar and the father of it” (8:44). He is as real as God and, in fact, wants to be God (Isa. 14:14). Many people deny the Devil exists, while others seem to believe he is the god of evil and YHWH is the God of good. But Satan is not a god; he is a fallen angel. He was created by God and is completely subservient to Him (Job 1:6).

Before Satan’s fall, he occupied a high position in the angelic pantheon as “the anointed cherub who covers” (Ezek. 28:14). Cherubim are often associated with the holiness of God. Representations of cherubim covered the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, which resided in the Holy of Holies, first in the Tabernacle and then the Temple. Cherubim are also identified as “the likeness of four living creatures” (1:5).

Satan’s pride caused him to rebel against his Creator, induce the first man and woman to do likewise, and believe he could eventually usurp God’s throne and seize the universe from Him forever. When Satan rebelled, he took one third of the angels with him (Rev. 12:4), a large number of demons at his disposal.

He deceives the world by making good look evil and evil look good, transforming himself “into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). Three times in the Gospel of John, Jesus referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world” (12:31; 14:30; 16:11) because many people unwittingly follow him, and he controls the world system in which we live.

Satan and his followers are in a constant war with God and, therefore, with everyone who loves the Lord. The Devil also despises the Jewish people because God’s redemptive plan goes through them, and their existence assures Messiah Jesus’ return to reestablish the Davidic Kingdom—which confirms Satan’s defeat. So Satan is determined to destroy God’s Chosen People to avoid his eternal judgment.

All who have placed their faith in Christ have overcome Satan and the world (1 Jn. 5:4); and Satan and his demons eventually will be cast into “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt. 25:41).

6. GOOD WORKS & SALVATION

Sin
We believe all human beings are sinners (Rom. 3:23), possessing active sin natures that result in our physical and spiritual deaths. Man is not inherently good, despite what some people are inclined to say.

Sin entered the world when Adam rebelled against God: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (5:12). “Both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles] . . . are all under sin” (3:9).

From our perspective, Adam didn’t do anything evil. He didn’t steal, kill, or hurt anyone. He simply ate a forbidden fruit. Yet in doing so, he broke God’s command: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Gen. 2:17). From God’s perspective, any act of disobedience is sin and worthy of His judgment.

Sin can generally be defined as lawlessness (cf. 1 Jn. 3:4). It is a direct attack on God’s holy character. Sin can be seen as anything we do that God Himself would not do. He does not compare us to each other; He compares us to Himself: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). In other words, being sinless requires being as good as God.

Sin separates us from God: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). Sin, in fact, is so evil and destructive that it took the suffering death and resurrection of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, to provide atonement for us. His blood was sufficient to cleanse all of humanity; and His sacrifice of Himself on Calvary’s cross carried our sins as far as the east is from the west—providing we believe (Ps. 103:12; Jn. 1:29).

Good Works
We believe God created us to do good works (Eph. 2:10), but not as a means of getting to heaven. That is accomplished through faith alone.

No amount of charitable giving, selflessness, or random acts of kindness can remove our sin. Only God can do so: “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk. 2:7; Lk. 5:21).

We believe God is holy, as so many Old Testament passages teach (Lev. 10:3; 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:3; 21:8). People often make the mistake of comparing themselves to those around them and thinking their actions stack up well. They think God has a merit system that weighs our good deeds, hard work, and all our altruistic efforts against our sins and failures.

There is no such celestial scale. Our sin condemns us, and our good works can’t save us. God tells us we are all like an “unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). If our good deeds are filthy rags, what does that make our bad deeds? If you are depending on your goodness to get you to heaven, you are destined for hell.

God saved even the patriarch Abraham based on his faith: “And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD, and He [the LORD] accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

Salvation involves a change from a heart that is sick with sin to one that has repented and been transformed by the Holy Spirit. The final sacrifice for sin has been made. No longer is the blood of bulls, sheep, and goats needed. The Lamb of God shed His blood “once for all” (Heb. 7:27). As John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

If we place our faith in Him and not in ourselves and our own good deeds, He removes our sin and makes us His children. Then our good works please Him because He does them through us.

Salvation
We believe there is only one way human beings can be saved from sin and have a restored relationship with God: through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

All religions do not lead to the living God and forgiveness of sin. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). We believe the only way to heaven—regardless of race, religion, or nationality—is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (3:16; Eph. 2:8–9).

