Statement of Faith

This statement is a concise summary of the Fundamentals of the Faith. The truths in this statement are basic to a right understanding and belief concerning God and His Word, the Person and work of Christ, and the way of salvation. Confident and full acceptance of these truths is a requirement for membership in RBC and for our full fellowship with other Christians and churches.

The Holy Bible is the divinely inspired, unerring Word of God, our supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

There is one true God, sovereign Creator of the universe. God exists eternally in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Son of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. Born of the virgin Mary, He lived a sinless life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose again from the dead. He ascended to His Father's right hand, and now intercedes for His people there. He will soon return for His church, begin His judgment of all mankind, and institute His universal rule.

By nature, each individual person is fallen and lost, unable to escape God's judgment against our sin. But by the infinite grace of God and the atoning sacrifice of Christ, all who put their faith in Jesus the risen Lord receive full forgiveness and eternal life. All who refuse him perish.

The Holy Spirit works in the world, convicting men and women of their sin and drawing them to Jesus Christ the Lord. The Holy Spirit indwells all true believers, enabling them to experience the life in Christ, and providing them with spiritual gifts whereby they may glorify God and build up His church.

Expanded Statement of RBC Teaching and Practices

This Expanded Statement was written with two purposes in mind:

As a further elaboration of the fundamental truths in the Statement of Faith. The further elaborations on Scripture, God, Man, and Salvation, as well as the statements on Angels and Marriage, are to be considered fundamental to our faith.
As an explanation of certain RBC teachings and practices we share in common with other Brethren Assemblies. We do not require Christians to subscribe fully to all details of all these expanded positions as a condition of RBC membership; specifically the statements on The Church, The Plurality and Rule of Elders, The Ordinances, Spiritual Gifts, and The Last Things. These issues are the subjects of honest difference of opinion among different groups of equally committed Christians. However these are the doctrinal positions and practices of RBC. It is very important that these be freely taught when appropriate and upheld at all public meetings and in all ministries of RBC.

The Holy Scriptures: The Bible is God’s written revelation to humanity. It was fully, verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit in the original writings in all its parts, through the individual personalities and styles of its human authors. It is therefore inerrant and infallible and our only reliable rule of faith and practice. We interpret it by the classic literal-historical-grammatical method, with appropriate attention to and allowance for the social and cultural environment and times in which each part was written. We teach what we understand to be the full message of the Bible, although we do not claim to have arrived at a complete and final understanding of the Word of God.

God: There is one God, the only eternal self-existing One, from Whom are all created things. God is Spirit, perfect in all His attributes, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God, one in substance and essence, exists from all eternity in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this Trinity in Unity nothing is before or after, nothing is greater or less, but all Three Persons, co-eternal, together and equal.

God the Father orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace. He is the Creator of all things. As the only absolute and omnipotent ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. He is Father to all people but spiritual father only to believers. All things are for His glory. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events.
God the Son, Jesus Christ, is co-equal, co-substantial, and co-eternal with the Father. All things were created by Him and for Him, and through Him all things continue to exist and operate. In becoming human, Christ voluntarily laid aside the prerogatives of deity but none of His divine essence. God the Son perfectly combined in indivisible oneness His divine and human natures. Virgin-born and ever the holy, sinless, and spotless Lamb of God, Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood in sacrificial death on the cross. His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, and propitiatory. Our justification is made sure by His physical resurrection from the dead, which gives proof that God completely accepted His atoning sacrifice. He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He mediates as our Advocate and High Priest. God will judge all mankind through Him.
God the Holy Spirit possesses all the attributes of personality and deity. He is co-equal and co-substantial with the Father and the Son. His work is to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. His work in this age began at Pentecost to initiate and complete the building of the Church by convicting the world of sin, glorifying the Son, and transforming believers into the image of Christ. He is the agent of regeneration, baptizes believers into the Body of Christ, and indwells, sanctifies, instructs, and empowers them for service, and seals them for redemption. He is the divine teacher who inspired the writing of the Scriptures.

Angels are created beings and therefore not to be worshipped. They are a higher order of creation than humans, created to serve God and to worship Him. Satan is a created angel and the author of sin. He incurred the judgment of God by rebelling against Him, taking many angels with him in his fall, and by introducing sin into the human race by his temptation of Eve and the sin of Adam. Satan and his angels (demons) are the open and declared enemy of God and man. Satan is the prince of this world who has been defeated through the death and resurrection of Christ and will be eternally punished in the lake of fire.

Humans were created by God in His image and likeness, free of sin and with a moral responsibility to God. God intended that we would glorify Him, enjoy His fellowship, live in His will, and accomplish His purpose for us in the world. In Adam’s sin, humanity lost its innocence and incurred the penalty of physical and spiritual death, becoming subject to the wrath of God, incapable of glorifying God apart from His grace. Adam’s sinful nature was transmitted to all people making us all sinners by nature and by choice.

Salvation: Salvation is wholly of God’s grace on the basis of the atoning work of Christ and not on the basis of human merit or works. Christ was the one and only atoning sacrifice for sin. Salvation is freely given by God to all who repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ as Saviour. The message of salvation is to "whosoever will". All who reject this message of salvation in Christ do so on their own responsibility and will experience eternal punishment.

