Statement of Faith

Adopted by the F.E.B.C.C. at its organizational Convention, October 21, 1953.

Section A – Bible

                  We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit of God and were entirely free from error; that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice, and the true basis of Christian union.

 Section B – God

                  We believe in one God, creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 Section C – Christ

                  We believe in the absolute deity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry, and personal return.

Section D – The Holy Spirit

                  We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, Who convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgement; Who regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates, and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ.

 Section E – Satan

                  We believe that Satan exists as an evil personality, the originator of sin, and the archenemy of God and man.

 Section F – Man

                  We believe that man was divinely created in the image of God; that he sinned, becoming guilty before God, resulting in total depravity, thereby incurring physical and spiritual death.

 Section G – Salvation

                  We believe that salvation is by the sovereign, electing grace of God; that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death: that justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.

 Section H – Future Things

                  We believe in the personal, bodily, and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the bodily resurrection of the just and unjust; in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and in the judgement and conscious, eternal punishment of the wicked.

 Section I – The LocalChurch

                  We believe that a church is a company of immersed believers, called out from the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances.  We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts, and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the great Head of the Church.  We believe that its officers are pastors and deacons. In the NT the office of pastor / elder / overseer is for the oversight of the doctrine and practice of the church. In the local churches of Fellowship Atlantic this gender specific office is for qualified men only.

Section J – Ordinances

                  We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church regularly observed in the New Testament in the following order:

(1)         )Baptism which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ’s command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

(2)         )               The Lord’s Supper which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord’s body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.

 Section K – The Church and State

                  We believe in the entire separation of church and state.

 Section L – Religious Liberty

                  We believe in religious liberty; that every man has the right to practice and propagate his beliefs.

Section M – The Lord’s Day

                  We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord’s day and that, in a special sense, it is the divinely appointed day for worship and spiritual exercise.

 Section N – Civil Government

                  We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that magistrates are to prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the earth.