Ocean View Church His Glory, His Way

THE DOCTRINAL STATEMENT OF OCEAN VIEW CHURCH
I. The Holy Scriptures
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God, the divinely authoritative standard for every age and every life.

II. God
We believe that there is only one living and true God, infinite, all knowing, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To Him we owe the highest love, worship and obedience.

A. God the Father
We believe in God, the Father, who reigns over all things according to His own purpose and grace. He is the creator of all things. He is all powerful, all loving, and wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events. He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own; He saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.

B. God the Son
We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in the full humanity and deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His pre-existence, virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, burial, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal return in power and glory.

As the Mediator between God and man, the Head of His Body the church, and the coming universal King, Jesus Christ is the final judge of all who fail to place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

C. God the Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He is an abiding helper, teacher, and guide. He seals all believers unto the day of redemption.

III. Man
We believe that man was created by the special act of God in His image and likeness. Man was created free of sin and moral responsibility to God. However, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence and is under the penalty of spiritual and physical death, subject to the wrath of God.

Man is hopelessly lost. All men are sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. Man’s salvation is thereby wholly of God’s grace through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

IV. Salvation
We believe that all people are sinners in need of God’s mercy and can only be justified by grace through faith alone apart from works. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.

A. Regeneration
We believe that regeneration is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit by which the divine nature and divine life are given. It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is a transition from spiritual death to spiritual life, and conscious, intentional, active faith in Christ is its immediate fruit, not its immediate cause. Genuine regeneration is manifested by fruits worthy of repentance as demonstrated in righteous attitudes and conduct.

B. Election
We believe that election is the act of God by which, before the foundation of the world, He chose in Christ those whom He graciously regenerates, saves, and sanctifies. Sovereign election does not contradict or negate the responsibility of man to repent and trust Christ as Savior and Lord. Nevertheless, since sovereign grace includes the means of receiving the gift of salvation as well as the gift itself, sovereign election will result in what God determines. All whom the Father calls to Himself will come in faith, and all who come in faith the Father will receive.

C. Justification
We believe that justification is an act of God whereby He declares unjust sinners to be righteous after He has imputed to them the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness is apart from any virtue or work of man. The necessary means of justification is personal faith in Jesus Christ as crucified Savior and risen Lord.

D. Sanctification
We believe that Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart for God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Through obedience to the word of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

E. Security
We believe that all who are redeemed, once saved, are kept by God’s power and are thus secure in Christ forever. Those whom God has accepted in Christ will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

F. Glorification
We believe that glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. Glorification will complete our sanctification. This promise of future glorification gives comfort and inspiration to us in the present.

V. The Church
We believe that all who place their faith in Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into one united spiritual Body, the church, the bride of Christ, of which Christ is the Head. Therefore the church is a unique spiritual organism designed by Christ, made up of all born-again believers.

The one supreme authority for the church is Christ. The biblically designated officers are elders and deacons. These leaders lead or rule as servants of Christ and have His authority in directing the church.

We believe in the autonomy of the local church, free from any external authority or control, with the right of self-government and freedom from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations.

VI. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that two ordinances have been committed to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the triune God. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

We believe that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ for commemoration and proclamation of His death. Although the elements of communion are only representative of the flesh and blood of Christ, participation in the Lord’s Supper is nevertheless an actual communion with the risen Christ, who indwells every believer.

VII. Last Things
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. After the judgments of God upon this sinful world in the Great Tribulation, Jesus our Lord will come with His saints to establish His millennial Kingdom. Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The redeemed of Christ in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their rewards and will dwell in heaven forever with their Savior. The unsaved will be cast into hell, the lake of fire, cut off from the life of God forever.