All who are Christ’s were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God; they are predestined to the adoption as God’s children, to the praise of His glory; are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, to obey Jesus Christ; they are foreknown, predestined and called to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. The unmerited favor that God grants to sinners is not related to any initiative of their own part but is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which the divine nature and divine life are given to all who believe. All who reach heaven do so solely on the merits of Christ, without any suggestion of work or merit on their part.
The Holy Spirit effectuates the new birth in all who believe and respond to Christ by faith. Their resulting good works are the proper evidence and fruit of this new birth, and will be experienced to the extent that the believers submit to the control of the Holy Spirit in their life through faithful obedience to the Word of God.
Justification before God is an act of God by which He declares righteous those who turn from their sins and trust Christ as Saviour. This righteousness is imputed by God. That is, it is not based on any virtue or work on the part of the believer. Rather, as our sins were imputed to, or laid on Christ, so His righteousness is imputed to all who are saved. Thus, in Christ every believer stands before God justified, right with God for eternity.
We teach that every believer is sanctified by the blood of Christ and is therefore declared to be holy and identified as a saint. This positional sanctification is instantaneous and has to do with the believer’s standing. It should not be confused with progressive sanctification, which has to do with the present walk or condition of the believer. Progressive sanctification is the ongoing process and work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers whereby in their spiritual state they are brought closer to their standing in Christ. This happens as the believer understands and obeys the Word of God, submits to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and is more and more conformed to the image of Christ.
All believers who are in Christ, are kept by God’s power, not by their own efforts, and are thus secure in Christ forever.

The Church: All believers are placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual body, the church of Jesus Christ, of which He is head. The establishment and continuity of local churches is taught in the Scriptures and the members of the universal church are directed to associate themselves together in local assemblies for worship, service, proclamation of the Word of God, and mutual love and support. Local churches are responsible to the Lord under their appointed elders and are free from external authority or control. Individual churches are to fellowship with one another and cooperate wherever possible for the propagation of the faith.

Plurality and Rule of Elders: The one supreme authority for the church is Christ. The biblically designated officers serving under Christ and over the local church are the elders. These leaders rule as servants of Christ and have His authority in directing the church. The congregation is to recognize the elders and their role, and to follow their leadership.

The Ordinances: Two ordinances have been committed by Christ to the local church:

Baptism by immersion is the public testimony of every believer in obedience to the Lord’s command. It is an act by which believers who have trusted Christ as Saviour demonstrate that obedience, testify to their allegiance to Christ, and affirm their intention to follow the Saviour and to "walk in newness of life" all their days. It is also a sign of fellowship and identification with the visible Body of Christ. There is no saving efficacy in baptism and it confers no merit on the one baptized. Nevertheless it is an important declaration in the Christian life, one that serves to focus and confirm one’s decision to follow Christ, both for the onlookers and for the one being baptized.
The Lord's Supper is an act of corporate worship and remembrance. It is a memorial in which we remember the Saviour in His death by sharing in the bread and wine, "till He come". These emblems are only symbols and speak clearly to us of Christ’s body given for us and His blood shed for us on the cross. This central, weekly worship service is intended to be a fundamental part of the life of the Church and every believer. Christ invites and commands us to remember Him in this way. We therefore celebrate this remembrance service weekly, in spontaneous praise and worship, open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit, practicing the priesthood of all believers.

Spiritual Gifts: God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His spiritual gifts today. There were two kinds of gifts given the early church: miraculous gifts of divine revelation and healing, given temporarily in the apostolic era for the purpose of confirming the authenticity of the apostles’ message; and ministering gifts, given to equip believers for edifying one another. With the New Testament revelation now complete, Scripture becomes the sole test of the authenticity of the message, and confirming gifts of a miraculous nature are no longer necessary to validate a person or their message. Although God still operates miracles according to His will, the only gifts in operation today are those non-revelatory and equipping gifts given for edification.

Marriage: God ordained marriage as a voluntary, complementary, and lifelong covenant between a man and a woman. It protects, legitimizes, and supports the procreative relationship that can exist only between a man and a woman. Marriage also reflects aspects of God’s character in His relationship to humanity. The permanence and monogamy of marriage mirror God’s faithfulness and singular devotion to His church. Sexual intimacy is legitimate only within the bounds of marriage. A healthy, permanent marriage is therefore God’s ideal, and the best foundation for families, the raising of children and community life.

The Last Things: Our teaching is generally in line with the historic dispensational view. The key elements of this view include:

The Rapture: The return of Christ at any moment to remove His church to be with Himself and to reward her. This event will be initiated by God and does not depend on any additional developments on the earth.
The Tribulation: A subsequent seven-year period of unparalleled trouble, destruction, and wickedness upon the earth. This period of God’s wrath upon rebellious humanity will culminate in the return of Christ to the earth as king, to judge the nations and to set up His earthly kingdom.
The Millennium: This thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth, will be a time of universal peace, prosperity, and enforced world wide righteousness. It will be the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. Israel will have a renewed role, as the nation will be brought to repentance and finally acknowledge Christ as the Messiah.
The Final Judgment: The end of the Millennium will be characterized by a final, Satan-inspired revolt against the righteous rule of Christ, ending with the final destruction of the forces of evil, the final judgment and eternal separation from God of the wicked, and the ushering in of the eternal state.