Preamble
Declaring our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation and accepting the Bible as our sole rule of faith and practice, we, therefore, unite ourselves as a body of baptized believers in Jesus Christ.

Purpose
The purpose of this church is to provide a formal structure whereby believers of like-thinking may unite for the purpose of making disciples. (Matthew 28:19-20)
The thrust of Bethany Bible Fellowship will be to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ; to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit; to provide Bible teaching so that all believers might develop into spiritually mature persons, "to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13); to encourage believers to be involved in fulfilling the Great Commission by their personal witness.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
We believe the Holy Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, inerrant, and God-breathed, having supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct. (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Matthew 5:18)

THE TRINITY
We believe in one Triune God, existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternal in being, equal in power and glory and having the same attributes and perfection.  (Deuteronomy 6:4; 2 Corinthians 13:14)

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GOD THE FATHER
We believe that God the Father is an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and spiritual death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.  (Matthew 6:8-15, 7:11, 23:9; John 4:24, 14:6-13; Galatians 4:6)

JESUS CHRIST
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man; that He accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice; that our redemption is made sure to us by His literal physical resurrection from the dead (John 1:1-2, 14; Luke 1:35; Rom. 3:24-25, 4:25; 1 Peter 1:3-5); that the Lord Jesus Christ is now in Heaven, exalted at the right hand of God, where, as the High Priest for His people, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate.  (Hebrews 9:24, 7:25; Romans 8:34;

1 John 2:1-2)

THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person who convicts the world of sin, indwells all believers in the present age, baptizes them into the body of Christ, seals them unto the day of redemption, and that it is the duty of every believer to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians. 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:13-14, 5:18)

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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, inherited a sinful nature, became alienated from God, and is totally unable to retrieve his former condition by his own merit. 

(Genesis 1:26-27, Romans 3:22-23, 5:12; Ephesians 2:12)

SALVATION
We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ whose precious blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.  (Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-10; John 1:12)

THE ETERNAL SECURITY OF BELIEVERS
We believe that all believers are kept secure forever by God.   (Romans 8:1, 38-30; John 10:27-30; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8)

THE CHURCH
We believe that the Church, which is now the body and shall be the bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born again persons. 

(Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

We believe that the local church consists of a body of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith, and associated for worship, work and fellowship. We believe that God has laid upon the members of the local church the primary task of giving the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world (Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; Revelation 2-3; 1 Corinthians 1:2).

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THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN
We believe in the personality of Satan, who is the open and declared enemy of God and man (Job 1:6-7; Matthew 4:2-11; Isaiah 14:12-17).

THE RAPTURE
We believe that the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord Jesus in the air to receive to Himself the dead in Christ and believers who are alive at His coming, otherwise known as the Rapture and Translation of the Church (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14)

THE TRIBULATION AND THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
We believe that the Rapture of the Church will be followed by tribulation which will be climaxed by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom (Daniel 9:27; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-21; Revelation 6:1-19, 21; Zechariah 14:4-11; Matthew 24;15-25, 46; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:6).

THE ETERNAL STATE
We believe that the soul and human spirit of those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence, and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the body at His coming, when soul, human spirit and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. In contrast, the soul of unbelivers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the Great White Thone at the close of the millenium, 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, verses 6-7; Revelation 20:11-15).

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THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BELIEVERS
We believe that all believers should seek to walk in such a manner as not to bring reproach upon their Lord and Savior, that it is the obligation of every believer to witness by life and by word to the truths of Holy Scriptures and to seek to proclaim the gospel to all the world (Acts 1:8); that it is the responsibility of all believers to remember the work of the Lord in prayer and to support it with their means as the Lord has prospered them (1 Corinthians 16:2).

CHURCH ORDINANCES
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Ordinances of Baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper to be observed until His return; that baptism is symbolic of the believer's death to the old nature and his new life in Christ; that the Lord's Supper is symbolic of the broken body and shed blood of our Lord jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

SPIRITUALITY
We believe that spirituality is an essential condition in the life of a believer wherein he is filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, walking in love and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe that a believer becomes carnal through any act of mental, verbal or overt sin and that spirituality or fellowship with Christ is restored by personal confession of all known sin to God the Father (John 15:7-8; 2 Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 5:18; Romans 6:11-13; 1 John 1:9; 1 John 1:5-2:2: 1 Corinthians 11:30,31).

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BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS
We believe that in the life of each believer there is one baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurs at the point of salvation and by which the Holy Spirit places the believer into union with Christ. This excludes all other so-called "baptism" of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12-13; Galatians 3:26-28; Romans 6:3-4; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 1:13-14).

We further believe that God the Holy Spirit in grace and apart from human merit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts to believers in this age for the building up of the body of Christ. Some of the spiritual gifts are pastor-teacher, evangelist, administrator, helper, giving and showing of mercy (1 Corintians 12, 13; Ephesians 4:7-12; Romans 12:4-8).

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