The Doctrinal Distinctives of CBC
The following doctrinal distinctives are what we at CBC teach and adhere to:
The Word Of God
We believe that the Bible is the complete written Word of God, fully inspired in every word without error as given by God. We
believe that the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit and is the final and supreme authority in all matters of faith
and conduct. (Joshua 1:8; Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Ma thew 5:18)
The Trinity
We believe there is one living and true God, eternally existing in three
persons (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit); that they are equal; in
Divine perfection; and that they execute distinct but harmonious
offices in the work of creation, providence and redemption.
(Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Peter
1:1-2)
- God the Father—We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness,
infinite in wisdom, measureless in power. He is the Sovereign ruler in
creation, providence, and redemption. We
rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that
He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all
that come to Him through faith in Christ Jesus. (Psalm 89:11; Matthew 3:17; John 15:7; Ephesians 1:3-6)
- God the Son—We believe in Jesus Christ, the second person of the triune
God, the eternal Word and only begotten Son, not talking about being
created, as being inferior to God. Opposite: He is of the same kind,
the same genes, the same nature, the same essence of God. He is God. We
believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles and teachings. We
believe in His substitutionary atoning death on the cross, His bodily
resurrection from the grave, His ascension into heaven, His perpetual
intercession for His people, and His visible return to set up His
millennial kingdom upon this earth. (John 1:1-4; 3:16; Philippians
2:5-11; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 8:34)
- God the Holy Spirit—We believe that
the Holy Spirit is a divine equal with the Father and the Son. We
believe He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He
regenerates, baptizes, seals, indwells, and anoints all who become
children of God through Christ. He guides, teaches, sanctifies, and
fills believers who, moment by moment surrender to Him. While
the baptism and the sealing of the Holy Spirit take place at the moment
of salvation, all believers are exhorted to be filled with the Holy
Spirit on a daily basis. (John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians
1:13-14, 5:18)
Man
We believe that mankind is the direct creation of God, being made in His image and likeness. By
personal disobedience to the revealed will of God, mankind became a
sinful creature and a fallen race which is universally sinful in both
nature and practice. Thus, mankind is alienated
from the life and family of God, is placed under the righteous judgment
and wrath of God, and have, within themselves, no possible means of
salvation. (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 1:1-23)
Salvation
We believe that the only escape from the condemnation of sin is through
the redemption brought by Jesus Christ. God says that everyone has
sinned and fallen short of His glory and righteous requirements for
salvation. Our sin, which can never be erased by good deeds, condemns
us to hell. All
people, from the moment of birth, are alienated from God and are
enemies of Him, lost and without hope in what the Bible calls a
“crooked and depraved generation.” Paying the price for sin, Jesus
Christ died in our place. He demonstrated His great love for us, even
when sin removed us far from Him. Everyone who repents and believes in
Jesus Christ will have eternal life; and that life, which is eternal
can never be lost. (Romans 3:23; 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 5:8;
John 3:16; 1 John 5:11-13)
Angels, Demons, and Satan
We believe in the existence of heavenly beings called angels. They are
innumerable and superior to mankind in intelligence and strength. Most
are good, but some are evil. The
angels who are good and righteous, carry out God’s plan as His special
messengers and serve those who will inherit salvation.
We believe Satan is a created angel who through pride and ambition
rebelled against God, thus becoming utterly depraved in character and
the great adversary of God and His people. Satan introduced sin into
the world by his temptation of Adam and Eve; he is the author of sin
and the openly declared enemy of God and man. Satan is the leader of
all evil angels, the deceiver and god of this present world. His powers
are vast but strictly limited by the permissive will of God.
We believe he has been defeated through the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ and will be eternally punished in the lake of fire.
