It’s important for you to know what a church affirms and believes about God’s Word. This is a basic summary of what we believe the Scriptures teach regarding the fundamental elements of the Christian faith.
The Scriptures
The Bible is the word of God, the only sure guide and foundation for our faith. It is our sole authority in spiritual matters and is inerrant in all its contents.
The Triune God
There is one triune God who exists eternally in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each equally deserving worship and obedience.
The Father
God the Father, the first person of the trinity, is the creator of all things and sovereignly governs them according to his own purpose and grace.
The Son
Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, the second person of the trinity. Being born of a virgin, he entered into humanity to reveal God, to rule over God’s kingdom, and to redeem sinful men. He accomplished this marvelous redemption through his substitutionary death on the cross, his victorious resurrection from the dead three days later.
The Spirit
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, restrains evil, brings conviction, testifies to the truth of the gospel, and is the supernatural agent of the new birth. The Spirit baptizes every believer into the church—the body of Christ—and permanently dwells in them, empowering them with gifts for edification and producing in them godliness.
Man and Sin
Man (Adam) was created directly and immediately by God in His image, having a rational nature, intelligence, volition, and moral responsibility to God. His original sin brought death into the world and alienated him and his descendants from God. All mankind, as a result, are sinners by inherited nature, and are utterly unable and unwilling to remedy their lost condition.
Salvation
Salvation is wholly a work of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ and on the merit of his shed blood; and that salvation is not on the basis of human merit or works. Scripture teaches the necessity of a new birth, the reality of divine election, the perseverance of the saints, and justification by faith alone.
The Church
All who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Spirit into one united spiritual body, the church, of which Christ is the head. We affirm the value of discipleship, the primacy of love, and the importance of mutual accountability, and local church membership. We uphold the autonomy of the local church and its centrality to the accomplishment of the Great Commission, and we regularly practice the Lord’s Supper and believer baptism.
The End Times
We are living in the last days, and we eagerly anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to establish His kingdom on earth. There will be a bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.
Additional Resources
These are additional resources related to our understanding of Scripture.
As a daughter church plant of Countryside Bible Church, our church is currently governed according to the constitution of Countryside Bible Church. Currently, new members will be taken in under the Countryside’s constitution.
Falling Waters Bible Church will adopt its own when we formally establish ourselves as a fully independent and autonomous church.
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
The Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
The Nashville Statement on Biblical Marriage and Sexuality