BOLD GRACE BIBLE INSTITUTE - GHANA
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
The Scriptures
We believe that "all scripture is given by inspiration of God," by which we
understand the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God
"were moved by the Holy Spirit" to write the very words of Scripture. We
believe that this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of
the writing-historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical – as appeared in
the original manuscripts. We believe that the whole Bible in the originals is
therefore without error.
We believe that all the Scriptures center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His
person and work in His first and second coming, and hence that no portion,
even of the Old Testament, is properly read or understood until it leads to
Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our practical
instruction. (Mark 12:26, 36; 13:11; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16;
17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; 28:23; Romans 15:4; 1
Corinthians 2:13; 10:11; 2 Timothy 3:11; 2 Peter 1:21.)
Godhead
We believe that the Godhead 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.
(Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 3
-4; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 1:1-3; Revelation 1:4-6.)
Angels, Fallen and Unfallen
We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless, spiritual
beings known as angels; that one, "Lucifer, son of the morning"–the highest
in rank–sinned through pride, thereby becoming
Satan; that a great company of the angels followed him in his moral fall,
some of whom became demons and are active as his agents and
associates in the prosecution of his unholy purposes, while others who fell
are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of
the great day." (Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19; 1 Timothy 3:6; 2 Peter
2:4; Jude 6.)
We believe that Satan is the originator of sin, and that under the permission
of God he through subtlety led our first parents into transgression, thereby
accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting
them and their posterity to his own power; that he is the enemy of God and
the people of God, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called
God or that is worshiped and that he who in the beginning said, "I will be
like the most High," in his warfare appears as an angel of light, even
counterfeiting the works of God by fostering religious movements and
systems of doctrine, which systems in every case are characterized by a
denial of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and of
salvation by grace alone. (Genesis 3:1-19; Romans 5:12-14; 2Corinthians
4:3-4; 11:13-15; Ephesians 6:10-12; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:1-3.)
We believe that Satan was judged at the cross, though not then executed,
and that he, a usurper, now
rules as the "god of this world"; that at the second coming of Christ, Satan
will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years, and after the
thousand years he will be loosed for a little season and
then "cast into the lake of fire and brimstone," where he "shall be tormented
day and night forever and ever." (Colossians 2:15; Revelation. 20:1-3, 10.)
We believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are
before the throne of God,
from whence they are sent forth as ministering spirits to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation. (Luke 15:10; Ephesians 1:21; Hebrews 1:14;
Revelation 7:12.)We believe that man was made lower than angels; and
that in His incarnation Christ took for a little
time this lower place that He might lift the believer to His own sphere above
the angels. (Hebrews 2:6-10.)
Man
Created and Fallen:
We believe that man was originally created in the image and after the
likeness of God, and that he fell through sin, and as a consequence of his
sin lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, and that he
became subject to the power of the devil. We
also believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has
been transmitted to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus
alone being excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the
world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is
essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace. (Genesis 1:26;
2:17; 6:5; Psalm 14:1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:6; 5:40; 66:53;
Romans 3:10-19; 8:6-7; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:6; 1 John 3:8.)
The Dispensations
We believe that the dispensations are stewardships by which God
administers His purpose on the earth through man under varying
responsibilities. We believe that the changes in the dispensational
dealings of God with man depend upon changed conditions or situations in
which man is successively found with relation to God, and that these
changes are the results of the failures of man and the judgments of God.
We believe that different administrative responsibilities of this character are
manifest in the biblical record, that they span the entire history of mankind,
and that each ends in the
failure of man under the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from
God. We believe that three of these dispensations or rules of life are the
subject of extended revelation in the Scriptures, that is to say, the
dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of grace, and the
future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. We believe that these are
distinct and are not to be intermingled or confused, as they are
chronologically successive.
We believe that the dispensations are neither ways of salvation nor
different methods of administering the so-called Covenant of Grace. They
are not in themselves dependent on covenant relationships but are ways of
life and responsibility to God which test the submission of man to His
revealed will during a particular time. We believe that if man does trust in
his own efforts to gain the favor of God or salvation under any
dispensational test, because of inherent sin his failure to satisfy fully the
just requirements of God is inevitable and his condemnation sure.
The First Advent
We believe that, as provided and purposed by God and as preannounced
in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this
world that He might manifest God to men, fulfill
prophecy, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was
born of the virgin and received a human body and a sinless human nature.
