Bethel PRC Doctrinal Distinctives

What we Believe

The Holy Bible is the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error. In the Bible, God has revealed Himself to us and tells us all we need to know for salvation.
(II Timothy 3:16,17)

God is a Triune God: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. He created the world and all it contains in six, 24-hour days. The ultimate purpose of God's creation is the revelation of his glory. Throughout all history God providentially sustains His creation and governs it according to His good pleasure.
(Hebrews 1:1-3)

Because God is holy and righteous, He punishes every sin. God created man perfect, but Adam, the first man, willfully rebelled against Him and consequently died spritually. As a result, every descendant of Adam is born guilty and worthy of God's wrath. We believe that fallen man is totally depraved and incapable of any good and that the only way to heaven is through God's Sovereign grace on the basis of Christ's death on the cross. Man is completely unable to choose to believe in God.
(Romans 5:12)

God is also a God of love, demonstrating His love by sending His own Son, Jesus Christ, to save His people from their sins by suffering and dying on the cross. Jesus endured the eternal punishment, which His people deserved. Having fully paid for their sins, Jesus arose and now reigns supreme in heaven.
(Philippians 2:5-12)

God is sovereign in this work of salvation. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. The Holy Spirit regenerates our spiritually dead hearts and we are given faith to believe the promises of the gospel. Through the means of grace, chiefly the preaching of His Word, we grow in a life of holiness, turning away from sin, and serving God in thankfulness. Through Christ, God has established an eternal covenant between Himself and His elect church. In this covenant, established and maintained by His sovereign grace alone, God loves us as friends, takes us into His own Family, and joins us to Christ so that we are heirs of eternal life.

God's love is particular. God effectually works His salvation only in his elect people. He does not offer the gospel to everyone for them to accept or reject at will. Rather, He saves those and only those whom He has chosen in Christ before the world was created. We also proclaim that the God of all mercy, according to His eternal purpose of election in Christ, commands that same grace to stand in the generations of the children of believers to gather to Himself a spiritual seed in Christ (Gen. 17:7; Gal 3:29). As it is written in the promises of the gospel, "Believe and thou shalt be saved, and thy house," Acts 16:31 and again "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call," Acts 2:39. Click here to read more about this subject.

We believe baptism is to be administered according to the promise to those who believe and their household. Not merely to individual believing adults, but according to the whole testimony of the Scriptuers, the baptism of infants.( Acts 2:39; Acts 10:44,47; Acts 16:15; Acts 16:31-34). Baptism has come in the place of circumcision. ( Col.2:11,12)

We also believe that remarriage after divorce (if the divorced spouse is still living) is unbiblical. (Rom. 7:2,3; I Corinthians 7:39) Please read this pamphlet on the subject for more information.

Jesus is coming again to be the judge of all the living and the dead. Those who believe in Him will dwell with Him in eternal glory in Heaven. Those that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, will suffer God's eternal wrath in Hell.
(Matthew 25:31-41)

For by grace ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(Ephesians 2:8-9)

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What we Believe