VALLEY VIEW

Doctrinal Statement

Article I
The Scriptures

We believe that all "Scripture is given by inspiration of God" by which we understand the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of God "were moved by the Holy Spirit" to write the very words of Scripture.

We believe that this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the writings - historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical - as appeared in the original manuscripts. We believe that the whole Bible in the originals is therefore without error.

We believe that all the Scriptures center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His Person and work in His first and second coming, and hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read, or understood until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were designed for our practical instruction.

(Mark 12:26,36; 13:11; Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16; 17:2,3; 18:28; 26:22,23; 28:23; Romans 15:4; I Corinthians 2:13; 10:11; II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:21)

 

 

Article II
The Trinity

We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - and that these three are One God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience.

 

(Matthew 28:18,19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3,4; II Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 1:1-3; Revelations 1:4-6)

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Article III
God, The Father

We believe as The First Person of the Godhead or Trinity, God, The Father's infinite qualities or divine attributes include:

His eternality, He has no beginning or end (Genesis 21:33; Psalm 90:2),

His simplicity, He exists as Spirit and as such cannot be compounded, complexed, or divided (John 4:24),

His immutability, He is unchanging and unchangeable (James 1:17),

His sovereignty, He is the supreme ruler of all that exists and has determined and is in absolute control of all that takes place (Ephesians 1),

His omnipresence, He is everywhere present all at once (Psalm 139:37-12),

His omnipotence, He is all-powerful (Revelation 19:6),

His omniscience, He possesses knowledge that is perfect and boundless (Psalm 147:5; Romans 11:33),

His justice, He displays moral equity in all His judgments (Acts 17:31; Romans 2:11),

His love, He seeks the highest good in displaying His glory (Ephesians 2:4,5), and

His holiness, He is set apart from all that is sinful, unrighteous and imperfect (Exodus 15:11; I Peter 1:16; I John 1:5).

We believe that The Second and Third Persons of the Godhead or Trinity, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit respectively, possess to the same perfect measure as God, The Father, all the aforementioned infinite qualities and divine attributes.

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Article IV
Jesus Christ

We believe that as provided and purposed by God and as pre-announced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Godhead or Trinity, came into this world that he might manifest God to men, fulfill prophecy, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. We believe to this end He was born of the virgin, and received a human body and a sinless human nature.

(Luke 1:30-35; John 1:18; 3:16; Hebrews 4:15)

We believe that, on the human side, Jesus Christ became and remained a perfect man, sinless throughout His life; yet He retained His absolute deity, being at the same time very God and very man, and that His earth-life sometimes functioned within the sphere of that which was human and sometimes within the sphere of that which was divine.

(Luke 2:40; John 1:1,2; Philippians 2:5-8)

We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy Jesus Christ came first to Israel as her Messiah-King, and that, being rejected of that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all.

(John 1:11; Acts 2:22-24; I Timothy 2:6)

We believe that in infinite love for the lost, Jesus Christ voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and took away the sin of the world, bearing the holy judgments against sin which the righteousness of God must impose. We believe His death was therefore substitutionary in the most absolute sense - the just for the unjust - and by His death, He became the Savior of the lost.

(John 1:29; Romans 3:25,26; II Corinthians 5:14; Hebrews 10:5-14; I Peter 3:18)

We believe that, according to the Scriptures, Jesus Christ arose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died. We believe that His resurrection body is the pattern of that body which ultimately will be given to all believers.

(John 20:20; Philippians 3:20,21)

We believe that on departing from the earth in the event known as the ascension, Jesus Christ was accepted of His Father and that His acceptance is a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished. We believe that He became Head over all things to the church which is His body, and in this ministry, He ceases not to intercede and advocate for the saved.

(Hebrews 1:3; Ephesians 1:22,23; Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:1)

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Article V
The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Godhead or Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer, and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body and that He, as the indwelling One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service.

We believe that He never takes His departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever-present to testify of Christ; seeking to occupy believers with Him and not with themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His abode in the world in this special sense will cease when Christ comes at the Rapture to receive His own at the completion of the church.