(Luke 1:30-35; John 1:18; 3:16; Hebrews 4:15.)
We believe that on the human side He became and remained a perfect
man, but sinless throughout His life; yet He retained His absolute deity,
being at the same time very God and very man, and that His earth-life
sometimes functioned within the sphere of that which was human and
sometimes within the sphere of that which was divine. (Luke 2:40; John
1:1-2; Philippians 2:5-8.) We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy He came
first to Israel as her Messiah-King, and that being rejected of that nation;
He according to the eternal counsels of God gave His life as a ransom for
all.(John 1:11; Acts 2:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:6.)We believe that in infinite love
for the lost He voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the
divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world,
bearing the holy judgments against sin which the righteousness of God
must impose. His death was therefore substitutionary in the most absolute
sense–the just for the unjust–and by His death He became the Savior of
the lost. (John 1:29; Romans 3:25-26; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Hebrews 10:5-14;
1 Peter 3:18.)We believe that according to the Scriptures He arose from the
dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died,
and that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which ultimately
will be given to all believers. (John 20:20; Philippians 3:20-21.) We believe
that on departing from the earth He was accepted of His Father and that
His acceptance is
a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly
accomplished. (Hebrews 1:3.)He ceases not to intercede and advocate for
the saved. (Ephesians 1:22-23; Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1.)
Salvation only through Jesus Christ
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, and only those thus saved are
sons of God. We believe also that our redemption has been accomplished
solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and
was made a curse for us, dying in our room and stead; and that no
repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no
submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches
that have existed since the days of the Apostles, can add in the very least
degree to the value of the blood or to the merit of the finished work wrought
for us by Him who united in His person true and proper deity with perfect
and sinless humanity. (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 26:28; John
3:7-18; Romans 5:6-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 6:15; Ephesians
1:7; Philippians 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:18-19, 23.)
We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in
Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing, and is no way in itself
a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts,
such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to
believing as a condition of salvation. (John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29;
Acts 13:39; 16:31; Romans 1:16-17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Galatians 3:22.)
The Extent of Salvation
We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises that faith in Christ
which is illustrated and described as such in the New Testament, he
passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life and from the old
creation into the new; being justified from all things, accepted before the
Father according as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved,
having his place and portion as linked to Him and one with Him forever.
Though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his
blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding
of his life more fully
to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual
blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and is therefore in no way
required by God to seek a so-called "second blessing" or a "second
work of grace." (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians
3:21-23; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 2:10; 1 John 4:17; 5:11-12.)
Sanctification
We believe that sanctification, which is a setting apart unto God, is
threefold: It is already complete for every saved person because his
position toward God is the same as Christ's position. Since the believer is
in Christ, he is set apart unto God in the measure in which Christ is set
apart unto God. We believe, however, that he retains his sin nature, which
cannot be eradicated in this life. Therefore, while the standing of the
Christian in Christ is perfect his present state is no more perfect than his
experience in daily life. There is therefore a progressive sanctification
wherein the Christian is to "grow in grace" and to "be changed" by the
unhindered power of the Spirit. We believe also that the child of God will
yet be fully sanctified in his state as he is now sanctified in his standing in
Christ when he shall see his Lord and shall be "like Him." (John 17:17; 2
Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; Ephesians 4:24; 5:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23;
Hebrews 10:10, 14; 12:10.)
Eternal Security
We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects
of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless
on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature
of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending
intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability
of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating,
abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we
and all true believers everywhere, once saved, shall be kept saved forever.
We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father and that
since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will when they
persistently sin chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having
undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart from all human
merit, He who cannot fail will in the end present every one of them faultless
before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son.
(John 5:24; 10:28; 13:1; 14:16-17; 17:11; Romans 8:29; 1 Corinthians 6:19;
Hebrews 7:25; 1 John 2:1-2; 5:13; Jude 24.)
Assurance
We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born
again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to
be assured of their salvation from the very day they take
Him to be their Savior; and that this assurance is not founded upon any
fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the
testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love,
gratitude, and obedience. (Luke 10:20; 22:32; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 6-8; 2
Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:22; 1 John 5:13.)
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity,
though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a
special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise,
dwells in every believer, and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body,
and that He, as the Indwelling One, is the source of all power and all
acceptable worship and service. We believe that He never takes His
departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever
present to testify of Christ; seeking to occupy believers with Him and not
with themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His abode in
the world in this special sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His
own at the completion of the church. (John 14:16-17; 16:7-15; 1
Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:7.)