God’s salvation plan for humanity is threefold:

First, God came to Earth in the person of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel, to save us from the guilt and penalty of sin. This feat was accomplished when He gave Himself on a cross as the perfect, sacrificial Lamb of God. Isaiah prophesied about His sacrifice 700 years before Jesus’ birth:

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:5–6).

When the Philippian jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” the apostle Paul replied, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:30–31; cf. 1 Cor. 1:18; Heb. 9:26).

Second, after paying the penalty for sin on our behalf, Jesus rose from the dead, delivering us from the power of sin: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (8:2).

Third, Jesus Christ will appear again and ultimately deliver us from the very presence of sin:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Pet. 1:3–5).

“To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation” (Heb. 9:28).

Jesus died once to bear the sins of many. There is no other sacrifice for sin and no other way to receive forgiveness and everlasting life except through faith in Christ: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (Jn. 3:36).

Eternal Security
We believe once people come to faith in Jesus, they cannot do anything to lose their salvation.

The Bible says God keeps believers saved and that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:35, 38–39). If we genuinely placed our faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, then we are eternally secure and “kept by the power of God” (1 Pet. 1:5).

Scripture says the moment we are saved, we are born from above (“born again”) and receive new life in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). We are immediately sealed by the Holy Spirit, “who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [the believer], to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:14). Being sealed declares ownership. The Holy Spirit marks us, affirming that we belong to Him. He also indwells us, taking up residence in our lives. Second Corinthians 1:22 says God “has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

The Holy Spirit’s presence is the assurance that God is able to fulfill the promise He made to all believers regarding the glorious destination of their eternal souls. Nothing in Scripture talks about becoming unsealed.

If that weren’t enough, Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one” (Jn. 10:28–30). When a person becomes a believer, that individual’s soul becomes God’s and is pictured as being protected by His hand.

If our salvation were not secure and could be lost by our faithless behavior, our redemption would depend on works, rather than on faith in “the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:19). Yet Scripture clearly states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).

Salvation is completely by God’s grace. We don’t merit it when we first put our faith in Jesus, and we surely cannot live a completely sinless life to merit keeping ourselves saved. Praise God it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus. 3:5). And He keeps us by His power.

7. JESUS & THE WORLD

Virgin Birth
We believe Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit and was born to a virgin. The virgin birth is a crucial doctrine of the Christian faith.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God told the Jewish people to look for someone who would be virgin-born: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14).

The name Immanuel refers to the divine essence or nature of the Son and supports other Scriptures that teach Jesus was the incarnate God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (cf. 9:6; Jn. 1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3; 1 Tim. 3:16). The book of Matthew records the prophecy’s fulfillment:

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (Mt. 1:21–23).

The fact that Matthew, who was Jewish, quoted the Isaiah prophecy reveals some Jewish people of that day understood Isaiah 7:14 referred to an actual virgin.

However, since the second century, the Gospel writer Matthew has been falsely accused of deliberately mistranslating as “virgin” the Hebrew word almah, which means “young woman of childbearing age.” The word virgin refers to a woman who has never had a physical relationship with a man. However, there is strong support for the word virgin.

It’s found in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Translated nearly 200 years before Jesus’ birth, Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the Hebrew word almah into parthenos, which means indisputably “virgin.”

Yet the truth of the virgin birth does not depend on one word. It is a doctrine taught in Scripture. Before Mary and Joseph ever came together, the Bible says Mary “was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 1:18). Even after their wedding, Joseph had no physical relations with Mary until her child was born (v. 25).

After being told she would conceive and have a Son, Mary questioned how the event would come about, as she had never known a man (Lk. 1:30–34). The angel Gabriel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (v. 35). Scripture supports that Jesus was the incarnation of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Isa. 9:6; John 1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3; 1 Tim. 3:16).

Many people question how such a miracle could take place. Yet, if God can create the entire universe with merely a word, and the first human being by breathing on a pile of earth, then He can easily cause a virgin to become pregnant. “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk. 1:37).

Jesus As Messiah
We believe in all of human history that only Jesus Christ meets the biblical qualifications of the Messiah. He is the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.

If we’re honest with ourselves, only two schools of thought exist on this subject: Either Jesus is the true Messiah and Savior, or He was the greatest of all deceivers.

