Lakeland Bible Church

STATEMENT of Faith

A. WE BELIEVE in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired by God, inerrant in the original writing, and that they are the final authority in faith and life. (2 Timothy 3: 16, 17; 2 Peter 1: 20. 21).

B. WE BELIEVE in only one true, living, personal God, who is perfect, infinite, eternal, and who exists in three co-equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 45: 21, Matthew 3: 16, 17; 2 Corinthians 13: 14; Ephesians 4:6).

C. WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God; that He came in the flesh, being begotten of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, thus being true God and true man, in order that He might redeem us from eternal death through His suffering and death on the cross; that He was raised from the dead for our justification and is now at the right hand of God interceding for us. (Deuteronomy 6: 4; Isaiah 9: 6; Isaiah 7: 14; Matthew 1: 18-25; John 1: 1-3; John 1: 29; John 3: 16; Romans 4: 25; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4; Philippians 2: 5-8; Colossians 1: 15, 16; Hebrews 4: 14-16; Revelation 1: 8; Revelation 22: 13).

D. WE BELIEVE the Holy Spirit to be a member of the Godhead, of the same nature with the Father and the Son and that all three were active in creation; that in His relationship to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment; that He bears witness to the truth that He seals, indwells, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies, and helps believers and endows them with spiritual gifts. (Genesis 1: 2; John 16:7-14; John 3: 3, 5; John 14: 16, 17; Acts 4: 31; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-7; Ephesians 1: 13; 2 Thessalonians 2: 7.)

E. WE BELIEVE that Satan is a real supernatural personality, a fallen angel, cunning and wicked; the enemy of God and of all good, seeking the destruction of Christ and the eternal ruin of man; but who has been defeated by Christ’s death and is doomed to be cast forever into the lake of Fire. (Matthew 13: 19, 39; Mark 1: 13; John 13: 2; Colossians 2: 15, Revelation 20: 10.)

F. WE BELIEVE that man was created by God in His own image, male and female, but that man sinned against God and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also spiritual death, which is separation from God; that now in his natural state he is spiritually depraved, being born with a sinful nature which produces sins of thought, word and deed; that he needs a Redeemer, and that by repenting of sin, and by faith, receiving Jesus Christ and Him only as his Savior, he is born again by the Holy Spirit, experiences His saving grace and becomes a child of God. (Genesis 1: 26, 27; Genesis 3: 1-24; John 1: 12-13; John 5: 24; John 14: 6; Acts 4: 12; Romans 1: 19-32; Romans 3: 23, 24; Romans 5: 12; 2 Corinthians 7: 10; Ephesians 2: 8, 9; 2 Timothy 2:5.)

G. WE BELIEVE in the bodily resurrection of every person, the saved to life everlasting and the unsaved to eternal condemnation. (John 3: 16-18; John 5: 24-29; 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17; Revelation 20: 10-15.)

H. WE BELIEVE in the “blessed hope” of the personal, pre-millennial, and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Matthew 25: 13; John 14: 3; Acts 1: 11; 1 Corinthians 15: 50-52; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18; Titus 2: 13; 1 John 3: 2-3.)

Re-drafted as of July 23rd, 2022