We believe that there is one God in three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was miraculously born of a virgin, Mary. Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, is the Creator, the One Who said, “Let there be light!” We believe that Jesus is fully and truly God, and fully and truly man. Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, and only Jesus saves from sin.
Satan and Demons
We believe that the angel Lucifer was created by God and given an important position in Heaven, but then fell from that position through the sin of pride and became the Dragon, cast from heaven, as Satan, the Devil, along with all fallen angels. Satan was able to persuade one-third of the angels to follow him in his rebellion. These fallen angels became the demons. Satan and his demons work to persuade people to commit sin and, in particular, to reject the authority of the true Gospel, Jesus, and the Bible.
ANY DOCTRINE THAT PERVERTS WHO JESUS IS AND WHAT HE DID FOR US IN REDEMPTION IS OF SATAN! Satan and the demons will be judged one day in Hell and cast into an eternal Lake of Fire, which was prepared for the Devil and his angels.
Sin and Hell
We believe that sin is the breaking of God’s law. Whatever is not of faith is sin. In the Garden of Eden, Eve listened to the serpent, the Devil, and sinned first, and then convinced her husband Adam to sin. All sin must be judged. God will judge those who commit sin at His Great White Throne Judgment (possibly on Antarctica). Those men and women whose sins are not covered by the Blood of Jesus will join Satan and his demons in eternal punishment in the flames of the Lake of Fire.
Salvation and Eternal Security
We believe that salvation is entirely by grace through human faith in the substitutionary atonement, death, and resurrection of Christ, apart from man’s good works. Saving faith in Jesus is not a human work, but an individual spiritual decision of repentance, turning to Jesus for forgiveness, through meaningful repentance of a sinful life. Repentance does not mean we list our sins and try to stop them to be good enough to get to heaven. It means to recognize we are lost and under the judgment and condemnation of Almighty God. People are not born sinful, already condemned, lost, guilty, or reprobate. People become sinners when they first sin. We must realize that the wages of sin bring forth eternal separation from God in hell and that we need to turn to the risen living Lord Jesus Christ to save us from the consequences of our sins. Only His atoning blood, which was shed on our behalf, can wash away our sins. At the precise moment a sinner turns to Jesus to save him or her from sin, the Holy Spirit indwells that person, and through the new birth, that individual is eternally secure, once saved, always saved (OSAS). Once a person, in sincere prayer, turns to Jesus, Jesus does all of the saving, and the sinner does none of it. However, although anyone can be saved, God never forces anyone to come to saving faith. The goodness of God leads people to repent and accept Christ.
The Bible
We believe that the Bible is God’s inspired inerrant complete revelation to mankind through the written Word. God inspired men to write down, word-for-word the truth about biblical events and about Jesus and how to be saved from hell. We believe that the canon of scripture (the Bible in it’s original languages) is finished, and so we reject any ideas of extrabiblical revelation (including the apocrypha). We believe that the King James Bible (KJV 1611) is the best translation of God’s Holy Word available today, having been preserved by God and translated from the original languages into English. Any minor errors in copying or translation from the original languages are minor and do not affect doctrine.
The Church
We believe that the institution of the local church was set up by God. Attendance and membership in a biblical local New Testament church is God’s plan for the believer’s fellowship and spiritual growth and is not to be forsaken. The church is to be led by a mature pastor who is to feed and care for the spiritual wellbeing of the flock as an under-shepherd and as God’s ordained leader; yet without committing the sin of lording over the flock. The pastor should be confronted in private by the elders if his theology is not in line with sound biblical Doctrine.
Evangelism
We believe that God commands the church and individual Christians to fulfil The Great Commission by preaching, teaching, and prayerfully sharing the Good News Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the motivation for supporting world and local evangelism and missions (missionaries and ministries) through prayer, encouragement, teaching, preaching, and financial support for the work of the Gospel, in person, through the Internet, and other methods. We understand that most people will reject the witness of Jesus and the plan of salvation offered in the Gospel.
