So…what does Rey believe?
I. The Inspiration of the Bible
We believe the Holy Scriptures, composed of the thirty-nine books
of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, are the
verbally inspired Word and Revelation of God. The Bible is inerrant,
infallible-God-breathed. The initial miracle of divine inspiration of
the original autographs also extends to the divine preservation of a
pure text to this day. {{Psalm 19:7-11}}; {{2 Timothy 3:16-17}}; {{2 Peter 1:16-21}}; {{Luke
24:13-28}}; {{John 16:12-16}}; {{Psalm 12:6-7}}; {{Isaiah 40:8}}; {{Psalm 138:2}}.
II. The Trinity
I believe in the Triune God-God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit-coequal and coeternal. Each has His individual identity and
separate responsibilities for the purposes of redemption, yet perfectly united
as three Persons in One. {{1 John 5:1-8}}; {{John 16:7-18}}; {{Matthew 28:19}}; {{Genesis
1:26}}.
III. The Deity and Virgin Birth of Christ
I believe in Deity of Jesus Christ. He is the only begotten, virgin
born Son of God, the second Person in the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, God
manifest in the flesh. {{1 Timothy 3:16}}; {{John 1:1-14}}; {{John 14:9}}; {{Isaiah 7:14}};
{{Matthew 1:18-25}}; {{John 10:36}}.
IV. The Blood Atonement
I believe in the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, and all must be born again
or be forever lost. {{Hebrews 2:9}}; {{John 6:44-69}}; {{John 3:16-18}}; {{Romans 3:25}}; {{Revelation
1:5}}; {{Hebrews 9:22}}; {{1 Peter 1:18-19}}. The Lord’s atonement was not limited with
respect to whom God’s salvation is offered, i.e., His shed blood is sufficient
for all sin and, therefore, "who so ever will" may believe and be
saved to the uttermost. {{1 John 2:2}}; {{Hebrews 7:22-25}}; {{Revelation 22:17}}. Also,
the text "with His stripes we are healed" speaks of God’s remedy for
the sin-sick soul through the suffering and substitutionary sacrifice of the
Lamb of God, and is not referring to the healing of the body as proposed by
false charismatic teaching. {{Isaiah 53:4-6}}.
V. The Resurrection
I believe in the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He ascended bodily into the heavens and is now at the right hand of God as our
Mediator, Priest, and Advocate. {{Acts 3:12-26}}; {{John 20}}; {{Hebrews 9:24}}; {{1 Corinthians
15:12-28}}; {{1 John 2:1}}.
VI. The Second Coming
I believe in the Rapture-the personal, premillennial, pretribulational
and imminent return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ "in the air."
This has been the "Blessed Hope" of every born-again believer in the
Church Age. At that time He will receive to Himself the resurrected bodies of
those who have "died in Christ" and also all those who are presently
alive and "in Christ." {{1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 5:6-10}}; {{1 Corinthians
15:50-55}}; {{Acts 1:11}}; {{Titus 2:13}}. He will then come "with His saints"
seven years after the man of lawlessness makes a treaty with Israel to execute judgment upon the ungodly nations before the
inauguration of His earthly millennial reign at His second coming to the earth.
{{Jude 14,15}}; {{Matthew 25:31-46}}. The Lord will cast the anti-christ and the false
prophet into the lake of fire, send Satan into the abyss and establish His earthly
kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ will reign one thousand years, thus literally
fulfilling the covenant promises made to a believing remnant of Israel through
the Patriarchs of the Old Testament. {{Isaiah 11:1-16}}; {{Revelation 19:19-20; 20:1-6}}.
After the earthly reign of one thousand years, He will bring all the unsaved
dead to the judgment of the Great White Throne and all who stand before that
Throne will be cast into the lake of fire forever. {{Revelation 20:11-15}}; {{Matthew
7:21-23}}. Satan will also be cast into the lake of fire. {{Revelation 20:10}}.