Jesus alone fulfilled Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. Isaiah prophesied the Redeemer would come from the “Root of Jesse,” meaning the lineage of King David (Isa. 11:10). The Messiah would be virgin-born (7:14) in a little Judean town called Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2), die a substitutionary death for the sins of the world (Isa. 53:4–6, 12), and rise from the dead (v. 12; cf. Ps. 16:10). He also would make the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame walk (Isa. 42:6–7; Mt. 11:5).

Without the Old Testament prophecies, we would not know how to recognize the promised Redeemer. Jesus said people who reject Him don’t believe Moses: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (Jn. 5:46). God told Moses, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him” (Dt. 18:18–19).

Jesus alone fulfilled these Messianic predictions. He said, “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me” (Lk. 24:44).

Contrary to what many claim, Jesus confirmed He was the “King of the Jews” and the Messiah of Israel. Gospel writers Matthew, Mark, and Luke all recorded His answer to Pontius Pilate’s question, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “It is as you say” (Mt. 27:11; Mk. 15:2; Lk. 23:3).

When the Jewish high priest asked Him, “Are You the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus replied, “I am” (Mk. 14:61–62). Thus, He claimed to be the One God promised would bring salvation to mankind. His name in Hebrew, Yeshua, means “He who saves.”

Jesus also made the bold proclamation, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). Scripture says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

We believe Jesus is the Messiah of the Jewish people and the Savior of the world. If you do not believe He is who He said He is, the only alternative is to believe He was a contemptible deceiver.

Inspiration of Scripture
We believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture, meaning every word of the entire Bible is God-breathed. The Scripture is the very Word of God.

The apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The word inspiration means “breathed.” God, as the originator of Scripture, breathed His Word into existence through men whom He chose to communicate to us. We believe every word of the entire Bible is God-breathed.

Although men penned the Scriptures, God guided each author’s intellect to choose the exact words to be written in the text of the original manuscripts. The men wrote, not by their own will, but as they were moved or carried along by the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Pet. 1:21). Jesus said every stroke of the pen (jot or tittle) is of God’s design (Mt. 5:18).

The word plenary means “full” or “complete.” All parts of Scripture are equally authoritative and of divine origin. While on Earth, Jesus Christ approved of everything written in the Hebrew Scriptures (Lk. 24:44; Jn. 5:46) and authorized what would be revealed in the New Testament (Jn. 16:12–13).

We also believe Scripture is infallible and inerrant. Infallible means the Bible is incapable of being wrong. Scripture as originally written is always correct in its revelation and rules of instruction on our faith and practice because it is from God, who is truth and cannot lie (Num. 23:19; Jn. 17:17; Ti. 1:2; Heb. 6:18). Inerrant means the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts and was God’s divinely inspired Word to reveal Himself to mankind (2 Tim. 3:16).

Consequently, the Bible was written by men chosen and superintended by the Holy Spirit to express, through their personalities and literary styles, the God-breathed Word without error (2 Pet. 1:20–21). The Holy Spirit assures Scripture’s inerrancy in all matters it touches: creation, geography, salvation, doctrine, life sciences (ethics, social, physical), world history, literature, and every area of knowledge. It is without error in the original autographs and entirely true in all it affirms—and, therefore, we must obey it.

Interpretation of Scripture
We believe the only way to understand the Bible correctly is to use a literal, grammatical, and historical method of interpretation in order to discover the original intent of the text.

The apostle Paul exhorted us, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). That statement means we must interpret Scripture carefully and truthfully, without falsifying it.

The literal method interprets the words of Scripture using their plain, everyday, common usage. For example, the word Israel always refers to the Jewish people, never to another people group. Every word is interpreted using its primary, literal, ordinary meaning, unless the context and other related passages clearly indicate otherwise. The literal method, of course, also takes into consideration the genre and its use of types, symbols, figurative expressions, parables, and obvious allegories, as stated in the context of the verse(s) being interpreted.

The grammatical method applies the rules of grammar regarding words, sentence structure, and parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions) to determine their meaning and syntactical usage and ensure they are interpreted properly from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages. This method ascribes to each word its literal or customary usage for the time in which it was written.

The historical method diligently studies the historical settings of the ancient cultural, political, and religious practices of the time in which the words of Scripture were written. In other words, we need to consider the context and historical culture of that day to help us understand why an author used certain words and alluded to certain customs. Archaeological finds from biblical times also have given us a better, clearer meaning of the text being studied. The historical method guards us from giving the words a false interpretation or application drawn from modern definitions.

