Bethany Christian School Doctrinal Statement

We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Bible (2 Pet 1:21), the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament canon which, being inerrant in the original manuscripts (Matt 24:35), is the final authority on all matters of faith and practice and any other subject on which it touches (2 Tim 3:16-17). We believe in a dispensational understanding of the Bible, an approach to Scripture based on the progressive unfolding of the divine mysteries or progressive revelation from God which results in various dispensations or distinguishable administrations/stewardships of God’s revealed truth (Heb 1:1), such as Promise (Gen 12:1-3), Law (John 1:17), Grace (Rom 6:14), Kingdom (Eph 1:10), among others. This approach recognizes a fundamental distinction between Israel and the Church (Eph 2:18) in origin, purposes, and destiny.

We believe there is only one true God (Deut 6:4), eternally existing (Jer 10:10) in three uncreated Persons (Matt 28:19), God the Father (John 4:21, 23), God the Son (Matt 3:17), and God the Holy Spirit (Gen 1:2). These three are of one and the same essence though distinct in personality (2 Sam 23:2-3), equal in every divine perfection and attribute (John 5:23), and function in perfect harmony to accomplish the manifold works of God (Eph 2:18).

God the Father

We believe in God the Father, the First Person of the eternal Trinity (John 17:5), being the Father because of His personal relationship to the Son (Ps 2:7), whom He sent into the world (John 3:16-17), and who, together with the Son, sent the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). While these three Persons are identical in essence and equal in every divine perfection, there is an economical order or priority of function among them (John 15:26). In this sense there are the First, Second, and Third Persons of the Triune God. The Father is the ultimate source of all things (1 Cor 8:6), the sustainer of all things (Neh 9:6), and the controller of all things (Ps 103:19). He enters into a Fatherhood relationship with men spiritually through the new birth (John 1:12), indwells believers (John 14:23), forgives their sins (1 John 1:9), and answers their prayers (John 16:23).

Jesus Christ

We believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God (John 17:5), that He is both God (John 1:1) and man (1 Tim 2:5), the two natures being inseparably united in one glorious Person through the incarnation (John 1:14). We believe in His virgin conception and birth (Matt 1:18), His vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind (John 1:29), His bodily resurrection from the tomb (Matt 28:5-6), and His ascension into heaven (Luke 24:51) as the believer’s High Priest and Advocate before the throne of God (Heb 4:14).

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the eternal deity and personality of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-8) whose ministry it is to convict of sin (John 16:8-9), bear witness to Jesus Christ (John 15:26), and baptize the repentant, believing sinner into the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:13). At the new birth the Spirit imparts spiritual life (regeneration) (Titus 3:5), permanently indwells the believer (John 7:37-39), and becomes the seal of divine ownership and earnest that guarantees the final salvation of the believer (2 Cor 1:22). We believe in the filling of the Holy Spirit - the controlling of the believer by the Spirit in proportion to his yieldedness and obedience to God and the Word (Rom 12:1-2) that is evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit in the life (Gal 5:22-23).

We believe that man was created directly by God on Day Six of the creation week (Gen 2:7), in His image (Jas 3:9) (a finite, creaturely replication of the infinite Creator), and in a state of sinlessness or innocence, righteousness, and holiness (Eph 4:24). We believe that originally man freely chose to transgress the expressed will of God (Gen 3:6) and thereby mankind incurred sin (Rom 5:12, 19), condemnation (Rom 5:16), and physical and spiritual death (Rom 6:23), so that man is a sinner by nature and by choice (Rom 3:10), and is totally depraved, destitute of any moral good and utterly unable to merit God’s favor or contribute to his salvation (Eph 2:8-9).