(John 14:16,17; 16:7-15; I Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 2:22; II Thessalonians 2:7)

We believe that, in this age, certain well-defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand them and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience. We believe these ministries of the Holy Spirit are the restraining of evil in the world; the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment; the regenerating of all believers, the indwelling of all who are saved, thereby sealing them unto the day of redemption; the baptizing into one body of Christ all who are saved; and the continued filling for power, teaching, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him and who are subjected to his will.

(John 3:6; 16:7-11; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30; 5:18; II Thessalonians 2:7; I John 2:20-27)

We believe that some gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues and miraculous healings were temporary and are not normal for today. We believe that speaking in tongues was never the common or necessary sign of the baptism nor of the filling of the Holy Spirit, and that deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation of our salvation in the resurrection.

(Acts 4:8,31; Romans 8:23; I Corinthians 13:8)

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Article VI
Man

We believe that man was originally created in the image and after the likeness of God, and that he fell through sin, and, as a consequence of his sin, lost his spiritual life, becoming dead in trespasses and sins, that he became subject to the power of the devil.

We believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature, has been transmitted to the entire human race of man, the Man Christ Jesus alone being excepted; and hence that every child of Adam is born into the world with a nature which not only possesses no spark of divine life, but is essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace.

(Genesis 1:26; 2:17; 6:5; Psalms 14:1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 3:6; 5:40; 6:53; Romans 3:10-19; 8:6,7; Ephesians 2:1-3; I Timothy 5:6; I John 3:8)

 

Article VII
Salvation Only Through Jesus Christ

We believe that owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation however great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however attractive, no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner to take even one step toward heaven. We believe that a new nature imparted from above, a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, is absolutely essential to salvation, and only those thus saved are sons of God.

We believe that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin and was a curse for us, dying in our stead; and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no sincere efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor all the churches that have existed since the days of the Apostles can add in the very least degree to the value of the blood, or to the merit of the finished work wrought for us by Him who united in His Person true and proper deity with perfect and sinless humanity.

(Leviticus 17:11; Isaiah 64:6; Matthew 26:28; John 3:7-18; Romans 5:6-9; II Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:4-9; Titus 3:5; James 1:18; I Peter 1:18,19,23)

We believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Jesus Christ and that repentance is a vital part of believing, and is in no way, in itself, a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts, such as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to believing as a condition of salvation.

(John 1:12; 3:16,18,36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts 13:39; 16:31; Romans 1:16,17; 3:22,26; 4:5; 10:4; Galatians 3:22)

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Article VIII
The Extent of Salvation

We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises that faith in Christ which is illustrated and described as such in the New Testament, he passes immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and from the old creation into the new; being justified from all sin, accepted before the Father according as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having his place and portion as linked to Him and one with Him forever.

We believe that though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is, as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and therefore is in no way required by God to seek a so-called "second blessing" or a "second work of grace"

(John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; I Corinthians 3;21-23; Ephesians 1;3; Colossians 2;10; I John 4:17; 5:11-12)

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Article IX
Sanctification

We believe that sanctification, which is a setting apart unto God, is threefold: It is already complete for every saved person because his position toward God is the same as Christ's position. Since the believer is in Christ, he is set apart to God in the measure in which Christ is set apart to God. We believe, however, that he retains his sin nature, which cannot be eradicated in this life. Therefore, while the standing of the Christian in Christ is perfect, his present state is no more perfect than his experience in daily life.

We believe there is, therefore, a progressive sanctification wherein the Christian is to "grow in grace," and to "be changed by the unhindered power of the Spirit. We believe also, that the child of God will yet be fully sanctified in his state as he is now sanctified in his standing in Christ when he shall see his Lord and shall be "like Him".

(John 17:17; II Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; Ephesians 4:24; 5:25-27; I Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 10:10, 14; 12:10)

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Article X
The Security of the Believer

We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all true believers everywhere, once saved shall be kept saved forever.

We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father and that since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken so save them and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will, in the end, present every one of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son.

(John 5:24; 10:28; 13:1; 14:16-17; Romans 8:29; I Corinthians 6:19; Ephesians 1:13,14; Hebrews 7:25; I John 2:1-2; 5:13; Jude 24)

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Article XI
Assurance

We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior; and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience.