Scripture always must be interpreted within the context in which it was written. The author’s meaning is of primary importance in determining a proper interpretation. The author, not the reader, determines what the text means. A passage of Scripture can have only one meaning within the paragraph and cannot be interpreted accurately apart from context in both Old and New Testaments. It may have many applications, however. For a proper interpretation, we must compare Scripture with Scripture. The Bible is its own best commentary.

8. ISRAEL & THE CHURCH

Abrahamic Covenant
We believe the unconditional covenant God made with Abraham is still in force today, and God will not cancel it.

God made the unconditional covenant with Abram (Abraham), recorded in Genesis 15, that includes a parcel of land in the Middle East to be inherited by Abraham’s physical descendants (v. 18). The details of this covenant’s promises are listed in Genesis 12:1–3.

First, if Abraham left his homeland to go to the land God promised him, he would become a great nation (v. 2). That is, he would have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, leading to a large people group. This promise was fulfilled through Abraham’s son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob (whom God renamed Israel), and Jacob’s 12 sons whose growing tribes became the nation of Israel.

Second, God promised Abraham He would bless him and make his name great (v. 2). This promise has certainly been fulfilled. Almost everyone has heard of Abraham.

Third, God said Abraham would be a blessing (v. 2), a promise repeated in the next verse.

Fourth, God assured Abraham that those who bless him will be blessed and those who curse him (and his descendants) will be cursed (v. 3). If we study history, we see how God dealt with nations and leaders, such as Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and many others who have dared to destroy the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The final promise introduced in verse 2 contains more detail in verse 3: “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Here the scope of promise guarantees Abraham to be a blessing to the entire world, not merely the developing Hebrew nation. As Scripture unfolds, we see the worldwide fulfillment of this last provision come through the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died; was buried; and rose again from the dead so that those who put their faith in Him would have everlasting life and a home in God’s coming earthly Kingdom (Gal. 3:8-9).

The prophecy recorded in Daniel 7 predicts that in God’s coming Kingdom, “all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him” (v. 14). The apostle Paul taught that Christ redeemed us from the law, “that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14).

Thus, the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force and will not be canceled by God. It is an everlasting covenant (Gen. 17:7). Israel’s disobedience of the Mosaic Law does not negate the Abrahamic Covenant’s promises: “And this I say,” wrote Paul, “that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later [than the promise to Abraham], cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ” (Gal. 3:17).

Thus, both the physical promises to Israel – such as the land – and the spiritual promises of salvation that come through Messiah are everlasting under the Abrahamic Covenant.

Israel and the Church
We believe Israel and the church are entirely different entities, with diverse paths in history according to God’s plan for each.

God is doing many different things in history as His multifaceted plan unfolds. Part of His plan involves the two institutions of Israel and the church. To be sure, throughout history, saved individuals in both institutions share some vital truths and experiences.

First, Israel began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Genesis narrative, continuing later with Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt in Exodus. On the other hand, the church began on the day of Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1-2: 11;14-15; 1 Cor. 12:13).

Second, Israel in Scripture is a political nation with a functioning government. The church, however, is not. It has rules of governance, of course; but it does not have political boundaries, nor does it act as one of the countries of the world.1 In fact, it is an international institution in God’s eyes.

Third, a corollary is the fact that God promised Israel a specific land to mark off the nation’s boundaries (Gen. 15). Though disobedience would lead God to scatter the nation (Dt. 28), the people of Israel were always promised they would come back to their land (Dt. 29-32; Isa. 11; Amos 9; Zech. 12-14).

Fourth, Israel is primarily an ethnic entity, although provisions were made for Gentiles within the nation (e.g., Ruth). The church is not ethnic. It is to be comprised of diverse spiritual disciples gathered from people groups the world over (Mt. 28:19-20).

Fifth, the nation of Israel is a covenant community. It has a special relationship to the biblical covenants (Rom. 9:4). On the other hand, the church can be described as an organic, spiritual body in union with Christ and all Church Age believers by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4).

Such a list of differences makes it difficult to suggest there is no distinction between God’s plan for Israel and His plan for the church.

Endnote 1: The language from Exodus of “a holy nation” is applied to the church in 1 Peter 2:9. However, it is at best simply analogous. Using Old Testament imagery with which he was familiar, the apostle Peter was not suggesting anything other than a special grouping of individuals in God’s plan.

