What We Believe and Why

As a conservative, independent church, Mission Road Bible Church is totally dedicated to preaching and teaching biblical truth and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. The following is a basic doctrinal statement summarizing our beliefs. If you desire a more complete doctrinal statement with scriptural documentation, we will happily furnish it to you upon request.

Doctrinal Statement

A. The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three Persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature.

B. The Person and Work of Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. We believe the incarnate Son of God accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross and was bodily raised from the dead for our justification. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, and is now exalted at the right hand of God, where, as our High Priest, He is our intercessor and advocate.

C. 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; and that He is the Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ -- indwelling, illuminating, and sealing them unto the day of redemption.

D. The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Bible to be the verbally inspired Word of God, written by men under God's control, God-breathed, inerrant and infallible in the original manuscripts, and the final authority in faith and life.

E. 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 race fell and became alienated from God. Mankind is totally depraved and unable to remedy his lost condition.

F. Salvation
We believe that salvation is the gift of God's grace and is received only by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and His finished work on the cross: the giving of His life as a propitiatory sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. We believe that all those truly saved and redeemed are kept by God's power and thus are secure in Christ forever.

G. Sanctification
We believe that every saved person is to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to maturity in Him. We reject the notion of sinless perfection while in this mortal body. Victory over sin is aided by knowing God's Word and His will, and by confession of sin.

H. Evangelism
We believe it is the obligation of those who are saved to proclaim the Gospel to all mankind by word and deed.

I. The Ministry and Spiritual Gifts
We believe that God is sovereign in the bestowal of at least one spiritual gift to each believer for the edification of the body of Christ; and that the gifts of evangelists, pastors and teachers are sufficient for the equipping of the saints for the work of service. We believe that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles ceased when the New Testament Scriptures were completed and their authority established.

J. The Church
We believe that the Church, which is the body and espoused bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism comprising all born-again persons of this present age. We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures.

K. Dispensationalism
We believe that the Scriptures are to be interpreted in their natural, literal sense. Three dispensations, or rules, of life come to the forefront: the age of Law, the age of the Church, and the age of the literal reign of Christ on the earth for one thousand years.

L. The Personality of Satan
We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the fall; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire.

M. The Second Advent of Christ
We believe in the personal, imminent, pre-tribulational and pre-millennial coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for His redeemed ones, and in His subsequent return to earth with His saints to establish His millennial kingdom.

N. The Eternal State
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 spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.

In subscribing to these articles of faith, we by no means set aside or undervalue any of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, but we deem the knowledge, belief and acceptance of the truth as set forth in our Doctrinal Statement to be essential to sound faith and fruitful practice, and, therefore, requisite for Christian fellowship.