VII. The Personality of Satan
I believe in the personality of Satan, "that old serpent, called
the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." He is actively
opposing the cause of Christ on every hand and is the arch enemy of every true
believer. His warfare incorporates the deception of mixing error and truth as
well as that which is flagrantly vile and evil. {{2 Corinthians 11:1-15}}; {{2 Peter
5:8-9}}; {{Revelation 12:9-10}}; {{Matthew 4:2-11}}; {{Isaiah 14:12-17}}; {{John 8:24}}. He marshals
a host of fallen angels that can also serve to deceive the unsuspecting by "transforming
themselves into…apostles of Christ [and] ministers of righteousness…"
({{2 Corinthians 11:31}}). These false spirits can influence the unfaithful servant
to say helpful and even true things and can also themselves energize ones to
do the miraculous. Therefore, every experience and teaching must be examined
in light of the Word of God to determine its true source. {{Isaiah 8:20}}; {{1 John
4:1}}.
VIII. Heaven and Hell
I believe that Heaven is a real place of eternal blessedness prepared
by God for those whose garments have been "made white" through faith
in the shed "blood of the Lamb." Hell is a real place of eternal suffering
for those whose names are not written in the "book of life." There
is no intermediate state in which the unsaved can atone for his own sins. {{John
14:1-6}}; {{Revelation 7:13-17; 20:11-15; 21:22-27}}; {{2 Corinthians 5:1-10}}; {{Luke 16:19-31}}.
IX. Creation and Man’s Fall
I believe God created all things in a time frame of six
days and am willing to entertain some
concepts of what that means without attack. I believe evolution in the
sense of macro-evolution, and this
necessarily includes so called "theistic evolution" and the "gap
theory" to be contradictory to the clear teaching of Scripture. Man was
created by a direct act of God and subsequently fell into sin in the
Garden of Eden.I believe in the universality and exceeding sinfulness
of sin. In Adam all have been plunged into the corrupting sickness of
sin leaving man in its bondage. Man, subsequently, of his own accord
chooses to sin following the corrupt nature within. {{Romans 5:12-21}}
{{Ezekiel 18:4}}; {{Romans 3:10-26; 6:23}}; {{Psalm 51:5}} {{Genesis
1-3}}.
X. Justification by Faith
I believe that man is justified on the single ground of faith in
the shed blood and bodily resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
{{Romans 5:1}} {{Ephesians 2:8-9}}. The all-sufficient and completed work of Redemption
accomplished through His death and resurrection is fully appropriated at the
moment in time by those who receive by faith the free gift of salvation offered
in the one true Gospel. The adding of works, baptism, sacraments, or any other
condition placed upon man in order to obtain God’s gift of salvation by faith
alone in the finished work of Christ results in "another gospel" that
is under God’s curse. {{Galatians 1:6-10}}; {{Romans 1:16}} {{1 Corinthians 15:1-4}}; {{John
5:24}}; {{Ephesians 5:8}}.
XI. Eternal Security
I believe in the eternal security of all believers in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Once a lost sinner has be come a "new creature in Christ,"
he can never lose that new relationship in the family of God which is based
upon God’s imputed righteousness and not his own. The life that God imparts
to the believing sinner is not "eternal life" if it can be terminated.
{{2 Corinthians 5:14-21}}; {{John 10:25-29}}. Sin in the life of the believer affects
his fellowship with the Father not sonship. All who are truly born of the Spirit
and who continue in sin will be dealt with by the chastening hand of God. 1
John 1:5-10; Hebrews 12:6-13 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. All who are in Christ are
sealed unto the day of redemption and will be glorified. We are to "work
out" our salvation not "work for" our salvation; {{Philippians
2:12}}. Texts used to supposedly teach one can lose his salvation are speaking
of loss of reward, not the loss of salvation or the right to be called a child
of God. {{1 Corinthians 3:8-15}}; {{2 John 8}}; {{Revelation 3:11}}; {{Romans 8:29-30}}; {{1 Timothy
1:12}}; {{Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30}}.