Israel’s Future
We believe God has not rejected the Jewish people and has a glorious plan for Israel’s future.

Throughout history, demonically inspired despots like Haman and Hitler have attempted genocide of the Jewish people. The Jews often stand before their history in sober silence, stunned and numbed by the unmitigated brutality their eyes have seen and their hearts have been unable to comprehend. Horrifying pictures of the Holocaust of World War II remind us of Satan’s relentless attempts to eradicate world Jewry.

On May 14, 1948, the Jewish people officially regained their land, as the State of Israel declared its independence as a sovereign nation for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Will Israel survive? Does God still have a plan for the Jewish nation? We believe the answer is yes! The apostle Paul wrote, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew (Rom. 11:2).

Israel will survive and have a glorious future. In fact, God guarantees Israel’s survival forever after its Messiah returns to establish His eternal Kingdom on Earth. Ezekiel 37:15-28 clearly states that Israel, which was divided after King Solomon’s death, will be reunited when the Messiah returns, never again to be destroyed. It will endure as a nation throughout eternity (v. 28).

The prophets also stated explicitly that when the Messiah returns, the Jewish people will be planted in their land forever (Jer. 32:41, Ezek. 28:25). Their restoration in these prophecies does not refer to the Jewish people returning from captivity in Babylon but, rather, to them being gathered from the worldwide Diaspora after the Great Tribulation.

Once in the land, God will institute a New Covenant with Israel (Jer. 31:31-40). This promise is futuristic and will come to fruition only at the Messiah’s glorious appearing. Then Israel’s partial spiritual blindness, mentioned in Romans, will be removed; and all Israel will be saved. The nation’s sin shall be removed forever (Rom. 11:25-27; cf. Zech. 12:10).

When Israel turns to the Lord in total repentance, the Messiah will establish the Millennial Kingdom on Earth; and the world will have true peace. Israel will play a major role on the international scene, as prophesied in Isaiah 65:18-25; Zachariah 8:1-23; and 14:16-21. God will fulfill His promise to place a descendant of David on the throne of Israel forever (2 Sam. 7).

The final evidence that Israel’s future is secure will be Messiah’s 1,000-year reign from Israel. This reign is the first stage of an everlasting, eternal Kingdom of God on Earth that will include all the redeemed throughout the ages. This Kingdom was clearly promised in God’s covenant with Israel.

We believe God will glorify Himself through Israel in the future, and Israel will be a shining example of God’s unparalleled mercy and grace.

9. THINGS TO COME

Resurrection
We believe everyone who ever lived, including unbelievers, will be bodily resurrected from the dead and receive a new, immortal body. However, not everyone will spend eternity enjoying immortality.

The concept of resurrection appears in both the Old and New Testaments (Job 19:25-27; Dan. 12:2; Jn. 5:28-29). It means to be raised from the dead. Jesus Christ said everyone will be raised physically from the dead: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (Jn. 5:28-29).

Bodily resurrection is necessary to complete the salvation of all who placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone (not in good deeds, Eph. 2:8-9) for forgiveness of sin (Rom. 8:23). Christ’s resurrection is called the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20), guaranteeing other believers will be resurrected as well. Church Age saints will receive their resurrected bodies when Christ comes to rapture the church (1 Th. 4:14-17).

The Bible says several resurrections will follow Christ’s. Also destined for glory are Old Testament believers and people who will be martyred for their faith during the future seven-year Tribulation (Rev. 6:9-10; 7:13-14; 13:15). These groups are included in what is called the “first resurrection” (20:4,6).

What will our resurrected bodies be like? They will be like Christ’s (Phil. 3:21). After Jesus arose from the dead, He could talk; walk; see; eat; appear and disappear at will even from locked buildings; and rise into heaven. In His glorified state, He was not merely a spirit; He had an actual body of flesh and bone, but without blood. His body was incorruptible and could not decay, become ill, or feel pain. He could not tire or weaken. Our glorified bodies will be like His, enabling us to live comfortably and joyously throughout eternity.

There is also a final resurrection of every unbeliever throughout the history of mankind – the wicked dead – who are destined for eternal damnation (Jn. 5:25-29). They will experience the “second death” (Rev. 20:14). Second death does not mean they are annihilated or face an unconscious eternity; it means spiritual and physical death. The people in this group will be resurrected, face Christ in judgment at the Great White Throne, and be punished for their sin for eternity in the Lake of Fire (vv. 11-15).

