Scriptures
Every word in the original writings of the Holy Scriptures is inspired by God and without error. It is accurate in all matters to which it speaks, spiritual, historical and scientific. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the foundation of the faith and Practice of Gainesville Bible Church.
God
God exists eternally in three persons:
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The three have distinct personalities and yet are of the same substance, one God.
Jesus Christ
The eternal Son of God became incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ, being born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. He died physically on the cross, was bodily resurrected three days later, and thereafter bodily ascended to heaven.
Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He regenerates, indwells, baptizes, and seals all believers in Christ at the point of faith in Christ, and empowers those yielded to God.
Man
Man is created in the image and likeness of God. In Adam, all mankind fell into sin with the result that all men are sinners. Men are justly condemned to eternal judgment and can do nothing to merit salvation.
Salvation
Salvation is received by faith alone in Christ. The only means to salvation is belief in Christ's substitutionary death and resurrection, which satisfied the wrath of God against the sin of the individual. There is an eternal state of punishment for the unsaved and an eternal state of blessing for the saved.
Election
Salvation is given to those men and women chosen (election and predestination) by God and drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit. God's election of those that will be saved was made without thought to any merit of the individual and was made prior to the creation of the world. We believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word is absolutely essential to salvation. Thus it can be said that our justification is wrought solely by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross as He died in our place.
Sanctification
Every believer is promised positional, progressive, and ultimate sanctification.
Assurance
All who are born of the Spirit through faith in Christ can have assurance of salvation and are eternally secure in Christ.
Church
The church is composed of all believers. It is the body and bride of Christ, formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and existing in two aspects, universal and local. The universal church is an elect company of believers, baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body. Its mission is to witness to its Head, Jesus Christ, preaching the Gospel among all nations. It will be caught up to meet the Lord, after which He will return to set up His Kingdom. The local church is a group of believers voluntarily joined together in love to worship God with praise and thanksgiving, and to glorify Jesus Christ through an aggressive effort to disciple others by the preaching of the gospel, and the exercise of spiritual gifts. Gainesville Bible Church is Fundamental, Evangelical, Non-Charismatic, and denominationally unrelated.
Gifts
Spiritual gifts are God-given abilities for service, i.e., "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ."
Christian Life
Christians are called to a holy life of service and testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit, which service includes the propagation of the gospel message to the whole world. There is promised reward in heaven for faithfulness in such service.
Ordinances
The Bible sets forth two ordinances, the Lord's Supper and Water Baptism. The Lord's Supper is to be celebrated regularly in remembrance of Christ's death on the cross, and in expectation of His return. Water Baptism is an outward testimony of a person's belief in Christ. Immersion is the ideal means set forth in Scripture. Angels were originally created holy, but now, because of Satan's rebellion, there is also an unholy angelic kingdom.
Dispensations
God has revealed different dispensations or stewardships with corresponding rules of life, of which the present dispensation is the stewardship of grace.
Second Coming
The blessed hope of the church is the imminent return of Christ. The events of the return of Christ take place in the following order the rapture of the church, the tribulation, the second advent, the establishment of the reign of Christ on earth for one thousand years, and finally the eternal state of punishment for the unsaved and the eternal state of blessing for the saved.