About Grace Church Old Brooklyn
What We Believe
This is what we believe fully based on the inerrant (incapable of being wrong) Holy Scriptures – the Bible (66 books) – God’s written revelation to man.
The Bible
The Bible, including both Old and New Testaments as originally given, is the inspired, inerrant, Word of God and is therefore the final authoritative guide for faith and conduct (2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:15-17 )
The Trinity
There is one God eternally existent in three distinct persons in one divine essence, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14)
God the Father
God the Father has revealed Himself as the Creator and preserver of the universe, to Whom the entire creation and all creatures are subject.
God the Son
Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, is the image of the invisible God. To accomplish our redemption, He became fully human, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man, by His perfect obedience and substitutionary death on the cross, has purchased our redemption. He arose from the dead for our justification in the body in which He was crucified. He ascended into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God, the Father, as our interceding High Priest. He will come a second time personally, bodily, and visibly to gather the believers unto Himself. His kingdom shall have no end.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a divine person eternally one with the Father and with the Son. He convicts people of sin, persuades them to confess their sinfulness and calls them to faith through the Gospel. He regenerates, sanctifies, and preserves believers in the one true faith. He comforts, guides, equips, directs, and empowers the church.
The Human Race
God created Adam and Eve in His image to live in fellowship with Him. They fell into sin through the temptation of Satan and thereby lost fellowship with God. Through their disobedience the entire human race became depraved, that is, self-centered sinners who oppose God, and who by nature are unable to trust, fear or love Him as they ought.
Law and Gospel
Through the Word of the Law God brings sinners to know their lost condition. Through Grace He brings sinners to believe in Jesus Christ and to be justified. This occurs as the Holy Spirit awakens them to see their sin, convicts them of their guilt of sin, and calls them to repent and believe, inviting and enabling them to receive God’s grace in Christ.
Salvation
Eternal salvation is available to every living human being on earth by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Justification
Justification is God’s gracious act by which He, for Christ’s sake, acquits sinners and credits them with Christ’s righteousness. There is no place for human effort in justification.
Sanctification
Sanctification is God’s gracious gift and continual work in the life of every justified person. The Holy Spirit works to reproduce the character of Christ within the lives of all believers, instructing and urging them to live out their new nature and to count themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. He calls, empowers and equips them to serve God in the home, in the community, and as part of the Church Universal.
The Church
The Church Universal consists of all those who truly believe on Jesus Christ as Savior. The local congregation is an assembly of believers in a certain locality among whom the Gospel is purely taught.
We subscribe to the doctrinal statement of our parent organization, The Christian & Missionary Alliance, found at www.cmalliance.org