The Gospel
We believe that the Gospel is the “Good News” of Christ the Messiah’s payment for our sins through the physical death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The Gospel’s foundation surrounds the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, validated by absolute physical death, physical Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. It has nothing at all to do with man’s works other than turning from sin and trusting Jesus to do all of the saving. Christ completely satisfied God’s wrath on our behalf for all past, present, and future sins for those who look to Jesus for deliverance. Any false teaching that rejects the full atonement for all sin that is available to all people is anathema. Therefore, following a list of things to do to get to heaven, or participating in the “social gospel” of good works or a mere mental ascent of “easy-believism” that Jesus is real or that He did rise from the dead will not save you. Head knowledge is different than heart knowledge. Only Jesus saves through the work of the Holy Spirit as we come to saving faith and trust in Him alone to exchange our unrighteousness for His righteousness. We therefore believe in telling people to turn from their sins and trust Jesus to forgive their sins so that, through the Holy Spirit, Jesus moves into their heart of hearts, so that Jesus can utterly save them from their sins. Although anyone can be saved, when a person loses their mental capacity through brain injury, loss of consciousness or the ability to think, or at death, if that person has not already been saved, that person cannot accept Jesus Christ. A person cannot accept Jesus Christ after they die. Earth is a testing place for individuals to decide what they will do with Jesus. Anyone can be saved! That is the Good News!
Baptism/Water Baptism
We believe that Jesus gave Christians two ordinances: The Lord’s Supper and Baptism. Baptism in water does not save you and taking the Lord’s Supper does not keep you saved. Water baptism means that a believer is bodily immersed in water followed by being raised up out of the water again. Baptism therefore represents the Gospel, which consists of His payment for our sins through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus gave us the command to preach the Gospel of forgiveness through the atonement and also to water baptize those who have sincerely believed on Jesus, have received the indwelling Holy Spirit, and have been born again. It is the duty of all true believers to follow Jesus and the Bible and therefore to be baptized. Water baptism, however, is strictly for those who are already saved. Water baptism has no part in true conversion, and represents the belief that the one being water baptized has already been saved. We therefore believe in and practice the water baptism of believers after conversion. However, there is only ONE baptism that saves and that is the baptism of indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the regeneration of the believer at the moment of the new birth. Water baptism is a testimony of that experience.
Dispensationalism
We believe that God has dealt with man in different ways in the past, present, and future. We are currently in the Dispensation (age) of the Church. Throughout all of history, throughout all dispensations, true salvation has always been and will always be by grace (God’s offer) through faith (man’s response) in the person and work of Jesus, the true Messiah, apart from any works of man. Reformed theology denies dispensationalism and attempts to replace it with covenant theology which should be rejected.
The Apostasy
We believe that we are currently living in the last days of the “Great Apostasy,” a period of a “falling away” from Biblical truth within professing Christianity. Apostasy comes from two words joined together in the Greek. The prefix “apo” means away from, and the term “stasy” means the standard of Biblical truth. Those who teach false doctrines are “apostate.” At Doctrine Seminary we strive to maintain Biblical Doctrine and to reprove, rebuke, and remind Christians of these critical biblical truths. Not everyone should become a teacher (see James 3:1) and the teacher “will be judged more harshly” because of the grave responsibility entrusted to them to teach “Sound Doctrine.”
The Ecumenical Movement
We believe that the “Ecumenical Movement” is Satan’s attempt to bring the world’s religions together in preparation for the Antichrist and his “Great Roman Catholic Whore of Babylon.” We believe that the sinful lyrics of secular music are being used by Satan to entice young people to reject Christ and embrace worldliness and to break down the barriers of separation unto holy living and expedite this process of the Great Apostasy of the wicked end times. The present world system, including secular education at every level, generally confronts the truths of scripture from the existence of God in Creation and divine supervision of mankind to the need for people everywhere to repent and get saved.
Biblical Separation and Holiness
We believe what God says… that without being born again no one will see the Kingdom of God on earth or in heaven. In order to be saved, a person must recognize that they are living a sinful lifestyle. Jesus saves us from the consequences of sin by taking our punishment on the Cross but that doesn’t mean that we should continue in sin once we are saved. As true children of God, we should separate from those who want to embrace and practice sin. We must therefore come out from among them and live holy lives dedicated to God. Bible doctrines such as Biblical Separation are generally rejected in whole or in part by New Evangelicals (and others) within today’s Ecumenical Movement because they desire to live an unholy, un-separate, and worldly life and have tolerance for others who want to remain in a sinful lifestyle. A person who is truly saved shall demonstrate fruit or evidence of their conversion by a change in values, perspective, and lifestyle. Changing your ways does not save you but Christians should grow in grace and become more like Jesus as they mature in their faith. Jesus and the Bible must always come first before traditions of men.
