Faith Bible Church

About Us

History
Started through the ministry of Bible Studies in 1974 and officially organized as a church in October of 1976 Faith Bible Church has many years of ministering to the Town of Chester and surrounding communities.

Our Purpose
Our purpose is to glorify God by conducting a Bible church in accordance with the Word of God, the Articles of Faith, the Covenant and the Constitution of the local church, promoting the worship of our God, edifying believers, teaching the whole counsel of God, administering the ordinances of biblical discipline, seeking to win the lost to Christ through personal witnessing and the preaching of the Gospel, carrying on a vigorous missionary program around the world, helping other Bible churches to be stablished, defending the faith, and maintaining a good testimony for Christ in our community by Godliness and good works.

Statement of Faith
This congregation acknowledges and accepts as its doctrinal standards whose authority consist only in its agreement with the Word of God. Being resolved that no man occupies the pulpit of Faith Bible Church of Chestertown unless subscribing to and preaching these doctrinal truths.

1. The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Bible is the complete verbal, plenary, inspired Word of God, His revelation to man, inerrant in the original writings, and that it is therefore the supreme and final authority in all matters of doctrine, faith and life. (II Timothy 3:16-17; Revelation 22:18-19)

2. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

3. The Preexistence, Deity and Incarnation of Jesus Christ
We believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ, His Virgin Birth, and sinless life as God man on this earth. (John 1:1-19; Luke 1:25; Hebrews 1:8; Matthew 18:11)

4. Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ
We believe that Christ died for out sins according to the Scriptures as a substitutionary sacrifice and with His shed blood upon the Cross of Calvary, obtained for us an eternal redemption. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our High Priest and Advocate. (I Corinthians 15:3 4; Ephesians 1:7; Mark 16:19 I John 2:1; Hebrews 5:9; 8:1; 9:12)

5. Total Depravity
We believe in the total depravity of all mankind, and in the necessity of regeneration; that a man must be born again. (John 3:3; Romans 3:23)

6. Salvation by Grace
We believe that salvation is by the grace of God, a free gift of God, and entirely apart from works. Salvation is possessed by all who have by faith received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Personal Savior.

7. The Resurrection of the Dead
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the saved to eternal life with Jesus Christ in Heaven and of the unsaved into eternal damnation apart from Jesus Christ, in the Lake of Fire. (I Thessalonians 4:16; I Corinthians 15:51-57; Revelation 20:11-15)

8. Our Lord’s Second Advent
We believe in the personal pre-tribulational, pre-millennial and imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ for the saved; known as the Rapture of the Church. We believe also in the personal, visible, and glorious return of Christ to the earth with His saints at the end of the Great Tribulation, when Jesus Christ will establish His millennial reign upon the earth for one thousand years. (I Thessalonians 4:13-17; John 14:3; Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 20:1-)

9. The Ministry of the Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same Nature; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; that He is the agent of the New Birth; that He seals, enlightens, instructs, and guides every born again person. His purpose is to glorify Jesus Christ and to bring to remembrance that which Christ has taught and done. Some gifts, such as tongues and healing were temporary gifts until the Scriptures were complete. These gifts ceased at that time. (I Corinthians 13:8; Psalms 32:8; John 14:26; John 16:7-15)

10. The Devil and Satan
We believe in the personality of Satan, that he is the unholy god of the age, and the ruler of all powers of darkness; is a liar and the father of it, and is destined to the Judgment of an eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. (Matthew 4:11; II Corinthians 4:4; John 8:44; Revelation 20:10)

11. Israel
We believe in the sovereign selection of Israel as God’s eternal covenant people, that she is now dispersed because of her disobedience and rejection of Christ, and she will be regathered in the Holy Land, and, after completion of the Church, will be saved as a nation at the Second Advent of Jesus Christ. (Genesis 13:14-17; Romans 11:1-32; Ezekiel 37)

12. Separation
We believe in obedience to the Biblical commands to separate entirely from worldliness, and ecclesiastical apostasy unto God, using the Bible as the only source of faith and practice. (II Corinthians 6:14-7:1; I Thessalonians 1:9-10:1; I Timothy 6:3-5; Romans 16:17; II John 9:11)

13. Civil Government
We believe that civil government is of Divine Appointment for the interest and good order of human society; that those in authority are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored and obeyed, except in things opposed to the Will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and the coming King of Kings. (Romans 13:1-7; II Samuel 23:3; Exodus 18:21-22; Acts 23:5; Matthew 22:21; Acts 5:29; 4:19-20; Daniel 3:17-18)

14. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, under the authority of the local church, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, through whom we died to sin and arose to a new life. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death, until He comes, and should be preceded always by solemn self examination. (Acts 8:36, 38, 39; John 3:23; Romans 6:3-5; Matthew 3:16; Colossians 2:12; I Corinthians 11:23-28; Matthew 28:19, 20)

15. The Church
We believe in the unity of all true believers in the Church which is the Body of Christ, which was established on the Day of Pentecost, and that all believers, from Pentecost to the Rapture, both Jews and Gentiles, are added to this Church, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We believe that this Church is manifested through the local church, which is a congregation of believers associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; exercising gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word; and that its officers are pastors and deacons whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures. We believe the true mission of the Church is the faithful witnessing of Christ to all men as we have opportunity. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations, that the one and only Superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; that it is Scriptural for true churches to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the Gospel; that each local church is the sole judge of the measure and method of its cooperation; and that on all matters membership, of policy, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final. (Ephesians 3:1-6; I Corinthians 12:12-13; Acts 2:41, 42; I Timothy 3:1-7; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23; Acts 1:13-18; Titus 1:5-9)

16. Marriage
We believe that from the beginning with Adam and Eve, God ordained marriage as only between one man and one woman. All sexual activity outside of this biblical definition of marriage, including homosexual practices, is in direct contradiction to God’s Word and His intention for the institution of the home.

17. Gender
We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female for His glory. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God, and the rejection of one’s biological gender is a rejection of God’s decreed will and good plan for humanity and the individual.