Three Springs Church Core Beliefs

Bible

We believe the original writings of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are fully inspired by God, and are without error and completely trustworthy.  We believe that God has faithfully preserved His Word throughout all generations and that it is fully authoritative and final.  We believe it is our ultimate source for all information about Almighty God, the world He has created, and is our sole rule of faith and practice.

• Psalms 119     2 Timothy 3:16-17     2 Peter 1:19-21   

God

We believe there is only one Almighty God eternally existent in three distinct, co-equal and co-eternal Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, His virgin birth and sinless life, and in the sin-pardoning value of Christ's shed blood and death on the cross.  We believe in Christ's bodily resurrection from the tomb, His ascension to glory and His personal and visible return to the earth.  We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling a Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

• Genesis 1:1-2     Deuteronomy 6:4     Isaiah 43:10-11    Matthew 3:16-17     Matthew 28:19     Luke 3:21-22     Acts 5:3-4     John 8:58                      John 10:30     2 Corinthians 13:14     

Salvation

We believe that all people are created in God's image.  Because of Adam's disobedience to God's command, Adam and all people have fallen into sin, have a sin nature, and are separated from God.  God, who is rich in mercy, has made one provision for the salvation of people, which is faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the satisfactory payment for sin.  The gospel is the good news that God will receive to Himself all persons who, with penitent heart, confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead: of the believer to the eternal blessedness of the saved, and of the unbeliever to the eternal suffering of the lost.

• Genesis 1:26-27    Genesis 9:6     Isaiah 59:2     Genesis 3:1-24     Romans 1:18-32     John 3:14-21     John 14:6     John 19:30     Acts 4:12     Ephesians 2:8-10     1 Timothy  1:15     Titus 3:4-7     Matthew 25:31-46     John 5:28-29     1 Corinthians 15:20-26     Acts 1:11                                  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18     Revelation 20:4-15     Revelation 21:1-22

The Church

We believe that all persons who have received God's gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ constitute the Church.  The Bible defines the Church as those who have been called out of the world to be God's special people, the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ.  The mission of the Church is both external and internal and includes both word and deed.  Externally, the Church is to proclaim the saving grace of Jesus Christ to a sinful humanity and to impact its community for the glory of God as His representatives in the world.  Internally, the Church is to teach believers the whole counsel of God which includes encouragement to live a holy life and accountability to one another.

• 1 Corinthians 1:2     1 Corinthians 12:12-27     Ephesians 4:12     Revelation 21:9     Matthew 28:19-20     Romans 12:1-2     Ephesians 1:4     Ephesians 5:27     Matthew 18:15-20

Affirmations We Hold To

1.   We affirm that God has established particular roles and relationships for the good of human society.  We affirm the sanctity of marriage and the God's pattern for marriage is revealed at creation.  God has created one biological male and one biological female and blessed their union through marriage.  God has ordained sexual intimacy to be a sacred gift enjoyed only by a man and a woman within the holy covenant of marriage.  Any other form of sexual intimacy is sin and is something from which God desires to free His children.
2.   We affirm the sanctity of all human life from conception until death.

Practices

The Brethren, since our founding, have embraced distinctive practices and perspectives on practical living as a result of their study of the Word of God. We practice baptism of penitent believers by trine immersion.  We practice feet washing, love feast, communion, and the Christian greeting.  We practice proper appearance in worship, anointing for healing in the name of the Lord, and the laying on of hands.