The New Birth

We believe in the salvation of sinners through Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, who is the only Savior of men (John 14:6) by virtue of His shed blood (Rom 5:8-10), i.e., His substitutionary death for sinners (2 Cor 5:21). We believe that salvation is completely dependent on the grace of God, is a free gift of God (Eph 2:8) that man cannot earn or merit in any way (Titus 3:5), is applied by the work of the Holy Spirit using the instrumentality of the Word of God (Jas 1:18), and is appropriated by repentance (Matt 3:2) and faith in the resurrected Son of God (Acts 16:31). We hold that in salvation the believer is called (Rom 8:28, 30), regenerated (Titus 3:5), Spirit baptized into union with Christ (Gal 3:27-28), justified (Rom 5:1), (including the forgiveness of sin (Acts 10:43) and restoration to favor with God through the merit or righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21)), adopted (Gal 4:5), sanctified (1 Cor 1:2), and glorified (Rom 8:30). We believe that God secures and guarantees the final salvation of every true believer (Phil 1:6), and that the genuine believer must and will persevere finally in his faith and Christian life until he meets the Lord (Heb 3:14).
 

Sanctification

We believe that the sanctification of the believer means to be separated from sin and set apart unto God in three aspects. First, there is positional sanctification by which the believer is given a perfect standing before God, i.e., the status of a saint (1 Cor 6:11). Second, there is experiential or present sanctification by which the believer is cleansed of the daily defilement of sin and is progressively brought into conformity to the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). After the new birth the believer still has a sinful nature (unsubdued tendencies to evil and a complex of sinful attributes) which is in constant and life-long conflict with the spiritual nature (a set of righteous attributes and propensities to and desires for holiness which came with the new spiritual life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit) (Gal 5:17). While the believer’s addiction to sin is gone, the presence of sin and its tendencies are not. Present sanctification is the progressive elimination of sin in the believer’s life and a gradual conformity to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through the means of the Word of God and prayer (Jude 1:20-21), faith (Rom 6:11), obedience (Jas 4:7-8), self denial (1 Pet 1:14-15), and an active resistance against sin and Satan (1 John 3:3). Third, there is final sanctification when the believer will be fully conformed to the image of Christ and sin will be eliminated forever from his experience (1 John 3:2).

We believe in the reality of Satan as a distinct personality (1 Chron 21:1), who, though having been created in a state of perfection and enjoying a heavenly abode with God (Ezek 28:14-15), was prompted by pride to rebel against God and fell from his original exalted state (Ezek 28:17), leading a multitude of other angels in his revolt, over whom he is king (Rev 9:11). Satan is the acknowledged god of this world (John 12:31) and the archenemy of God and believers, whose purpose and work are to thwart the divine counsels (2 Cor 11:13-15), accuse and oppose believers (1 Pet 5:8), incite persecution against believers (Rev 2:10), sow counterfeits among the believers (Matt 13:39), tempt believers to sin (1 Cor 7:5), among others. Satan will be cast down to earth during the Tribulation Period (Rev 12:7-9), bound in the abyss during the Millennium (Rev 20:1-3), loosed after the Millennium for a little season to provoke the final rebellion of mankind against God (Rev 20:7-9), and finally consigned forever to the lake of fire as the execution of his sentence of judgment at Calvary (Rev 20:10).

We believe that the Church as set forth in the New Testament has two aspects. The church as the Body of Christ, of which Christ is the Head (Col 1:18), is an organism composed of genuine believers in Jesus Christ, the total number of Spirit baptized believers of this age regardless of location or circumstances (1 Cor 12:13). We believe that a local church is the visible expression of the Body of Christ in a particular time and place (1 Cor 1:2), being an organized body of immersed believers (Acts 2:41), sharing a common faith or body of truth (Acts 2:42), observing the ordinances of baptism (Matt 28:19) and communion (1 Cor 11:26), meeting at regular and stated times (Acts 20:7) for worship, preaching and teaching, fellowship, and prayer (Acts 2:42, 47), carrying out the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20), and whose biblical offices are pastor (1 Tim 3:1-7) and deacon (1 Tim 3:8-13). We believe that the local church is an autonomous body solely responsible to preserve its internal unity (Rom 12:16), maintain pure doctrine and practice (1 Tim 3:15), elect its own officers, leaders, and messengers (Acts 15:3), settle its own internal affairs (1 Cor 5:4-5), and determine the extent of its cooperation with other churches (Acts 15:2-32). We believe that the institution of the local church is God’s ordained instrument for His work and witness in this age (1 Tim 3:15).

