Pleasant Valley Baptist Church

I. GOD:

1. Who is God?

• God is a being, a person. (Acts 17:24-25, 29)
• He is a spirit, (John 4:23-24)
• He is holy, and eternal. (Psalm 90:2)
• He is the originator of all things (Hebrews 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5)
• And He is the ultimate authority over all things.

His attributes are:

• Omniscience, (Psalm 139:1-6)
• Omnipresence, (Psalm 139:7-12)
• Omnipotence, (Psalm 139:13-16)
• Justice, and love. (1 John 4:7-8; Romans 5:8; John 3:16)

2. What is God?

• God is a being Who created man to be in fellowship with Him. (Revelation 4:11; 1 John 1:3; Genesis 3:8-9; John 17:20-24)
• He is a spirit, that is He has no physical body, and is not capable of any representation, other than by His Son: (John 4:24; Deuteronomy 4:15-19; Hebrews 1:3)

3. How can God be known?

God can be known:

• Through His works. (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1-3)
• Through revelation (Romans 1:17-19)
• Through His Son (2 Corinthians 5:19; Hebrews 1:3; John 14:9)

4. What is His relationship to us?

• He is our Lord, either by our choice or by His position as Creator and God. (Acts 17:31-32)
• Every knee will bow to Him, (Philippians 2:9-11) either on this earth or at the Great White Throne. (Revelation 20:11-13)
• Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. No one can escape Him by refusing to acknowledge Him.

II. THE SCRIPTURES:

1. What they are:
   • The Scriptures are the written Word of God.
   • They are infallibly inspired in the original documents. (2 Peter 1:20-21: 2 Timothy 3:16)
   • They are unchanging and unchangeable. (Psalm 119:89; Revelation 22:18-19)
   • Sixty six books, over 40 human authors, but one message.
   • They are totally accurate and trustworthy in every detail.
2. Where they are–
   
   • They are the Holy Bible.
   • Many other books have been found useful by men, but only one book stands as the inspired and revealed Word of God. (2 Timothy 3:15)

III. JESUS CHRIST:

1. His identity:
   • Jesus Christ is God the Son, (John 1:34)
   • the Son of Man, (Luke 9:22, 26)
   • the Christ, (John 4:25-26)
   • the Messiah, (John 4:25-26)
   • the Word of God in the flesh. (John 1:14)
   • He was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 1:8)
2. His work:
   • He came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)
   • To sinners, He is the one who died for them while still in sin. (Romans 5:8)
   • To believers, He is the one who has redeemed them, (Revelation 1:5) the one who intercedes for them at the right hand of God, (1 John 2:1) and the one who is coming to receive them unto Himself. (John 14:3)
   • To the world, he is the one which they have rejected, and will come to judge them if they remain unrepentant. (Acts 17:30-31)
3. His coming:
   • Christ will come with the sound of a trumpet and the voice of the archangel to receive His bride, the church. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 5:2)
   • He will come in the clouds in the sight of all mankind when he comes to judge the world. (Revelation 1:7; Matthew 24:30)
   • His coming for His saints is imminent, that is it can occur at any moment. (Matthew 24:44)
   • His coming to judge the world will occur after a seven year period of tribulation. (Matthew 24:29-30)

IV. THE HOLY SPIRIT:

1. Who He is:
   The Holy Spirit is God. (Acts 5:3-4)
2. What He is:
   • He is the active agent in creation. (Genesis 1:2) He is the anointer of the believer, and the sign and seal of their salvation. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
   • He is the divine Comforter, guide, and teacher. (John 16:7, 13-14)
   • To the world, He is the one who convicts them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. (John 16:8-11)
   • He is the one who indwells God’s church and who restrains evil in the world. (2 Thessalonians 2:7)
   • He anointed Jesus for His ministry, and led Him all the way to the cross. (Mark 1:9-11; Hebrews 9:14)

V. THE CHURCH:

• The church is the body of Christ, that is, the gathering together of the redeemed.
• The only church that the Bible knows of on this earth is the local New Testament church. (1 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; Revelation 2:1, 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14)
• The Scriptures teach nothing about either a universal church or a world church. The only place where such a church exists is in heaven. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