(Luke 10:20; 22:32; II Corinthians 5:1, 6-8; II Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:22; I John 5:13)

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Article XII
The Church

We believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God are members of the church which is the body and bride of Christ, which began at Pentecost and is completely distinct from Israel. Its members are constituted as such regardless of membership or non-membership in the organized churches of the earth.

We believe that by the same Spirit all believers in this age are baptized into, and thus become, one body that is Christ's, whether Jews or Gentiles, and having become members one of another, are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, rising above all sectarian differences, and loving one another with a pure heart fervently.

(Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:5; I Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23; 4:3-10; Colossians 3:14-15)

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Article XIII
The Ordinances of the Church

We believe that water baptism and the Lord's Supper or communion are the only ordinances of the church and that they are a scriptural means of testimony for the church in this age. As to the mode of water baptism we believe and practice immersion, but do not demand rebaptism for those who have been baptized in a different way if their baptism occurred after salvation and was submitted to and understood as a response of obedience to the command of Scripture.

(Matthew 28:19; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 10:47-48; 16:32-33; 18:7-8; I Corinthians 11:26)

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Article XIV
The Christian's Walk

We believe that we are all called with a holy calling, to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh with its fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being with us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly in subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to the dishonor of our Lord.

(Romans 6:11-13; 8:2,4; 12-13; Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 4;22-24; Colossians 2:1-10; I Peter 1:14-16; I John 1:4-7; 3:5-9)

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Article XV
The Christian's Service

We believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit upon all who are saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is energized by the same Spirit, and each is called to his own divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church, there were certain gifted men - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers - who were appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints unto their work of ministry. We believe also that today some men are especially called of God to be evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling of His will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and encouraged in their service for God.

(Romans 12:6; I Corinthians 12:4-11; Ephesians 4:11)

We believe that, wholly apart from salvation benefits which are bestowed equally upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer in his service for his Lord, and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgment seat of Christ after He comes at the Rapture to receive His own to Himself.

(I Corinthians 3:9-15; 9:18-27; II Corinthians 5:10)

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Article XVI
The Great Commission

We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to those whom He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. We believe that, after they are saved, they are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in life should be to make Christ known to the world.

(Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; II Corinthians 5:18-20; I Peter 1:17; 2:11)

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Article XVII
The Rapture

We believe that, according to the Word of God, the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be coming of the Lord in the air to receive to Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain unto His coming, and also all those who have died in Jesus, and that this event known as the Rapture is the blessed hope set before us in Scripture, and for this, we should be constantly looking.

(John 14:1-3; I Corinthians 15:51-52; Philippians 3:20; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14)

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Article XIII
The Tribulation

We believe that the translation of the church in the Rapture will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel's "seventieth week" during which the church, the body of Christ, will be in heaven. The whole period of Israel's "seventieth week" will be a time of judgment on the whole earth, at the end of which the times of the Gentiles will be brought to a close. The latter half of this seven-year period will be the time of Jacob's trouble which our Lord called the great tribulation.

We believe that universal righteousness will not be realized previous to the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day by day ripening for judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy.

(Daniel 9:27; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-21; Revelation 6:1-19:21) 

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Article XIX
The Second Coming of Christ

We believe that the period of great tribulation on the earth will be climaxed by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth as He went, in person on the clouds of heaven, and with power and great glory to introduce the millennial age, to bind Satan and place him in the abyss, to lift the curse which now rests upon the whole creation, to restore Israel to her own land and to give her the realization of God's covenant promises, and to bring the whole world to the knowledge of God.

(Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Isaiah 11:9; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Matthew 24:15-25:46; Acts 15:16-17; Romans 8:19-23; 11:25-27; I Timothy 4:1-3; II Timothy 3;1-5; Revelation 20:1-3)

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Article XX
The Eternal State

We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence and there remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection of the glorified body when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and body reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory; but the spirits and souls of the unbelieving remain after death conscious of condemnation and in misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close of the millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

(Luke 16:19-26; 23:42; II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; II Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6-7; Revelation 20:11-15)