Roanoke Island Baptist Church

We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit without any mixture or error, and therefore is, and shall remain unto the end of the age, the only complete and final Revelation of the will of God to man, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme authority by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:19- 21; Psalm 119:105, 160; Romans 15:4; Psalm 19:7-11)

• By “The Holy Bible,” we mean the collection of 66 books, from Genesis to Revelation, which does not only contain or convey the Word of God, but in fact is the very Word of God. (I Thessalonians 2:13)
• By “Inspiration” we mean that the books of the Bible were written by holy men of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally inspired and free from error. We also mean that God inspired His Word verbally and plenarily, so that not only the thoughts of the Bible are inspired, but each and every word itself is “God-breathed”. (Acts1:6; 28:25; Proverbs 30:5-6; John 10:35)

We believe that God, in faithfulness to His Word, has Providentially preserved the Scriptures in their original languages. This preservation extends not only to the ideas and doctrines of the Bible, but to the very words themselves. We further believe that God has preserved these words in the Massoretic text of the Old Testament, and the Textus Receptus of the New Testament. (Psalm 119:89; I Peter 1:23; Matthew 5:18)

We believe that God desires for people of all language groups to be able to hear and understand His preserved Word. Therefore, the only translations of the Bible which will be used in the public ministry of Roanoke Island Baptist Church are those which are accurate, word for word translations based upon the Massoretic text and the Textus Receptus. (Revelation 22:19; John 12:48)

We Believe the King James Version of the Bible is the only translation to be used for English speaking people. Our church uses the King James Bible exclusively and unapologetically.

There is one God and supreme being that is holy, ever existent, all powerful, all knowing and ever present in the affairs of man today. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Luke 1:37, Isaiah 40)  God is a triune God, but manifests Himself as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, forming the Trinity. God is then three Persons in one Essence, not three distinct gods. (1 John 5:7)  God is a loving God and at the same time a holy God, therefore, though He loves man, He hates sin. Because of the sin of man, the world today has rejected God and His Word. As a result, God required death as a payment for the sin of man and sent His Son to pay that price. (Romans 6:23, John 3:16, 2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and at the same time God the Son. Christ was not created, but the relationship between Jesus’ humanity and deity can be seen in the hypostatic union (100% God and 100% man). (John 10:30, John 8:58, John 1:1,14)  Since Jesus is God in the flesh, He possesses all of the attributes of God the Father. (Mark 2, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-18; 2:9)

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit and lived a perfect life while on earth. (Luke 1:34-35)  The purpose of His coming was to pay the price of sin on the cross, and therefore provide a way for man to receive the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 19:10, John 3:16)  Without this sacrifice, man would have no hope of ever receiving eternal life.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the trinity. He is not just a force, a power, or a pleasant feeling that one experiences, but is One with God the Father. (Acts 5:3-4, 1 John 5:7)  When Christ left, He left us the Holy Spirit; to reprove the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. (John 16:8)  At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit seals the believer, dwells in him, and gives him eternal life. (Ephesians 1,4:30)  The Holy Spirit then guides, teaches, testifies and witnesses to the believer as One who comes alongside of him in order that he might please God while on the earth. (John 14:26,15:26)  The single most important attribute of God is His holiness, hence the Holy Spirit. (Isaiah 57:15)

Salvation from eternal punishment is only received one way, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)  A person must recognize that he is a sinner, repent of his sins, realize that Christ died to pay his payment on the cross, and must ask Him to forgive him of his sins and be his Savior. A person must trust Christ and Christ alone for his salvation, for He is the only way. (Acts 4:12)

A person does not need to “get his life right” with God before he can approach Him. The whole reason why man needs a Savior is because he cannot “get his life right” enough to find favor in God’s eyes, so he must let God do the work in him. On the other hand, when a person is saved, his works will change. (Ephesians 2:8-10)  The way of knowing if someone is saved or not is by looking at their works. (Matthew 7:20, Acts 26:20)  Salvation is repentance from sin and faith towards God. (1 Thessalonians 1:9, Acts 20:21)  Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a changed life. It is not the prayer that saves someone, but the decision of repentance and accepting God’s terms through Jesus Christ for salvation.

