What We Believe

We believe and hold these things as true based on God’s Word:

• There is only one true God. He is the Creator of all life and the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. He has always been (He is eternal, without beginning, uncreated) and co-exists equally in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. We learn about God through His Creation, His written Word, and His Son.

Genesis 1:26-27; Deuteronomy 6:4; Job 38:1-41:34; Matthew 3:13-17; John 3:16; Romans 1:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 4:6

• Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God. He came to earth to show God’s love by dying on a cross, thus taking the sins of all mankind upon Himself, and paying the penalty that our sins deserve. His bodily resurrection from the grave and His promise to return someday are testimonies to the fact that He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Matthew 1:22-23; John 1:1, 14, 18; Acts 10:37-43; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Ephesians 2:4-8; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-21; Hebrews 1:1-3

• At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our physical bodies as His home. The Holy Spirit dwells in each member of God’s Family as a Helper and Guide. He provides help to every Christian to do what is right, strength to serve Jesus, and direction for living life God’s way. The Holy Spirit works through Christians to bring others to salvation.

John 14:16-17; John 16:7-13; Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 3:16-20; 5:18

• The Bible is God’s written Word and the authority or standard for living our lives according to God’s will for us. The process by which God gave us His Word is called “inspiration,” meaning that God breathed the thoughts into the minds of prophets and guided their writing so that the originals are His words more than those whose hands He led to write them. The same is true with all faithful copies of those originals, and we believe the 66 books of the Bible, as presented in most available English translations and versions, are accurate and thus trustworthy copies of those originals. The Word of God is without error and is the true and absolute final authority on everything it speaks about. It tells us who God is, why He loves us, and what His plans are for us. The Bible is the inspired Word of God.

Psalm 19:7-11, 119:105, 160; John 17:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21

• We are created in the spiritual likeness or image of God. God gave us free will: we each have the ability to choose between good and evil, and we are all accountable to God for the choices we make, according to our various abilities. God created us because, being the very essence of love, He chose to offer to share His glorious truth, goodness, and beauty with a human family who will love Him, not because we must love Him, but because we want to. “We love because He first loved us.” The first man, Adam, chose to sin, and now every person lives in a marred creation with a marred spiritual nature. As a result, every person will eventually choose to sin and subsequently become separated from God and in need of salvation.

Genesis 1:27, 3:1-24; Psalm 8:3-6; John 4:24; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:4-6; Hebrews 4:13; 1 John 4:8, 19

• We need salvation because we have sinned. Sin separates us from God, Who desires a relationship with us. It is impossible for any man to restore that broken relationship with God. We cannot earn, merit, or achieve a right relationship with God by our own efforts. The death of Jesus was not an accident. It was God’s plan from the beginning to save us from our sins through the death of Jesus Christ. The Bible calls God’s act of love grace. His grace is His gift to us. The way we receive His gift is by entering into a covenant relationship with Jesus by placing our trust in Him, which we express verbally through “the good confession,” and exemplify in our actions through repentance and obeying His command to be immersed (baptized) in water, symbolically “obeying” the pattern of His death, burial, and resurrection.

Isaiah 59:2; John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 2:37-39; Romans 3:10, 11, 23, 6:3-4, 23; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Ephesians 2:1-10; 1 Timothy 6:12; Titus 3:3-8

• When God created us, He created us with a spirit that will never cease to exist. God predestines the righteous to be eternally saved and the unrighteous to be eternally lost. God did not predestine individuals to be eternally saved or lost apart from their free will; rather, foreseeing all things, He gives each man and woman the power to determine their own destiny by choosing to accept or reject the truth of the gospel. Those who choose to follow and obey Jesus as Lord and have a growing relationship with Him are “the elect” and will spend eternity with God in Heaven. Those who reject Jesus by refusing to follow Him are “children of disobedience” and will spend eternity in Hell. Heaven, like salvation and grace, is a gift of God. Hell is the due consequence for those who have not accepted God’s offer of forgiveness. Heaven and Hell are real places.

Ezekiel 18:20; Matthew 7:21-23, 10:28, 24:24, 25:31-46; Romans 6:23, 10:16; Luke 16:19-31; John 14:1-6; Acts 10:34-35; Ephesians 2:2; Philippians 3:17-21; Revelation 20:15

• The Church is God’s spiritual family. It is made up of all those who have chosen to place their trust and faith in Jesus, to obey Him, and who continue through life as His loyal followers (disciples). The Church is not a building or one particular group of believers. To belong to the Church is to belong to Jesus. The Bible uses the analogy of Jesus as the Head of the Church, which is, symbolically, His body. God’s will is for the Church to gather regularly to worship its Head, Jesus, to use its various gifts and abilities to serve its Head, to love and encourage those who are in the body, and to work diligently to maintain the unity of the body. It is expected that every member of the church will assemble for worship on each Lord’s day and participate in the sharing of the Lord’s supper, which is the central part of the Lord’s Day worship service. The whole church family invests in each other’s spiritual growth, especially our children, teens, and young adults who are trying to find their way. Therefore, we believe the assembly of the saints should take precedence over all other activities so that all will be edified, and our youth will grow in admonition of the Lord. The Church should be a hospital for the hurting, a place to turn seeking guidance and peace from sin and sorrow, not a place to be condemned. As for the members of His Church, we should love one another and maintain unity in purpose and relationship. Thus, the world will recognize that we belong to Jesus. The Church or body is to seek to do the will of God, which also includes loving and saving the world through Jesus Christ. The Church is guided by the Word of God. Matthew 16:15-18; John 17:20-23, 13:34-35; Acts 2:42-47, 20:7; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:22-23, 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-10

• According to Scripture, God has clearly defined roles for men and women in the home, church, and community. God commanded men to serve in public leadership roles in the Church, such as Deacons, Elders, and Preachers (Evangelists). Elders serve as the leaders and overseers of the local Church. The church, based on qualifications set down in the Scriptures, selects these men. Men and women have distinct and complementary (equally important) roles in serving God, their families, and their communities, as set forth in Scripture.

Acts 6:1-6; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:12, 3:1-8, 5:14; 2 Timothy 1:5; Titus 2:3-4

• Based upon our understanding of New Testament Scripture, God does not desire us to accompany our worship in song with man-made musical instruments. Whether or not God regards the use of instruments in worship as a “salvation issue” is not our call to make, but our convictions lead us to worship a cappella, which is an old Latin term for vocal-only music that means, “in the style of the church,” proving the ancients understood church music to be vocal-only. We should be certain of whom we are trying to please, God or ourselves. If we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15) and do that to the best of our ability. Based on the New Testament, we can know that God is pleased when we sing during church worship, but we cannot know that He is pleased when we play instruments in church worship. No scripture authorizes instrumental music in worship today.

Matthew 26:30; Acts 16:25; Romans 15:9; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; Hebrews 2:12; James 5:13

• Marriage is for life. It is a covenant between God, a man (biologically male), and a woman (biologically female). It is God’s holy plan for the family. Jesus calls Christians to live holy as God is holy, live sexually pure lives, and be set apart from the world in these and other ways. God hates divorce, and so do we. We believe in the biblical teaching regarding divorce and remarriage. Divorce is a forgivable sin if repented of in accordance with the will of God. The man (husband, father) is to be the head of the home, like Christ is the head of the church.

Genesis 2:22-24; Malachi 2:16; Matthew 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:22-23; Hebrews 13:4-7

—The Elders of the LaVergne Church of Christ