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The gospel is the good news of God’s grace invading the darkness of this world. It is the grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation ordained by God and orchestrated through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Christ’s crucifixion is the heart of the gospel. His resurrection is the power of the gospel. His ascension is the glory of the gospel.
Christ’s death is a substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins.
It satisfies the demands of God’s holy justice and appeases His holy wrath. It also demonstrates His mysterious love and reveals His amazing grace. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. There is no other name by which men can be saved.
At the heart of all sound doctrine is the cross of Jesus Christ and the infinite privilege that redeemed sinners have in glorifying God because of what He has accomplished. Therefore, we want all that takes place in our hearts, churches, and ministries to proceed from and be related to the gospel.
College Baseball Fellowship is under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we
are committed to contending for the faith that was once for all delivered to
the saints (Jude 1:3). In unity with the historic Christian church, we believe and
confess the Apostles’, Nicene and Chalcedonian Creeds as accurate
representations of Scripture’s teaching.
The basic doctrines within College Baseball Fellowship Statement of Faith
represent what we believe to be core elements of biblical teaching.
Doctrine of God
We believe in one God eternally existing as one essence and three distinct
persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, each of whom is
fully God, yet there is one God.
We believe in one God eternally existing as one essence and three distinct
persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Each person is
fully, equally and eternally God, yet there is one God. Each person has
precisely the same nature and attributes and is worthy of precisely the same
worship, honor and praise. The entire Christian faith is bound together with
the confession of God’s Trinitarian nature (Matt. 28:18-20).
We believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth. We believe in
the Son, God from God, eternally begotten but not made, who in history
assumed to Himself a human nature for the sake of our salvation (John 1:14;
Heb. 1:3). He is fully God and fully man. Through Him, all things came into
being and were created. He was before all things, and in Him, all things hold
together by the word of His power (Col.1:15-20). He suffered, died, was buried,
resurrected, ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father until He returns
for the final judgment and consummation of the Kingdom. We believe in the
Holy Spirit who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son and is sent by
the Father and Son to give new life (John 15:26-27). The Holy Spirit unites
believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth and dwells within
the regenerate (Eph. 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son who,
in turn, came to glorify the Father. He will lead the Church into a right
understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s Word. He is to be
respected, honored and worshiped as God, the third person of the Trinity.The triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, is the Creator of all things, visible and
invisible. As the immortal and eternal Creator, He sovereignly rules over all of
His creation (Ps. 24:1).
Doctrine of Revelation
God has made Himself known to the world in Jesus Christ, the Scriptures and
creation.
We believe that God has made Himself known to His creation. He has revealed
Himself to us in His Son, the incarnate Word (Heb.1:1-2), in Scripture, the
inspired Word (2 Tim. 3:16), and in creation (Ps. 8; Rom. 1:20)
We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the perfect revelation of who
God is. Jesus Christ is the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), “the exact
imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3) and a perfect reflection of God the Father
(John 5:19).
We believe the Scriptures, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are
the inspired Word of God and are therefore without error in their original
writings. These writings alone constitute the verbally inspired Word of God,
which is utterly authoritative and free from error. The Scripture is sufficient for
all that God requires for us to believe and do and is therefore to be believed,
as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all
that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises (Is. 40:6-8).
As God’s people hear, believe and obey the Word, they are equipped as
disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel (Rom. 10:14-17).
Doctrine of Creation and Providence
We believe that God created the world from nothing and governs all things at
all times in all places.
God created the whole world from nothing (Gen. 1:1-2; Ps. 24:1). God’s
creative work is the overflow of the love present within the Trinitarian
fellowship. Creation, according to the design of God, was good (Gen. 1:3-31).God doesn’t let the world exist, He makes the world exist. He upholds the
universe by the word of His power, and He holds the world together in himself
(Col. 1:17).
Doctrine of Humanity
We believe that all humanity is created in the image of God and possesses
intrinsic dignity and worth.
