About Us

MEMORIAL BAPTIST DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

Section 1: The Scriptures

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and New Testament to be the verbally inspired Word of God, without error in the original writings, infallible and God-breathed, the final authority for faith and life, and designed in its entirety for our practical instruction. (Luke 24:27, 44; Romans 15:4; I Corinthians 10:11; II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:21)

Section 2: The Godhead

We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three Persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit- and that these three are one God; having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections; and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; Mark 11:29; II Corinthians 13:14)

Section 3: The Person and Work of Christ

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men. (John 1:1-2, 14; Luke 1:35)

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead. (Romans 3:24-25; Ephesians 1:7; II Peter 1:3-5; 2:24; 3:18)

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and now is exalted at the right hand of God, where as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate. (Acts 1:9-10; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; I John 2:1-2)

Section 4: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise; and that He now dwells in each and all believers, thus uniting them to Christ in one body; and that He, as the indwelling One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service. We believe that He never takes His departure from the Church, nor from the feeblest of the saints; but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy believers with Him and not with themselves, nor with their experiences. We believe that His abode in the world in this special sense will cease when the Church is completed and when Christ comes to receive His own. (John 14:16-17; 16:7-15; I Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:22; II Thessalonians 2:7)

We believe that in this age certain well-defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand these and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience. These ministries are: The restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will; the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment; the regenerating of all believers; the indwelling of all who are saved to guide, direct and teach them all truth; the baptizing into one body of Christ all who are saved; the sealing of believers unto the day of redemption, and the continued filling for the power and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him and who are subject to His will. (II Thessalonians 2:7; John 16:7-11; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30; 5:18; I John 2:20-27)

Section 5: Man Created and Fallen

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God in innocence and without sin; but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and that man is totally depraved, and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition. (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:17; 6:5; Psalm 14:1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10-19,23; Ephesians 2:1-3)

Section 6: Salvation Only Through Christ

We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins. (John 1:12; Romans 5:6-9; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10; I Peter 1:18-19)

We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing, and is in no way in itself a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are and other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. ( John 1:12; 3:16-18, 36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts 13:39; 16:31; Romans 1:16; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Galatians 3:22)

Section 7: Eternal Security

We believe that because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love; because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ; because of the prayer of the Son of God while here on earth; because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life; because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven; because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God; because of the regenerating abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved; we and all true believers everywhere, once saved, shall be kept saved forever. We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father; and that since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will in the end present them, every one, faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. (John 5:24; 10:28; 13:1; 14:16-17; 17:11; Romans 8:29; I Corinthians 6:19; Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:1-2; 5:13; Jude 24)

Section 8: Assurance

We believe that it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior; and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, resulting in love, gratitude, and obedience within His children. (Luke 10:20; 21:32; II Corinthians 5:1; 6-8; II Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:22; I John 5:13)

Section 9: Sanctification

We believe that sanctification, which is a setting apart unto God, is threefold. It is already complete for every saved person because his position toward God is the same as Christ’s position. Since the believer is in Christ, he is set apart unto God. We believe, however, that he retains his sin nature, which cannot be eradicated in this life. Therefore, while the standing of the Christian in Christ is perfect, his present state is no more perfect than his experience in daily life. There is therefore a progressive sanctification, wherein the Christian is to “grow in grace” and to “be changed” by the unhindered power of the Spirit. We believe, also, that the child of God will yet be fully sanctified in his state, as he is now sanctified in his standing in Christ, when he shall see his Lord and shall be “like Him.” (John 17:17; II Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; Ephesians 4:24; 5:25-27; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 10:10; 12:10)

Section 10: The Christian’s Walk

We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit, that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh with its fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being with us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to bring reproach and dishonor upon our Savior and Lord. (Romans 6:11-13; 8:4; 12-13; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 4:22-24; I Peter 1:14-16; John 1:4-7; 3:5-9)

Section 11: The Christian’s Service

We believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit upon all who are saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is energized by the same Spirit, and each is called to his own divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church, there were certain gifted men-apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers- who were appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints unto their work of the ministry. We believe also that today some men are especially called of God to be evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling of His Will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and encouraged in their service to God. (Romans 12:6; I Corinthians 12:4-11; Ephesians 4:11)

We believe that wholly apart from salvation benefits which are bestowed equally upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer in his service for the Lord, and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to receive His own unto Himself. (I Corinthians 3:9-15; II Corinthians 5:10)

Section 12: Satan

We believe that Satan is a created being, the author of sin, and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and the people of God; who in his warfare appears as an angel of light, even counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and systems of doctrine, which systems in every case are characterized by a denial of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and salvation by grace alone. We believe that he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire. (Genesis 3:1-15; Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Matthew 25:41; II Corinthians 11:13-15; Ephesians 6:10-12; Revelation 20:10)

Section 13: The Church

We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God through faith in Him are members of the church, which is the body and bride of Christ, which began at Pentecost, and is completely distinct from Israel. Its members are constituted as such, regardless of membership or non-membership in the organized churches or earth. (Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:5; I Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23)

We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches, composed only of saved individuals, is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament scriptures. (Acts 14:27; 20:17; I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

Section 14: The Ordinances

We believe that water baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper are the only ordinances of the church, and that they are a Scriptural means of testimony for the church in this age. (Matthew 28:19; I Corinthians 11:23-26)

We believe that baptism is the immersion of the believer in water in the name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—symbolizing said believer’s union by faith with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. (Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:1-10)

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a memorial and should be commemorated frequently by the use of bread and the cup as emblems of the body and blood of Christ, and that each believer should examine himself and so let him partake of these elements. (Matthew 26:26-29; I Corinthians 10:16-17, 21; 33:23-26)

Section 15: The Great Commission

We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved, that they are sent forth by Him into the world to make disciples, even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. We believe that after they are saved, they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the whole world. (Matthew 28:18-19, John 17:18; Acts 1:8; II Corinthians 5:20)

Section 16: The Blessed Hope

We believe in the personal, imminent, pre-tribulation, and pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His coming, and also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus. We believe that this is the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy and is set forth in Scripture as the blessed hope for which every believer should be constantly looking. (John 14:1-3; I Corinthians 15:51-52; Philippians 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14)

Section 17: The Second Coming of Christ

We believe that the period of great tribulation on the earth will be climaxed by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth as He went-in person, on the clouds of heaven, and with power and great glory-to introduce the millennial age, to bind Satan and place him in the abyss, to lift the curse which now rests upon the whole creation, to restore Israel to her own land and to give her the realization of God’s covenant promises, and to bring the whole world to the knowledge of God. (Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Matthew 24:15-25, 46; Acts 15:16-17; Romans 8:19-23; 11:25-27; Revelation 20:1-3)

Section 18: The Eternal State

We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. We believe that the spirits and souls of the unbelieving remain after death, conscious of condemnation, and in misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium when soul and body reunited shall be cast with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-26; 23:42; II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23;II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 1:6-7; Revelation 20:11-15)

Section 19: The Sanctity of Human Life

The Bible teaches that life begins at conception.  (Ps. 139:13, Jer. 1:5)  We believe that active euthanasia is a viollation of God's law.  (Ex. 20:13)   We believe that abortion is the taking of a human life.   We also emphasize that the Gospel makes possible the forgiveness of any sin.  God offers mercy and healing for those who put their faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Section 20: Marriage, Gender & Sexuality

The Bible clearly teaches that the only sexual relationship approved by God is within the bond of marriage between a man and a woman.  (Gen. 2:24, 1 Thess. 4:3-5, 1 Cor. 6:9,10)