ABOUT
THE BIBLE
Blessings Community Church believes The Bible does not merely contain the “Word of God,” it is the “Word of God.” The Bible is the inspired Word of God, it is “God-breathed.” The Bible is infallible and inerrant, reliable, true and eternal.
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
Since God’s Word is the only completely reliable and truthful authority, we accept the Bible as our manual for living. The Bible is the basis for all we believe and the revelation about our God. As we each study the Bible regularly and faithfully, the indwelling Holy Spirit will enable us to mature into the preordained purpose of God for our lives.
THE TRI-UNITY OF THE GODHEAD
Blessings Community Church believes there is one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that all three possess equally all the same attributes, nature, perfections, and characteristics of personality. God is holy, eternal, immutable, righteous, just and merciful. He is Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being: the Creator of all things, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinitely holy and perfect. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. He is eternal, loving, just, merciful, mighty, and unchanging. He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-wise. He is Father to those who become His children through faith in Jesus Christ.
JESUS THE CHRIST
Blessings Community Church believes in the Virgin Birth and the Deity of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who is also Son of Man, with two distinct natures in one Person forever. We believe that the Man Christ Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit; that He was without sin; We believe the vicarious substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross made atonement for the sin of the world, for all who repent and believe. That He was buried; that He arose on the third day in the same but glorified body in which He lived and died; that He ascended to the right hand of God the Father; that by His death He provided atonement for all men, but it is applied only to those who believe. We believe that the God-Man Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of God the Father; that He functions as the High Priest for all believers ever making intercession for them. We believe in the personal and physical and bodily return of Christ for the Church and for Israel.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit; that He is the infallible author and interpreter of the infallible Word; that He convicts, regenerates, indwells, empowers, instructs, and guides the believer in living, service, and worship through His gifts; that in this age He baptizes and permanently indwells and seals all believers into one body; that His chief purpose is to witness and glorify Christ; that His fullness and power and control are appropriated in the believer’s life by faith.
MAN
Man was created in God’s own image. Man was created with a physical nature, a mind and will, and a spiritual nature.; that he fell through sin and lost his spiritual life; that he is dead in his trespasses and sins and, hence, is totally depraved; that he fell into sin through the first Adam, and that he is responsible for all sin he has committed. Sin causes him to be separated from God and lost eternally. When Adam sinned, all men came under the penalty of eternal, spiritual death. Man is saved from the penalty of his sins, by God’s grace through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the tomb.
SALVATION
Salvation is “the gift of God.” Man cannot keep God’s law without sinning. “To sin” literally means “to miss the mark” and all men have sinned. God’s plan for the salvation of man was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. He took the punishment for sin for all men. In order to receive the gift of salvation, individuals must come to know they are sinners, knowing they cannot earn God’s pardon. They must repent - turn from their sin; place their faith in what Jesus did for them on the cross. Salvation is a transformation. It is being “born again.” Salvation is a “once-for-all time” event and a life changing process (sanctification) that continues until we are in heaven. We believe that at the point of salvation, the sinner becomes totally accepted by God, united totally with Christ and, hence, loved and accepted by the Father as Christ is loved and accepted; We believe that all true believers once saved are eternally secure forever because of the nature and work of Christ and the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life; that it is the privilege of all who are saved to be assured of their salvation from the very moment that they accept Him as Saviour; that this assurance is not based on their own merit, but by the testimony of the Scriptures and the witness of the Holy Spirit.
ABOUT HEAVEN
Heaven is a literal, beautiful, and perfect place prepared by God for those who have placed their faith in His dear Son. The most wonderful thing about heaven is the presence of the Lord Himself. Everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will live forever in a resurrected and glorified body in heaven.
ABOUT HELL
Hell is also a literal place prepared by God for Satan and his angels. Every person who dies without accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will spend eternity in this place of everlasting punishment. It is a place of eternal suffering: physical, mental, and spiritual.
