Our Beliefs
The following paragraphs simply summarize what we believe as a church family. We believe the Bible and teach it to be perfectly true. Every belief and teaching of Lakewood Baptist Church flows from God’s Word.
Sin & Salvation
We believe all men were born with an inherited sin nature received from our common ancestor, Adam. We believe that because of his nature, man is a sinner by choice, and he is totally incapable of reforming himself or ceasing from his sin by his own power. We believe the only hope of deliverance for man is a total change of mind concerning his sinful condition and inability to change it, and a turning to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. We believe that only through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the Cross can a man be delivered from his sin. We believe that all those who reject Jesus Christ as their Saviour are already condemned to an eternity in the Lake of Fire (Genesis 5:1-5; Acts 4:19; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:10-23; Romans 5:6-12; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6; Revelation 20:11-14).
The Last Days
We believe that Christ Jesus is coming back to earth again; that His return shall be personal, audible, visible, and bodily, and that the saved shall be caught up together with Him in the clouds; that this return shall precede the tribulation and millennium; that He shall return to earth at the end of the tribulation, and that He shall at that time totally defeat Satan, take up the throne of David, put down all His enemies, rule with a rod of iron, triumph over sin, and give the world an example of righteous government during His thousand years of personal reign on earth. (Job 18:25-26, Isaiah 9:6-7, Zechariah 14:4, Malachi 4:2, Luke 1:31-33, Matthew 25:31-34, Revelation 19:11-21, Acts 1:11, I Thessalonians 4:16-17, Revelation 1:7, II Peter 3:10, Revelation 20:4-6, 19:20, 20:1-3, 10, Isaiah 9:7, I Corinthians 15:25- 27, Psalm 2:9, Revelation 12:5, 19:15, I John 3:8, Psalm 72:1-20)
The New Testament Church
We Believe that a Baptist church, according to divine purpose and plan, is a visible, local, organized body; that it is composed of baptized believers associated together by a covenant of faith and fellowship in the Gospel, that New Testament validity flows from strict obedience to essential principles of New Testament Law; that it is a sovereign, independent, and militant body; that its ministry is gloriously blessed with the presence and leadership of the Holy Spirit and the light and revelation of the written Word; that its work should even be from within to without and never from without to within; that it is a self-governing body and is the sole judge, under the limitations of Scriptures, of the measure and method of cooperation; that it is the only ecclesiastical tribunal the Lord has on earth; that its judgment concerning membership, discipline, missions, benevolence, and support is final; that it was personally founded by Christ Jesus during His ministry on earth; that it is the only organization with the authority to administer the Lord’s Supper and Baptism; that it is subject to His laws and is the custodian of His ordinances; that the perpetuity of our faith, personally planting and preserving local Baptist churches of like faith and order down through the centuries even until now; that the local Baptist church is the only body with authority to carry out the Lord’s work upon the earth in this age, and as such, all authority over membership, administration, and missions is autonomous to the local Baptist church; that the only organization authorized to do mission work is the local Baptist church, and that the pattern of Acts 13 is the only one sanctioned and permitted by God; that the authority to send out missionaries is not in name or formality only, but is a matter of the practical aspects of sending, supervising, and authorizing missionaries to win souls, baptize, and teach, with the goal of establishing a local Baptist church; that no place in Scripture allows for mission boards, fellowships, associations, or conventions to do this work; that a sponsoring church is responsible for the activities and doctrine of missionaries authorized by her, and is responsible to the missionary for his needs and well-being; that the local Baptist church cannot surrender this authority and responsibility and remain faithful to Scripture. (Matthew 28:19-20, I Corinthians 1:1-2, Acts 2:41-42, II Corinthians 8:5, Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:15-17, John 14:16-17, 26, Acts 1:8, Acts 13:1-4, Matthew 18:17-18, Matthew 26:19-20, I Timothy 3:15, Mark 3:13-14, Luke 6:12-13)
The Bible
We believe the Bible to be the revealed Word of God, fully and verbally inspired of God. We believe the Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible Word of God, as found within the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. We believe God not only inspired every word, but has preserved them through the ages. We believe the King James Version is the preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people
(Psalm 12:6-7; II Timothy 3:15-17; I Peter 1:23-25; II Peter 1:19-21).