1. What it is for:
   • The church exists for the edification of the saints, for the service of the ministry, for the evangelization of the lost. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
   • It is not a social organization, but a spiritual organism. (Acts 2:41-47)
2. Where it is going:
   • The final state of the church, when it is fully gathered, will be to fulfill its identity as the bride of Christ. (Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 19:7-9)
   • He will present it to himself as the pure church without spot or blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

VI. THE FAMILY:

• The family is the basic social unit. It was the first such unit created by God. It consists of a married couple, (man and woman, nothing else), and such children as they may produce or adopt.
• It may also include such persons as aged parents, other relatives, or some that may be taken into the shelter and circle of the home.
• The father is the head of the house, his wife is his help-meet.
• The children are commanded to honor and obey their parents.
• The health of any nation is no better than the health of its families.

VII. FINAL JUDGMENT:

1. What is it?
   Final judgment will come in two forms.
   • For the saints, it will occur at the Judgment Seat of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:10) None but the saved will be there, and they will be judged only for the sake of determining what rewards they will receive relative to their life of service to the Lord in this life. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)
   • For the unsaved, they will appear at the Great White Throne to receive the due reward of their life. (Revelation 20:11-15) No saved people will stand at the Great White Throne.
2. When is it?
   • The Judgment Seat of Christ will occur during the latter part of the Tribulation. (Revelation 11:18)
   • The Great White Throne will occur at the end of the Millennium. (Revelation 20:7-15)
3. What must I do to avoid it?
   • No one can avoid final judgment.
   • All Christians must all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
   • All unbelievers must stand before the Great White Throne.
   • In that day there will be nowhere to go because the heaven and the earth will have fled away from the face of Him that sits on the throne. (Revelation 20:11; 2 Peter 3:10-12) The only question is where every one will stand to be judged.
   • Believers determine their destination by receiving Christ through repentance and faith in this life. (Acts 26:18)
   • Unbelievers determine their destination by rejecting Christ in this life, and by dying without Him. (John 3:18-20)
   • Believers will be rewarded and will go to live forever with Christ in the place called heaven. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
   • Unbelievers will be rejected, and will go to be forever in the lake of fire. (Matthew 25:41)

VIII. DUTIES OF BELIEVERS:

1. We believe that no one is a true believer who is not born again. (John 3:3, 5; Romans 8:9)
2. All born-again people have a duty to join and support a biblical New Testament church. This includes scriptural baptism, being taught in the Word, financial support at a biblical level, fellowshipping and caring for one another, and evangelism. Believers are to be separate from the world and from worldly practices.

IX. FORBIDDEN PRACTICES:

X. HEAVEN AND HELL:

• Heaven is a place that God is specially preparing for the eternal future in behalf of those who know Him and love Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9; Revelation 21:1-8, 27)
• Hell is a place that was originally prepared for the devil and his angels. (Matthew 25:41) It is a place of eternal fire and torment. After the millennial reign, it will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the eternal abode of all those who reject or neglect Christ as their atoning substitute. (Revelation 20:10-15)

XI. THE DEVIL:

• The devil is a fallen angel. (Luke 10:18)
• Because of his pride, he rebelled against God and was cast down from his first estate. (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6)
• He now goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
• During the tribulation, he will be finally cast down from heaven, and will seek to destroy as many of mankind as he can. (Revelation 12:7-12)
• After the tribulation, he will be imprisoned in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, after which he will be loosed to bring the nations to battle once more. (Revelation 20:1-9)
• After this, he will be cast into his eternal punishment in the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:10)
• He is called such names as the devil, deceiver, liar, thief and robber, accuser, dragon.

HOW CAN ANYONE BE SAVED?

1. Men are saved by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Saving faith consists only in receiving the shed blood of Christ as payment for our sins. (Romans 5:6-9)
2. Men must repent before they can truly believe unto salvation. (Acts 20:21) Repentance is realizing that one is a sinner, feeling sorry for sin, and moving in the direction of a sincere turning from sin.