BTHE Declaration of Faith

As a ministry of the church, Burge Terrace Home Educator’s Academy adheres to the Burge Terrace Baptist Church Declaration of Faith as presented in the church constitution.

Are you willing to hold to the following beliefs consistent with our Statement of Faith; agreeing to support & partner with BTHE?

We believe that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) is the inerrant, verbally inspired

Word of God and is to be our sole rule of faith and practice. It is God’s infallible, completed revelation to mankind.

We believe that Jehovah is the one true God. Within the Godhead unity there are three eternal distinctions or persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons of the Trinity are coexistent, coeternal, and coequal. We believe that God created the universe out of nothing in six literal days and continues to exercise His sovereign control over it, preserving it until the Day of Judgment.

We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s divine Son. We believe in His supernatural incarnation; that He is eternal in His existence, yet at the time of His incarnation was entirely God and entirely man—one person with two distinct natures; that He never sinned; and that He shed His blood vicariously for mankind. He died, was buried, and arose bodily the third day from the grave, ascending back to heaven forty days after His resurrection. He currently makes intercession for believers and is the Head of the Church. He will physically return to claim His own at the time of the Father’s appointment.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with God the Father and God the Son. He is not simply a force but is a person with characteristics such as intellect, will, and emotion. He was involved in inspiration and creation and currently involves Himself in reproving the world of sin, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, imparting life, restraining sin, regenerating unbelievers, indwelling believers to seal their redemption and empower them for service.

We believe that sin began in heaven with Satan leading a rebellion against God among the angels and upon earth when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. We define sin as the transgression of God’s law or will. We believe that sin brings physical, spiritual, and eternal death upon every human being. We believe that people who never trust in God’s Son as Savior go to a literal place called hell to await final judgment and eternal punishment.

We believe that God created man without sin in His own image and that Adam willingly chose to transgress God’s law, bringing sin and depravity upon the entire human race. Thus, people are born with a sinful nature, which apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ will incur God’s eternal judgment. We further believe that marriage is ordained by God as the lawful joining of one man and one woman in the one flesh union until death parts them; and that pornography, homosexuality, lesbianism and other deviant behaviors are sinful perversions of God’s order.

We believe that salvation cannot be earned through merit or good works and that unless the Spirit of God convicts a person’s heart, he will not turn to Christ in saving faith. We believe a person must repent of his sinfulness before God, believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, and personally place his/her faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to inherit eternal salvation. Salvation is granted by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We believe that at the time of conversion a person is freed forever from the penalty and power of sin. From that moment on, God seeks to transform that individual into the image of Christ and that upon death or the Lord’s return that person is freed from the presence of sin.

We believe the church began on the Day of Pentecost and is an assembly of believers called out from the world. We believe in the priesthood of every individual believer before God and in the autonomy of the local church.

We believe that baptism is an outward picture of the new birth which identifies a believer with Christ and that the Lord’s Supper commemorates the death of Christ, symbolizing His sacrifice for our sins. Neither baptism nor the Lord’s Supper possesses any power to save a person from his/her sins.

We believe that a Christian should be separate (“set apart”) from sin and the world; from false teachers, including all forms of unbelief.