ABOUT SATAN
Satan is a real person. He was created in perfection and originally lived in heaven, but was cast out of heaven with the host of angels whom he led in a rebellion against God. Satan is wholly depraved, powerful, and deceptive. He is the temporary ruler of this world, the head of a vast network of evil spirits who work ceaselessly for the destruction of all that is godly. It is Satan’s aim to keep unsaved people lost and to divide, deceive, and devour individual Christians and New Testament churches. We believe Satan keeps a close watch on believers and stands ready to tempt them at their vulnerable points. Christ defeated Satan at the cross at Calvary; through His power and blood, believers have authority over Satan. Satan and his followers are doomed to be cast into the lake of fire at the end of the age.
ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
It is the believer’s highest privilege to live for Christ in this world. Christ indwells us by His Holy Spirit, giving us His power and enabling us to be all that God requires. The Christian life is a constant struggle between the flesh and the spirit, but we possess supernatural armor to protect us in this spiritual warfare. It is a life of faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and separation from the ways of the world. As long as we live in obedience to the commands of God, we will experience spiritual growth and become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. As we live by the promises of God, we will abound in fruitfulness and the fruit of the Spirit will be manifested in the way we live and witness to others. We believe that witnessing and sharing our faith is a normal and necessary expression of the Christian life. The Christian should always be careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising his or her loyalty to Christ and His truth.
ISRAEL
We believe that God called a people to Himself who are the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that God intends to fulfill all His promises to Israel in a literal way just as His warnings and judgments were fulfilled in a literal way; that in Israel’s history of unbelief there has always been a believing remnant through grace; that there will be a national regeneration of Israel at which time all of the provisions of the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled, including the seed, land, and blessing aspects.
THE CHURCH
The word “church” means “called out ones.” The true church is made up of people who have accepted Jesus as Savior. The characteristics of a New Testament church are found in Acts 2. They are worship, evangelism, teaching/discipleship, community among believers, stewardship and service to others.
We believe that Christians are called to witness for Christ, to preach the gospel to all nations, and to study the Bible personally through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit until each one is matured into the preordained purpose of God for him.
We believe that all believers are obligated to assemble together for the purpose of participation in the ordinances, to be taught the Scriptures by gifted men, to edify each other, and to worship God; that this assembling is to be organized as a local church under authoritative leadership; that the believer is called to holy living in the power of the indwelling Spirit; to fight the spiritual warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil; to use his spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up of the local body of Christ.
We believe that it is the responsibility of both the church and the individual believer to evangelize and disciple all nations both actively (doing the work of evangelism) and passively (supporting those doing the work of evangelism): that the specific procedure for discipling the nations is “to the Jew first” and this is also true in both active and passive evangelism.
BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
Baptism is a Greek word that means to immerse, plunge or submerge. Jesus was baptized to establish an example for believers. It is a step of obedience to Jesus, following salvation. It symbolizes the believer’s faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, and is a testimony to the world of the believer’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism identifies a believer with Jesus Christ and the people of God. The Lord’s Supper (Communion) was instituted by Jesus. It is a remembrance of what He did for us on the cross. The elements of the Lord’s Supper (the fruit of the vine and the unleavened bread) are symbolic of Jesus’ blood and His body.
ABOUT GIVING
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; we owe all we have to Him. Christians therefore have the honor to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions, and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for God’s glory and to help others. We encourage every Christian to give cheerfully of his/her tithe to the Lord through the local church. Furthermore, the tithe should be a starting point from which the Christian should give additionally as directed by the Holy Spirit. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute their means cheerfully, regularly, proportionately, and liberally as an act of dedication to Jesus Christ and in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
ABOUT WORLD EVANGELISM
It is the duty and privilege of every believer to do all that is possible to make the gospel available to as many people as possible. Missionary effort begins at home, then spreads to the community, the city, the state, the nation, and the world. It is the personal duty of every child of God to constantly seek to win the lost to Christ. It is the corporate duty of the church to direct its energies to getting the gospel to all the world in fulfillment of the Great Commission.