What We Believe

We, the Living Word Baptist Church, believe the Holy Bible to be the source of truth.  We gladly turn to it as the source of our faith.  Here is a brief summary of our faith in a topical format.

God is one in essence and nature and yet composed of three persons; thus there is one, and only one, true God and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; that they are co-equal and execute distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.
Exodus 20:2-3; I Corinthians 8:6; Genesis 17:1; II Corinthians 3:17; 1 John 5:7; Deuteronomy 6:4

The writings of the Old and New Testaments, as originally written, were verbally inspired, therefore making God the actual author of the Bible. God has preserved His words without error and we have God's complete revelation in faithful copies of the original Biblical languages today. We have confidence in the Greek testament commonly referred to as the Textus Receptus, the Hebrew testament commonly referred to as the Masoretic text, and in their English translation (the King James Version). The Old and New Testaments are our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice.
II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:19-21; Psalm 12:7; Matthew 5:18

The Genesis account of creation is neither allegory nor myth, but a literal account of the direct creative acts of God in six literal days. No evolution was employed. All of mankind are descendants of the historical Adam and Eve. All of mankind are created in the image and likeness of God, given emotion, intellect, and will, with living eternal souls.
Genesis 1&2; John 1:3; Exodus 20:11; Genesis 3:20

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Eden, they brought about the ruin of the entire human race causing it to fall into sin which brought spiritual, physical, and eternal death.
Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12-19

Sin is the transgression of the law, will and desire of God; sin is disobedience, lawlessness, "a missing the mark" of God's revealed will. Mankind was created in innocence and by voluntary choice people transgressed God's law, and everyone sinned in Adam, therefore all mankind are totally depraved being sinners by nature and by conduct.
Genesis 3:1-7; Romans 3:10-19, 5:12,19; I John 3:4; James 4:17

The penalty of sin is death: spiritual death, physical death, and eternal death in hell.
Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:11-15

Jesus' death made a full and vicarious (in our place) payment for all our sins. His death consisted not in merely setting an example for us as a martyr, but was a voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinners' place, the Just (Jesus) dying for the unjust, bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.  There could be NO salvation without His death through the shedding of His blood. Because Jesus paid for all of the sins of the whole world, the only thing that keeps people out of Heaven and condemned to Hell, is the rejection of Jesus and the refusal to repent and believe in Him alone as the only way of salvation.
Romans 3:24-25; Hebrews 2:14, 9:22; Isaiah 53; I Peter 1:18-21, 2:24, 3:18; John 3:16-19, 10:18, 19:30; Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 10:12,14; 1 John 2:2

Salvation from sin, death, and hell, is a free gift from God, not merited in any way, therefore is wholly by God's grace through Jesus. Salvation is received by repentance and the placing of one's faith (trust) in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 2:8-9; Mark 1:15; Acts 19:4; Luke 24:47; Romans 10:9-11

Repentance is a change of mind and purpose from sin toward God; it is characterized by godly sorrow for sin, which separates man from God, and true repentance is inseparably related to true faith.
Acts 20:21; Acts 2:37-38, 10:43, 11:17-18

The church is an organized assembly of saved, baptized believers meeting for worship, prayer, fellowship, teaching, to practice the ordinances, and to carry out the Great Commission. This assembly is independent and free to govern itself without ecclesiastical interference, but is accountable to the Scriptures and to its Head (Jesus Christ).
Matthew 28:19-20; I Corinthians 11:2; Acts 2:41-42; Matthew 18:15-17; Acts 15; Colossians 1:18

Through sin, division, and different doctrinal beliefs, many different kinds of churches have been established. The church was started by Christ and empowered on the day of Pentecost, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within individual believers. The distinctive beliefs of the Baptists are those of the New Testament church and we have an historic and doctrinal continuity which stretches back to Jesus Christ.  
Matthew 3:1-2,13, 16:18; Acts 20:28-30; II Timothy 4:1-4; III John 1:9  

We believe in the imminent, pre-tribulational catching away of the saints, and that at that moment the dead in Christ shall be raised in glorified bodies, and the living in Christ shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
I Thessalonians 4:13-18, 5:1-11; I Corinthians 15:42-­44, 51-54; Philippians 3:20-21; Revelation 3:10

We believe that the Tribulation Period is designed by God to judge the nations of the world, and to fulfill God's promises to Israel, and to save Israel. This period, which follows the Rapture of the saints, will be culminated by the revelation of Christ in His personal bodily return in power and great glory, to sit upon the throne of David and to establish a literal 1000-year reign upon this earth, with both resurrected Israelites and Gentile Christians.
Daniel 9:25-27; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 1:30-33; Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-9; Acts 2:29-30; Revelation 20:1-4, 6

We are neither Calvinists nor Arminiasts.  The teachings of God’s Word are not a middle ground between these belief systems, but stands against the false teachings of both.  Although we believe our Articles of Faith already clearly describe what we believe, it is necessary to specifically declare that both systems contradict the clear teaching of Scripture on salvation and eternal security.  We are Biblicists striving to rightly divide the Word of Truth.
2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-7