We believe that the local church, which is the body and the espoused bride of Christ, is an organized body of born again, baptized believers meeting in a specific location and banded together by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission, observe the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and generally carry out all things whatsoever Christ commanded. (Acts 2:47; I Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:12)  The Church was started by Christ with His apostles, was empowered at Pentecost, and will be caught up to be with Christ at the Rapture. (Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:25-27; I Corinthians 12:12-14; II Corinthians 11:2)

We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. (Acts 14:27; 20:17, 28-32; I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)

We believe in the autonomy of the local church free of any external authority or control. (Acts 13:1-4, 15:19-31, 20:28; Romans 16:1, 4; I Corinthians 3:9, 16, 5:4-7, 13; I Peter 5:1-4)

The word Church, by definition is a called out assembly of believers in Jesus Christ. But not every called out assembly is a church, for the Bible clearly teaches that only those that have accepted Christ as their Savior are part of the church. (Acts 2:47)  The Bible frequently refers to the church as the Bride of Christ, Christ himself being the Bridegroom. Another name in the Bible for the church is the body of Christ, and specifically names Christ the Head of the church. (Colossians 1:18)  The church in the Bible is very significant, for Ephesians 5:25 says that Christ loved it and gave himself for it. The Bible teaches that even though the church is significant, no one can receive salvation by means of a church, for it is only Christ that can forgive sins. (Mark.2:7, John.14:6, Acts 4:12)

We believe that man was created directly by God and in His image. We believe that God created the heavens and the earth, including all life, by direct act in six literal 24 hour days about 6,000 years ago. (Genesis 1:1;26 John 1:3; Colossians 1:16-17)

The simple but factual account of origins as presented in Genesis provides a reliable framework for scientific research into the question of the origin and history of life, mankind, the earth and the universe.

The various original life forms (kinds), including mankind, were made by direct creative acts of God. The living descendants of any of the original kinds (apart from man) may represent more than one species today, reflecting the genetic potential with the original kind. Only limited biological changes have occurred naturally within each kind since Creation.

We believe that man, in the person of the first Adam, was created in innocence, but by personal disobedience to the revealed will of God man became a sinful creature, thus plunging the whole race into condemnation and death, so that now all mankind is born in sin and shapen in iniquity and become willful sinners with the expression of personal choice, and so are without excuse before God, and have within themselves no possible means of recovery or salvation. (Genesis 3:1-6; 3:24; Romans 5:10-19; 7:18; Mark 7:21-23; Matthew 19:26)

We believe when a person receives Jesus Christ as Savior, he also receives the eternal life that He gives. (1 John 5:11-13)  Once a person receives eternal life, he cannot lose it. Because a person cannot receive eternal life by his works, it is impossible that his eternal life be taken away because of works. Moreover, there is no man that can take it away from him, not even himself. (John 10:27-29, Romans 8)  If this were the case, eternal life would not be eternal, but temporal. It is God that saves, not the person; therefore it is God who keeps one saved, and not the person.

We believe the Scriptures teach that at death the spirit and soul of the believer pass instantly into the presence of Christ and remain in conscious joy until being reunited with the body at the resurrection when Christ comes in the air for His own. The blessed hope of the believer is the imminent, personal, pre-tribulational, premillennial appearance of Christ to rapture all believers. His righteous judgments will then be poured out on an unbelieving world during the Tribulation (the seventieth week of Daniel), the last half of which is the Great Tribulation. The climax of this fearful era will be the physical return of Jesus Christ to the earth in great glory to introduce the Millennial kingdom, a one thousand year reign of Christ on earth. Satan will be bound and then released for a “little season” near the end of this period before he and his armies are devoured and cast into the Lake of Fire which burneth forever. Following the Millennium, the Great White Throne judgment will occur, at which time the bodies and souls of the wicked shall be reunited and cast into the Lake of Fire. Following this, God will create the New Heavens and the New Earth. (II Corinthians 5:8; I Corinthians 15:51-57; Titus 2:13; I Thessalonians 4:14-17; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 19:11-16; 20:2,3, 11-15; Romans 11:26,27)

We believe in a literal Heaven and a literal Hell.  All mankind is created to exist eternally.  We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28, 29, 11:25-26; Revelation 20:5-6, 12-13)

We believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord, where in conscious bliss they await the first resurrection, when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord. (Luke 23:43; Revelation 20:4-6; II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23, 3:21; I Thessalonians 4:16-17)

We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious misery until the second resurrection, when with soul and body reunited they shall appear at the Great White Throne Judgment, and shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to suffer everlasting, conscious punishment. (Luke 16:19-26; Matthew 25:41-46; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 20:11-15)