Bear Swamp Baptist Church

The Bible

The Bible is God's written revelation concerning Himself & His creation. Since God cannot lie, we can be sure that everything in it is true. Every discipline upon which it touches (faith, history, science, sociology, psychology, etc.) the Scripture conveys truth.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ in the flesh was fully God and fully man;  born of a virgin; lived a sinless life; taught and worked signs &  wonders  gospels; was crucified, died as a penalty for our sins and was later raised from the dead bodily on the third day; ascended to the Father’s right hand where He is head of the church and intercedes for believers, and from whence He is literally & physically coming again to rule the nations of this world.

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God, one of the three Persons of the Trinity. He proceeds from the Father & the Son. He gifts believers with abilities with which they are to worship God and bless His people. The Holy Spirit is not the author of confusion, and does not generate or sanction the false "tongues" seen in some circles today.

The Church

We believe there is one church universal, which is comprised of all who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.  The Scriptures command believers to gather together to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, fellowship, service to the body, and outreach to the world.  Wherever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to these commands, there is the local expression of the church.  Under the watch care of elders and deacons, its members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the one ultimate purpose of glorifying God.  (Rom. 3:22; Acts 2:42-47; Matt. 28:19; Lk. 22:19; Heb. 10:24-25; Gal. 6:10; Acts 1:8; 1 Tim. 3:1 Peter 5:1-3; Jn. 4:7; Eph. 3:21)

Creation

We affirm that God created everything supernaturally without the aid of macroevolution in the near past (>10,000 years). We deny the "molecules to man" theory of evolution as a tool of Satan used to undermine the authority of God's Word.

The Trinity

The Godhead exists eternally in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - and  these three are one God, and are worthy of precisely the same confidence, obedience, and worship.

Sin

All men have defied God and chosen to go their own independent way and, thereby, stand condemned by God.  Sin is not a psychological experience, a sociological construct, or any other unbiblical explanation. Sin is the transgression of God's moral law as clearly revealed in the Bible.

Human Sexuality & Marriage

We affirm the following:

• God designed marriage, gender, and sex.

• Gender is a binary biological reality present at birth. This is God’s original design, but we recognize that in rare cases people are born with ambiguous biological characteristics.

• Sin mars God’s original design, and people consequently are born with sin in their hearts and their identities.

• All sexual activity outside of marriage is sinful and displeasing to the Lord.

• Marriage is a life-long commitment between two people of opposite genders.

We deny the following:

• Any same sex relationship is properly called marriage.

• The Bible’s prohibitions against sexual activity outside of marriage were culturally specific.

• It can be pleasing to the Lord for one to change his/her physical gender because of a perceived psychological identification with another gender.

 

Finally, we commit to upholding God's vision & ideal of human sexuality & marriage. Therefore, at Bear Swamp Baptist Church, we will take part only in marriages that uphold the Biblical ethic as outlined above. Further, our properties will not be used in any ceremony that does not hold to this standard.