The Great Tribulation
We believe that the Great Tribulation is imminent, beginning at the moment of the Rapture and will be a time of great judgment by Almighty God upon a Jesus-rejecting and Bible-rejecting world. We now look forward to that “blessed hope” which is the imminent Rapture which is the start of the seven year Tribulation period. All true born-again believers will leave Earth at the Rapture along with the removal of the Holy Spirit from Earth. The Great Tribulation is presently being preceded by a time of Great Apostasy and falling away from Jesus and the correct doctrines of the Bible. The present Ecumenical Movement will culminate with the Great Roman Catholic “Whore of Rome/Babylon,” bringing all of the world’s religions together under the Pope’s religious (Antichrist) authority. The Rapture will take all true Christians up to Heaven. Those who are left behind will fall under God’s great judgments on Earth. During the Great Tribulation, heaven will host the “Marriage Supper of the Lamb” with all true believers of the Body of Christ, the Church, the Bride of Christ, which will be presented to Jesus Christ. Jesus will then return to Earth with his Saints, all true believers, who will execute Christ-rejecting and Bible-rejecting armies at the battle of Armageddon; bind up Satan in the bottomless pit for a thousand years; and help set up His Millennial Kingdom on Earth ruling from Jerusalem. After a thousand years, God will let Satan out of the bottomless pit for a short while to deceive any who reject Christ. There will then be a Great White Throne judgment of the wicked, culminating with all those who rejected Jesus on Earth being cast into The Lake of Fire to suffer and burn there forever along with Satan and his demons. The Earth will be destroyed with fire, and God will create the new Heavens and Earth where possibly the darkness of space will be replaced with light as the curtain of heaven is opened.
Calvinism and Arminianism
We reject the systematic Reformed theology of Calvinism. We also reject Arminianism because it rejects the idea that Jesus does all the saving, by teaching that we must maintain our faith to be able to make it to heaven. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith. They wrongly hold that it is possible to lose your salvation. Calvinism, on the other hand, teaches that all men are totally depraved, from birth, which is completely unbiblical. No one is so totally depraved that they cannot feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit as they hear the Gospel preached (John 5:24). God has given every able person the ability to hear and believe in order to be saved. No one is born sinful, guilty before God, or lost and everyone (who is not so mentally disabled) is born with the eventual possibility of making a decision to accept Jesus Christ starting as early as at the age of accountability. All significantly mentally disabled from birth or before the age of accountability along with all babies, aborted, or who die before the age of accountability, will never have sinned and will enter heaven at death.
However, Calvinism also teaches that most men and women cannot be saved by Jesus (broad is the road that leads to destruction) — a doctrine which is clearly against the Bible (God is not willing that any perish). Human beings are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and are born with a clean slate (tabula rasa) and are innocent until they are found guilty as sinners after the age of accountability, which varies for each individual. The Bible teaches that anyone can believe in the Gospel and become saved. Calvinism often leads to such errors as: fatalism; a refusal to actively and personally evangelize; a refusal to send out missionaries; the idea that God is a tyrant; coldness in prayer (due to a belief that God will do what He will do anyway); and many, many other problems. Those who follow Calvinism have absolutely no assurance of salvation because they refuse to accept the idea that a person participates in the salvation process by accepting Jesus Christ. Therefore, they abhor the thought of a “personal testimony” of how a person got saved. They have absolutely no assurance of salvation because they deny the concept of a personal testimony in coming to Christ. they have no conversion story of realizing they were lost, understanding the Gospel, and praying to receive Christ. We reject Calvinism because it goes against Jesus and the Bible. It perverts the true Gospel that Christ died for everyone’s sins, was buried and rose again. Reformed theology diminishes the effective holy work of Christ on the Cross regarding the atonement, redemption, propitiation, and justification. They believe Adam can infect all of mankind but Jesus can only save some.
Pentecostalism
We believe that Pentecostalism is Satan’s counterfeit to true revival. The Charismatic movement including the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues are not for today. From Pentecostalism has sprung such doctrines as Prosperity Theology and the second baptism of the Holy Spirit. Popular churches which are packed with lost churchgoers who have spoken in tongues or have “prayed a prayer” but who do not know what exactly they prayed are caught up in emotionalism.
Prayer
We believe that prayer changes things. Prayer moves the hand of God on Earth. Prayer may be made to God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Prayer should include praise and worship. Prayer is the way to obtain our daily needs from God and to help others as well. Prayer also helps to build up our faith in Jesus and the Bible. Where two or three are gathered in His name, Jesus is present. We are to always pray without ceasing and to not faint.
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