God
We believe in one God, who is eternal, self-existent, infinite, and immutable. We believe He has one nature, one essence, and one substance, yet manifests Himself to man in three persons: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; I Timothy 1:17; James 1:17; I John 4:4).
Son
We believe Jesus Christ to be the one and only Saviour of mankind. We believe Jesus Christ to be eternally God and to possess all the attributes of Deity. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born, that He was God incarnate, and that the purposes of the incarnation were to reveal God, to redeem men, and to rule over God’s kingdom. We believe Jesus Christ never relinquished any attributes of His Deity, but merely veiled them. We believe He lived a perfect, sinless life, at the end of which He was offered for all mankind as a substitutionary sacrifice for man’s sin. This sacrifice was a just payment to God for the forgiveness of sin. It was activated by His death through the shedding of His blood on the Cross and was accepted by God upon His resurrection. We believe He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection to be seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the time of receiving His church at the Rapture, and returning seven years later to earth to rule and reign as King for 1,000 years (Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 43:11; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1:25; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1, 1:3, 14, 18, 29; Romans 3:19-25; Romans 5:6-15; Philippians 2:5-11; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 2:5; I Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:10-15; Hebrews 7:26, 9:24-28; I Peter 1:19, 2:2; I John 1:3; Revelation 20:1-6).
The Holy Spirit
We believe that God the Holy Spirit is the third person set forth in the Divine Trinity; that He is almighty, merciful, and just; that He is holy, righteous, and true; that He is eternally existent, glorious in nature, possessing the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence; that He restrains the world, the flesh, and the devil; that He witnesses to the Truth, convicts the lost, extols the Christ, and testifies to the righteous judgments of God; that He, in harmony with His divine office, comforts,
teaches, testifies, preaches, guides, regenerates, empowers, sanctifies, and anoints, thus exercising the quickening role in the work of saving the lost and the supervising role in the life of the saved; that the sign gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues and the gift of healing were temporary, that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit and that ultimate deliverance of the body from sickness of death awaits the consummation of
our salvation in the resurrection, though God frequently chooses to answer the prayers of believers for physical healing.(John 14:16-17, John 15:26, John 16:7-13, Hebrews 9:14, I Peter 4:14, Isaiah 40:12-15, I Corinthians 2:10-12, Psalm 139:7-12, II Thessalonians 2:6-7, John 3:6, Ephesians 1:13-14, Acts 1:8, I Peter 1:2, Isaiah 61:1, I Corinthians 13:8, I Corinthians 14:21-22)
Plan of Salvation
If something happened to you and you died today, are you 100% sure that you would go to Heaven? That is the most important question to be able to answer correctly. The Bible tells us that we can have
assurance of our salvation and know that we will have a home in Heaven when we die. The following steps come right out of the Scriptures.
Please take time to read them now.
1. Realize you are a sinner. No matter where you are physically, everyone starts the same place spiritually. All are sinners. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3:23) Man comes short of Heaven (the glory of God) because of sin!
2. Realize there is a penalty for your sin. Not only does sin keep you out of Heaven, but it also condemns you to Hell. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…”. Sin brings both physical and spiritual death. “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. “ (Revelation 20:14)
3. Realize Jesus paid the penalty. Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection provided a way for you to go to Heaven. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Since Jesus was the only One who could pay for our sin, He is the only Way to Heaven.
4. Repent of your sin and receive Jesus as your Saviour. The final part of Jesus’ directions is to repent and receive Him. Acts 20:21 says, “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” In order to go to Heaven, you must accept Christ by calling on Him in prayer. He tells us in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Follow Christ’s directions by praying in faith the following prayer, or one similar to it, to receive Him now:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, please forgive me of my sin, and take me to Heaven when I die. I believe that you died and rose again for me. I am trusting you completely and nothing I can do.
Thank you Jesus! Amen.