What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of Bailey Christian Church based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

We believe that there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). He is the Creator of the universe and of all people (Genesis 1-3). He is revealed to us in the three persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; John 1:1; Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 1). While each of these three is individually God from all eternity, they are one in essence. That is, there are not three gods, but one God in three persons (i.e., the Trinity). Throughout Scripture we find that the Father is referred to as God; Jesus is referred to as God, and the Holy Spirit is referred to as God. Yet the mystery of the Trinity is that these three separate "Persons" are referred to as "one God."

Jesus is the unique Son of God. He is God come in the flesh ("truly God & truly man"; Matthew 1:23; 3:17;John 1:1, 14; 3:16) who was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:18-25), lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:14, 15), died for our sins (Romans 5:8), was resurrected from the dead (1 Corinthians 15),  reigns now with God in heaven (Ephesians 1:20-23) and will return as Lord and judge (2 Corinthian 5:10). He is the Savior of all who believe and obey Him (John 3:16).

The Holy Spirit is God living in us. He is the divine Comforter and Counselor God sent to convict sinners and to guide Christians, in whom he dwells, into all truth (John 3:5,6; 16:8-11; Acts 20:22-23; Romans 5:1-5). He enables God's people to become more like Jesus, and He empowers God's people to boldly witness to the world (Acts 1:18). The Holy Spirit also gives each Christian a gift(s) to bless and serve the rest of God's family and the world (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12).

The Bible is the Word of God and is His unique revelation to the world. The Bible is our authoritative source for understanding God, life, and the world around us. (Psalm 119; 1 Timothy 1:13, 14; 2 Timothy 3:16). The whole story of everything God did to bring Jesus into our world is given for us in God's written word, Scripture. All along the way, God appointed, equipped, and inspired different witnesses to what He had done to record His interactions with us and His instructions by inspiring their writings by the Holy Spirit. The end result is that even though they wrote as men of their times, their words recorded God's timeless truth. Yet as important as that is, the ultimate purpose of the Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the Living Word. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises. The Bible is also a "closed" revelation. That as Jude tells us, God's message of salvation has been "once for all delivered to the saints." Though God still speaks, no new scripture is yet to come.

People are made in the image of God, to be like Him in character. People are the supreme object of God's creation. All of us are marred by an attitude and practice of disobedience toward God called "sin." Sin separates people from God and causes many problems in life and ultimately death. Outside of a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ, we are lost (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 8:3-6; Isaiah 53:6a; Romans 3:23; Isaiah 59:1, 2).

Salvation is the love of God restoring the broken relationship between Himself and humanity caused by sin. We believe people are lost and bound for Hell without knowing Jesus. Salvation is God's way of bringing people back to him and is a gift from Him, not something we can earn (Ephesians 2:8-10). Our response to what God has done comes through hearing the Gospel (Romans 10:17), believing in Jesus (John3:16), repenting (changing the way we think and act toward God and sin; Acts 2:38), confessing Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9, 10), being baptized for forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), and living by faith in the grace of God (Revelation 2:10). As a result we can have peace in this life and a glorious hope for an eternity with God!

Becoming a Christian is a process that begins by placing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save us from our sins, with baptism as our response to Christ's offer for forgiveness and new life. Baptism (the word means "to dip or immerse") is the public acknowledgement of our faith in Jesus' laying down His life and taking it up again for our sake. In baptism we embrace our new identity in Christ by coming forward and essentially saying, "Count me in. I'm done with my old life; I'm here to do God's will." (Romans 6:1-7)

We believe that everyone who becomes a Christian has the Holy Spirit in him/her. The Bible tells us the Spirit gives each one of God's children a gift(s) to use for the rest of the body/church and that every Christian is called upon to serve others as well as introduce others to a relationship with Christ (1 Corinthians 12; Matthew 28:16-20). We also believe that maturity for the Christian is not an option and that it is God's goal for each of us to grow to look more and more like Jesus (Ephesians 4:11-16).

We believe that the term "marriage" has only one meaning: the uniting of one biologically born man and one biologically born woman in a single, exclusive union, as spelled out in Scripture (Genesis 2:18-25). We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other (1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4). We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We also believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ (Acts 3:19-21; Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).