We believe that in this age certain well-defined ministries are committed to
the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand them
and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience. These ministries
are the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will; the
convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment; the
regenerating of all believers; the indwelling and anointing of all who are
saved, thereby sealing them unto the day of redemption; the baptizing into
the one body of Christ of all who are saved; and the continued filling for
power, teaching, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to
Him and who are subject to His will. (John 3:6; 16:7-11; Romans 8:9; 1
Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30; 5:18; 2 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 John 2:20-
27.)
We believe that some gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues
and miraculous healings were temporary. We believe that speaking in
tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the
baptism nor of the filling of the Spirit, and that the deliverance of the body
from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the
resurrection. (Acts 4:8, 31; Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 13:8.)
The Church, a Unity of Believers
We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God
are members of the church which is the body and bride of Christ, which
began at Pentecost and is completely distinct from Israel. Its members are
constituted as such regardless of membership or non- membership in the
organized churches of earth. We believe that by the same Spirit all
believers in this age are baptized into, and thus become, one body that is
Christ's, whether Jews or Gentiles, and having become members one of
another, are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace, rising above all sectarian differences, and loving one another with a
pure heart fervently. (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:5; 1
Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23; 4:3-10; Colossians 3:14-15.)
The Sacraments or Ordinances
We believe that water baptism and the Lord's Supper are the only
sacraments and ordinances of the church and that they are a scriptural
means of testimony for the church in this age. (Matthew 28:19; Luke 22:19-
20; Acts 10:47-48; 16:32-33; 18:7-8; 1 Corinthians 11:26.)
The Christian's Walk
We believe that we are called with a holy calling to walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that
we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh with its fallen, Adamic
nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being with us to the end of our
lives to the dishonor of our Lord. (Romans 6:11
-13; 8:2, 4, 12-13; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 2:1-
10; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 1 John 1:4-7; 3:5-9.)
The Christian's Service
We believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit
upon all who are saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is
energized by the same Spirit, and each is called to his own divinely
appointed service as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church there were
certain gifted men--apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers--
who were appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints unto their work
of the ministry. We believe also that today some men are especially called
of God to be evangelists, pastors and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling
of His will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and
encouraged in their service for God. (Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11;
Ephesians 4:11.)
We believe that, wholly apart from salvation benefits which are bestowed
equally upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the
faithfulness of each believer in his service for his Lord, and that these
rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to
receive His own to Himself. (1 Corinthians 3:9-15; 9:18-27; 2 Corinthians
5:10.)
The Great Commission
We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those
whom He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as
He was sent forth of His father into the world. We believe that after they are
saved they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers
and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose
in life should be to make Christ known to the world. (Matthew 28:18-19
Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20; 1 Peter 1:17,
2:11.)
The Blessed Hope
We believe that according to the Word of God the next great event in the
fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord in the air to receive to
Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His
coming, and also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus, and that this event is
the blessed hope set before us in the Scripture, and for this we should be
constantly looking. (John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; Philippians 3:20;
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14.)
The Tribulation
We believe that the translation of the church will be followed by the
fulfillment of Israel's seventieth week (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 6:1-19:21)
during which the church, the body of Christ, will be in heaven. The whole
period of Israel's seventieth week will be a time of judgment on the whole
earth, at the end of which the times of the Gentiles will be brought to a
close. The latter half of this period will be the time of Jacob's trouble
(Jeremiah 30:7), which our Lord called the great tribulation (Matthew 24:15-
21). We believe that universal righteousness will not be realized previous to
the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day by day ripening for
judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy.
The Second Coming of Christ
We believe that the period of great tribulation in the earth will be climaxed
by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth as He went, in person on
the clouds of heaven, and with power and great glory to introduce the
millennial age, to bind Satan and place him in the abyss, to lift the curse
which now rests upon the whole creation, to restore Israel to her own land
and to give her the realization of God's covenant promises, and to bring the
whole world to the knowledge of God. (Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 11:9;
Ezekiel 37:21-28; Matthew 24:15-25:46: Acts 15:16-17; Romans 8:19-23;
11:25-27; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Revelation 20:1-3.)
The Eternal State
We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in
the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and
there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body
when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and body reunited shall be
associated with Him forever in glory; but the spirits and souls of the
unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery
until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the
millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire,
not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19-26;
23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7;
Revelation 20:11-15.)