No one will go unjudged. “Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them” (v. 13). Then death, which claims the physical body, and Hades, where the souls and spirits of the unsaved reside in torment, are cast into the Lake of Fire (v. 14). Revelation 20 closes with the simple words, “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (v. 15).

Pretribulation Rapture
We believe the Lord will come for His church in an event called the Rapture prior to a future time of worldwide horror called the Tribulation. The prophet Jeremiah called that blood-curdling period “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7), meaning Israel will be particularly singled out for persecution and genocide. But the Tribulation will also be a time of terror for the entire world.

It will be dark, sinister, and violent and will permeate the earth with evil unlike anything that has preceded it (Mt. 24:21). It is from this global holocaust that God will protect His church:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (1 Th 4:16-17).

In a letter to the church of Philadelphia, the Lord declared, “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” (Rev. 3:10). Speaking of the coming wrath of God’s judgment on the world, the apostle Paul said, “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th. 5:9).

Paul also wrote, “He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way” (2 Th. 2:7). Many people understand the restrainer to be the Holy Spirit, who indwells everyone who is saved. Those who are indwelled constitute the true church. Once the church is removed, the Antichrist can begin his reign of terror.

The Tribulation is intended to bring God’s judgment on unrepentant humanity, as Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, begins taking back the realm of God’s Kingdom on Earth from Satan. The church is never mentioned in the portions of the book of Revelation that talk about the Tribulation; there is no need for the church to be present because believers already were judged at the cross and our sin laid on our Savior, while His righteousness was laid on us.

Many people confuse the Rapture with Christ’s Second Coming. Here are a few differences: In the Rapture, only believers see Christ and are affected by His appearance; His coming is signless; He comes in the air and brings His saints to heaven; then the Tribulation, an awful time of evil, begins. In the Second Coming, everyone on Earth will see Him and be affected by His appearance; His coming is preceded by many signs; He returns to Earth and brings the saints with Him; then the Millennial Kingdom, a wonderful time of peace and joy, begins.

Bodily Return of Christ
We believe Jesus Christ will return in a physical body that everyone will see and recognize.

One of the oldest doctrines of the church is that Jesus Christ will come to Earth a second time. The question is whether He will return in a spiritual form, similar to the Holy Spirit, or in a physical form.

Job said, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26). The Jewish prophet Zechariah wrote, “And in that day His [the Messiah’s, meaning Christ’s] feet will stand on the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4).

In the New Testament, Jesus Himself said 22 times He will physically come back to Earth, and 50 times men are told to be ready for His bodily return. One of the clearest texts is Acts 1:9-11:

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Clearly, this text does not mean Christ spiritually disappeared from Earth; nor should it be interpreted as Him spiritually returning. His ascension was not a symbolic vision that came to the believers who witnessed it. The text must be interpreted in its context as literal and historical, confirmed by two angels who said Jesus was taken into heaven in His resurrected body and would return the same way.

We believe Jesus ascended from Earth bodily into the clouds and will return in a physical body in the clouds: “All the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mt. 24:30). Without a physical body, no one would be able to see him.

The apostle John described what Christ will look like when He appears. He will have eyes like “a flame of fire,” many crowns on His head, and blood on His garment; and “on His robe and on His thigh” it will be written, ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:12-13, 16). He will also be riding a white horse (v. 11), symbolizing His glorious victory over God’s enemies. His return will be personal, bodily, and visible to everyone on Earth (1:7).

At His return as the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), Jesus will become God’s representative to rule over the realm of God’s Kingdom on Earth so that His will is done on Earth as it is in heaven (Mt. 6:10). Only before Adam sinned did God have someone qualified in all ways to rule over His earthly Kingdom. Jesus also will fulfill God’s covenant promise to David to place David’s descendant on his throne over Israel in perpetuity (2 Sam. 7).

The Millennial Kingdom
We believe Jesus will return and set up an earthly Davidic Kingdom that will endure for a literal thousand years.

Both Old and New Testaments leave us with the feeling of anticipation. As the Old Testament ends, we’re left anticipating that God will send His Messiah to establish and restore His Kingdom. And as the New Testament ends, we’re left anticipating that Jesus, the promised Messiah, will return soon and establish the Kingdom God promised.

