Our Beliefs

Gospel Hope Church has two doctrinal statements. First, the Doctrinal Statement for Membership outlines those doctrines embraced by every member of Gospel Hope. These doctrines provide the basis for our unity in the church as we carry out the commission of our Lord.

Second, the Doctrinal Statement for Teaching and Shepherding, outlines those doctrines embraced by every pastor/elder/overseer at Gospel Hope. This doctrinal statement also provides a standard to which all teaching at Gospel Hope adheres.

Doctrinal Statement for Membership at Gospel Hope Church

We, the members of Gospel Hope Church, wholeheartedly believe...

• About the Bible

  We believe that the Bible is God’s written revelation to man, and thus the sixty-six books of the Bible given to us by the Holy Spirit constitute the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:7-14; 2 Peter 1:20-21). The Word of God is verbally inspired in every word (2 Timothy 3:16), without error of any kind in the original documents.  As such, the Bible is the only infallible rule of faith and practice (Matthew 5:18; 24:35; John 10:35; 16:12-13; 17:17; 1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

• About the Triune God

  We believe that there is but one living and true God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (John 4:24), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)—each equally deserving worship and obedience.

• About God the Father

  We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace (Psalm 145:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:6). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (Ephesians 4:6), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18).

• About Jesus Christ

  We believe that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial (of the same substance), and coeternal with the Father (John 10:30; 14:9). In the incarnation, the eternally existing second Person of the Trinity, being born of a virgin, accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-Man (fully God and fully man) (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9). Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross, and His death was voluntary, substitutionary, propitiatory (appeasing the wrath of God), and redemptive (John 10:15; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24). On the basis of the effectiveness of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day, the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (Romans 3:25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). Our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38-39; Acts 2:30-31; Romans 4:25; 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1).

• About the Holy Spirit

  We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity. In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial (of the same substance) with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jeremiah 31:31-34 with Hebrews 10:15-17). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. The broad scope of His divine activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and transforming believers into the image of Christ (John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5; 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:22). We believe that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13).

• About Man and Sin

  We believe that God created man in His own image and likeness. Man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self-determination, and moral responsibility to God (Genesis 2:7, 15-25; James 3:9). Since the fall of man into sin, the image of God in man has been distorted, though not eradicated (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). In Adam’s sin of disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, he not only fell from his state of innocence into one of separation and alienation from God, but as the representative for all mankind, he also plunged the whole race into sin and death (Romans 5:12-21). All mankind became inherently corrupt and subject to the wrath of God (John 3:36; Romans 3:23; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3). Fallen man is blind and helpless, wholly incapable of spiritual self-reformation or rescue and is wholly in need of God’s salvation (Isaiah 64:5-7; Jeremiah 13:23; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:21-22).

• About Salvation

  We believe that salvation is the gift of God in grace and is received by man only through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins (John 1:12; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-9). We believe that regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which the divine nature and divine life are given (John 3:3-7; Titus 3:5). It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God (John 5:24), as the repentant sinner, enabled by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:4-5), responds in faith to the divine provision of salvation. He passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life; being justified, accepted before the Father just as Christ, His Son, is accepted, loved as Christ is loved and one with Him forever (John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; I Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 2:10; II Peter 3:18; I John 4:17; 5:11-12).

  We also believe that the greatest degree of reformation, the highest attainment of morality, the most attractive culture, baptism or any other ordinance, cannot help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven. Only by a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, may one obtain salvation and thus become a child of God (Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 26:28; John 3:5, 18; Romans 5:6-9; II Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; I Peter 1:18-19, 23).

• About the Church

  We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-13), the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 19:7-8), of which Christ is the Head (Ephesians 1:22; 4:15; Colossians 1:18). The Church exists both universally (i.e., the total number of genuine believers throughout history, Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 12:13) and locally (i.e., localized assemblies, Matthew 18:15-18; Acts 14:23; 20:17; Galatians 1:2).

