Bethel Primitive Baptist Church: Articles of Faith
The Bethel Primitive Baptist Church was constituted at the Lewis Creek schoolhouse, near Lindsay California on Saturday, June 21, 1924.
They established the following Articles of Faith.
They established the following Articles of Faith.
1. We believe there is only one true and living God—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
2. We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice.
3. We believe in the doctrine of election, and that God choose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that they are regenerated in time according to God’s eternal purpose; but we do most positively deny that God decreed or predestinated sin and wickedness.
4. We believe that man is unable, of his own free will and ability, to recover himself from the fallen state he is in by nature.
5. We believe that sinners are justified in the sight of God by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.
6. We believe in the final preservation of the saints in grace to glory, and that none of them shall be lost.
7. We believe that baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and washing the saints’ feet are ordinances of Jesus Christ; that true believers are the only proper subjects, and immersion the only true mode of baptism.
8. We believe in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and a general judgment, and that the joys of the righteous will be eternal and the punishment of the wicked everlasting.
9. We believe that no minister has a right to administer the ordinances, only such as have been called and come under the imposition of the hands by a presbytery.
10. We believe that the children of God should hold membership in no religious society other than the Church of Christ; and we object to our members affiliating with secret societies, temperance societies, and other institutions gotten up by men in the name of religion, morality, or fraternalism.
2. We believe that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the word of God, and the only rule of faith and practice.
3. We believe in the doctrine of election, and that God choose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, and that they are regenerated in time according to God’s eternal purpose; but we do most positively deny that God decreed or predestinated sin and wickedness.
4. We believe that man is unable, of his own free will and ability, to recover himself from the fallen state he is in by nature.
5. We believe that sinners are justified in the sight of God by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone.
6. We believe in the final preservation of the saints in grace to glory, and that none of them shall be lost.
7. We believe that baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and washing the saints’ feet are ordinances of Jesus Christ; that true believers are the only proper subjects, and immersion the only true mode of baptism.
8. We believe in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and a general judgment, and that the joys of the righteous will be eternal and the punishment of the wicked everlasting.
9. We believe that no minister has a right to administer the ordinances, only such as have been called and come under the imposition of the hands by a presbytery.
10. We believe that the children of God should hold membership in no religious society other than the Church of Christ; and we object to our members affiliating with secret societies, temperance societies, and other institutions gotten up by men in the name of religion, morality, or fraternalism.