Even the disciples were waiting for Jesus to establish the Kingdom. “Tell us,” they asked him, “when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” (Mt. 24:3).

Jesus highlighted some events of the seven-year Tribulation to indicate judgment from above is coming, calling them “the beginning of sorrows: (KJV, NKJV) or “birth pangs” (NASB, v. 8). He compared the Tribulation to the experience of birthing a child. The pain is real, and the suffering is unbearable. Yet, through it all, pure joy erupts when the mother sees her child for the first time.

If certain Tribulation events constitute the birth pangs, then the Millennial Kingdom is equivalent to the child being born. It is the Kingdom God promised King David when He told him, “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam . 7:16, emphasis added).

The Millennial Kingdom gets its name from Revelation 20. Six times (vv. 2-7) the phrase a thousand years is used to describe the Kingdom Jesus Christ brings at His literal, physical, visible, bodily return to Earth (Zech. 14:1-4). Mille means “thousand” in Latin, and annum means “year.” This is the Kingdom God promised through the Old Testament prophets and the one about which Jesus preached.

The prophet Isaiah provided one of the clearest pictures of Jesus’ Millennial reign:

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and Justice from that time forward, and even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isa. 9:6-7).

Jesus is the Child born and the Son given, whose reign will be global and whose rule will bring true peace because He is the Prince of Peace. He will sit on the throne of His ancestor David in Jerusalem; and His reign will be marked by justice, righteousness, and peace From Jerusalem will flow godly instruction to the nations of the world. (Mic. 4:1-2).

In the Millennial Kingdom, all God’s promises to Israel finally will be realized, and Israel will be the head of all nations, not the tail (cf. Dt. 28:13). When the thousand years end, Jesus will judge all unbelievers who have ever lived at the Great White Throne Judgement (Rev. 20:11-15), and the eternal state will begin (chaps. 21-22).

The Eternal State
We believe the final resting place for all believers of all ages will be in the new heavens and new earth, as well as the New Jerusalem where God the Father and Jesus, the Lamb of God, will reign for all of eternity.

Though Scripture does not say a great deal about the eternal state, God does reveal that someday, He not only will remove the curse of sin and defeat all His enemies, but He also will replace the current heavens and earth (Isa. 51:6, 65:17-19; 66:22-23; 2 Pet. 3:10-14; Rev. 21:1)

The apostle Paul tells us that after the Millennial Kingdom ends, when Jesus Christ has defeated the enemies of man resulting from the curse, He will hand the Kingdom of God back to God the Father so that the Father can be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24-28). In other words, God will have what He intended when He created the world: a Kingdom and a realm where all of His creation worships Him and does His will only.

The final chapters of the final book of the Bible, Revelation 21-22, describe the eternal state. The Bible ends as it began before the fall, in a garden setting with a tree of life and Jesus Christ ruling over His Kingdom. Everything between Genesis 2 and Revelation 21 is the outworking of God’s plan to redeem the world and restore His creation to the pre-curse condition. The eternal state is the fulfillment and completion of God’s redemptive plan.

The apostle John tells us the New Jerusalem will display God’s glory and be greater by far than any city ever known to mankind. It’s beauty, size, and construction will be unlike anything humanity ever built. This is the city Abraham longed for that has foundations and whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). The streets are made of gold and the foundations of precious stone.

In the eternal state, God will wipe away all tears. There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, for the things of this world will have passed away. The Father and the Lamb will continuously illuminate the new earth, and there will be no night. We will be able to look on God’s face and not die.

God the Father and the Lamb will reign forever and ever. All of these things and more are vividly described in Revelation 21-22.

Knowing this world will pass away in fervent heat and that God’s day of judgment is sure to come should cause us to live holy lives in great anticipation of the promise of the new heavens and earth (2 Pet. 3:10-14).

Before closing the book of Revelation, God warns that only those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and are washed by His blood will enjoy eternity with Him in the eternal state.

(*5-9 with permission from The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc.)

10. FINAL POINTS ON SALVATION – We are neither Arminian nor Calvinist. We believe in salvation by grace

through faith in the finished work of Christ. We believe in the eternal security of the believer. We believe that Jesus Christ died for all men, and we believe what the Bible says, “That whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” We disagree with all five points of Calvinism as John Calvin taught it. (For more information, please see: Why I Disagree with All 5 Points of Calvinism by Dr. Curtis Hutson (1934-1995).