• About the Ordinances of the Local Church

  We believe that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:38-42). Christian baptism by immersion into water (Acts 8:36-39) is the solemn and beautiful testimony of a believer showing forth his faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, and his union with Him in death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Romans 6:1-11). It is also a sign of fellowship and identification with the visible Body of Christ (Acts 2:41-42). The Lord’s Supper is the commemoration and proclamation of His death until He comes, and should be always preceded by solemn self-examination (1 Corinthians 11:28-32). We also believe that, whereas the elements of Communion are only representative of the flesh and blood of Christ, participation in the Lord’s Supper is nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ, who indwells every believer, and so is present, fellowshipping with His people (1 Corinthians 10:16).

• About Last Things

  We believe in the second coming of Christ: that His return from heaven will be personal, visible, and glorious—a Blessed Hope for which we should constantly watch and pray (Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7; Mark 13:33-37; Titus 2:11-13; Revelation 22:20).

• About Future Life and Future Judgment

  We believe that physical death involves no loss of our immaterial consciousness. While the bodies of men after death return to dust, redeemed souls go into the presence of Christ and lost souls go into punishment. On the last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised, and every soul will be rejoined with his body to enter the eternal state [John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:12-28; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Philippians 1:23].

  God has appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world by Jesus Christ, when everyone shall receive according to his deeds; the wicked shall go into everlasting and conscious punishment; the righteous, into everlasting life [Matthew 25:46; John 5:22, 27-29; Acts 17:31; Romans 2:5-11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2 Timothy 4:8; Revelation 7:13-17; 14:9-11].

Doctrinal Statement for Teaching and Shepherding

NOTE: This doctrinal statement has also been approved by the elders of Grace Community Church.

Our aim with this doctrinal statement is to embrace and teach “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) and to encourage a hearty adherence to the Bible, the fullness of its truth, and the glory of its Author. We believe that the cause of unity in the church is best served, not by downplaying doctrine, but by elevating the value of truth, stating the doctrinal parameters of the church, seeking the unity that comes from the truth, and then demonstrating to the world how Christians can love each other though they may at times differ in their understanding of some doctrines.

We do not claim infallibility for this doctrinal statement and are open to refinement and correction from Scripture. Yet, we do hold firmly to these truths as we see them and call on others to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11).

Finally, we do not believe that all things in this doctrinal statement are of equal weight, some being more essential, some less. We do not believe that every part of this doctrinal statement must be believed in order for one to be saved.

Highlights from the Doctrinal Statement for Teaching and Shepherding

These are highlights from the Doctrinal Statement for Teaching and Shepherding (See the link below to download the entire Doctrinal Statement).

• Creation

  We teach that Genesis 1-3 is the historically accurate account of the creation of all things out of nothing, by the spoken word of God, over six literal days.

• Premillennialism

  We teach that the second coming of Jesus Christ will precede His earthly reign in fulfillment of the predictions/promises of both OT and NT prophets. A premillennial viewpoint allows for the most consistently literal interpretation of both Old and New Testaments.

• Elder Governance

  We teach that the local church is to be governed by a plurality of men (elders/overseers/pastors), all equal in authority, that meet the biblical qualifications of Scripture. The congregation is responsible to submit to the God-given authority of the elders.

• Completionism (Spiritual Gifts)

  We teach that the Holy Spirit is no longer writing Scripture and the canon of Scripture is closed. Therefore, the exercise of the revelatory (tongues, prophecy) and miraculous gifts (healing, miracles) as gifts within the church are no longer energized by the Holy Spirit in the church. We affirm the necessity and reality of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in every area of church and personal life. Additionally, we affirm that God can and does still work in miraculous ways according to His sovereign purpose and through the prayers of His people.

• Complementarianism (Gender Roles)

  We teach that God created mankind in His image as male and female with equal personhood and worth, but with differences. We teach that God, in His wisdom, appointed unique and complementary gender roles within marriage and in the church.

• Sovereignty of God in salvation

  We teach that before the foundation of the world God chose who would be saved, and therefore, believers deserve no credit for any aspect of their salvation.