XII. The Holy Spirit and Body of Christ
I believe all regenerated people are baptized into the Body
of Christ by the Holy Spirit the moment they receive Christ as their
Saviour. {{1 Corinthians 12:13}}; {{1 Corinthians 10:32}}; {{Ephesians
2:13-18}}. The Holy Spirit indwells all who have been born again from
above. Also, the baptism of the Spirit is not a separate event apart
from the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit upon believing on
Christ unto salvation. {{Acts 15:6-11}}; {{Galatians 3:2,14}}; {{Romans
10:13-17}}; {{Romans 8:9}}. The Church which is Christ’s Body consists
of all those who, in the present dispensation, truly believe having
pinned their faith and trust on Jesus Christ the Lord. {{Romans
8:14-27}}; {{James 1:18}}; {{John 1:12}}; {{1 Corinthians 1:2}};
{{Matthew 16:16-16}}.
XIII. Separation
I believe that all Christians are first to be separated wholly unto
the Lord, and as a necessary result, they must be:
1) Separated from worldly and sinful practices. They are to be holy,
even as He is holy, and this desired behavior will always be diametrically opposed
to the course of this present age. {{1 Peter 1: 13-16}}; {{1 Corinthians 6:19-20}};
{{Romans 12:1-2}}; {{1 John 2:15-17}}.
2) Separated from apostasy and unbelief. A believer must not be "unequally
yoked together with unbelievers," thereby being identified with unbelief
by association, whether in ministry, worship, or by joint religious activities.
{{2 Corinthians 6:14-18}}; {{1 Timothy 6:3-5}}; {{2 Timothy 2:19-22; 3:1-5}}; {{Amos 3:3}}.
3) Separated from disobedient brethren and doctrinal
compromise with respect to all ministry and service. A believer is
identified with the doctrinal positions and practices of those he is in
fellowship with, both before God and man. Separation from those who are
not walking according to truth deters the leavening effect of
compromise, and gives a faithful warning to the erring brother.
{{Romans 16:17}}; {{2 Thessalonians 3:6,14-15}}; {{2 John 10-11}};
{{Galatians 2:9-11}}; {{1 Corinthians 15:33}}. This being the case it
does not mean that I can not dialogue with you or even acknowledge
where there may be ambiguity.
XIV. The Local Church and Its Mission
I believe God has ordained the ministry of local, independent, indigenous
assemblies of believers to accomplish His work in this dispensation extending
from Pentecost to the Translation of Christ’s Body at His appearing. The church’s
membership is to be composed of regenerated, baptized believers. The two ordinances
of the local church are believer’s baptism by immersion, and the memorial of
the Lord’s supper until He returns. The church is to be missionary and evangelistic
in spreading the Gospel into all the world. It is not the mission of the church
to "bring in the Kingdom," work for political or economic justice,
major on social improvement, or "Christianize" society. It is to strive
together for the faith of the Gospel, proclaim and maintain purity of doctrine
and practice, and worship and serve the Lord in "spirit and truth."
{{Acts 2:41-47; 20:17-32}}; {{Matthew 28:16-20}}; {{Ephesians 4:11-16}}; {{1 Corinthians 11:23-34}}.
XV. Good Works
I believe that all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ should maintain
good works, a "good work" being that which is done in obedience to
the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. Works will determine the reward
or loss of reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ before which every Christian
will stand. Every believer must realize his responsibility before God to "maintain
good works," i.e., walk in the light of the Word of God. The Bible is the
believer’s absolute Standard of faith and practice, his perfect Counsel. The
Word provides him with "all things that pertain unto life and godliness"
({{2 Peter 1:3-4}}). The Bible, not any form of psychological counseling or therapy,
is the answer. {{Ephesians 2:8-10}}; {{Titus 2:11-14; 3:1-11}}; {{2 Thessalonians 5:23}};
{{1 Corinthians 1:18-29; 3:8-15}}; {{2 Corinthians 5:9-11}}.
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