What We Believe
The Peninsula Community Church Doctrinal Statement
THE SCRIPTURES
We believe in the divine inspiration and supreme authority of the sixty-six books of the Bible. It is verbally inspired and completely inerrant in the original manuscripts and sufficient as our only guide for faith and practice. We believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our practical instruction. 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21
INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIPTURES
We believe that man through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit correctly understands the Bible when interpreted in its normal historical, grammatical, contextual sense. Every believer has the ability to interpret the scriptures under guidance of the Holy Spirit. John 16:6-13; 1 Corinthians 2:12-14; 2 Peter 1:20-21
THE TRINITY
We believe that God eternally exists in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – and that these three are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience. Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:14
GOD THE FATHER
We believe that God the Father is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. We believe that He is the creator of all that is, that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and spiritual death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ Matthew 6:8-15; 7:11; 23:9; John 4:24; 14:6-13; Galatians 4:6
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is preexistent and complete deity, creator of all, begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He was both God and man in the flesh, lived a sinless life and died on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin. We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord, His ascension into Heaven, and His presence there as our Intercessor, and in His personal, visible, premillennial return to the world according to His promise. He is the head of the church. Luke 1:35; John 1:1-4, 14; Romans 3:22-28; 1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Hebrews 4:14; 1 John 2:1
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person, that He is God, that He possesses all the divine attributes, that He is the interpreter of the infallible Word of God, that He baptizes and indwells all believers at the moment of their salvation, that He empowers believers for ministry and that it is the responsibility of every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He is our Comforter, Counselor, and Revealer of Jesus Christ. John 14:16-17; 16:7-15; Acts 1:8; 4:31; 5:3-4; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 12:13; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 3:16; 4:30; 5:18
MAN
We believe that man was created in the image of God, but incurred both physical and spiritual death because of his sin; we believe that all human beings are sinners and separated from God because of their inherent sin nature, which produces sinful acts. We believe in eternal life for the believer and eternal punishment for the unbeliever. Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 5:12, 19; Ephesians 2:1-3:12
SALVATION
We believe that Jesus Christ died as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins and that salvation is a gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in Jesus Christ; that repentance is a part of personal faith but is in no way in itself a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as water baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16; Acts 13:38-39
THE CHURCH
We believe that the Church is a spiritual organism made up of all believers of this age irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations. We also believe that local churches are ordained of God as the visible expressions of the Body of Christ in a community and that it is His will that all who profess belief in Christ be actively involved in a local church. We believe that Christ mandated the local church to make disciples throughout the world. Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-32; 1 Corinthians 12-13; Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Acts 2:42-47; Matthew 28:18-20
THE ORDINANCES
We believe in the symbolic ordinance of believer’s baptism by immersion in obedience to the command of Christ and the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of His atoning death and in anticipation of His coming again. The ordinances were instituted by Jesus Christ for the church and are a scriptural means of testimony to God’s grace until His return. Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 11:20-34
THE CHRISTIAN’S SERVICE
We believe that every Christian receives at least one spiritual gift which is a divine enablement for ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ; we believe that the local church is spiritually weak or strong in proportion to how faithfully each of its members exercises his gift or gifts. Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-31; Ephesians 4:7-13; 1 Peter 4:10
THE FUTURE
We believe that Christ’s return can happen at any time; we believe that His return will be personal and visible and glorious; we believe He will raise the dead and bring salvation and judgment to completion. God will fully manifest His kingdom when He establishes a new heaven and new earth, in which He will be glorified forever and will exclude all evil, suffering, and death. Isaiah 11:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4; Revelation 20:1-6