Our Beliefs
God
The Trinity
There is only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, and the Ruler of the Universe. The eternal true God reveals Himself to us as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
The Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (Gen 2:7; Ex. 3:14; Eph. 4:6; 1 Pet. 1:17)
The Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, and full Man. (Ps. 2:7; Is. 7:14 Rom. 1:3-4; Eph. 1:20)
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13; John 4:24; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:13-14; 1 Tim. 3:16)
The Bible
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation. (Ps. 19:7-10; Jer. 15:16; 2 Tim. 2:15-17; Luke 21:33; 2 Pet. 1:19-21)
Mankind
Man is a special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice, man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. (Gen. 1:26-30; Gen. 3; Is. 6:5; Matt. 16:26; Rom. 1:19-32; Col. 1:21-22)
Salvation
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. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. (Gen. 3:15; Matt. 1:21; John 1:11-14; Rom. 1:16-18; 2 Cor. 5:17-20; Rev. 3:20)
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. The office of pastor/elder is limited only to men as qualified by Scripture.
(Acts 2:41-42; Eph. 1:22-23; Eph. 3:8-11; 1 Pet. 5:1-4; Rev. 21:2-3)
Ordinances
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (Luke 3:21-22; 1 Cor. 11:23-29; Col. 2:12)
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal, and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual responsibility to the whole world, a holy charge to share the gospel, and a stewardship of their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth. (Mal. 3:8-12; Luke 12:16-21; Acts 2:42-47)
Family
Society
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
The statements written on the previous pages concerning the guiding doctrine for CLCC are primarily from the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. CLCC holds to these convictions and cooperates directly with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), South Carolina Baptist Convention (SCBC), and the Waccamaw Baptist Association (WBA).
Christian Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.
