Our Beliefs
The following is a brief synopsis of what Anchor Baptist Church believes and teaches. For a more thorough brief of the doctrines of Anchor Baptist Church and supporting documentation you may contact the church for a copy of our complete Statement of Faith.
The Holy Scriptures
We believe the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments commonly called the Holy Bible to be divinely inspired by God and are the verbal, plenary, inerrant and infallible Word of God. We believe God has promised to preserve His Word for all generations and that He has done just that in the Authorized Version (also known as the King James Bible) for the English speaking world. The King James Bible (KJB) shall be the only and official version that will be used in the church.
Dispensationalism
We believe the Scriptures interpreted in their natural, literal sense reveal divinely determined dispensations or rules of life which define man’s responsibilities in successive ages. Three of these dispensations-The Law, The Church & The Kingdom are the subjects of detailed revelation in Scripture.
The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons (Father, Son & Holy Spirit); each co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.
The Person and Work of Jesus 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.
- 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.
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry as Representative, Intercessor and Advocate.
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
- We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He is a supernatural agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the body of Christ. He indwells in every believer and seals them unto the day of redemption.
- We believe that He is the divine teacher who assists believers to understand and appropriate the Scriptures and that it is the privilege and duty of all the saved to be filled with the Spirit.
- We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowal of spiritual gifts to every believer. God uniquely uses evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip believers in the assembly in order that they can do the work of the ministry.
- We believe the Sign Gifts of the Holy Spirit (i.e. speaking in tongues, gifts of healing, etc.), were temporary. We believe that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism or the filling of the Holy Spirit and that ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness and death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayers of believers for physical healing.
The Total Depravity of Man
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God. Man is totally depraved, and of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.
Salvation & the Assurance of the Believer
- 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. We believe Christ died for all and that His grace is offered to all. We believe that although mankind cannot save himself he has been given a free will to receive or reject God’s gift of salvation whereby God then does the saving upon the sinner’s heart felt plea for repentance and faith on Jesus Christ.
- We believe that all the redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever.
- We believe that it is the privilege of believers to rejoice in the assurance of their salvation through the testimony of God’s Word, which, however, clearly forbids the use of Christian liberty as an occasion to the flesh.
The Church
- We believe that the local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is solely made up of born-again believers.
- We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures.
- We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control.
- We recognize water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the Scriptural ordinances of obedience for the church in this age.
The Last Things & the Eternal State
- We believe in that “blessed hope”, the personal, imminent return of Christ who will rapture His church prior to the seven year Tribulation period. At the end of that Tribulation period, Christ will personally and visibly return to the Earth with His saints, to establish His earthly Messianic Kingdom which was promised to the nation of Israel.
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.
- We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when spirit, soul and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.
- We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear at the Great White Throne judgment and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated but to suffer everlasting conscious punishment and torment.
The Definition of Marriage
We believe that God has defined in His Word that marriage is between a man and a woman. Anything outside of the marriage of man and woman is sin.