Christians are able to resist and overcome him only by the blood of the
Lamb, with the full armor of God, and through the power of
the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 3:1-15; Ezekiel 28:14-19; Isaiah 14:12-14;
Hebrews 1:14; Jude 6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 20:10; Ephesians
6:10-17)
The Church
We believe in the church, Christ’s body and bride. We
believe in the universal church, a living spiritual body of which
Christ is the head and all regenerated believers are members. We
believe in the local church, consisting in a company of believers in
Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith and associated
together for worship, work and fellowship. The
church has the right and responsibility of self-government by the
direction of the Holy Spirit under the laws of God and the headship of
Jesus Christ. (Matthew 16:18; Acts 2:1-47; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Ephesians 2:11—3:6; Colossians 1:18) There
are two ordinances which the Lord Jesus left for every believer to
practice until His return—baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper.
- Baptism: We believe in Christian baptism by immersion. It
is the testimony of a believer, showing in a solemn and beautiful
symbol one’s faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savoir. It
symbolizes union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to a new
life. (Romans 6:1-11; Acts 8:36-39; Matthew 28:18-20)
- Lord’s Supper: We
believe that the Lord’s Supper (also called Communion) is the
commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes, and should
be preceded always by solemn self examination. While
Christ’s flesh and blood are not actually present in the elements, the
Lord’s Supper is an actual communion with the risen Christ who is
present in a unique way, fellowshipping with His people. (1 Corinthians 10:16; 11:23-38)
The Last Things
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all people: the saved to
eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. We
believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the
body and present with the Lord, where, in conscious rest, they await
the first resurrection when spirit, soul and body are reunited to be
glorified forever with the Lord. We believe the
souls of unbelievers remain after death in a conscious misery until the
second resurrection when the spirit, soul and body are reunited. They
shall appear at the Great White Throne for judgment and shall be cast
into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting
conscious punishment. (Romans 8:38-39; Matthew 25:4-26; 1 Thessalonians
4:13-18; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Revelation 20:1-6)
Christian Conduct
We believe that all Christians are instructed to live for the glory of
God! We seek to realize for ourselves and other believers the full stature of
maturity in Christ by servicing one another as Christ modeled for us. We
believe that our conduct needs to be blameless before the world, and as
Christ’s ambassadors, we appeal to the unbelieving to be reconciled to
God. We believe further that we are to be faithful stewards of all our
possessions, giving to God from a Cheerful Heart. (John 14:21; Romans
12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 7:1; 1 John 2:15-17)
Spiritual Gifts
We believe the effectiveness of a church cannot be realized by the pastor
and elders alone, but rather through the expression of all God’s people
in a local church. The Holy Spirit works within and through the Word of
God and never independently of it. He came to glorify Jesus Christ and
make Him preeminent in the Church. To
accomplish that end, the Holy Spirit equips every believer with at
least one gift, so that the work of the ministry may be conducted by all the believers as they share in
the ministry, through exercising those gifts GRACIOUSLY given by Him.
(Ephesians 4:11-12; 1 Peter 4:10; Romans 12:608; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10)
To put it in its simplest terms, a spiritual gift is a skill or an
ability, given by the Holy Spirit of God, “that enables each Christian
to perform a function in the body of Christ with ease and
effectiveness.”1
It could be said, then, that the best thing we can do for one another
and the community in which we live, is to use our gift to the very best
of our ability.
The Holy Spirit gives a variety of gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-7) to be
used in a variety of ways that have a variety of results. Primarily,
when we utilize our gifts we are:
- Bringing honor and glory to God,
- Influencing other believers toward unity and maturity,
- Contributing to the growth of the body, and
- Enabling the church to withstand the subtle deceitfulness of the world. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
“Notice that the Holy Spirit’s distribution of spiritual gifts is just
as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11)! This means that we don’t need to
pray, plead, or wait for our gift. We should be wary of anyone who
teaches that we can acquire spiritual gifts through self effort. In
fact, the opposite is true, for the Holy Spirit matches us with our
gifts without any effort on our part. And it is always a perfect fit.”2
1Swindoll, Charles. He Gave Gifts, p. 3.
2Swindoll, p.4
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