Statement of Beliefs
There is one God, creator of all things. He is perfect, infinite, and eternal in all His ways. He exists in three separate, but equal, Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is true God and true Man. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross, was buried, and arose on the third day. He later ascended into Heaven where He is presently seated at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.
The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity whose ministry is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He accomplishes this ministry by convicting individuals of their sin, by regenerating, sealing, baptizing and indwelling the believing sinner permanently at the moment of conversion, and by empowering the Christian for godly living and service without the manifestation of supernatural sign gifts.
The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are the verbally inspired and inerrant Word of God. Divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts and words of the Bible, so that the whole Bible, in the original manuscripts, is without error. The Bible is God’s revelation to man and is therefore the final authority for all Christian faith and practice.
God created man in His image for His glory. However, Adam disobeyed God and as a consequence died spiritually. This spiritual death, or total depravity, has been transmitted to the entire human race. Thus, every person comes into this world with a nature which has neither the desire nor the ability to please God, and is therefore in need of divine grace.
God has provided the remedy for our disobedience by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sacrifice for our sins. God has determined that we do not receive forgiveness as a result of our religious deeds or other good works, no matter how well intended, but only by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Those who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior are at that point born of the Spirit and are assured of an eternity in Heaven.
The “true Church”, which began at Pentecost, is composed of all individuals who through faith in Jesus Christ have been united together in one body, of which Jesus Christ is the head.
Each “local church”, such as Sugar Land Bible Church, is a physical body of believers by which the “true Church” of Christ is shown to the world. God stresses the importance of the local church by giving it officers and ordinances. We believe that each local church is autonomous, having the right and responsibility to decide and govern its own affairs under the authority of Jesus Christ, through the guidance of Scripture.
Water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the only two ordinances given in the life of every believer. Baptism follows his/her conversion as a public declaration of his/her identification with Christ. The Lord’s Supper is to be taken regularly during the believer’s life as a memorial of Christ’s sacrificial death. Each of these is to be practiced as a testimony to the world, but neither of them is to be construed as a means of, or an additional requirement for salvation.
Believers live with the constant hope and expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. He will come first for His Saints and then return with His Saints.
Everyone, after death, will be resurrected, believers to everlasting life in Heaven, unbelievers to judgment and everlasting, conscious punishment in Hell.
As believers in Jesus Christ, it is God’s command that we love Him, love one another, and love those who are not believers. We can know that we love God if we are living according to His Word. We can know that we love one another if we are serving fellow believers. We can know that we love unbelievers if we are befriending them and sharing the good news of the gospel of Christ with them, both personally and through missionaries.