The Second Coming

We believe in the literal return of Jesus Christ that will take place in two stages. The first stage is the Rapture, or His personal (1 Thess 4:16), imminent (1 Cor 1:7), and pretribulational (1 Thess 1:10) coming for all saints of the church age (1 Cor 15:51-52). The second stage is the Revelation or the Second Coming in Glory, which is His personal and public coming at the close of the Tribulation Period to establish the messianic, Millennial Kingdom on the earth when Israel will be restored to covenant favor with God and to her land in faith and the Church will reign with Christ for a thousand years (Zech 14:3-4). After the Millennium there will be a new heaven and earth wherein God will dwell eternally with His people (Rev 21:1-3).
 

The Resurrection

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, though occurring at separate intervals (John 5:28-29). The souls of those who trust in Christ go immediately into His presence at death (Acts 7:59-60) where they remain in a state of conscious bliss until the resurrection of the just, at which time they will receive their glorified bodies (Rom 8:11), and thereafter spend eternity serving the Lord in unending fellowship and love (Rev 21:1-7). The souls of unbelievers go immediately into a state of conscious torment and punishment at death (Deut 32:22), where they remain until the resurrection of the unjust, when they will be cast into the lake of fire to endure eternal suffering as a just retribution for their sin (Rev 20:14-15). The resurrection of the just begins at the Rapture of the Church and is completed at the conclusion of the Tribulation Period (1 Cor 15:23). The resurrection of the unjust is after the Millennium (Rev 20:11-13).

Creation

We believe in the original direct creation of the universe (Heb 11:3), a voluntary act of God whereby for His own glory and according to His eternal counsel (Rev 4:11), in six successive days of twenty-four hours each (Exod 20:11), He gave existence to all things in distinction from Himself (1 Cor 8:6). We oppose all forms of the evolutionary hypothesis of origins, whether theistic or atheistic (Gen 1-2).
 

Spiritual Gifts

We believe that a spiritual gift is an ability or a capacity to serve the Lord through an aspect of the life of the local church. While God is sovereign in the bestowment of all His spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:11), every believer has a function to serve in the church and has been gifted by God accordingly (1 Pet 4:10). Gifts were given for the common good of the church (1 Cor 12:7), the edification of the church (1 Cor 14:12), the service work or ministry of the church (Eph 4:11-12), and the attestation of accreditation of God’s messengers and their new revelation for the church age (Heb 2:4). We believe that certain gifts prevalent in the church in the first century were miraculous in nature, such as speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, and the working of miracles. They were foundational and transitional, having served the church in its infancy and immature stage. These gifts have ceased, being no longer needed because the nation of Israel has been dissolved, the Scriptures have been given, the church has been launched and divinely certified, the transition from Law to Grace has been made, and the apostles have gone to their eternal reward (1 Cor 13:8-10).
 

Separation

We believe in both personal and ecclesiastical separation. The doctrine of separation is grounded in the character of God Himself. Holiness carries the basic idea of separation or apartness. God is holy in that He is separate or apart from all that is created and finite (Ps 99:1-3) and from all that is sinful or morally unclean (Isa 6:3-5), and He demands that His people be holy or separated (Matt 5:48). God constituted the nation of Israel a holy or separated people who were to be separated from the customs and practices of the surrounding heathen (Deut 7:6). God commands His people today to be personally separated from the world (Rom 12:2), the transient system of evil led by Satan (2 Cor 4:4), organized against God and His will (John 7:7), that has its own philosophies, goals, lifestyles, amusements, habits, and practices. Ecclesiastical separation is the refusal to collaborate with a church, ecclesiastical organization, or religious leader which does not hold to the fundamental, cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith (2 Cor 6:14-18), and a like refusal concerning those who maintain connections or are content to walk with those who do not hold to the fundamental, cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith (2 Thess 3:6, 14).