God made humanity—male and female—in His own image (Gen. 1:27-30). Set
apart as His image bearers, every human being is sacred. All men and all
women, bearing the image of God, are meant to represent God in His creation
(1 Cor. 10:31). God declares the created order to be very good, distinguishing
men and women as His agents to care for, manage and govern over it. They
enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move
beyond passive self-indulgence to significant private and public engagement
in family, church and civic life. Adam and Eve were made to complement each
other in a one-flesh union in the covenant of marriage that establishes the
only God-ordained pattern of sexual relations for men and women. In God’s
wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable, but rather
they complement each other in mutually enriching ways.
Doctrine of Sin
We believe that sin has fractured all things, leaving the world in desperate need
of salvation.
Through the temptation of Satan, humanity transgressed the command of
God and fell from their original holiness and righteousness (Gen. 3). Now the
entire human race inherits a corrupt nature that is opposed to God and His
law (Rom. 3:9-20). Therefore, all humans are under condemnation. This
depravity is radical and pervasive. It extends to the mind, will, body and
affections. Unregenerate humanity lives under the dominion of sin and Satan
(Eph. 2:1-3). He is at enmity with God, hostile toward and hateful of God.Doctrine of Salvation
We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
We believe that, due to universal death through sin, no one can enter the
kingdom of God unless born again (John 3:5-8); that salvation is only by grace
through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ; and that all who receive the
Lord Jesus Christ through faith are declared righteous by God and become
children of God (Heb.10:19-25).
We believe the Scriptures teach that regeneration, or the new birth, is that act
of God by which the Holy Spirit imparts a new nature and a new spiritual life,
not before possessed, and the person becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus
(Gal. 2:20). The mind is given a holy disposition and a new desire to serve God,
the dominion of sin is broken, and the heart is transformed from a love of sin
and self to a love of holiness and God.
Doctrine of the Church
We believe that the Church is the body of Christ sent into the world to shine
forth the glory of God.
God, by His Word and Spirit, creates the Church, calling sinful humanity into
the fellowship of Christ’s body (1 Cor. 12:12-31). By the same Word and Spirit,
He guides and preserves that newly redeemed humanity. The Church is made
up of those who have become genuine followers of Jesus Christ and have
personally appropriated the gospel. The Church exists to worship and glorify
God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Church is an extension
of the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit.
The ultimate mission of the Church is to bring glory to God by making
disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). The Church is called to make disciples through
worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of the ordinances,
fellowship, the exercise of our gifts and talents, and the proclamation of the
gospel both in our community and throughout the world.We believe there are two ordinances of the Church. One is that of believer’s
baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the other is the
Lord’s Supper.
Water baptism is only intended for those who have received the saving
benefits of Christ through the new birth of the Holy Spirit. In obedience to
Christ’s command and as a testimony to God, the Church, oneself and the
world, believers are baptized by water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. Water baptism is a visual and symbolic demonstration of a person’s
union with Christ in the likeness of His death and resurrection. It signifies that
a former way of life has been put to death and vividly depicts the release from
the mastery of Satan, sin and death.
As with water baptism, the Lord’s Supper is to be observed only by those who
have become genuine followers of Christ. This ordinance symbolizes the
breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of His blood on our behalf and is
to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of continued
participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death. As we come to the table
with an attitude of faith and self-examination, we remember and proclaim the
death of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment for our souls and signify our
unity with other members of Christ’s body.
Doctrine of Resurrection and
Consummation of the Kingdom of
God
We believe that Jesus Christ is returning to the world in the future to judge the
living and the dead.
The consummation of all things includes the future, physical, visible, personal
and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the
glorification of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and the unjust,
and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth.
In the consummation, Satan, with his hosts and all those outside Christ, isfinally separated from the benevolent presence of God, enduring eternal
punishment (Rev. 20:7-15), but the righteous, in glorious bodies, will live and
reign with Him forever, serving Him and giving Him unending praise and
glory. Then the eager expectation of creation will be fulfilled, and the whole
earth shall proclaim the glory of God, who makes all things new (Rev. 21:1-5).
Email Steven Van Ooyen at svotx73@gmail.com.
Email Steven Van Ooyen at svotx73@gmail.com.
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