What Legacy Builders Believes About the Bible
We believe the Bible, in its original manuscripts, was verbally (words) and plenarily (fully) inspired by God. We believe God utilized the human element within man to accomplish this without error. Each word, each tense, each singular or plural, each gender, each number in the Bible’s original manuscripts was divinely and intentionally written. God supernaturally directed the minds of the writers of scripture without waiving their intelligence, literary style, personal feelings, or any other human factor. His complete and coherent message to man was recorded with perfect accuracy, the very words of the original manuscripts bearing the authority of Divine authorship.
Being the Word of God, we further affirm both the infallibility and the inerrancy of Scripture in all its parts, in the original manuscripts, and in the original languages. God has also reliably superintended the preservation of Scripture down through the ages so that contemporary Christians can be certain that they have a fully reliable translation of the Word from God.
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is our guide in all matters regarding life, doctrine and individual behavior.
What Legacy Builders Believes About God
The one living and true God manifest in the Godhead, historically addressed as the Trinity, is an eternal, self-existent unity of three distinct persons-God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is only one God, not three gods, and not one person who took three modes, offices, or forms. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in essence and substance, equal in power and glory, and all worthy of worship and obedience.
God the Father is the Creator of all things, and the sovereign ruler of the entire Cosmos.
God is omnipotent. He alone is the source and sustainer of all that exists, upholding the universe by the power of His Word and governing the affairs of all creatures, events, and time. Contrary to the creation’s dependence upon Himself, however, He is not dependent upon anything or anyone else. God is self-sufficient, needing nothing added or supplied by anything from His creation. God is also self-existent and self-sustaining.
God is fully omniscient. All things are open and manifest in His sight, His knowledge being infinite. God is given neither to learning, advice, nor guidance, and nothing is contingent nor uncertain to Him, neither past, present, nor future. God calls the end from the beginning; the things that are not as though they are. Furthermore, God is able to fully comprehend the words, thoughts, and actions of all men, discerning even the thoughts, attitudes, and motives within their hearts.
God is Spirit, having neither body nor parts. He is infinite, eternal, and immortal, having neither beginning nor end. He is immutable, incapable of change or being changed, and lacking the need for either. God is infallible, lacking the ability to ever be wrong
Finally, all of God’s attributes exist to the superlative degree. He is most holy, most just, most wise, most loving, most gracious, most merciful, and most righteous in all His judgments of sin. God is the only standard by which humanity can judge perfection.
God the Son, Jesus Christ, is a co-equal, co-eternal, consubstantial member of the Trinity. He is both fully God and fully man (Hypostatic Union), bearing within the one body two natures forming one divine person. Each nature, both God and man, retains its own attributes without confusion, mixture, division, or diminishment of the other.
Through the incarnation, Jesus was the Word of God made manifest, taking on flesh and dwelling among us. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, being born without sin by the Virgin Mary. Thereafter, Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life, was crucified, died, was buried, rose bodily from the dead, and finally ascended to the right hand of the Father. From there He sits on His throne ruling as the only mediator between God and man until the consummation of all things to Himself when He returns to the earth in glory and judgement.
God the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, proceeding from the Father and Son. He possesses all the characteristics of personality and deity: intellect, emotions, will, eternality, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and the like. In all these the Spirit is co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father and Son. Nevertheless, He plays a unique role in the Godhead’s covenant of redemption by convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment in the wrath to come. He sanctifies man, instructs in righteousness, empowers the church for good works, imparts spiritual gifts for the edification of the church, and seals believers, preserving them until the day of redemption.
What Legacy Builders Believes About Man
God directly created mankind after creating everything else in the universe. He created them male and female, Adam first as the crowning glory of His creation, and then Eve as a complementary helpmate for Adam. Each was made in the Image of God, being co-equal in value and worth before Him but possessing distinct and complementary roles meant to round out and complete one another in their matrimonial union.
This Image of God conferred unique attributes upon them that were uncommon to the rest of creation. Man was sinless, possessing intellect, logic, reason, rationale, emotions, volition, morality, the ability to communicate, the need to worship and praise, and the desire to commune with his Creator. God intended that man would glorify Himself by living out God’s image in the world in perfect obedience and submission to His will and purpose, thereby magnifying the glory of God throughout all creation.
Satan entered the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve into disobeying the divine directive of God, persuading her to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Afterwards, Adam partook, knowing what God had previously forbidden. In Adam and Eve’s disobedience to the commands of God, they and their descendants lost their innocence, original righteousness, and direct communion with God. Their wills became forever bent away from their Creator’s will, and their life cut off from its Source. Spiritual and physical death would come upon all Adam’s posterity as the guilt of Adam was imputed unto all those he represented.
This sentence of death brought man into a state of inherent moral corruption, extending to every facet of his being. Man’s nature became totally depraved in his intellect, thinking, reasoning, emotions, volition, morality, flesh, and the affections of his heart. Man became utterly incapable of choosing those things which please God, and unable to repent back to Him by his own free will, which is now in bondage to sin. However, by total depravity we do not imply that man is as evil as he could possibly be to the furthest extent, but rather that every faculty of his being in totality has been corrupted. The Image of God has been distorted but not lost.
What Legacy Builders Believes About Salvation
We believe that salvation is a free gift of God and is received by man through personal faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only means of salvation (Acts 4:12). There is no other way to heaven, except through Jesus because He is the only intercessory between God and man.
At the moment of saving faith, the believer is forgiven of their sins and made a new creation in Christ. This salvation cannot be gained by doing good works because it is a free gift for all who put their trust in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. All who trust in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior are forgiven of their sins and declared to be righteous before a holy God. Since Christ promised that every believer would have eternal life at the moment of saving faith and be raised up on the last day every believer is eternally secure in Christ since He did all the work for our salvation.
- All men are sinners, spiritually dead and separated from God.
- Because men are sinful, they are in rebellion to God.
- God is holy and just and must judge all rebellion against Him.
- God will judge all men and has promised eternal punishment for all who do not have their sins forgiven.
- God is love and He sent His Son into this world to die for sinful men.
- Christ died for the sin, curse, guilt, judgment and hell of all who believe in Christ.
- Christ died for sinners and you are a sinner in need of God.
- You must change your mind about Christ (repent) and receive Him as your Savior for sin, and Lord (God) who has a right to rule in your life.
- Whether you receive God’s love or God’s wrath is directly related to whether you believe that Christ died for your sins and that He is Lord (God).
