Scripture
• God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God's witness to Himself.
•Holy Scripture, being God's own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God's instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God's command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God's pledge, in all that it promises.
•The Holy Spirit, Scripture's divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
•Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives. It is the supreme authority in everything it teaches. Its authority is not limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes but includes its assertions in such fields as history and science.
•The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
•The final guide to the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.
Origins
•The account of origins presented in Genesis is a simple but factual presentation of actual events and therefore provides a reliable framework for scientific research into the question of the origin and history of life, mankind, the earth, and the universe.
• The various original life forms (kinds), including mankind, were made by direct creative acts of God. The living descendants of any of the original kinds (apart from man) may represent more than one species today, reflecting the genetic potential within the original kind. Only limited biological changes (including mutational deterioration) have occurred naturally within each kind since creation.
•The great Flood of Genesis was an actual historic event, worldwide (global) in its extent and effect.
•The special creation of Adam (the first man) and Eve (the first woman), and their subsequent fall into sin, is the basis for the necessity of salvation for mankind.
•Death (both physical and spiritual) and bloodshed entered into this world subsequent to and as a direct consequence of man’s sin.
Theology
• The Godhead is triune: one God, three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
• All mankind are sinners, inherently from Adam and individually (by choice), and are therefore subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
• Freedom from the penalty and power of sin is available to man only through the sacrificial death and shed blood of Jesus Christ and His complete and bodily resurrection from the dead.
• The Holy Spirit enables the sinner to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.
•The Holy Spirit lives and works in each believer to produce the fruits of righteousness.
•Salvation is a gift received by faith alone in Christ alone and expressed in the individual’s repentance, recognition of the death of Christ as full payment for sin, and acceptance of the risen Christ as Savior, Lord, and God.
•All things necessary for our salvation are expressly set down in Scripture.
•Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
•Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven, and is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father, and shall return in person to this earth as Judge of the living and the dead.
•Satan is the personal spiritual adversary of both God and mankind.
•Those who do not believe in Christ are subject to everlasting conscious punishment, but believers enjoy eternal life with God.
Rev. Travis Bennett came to New Freedom in August, 2017. He was born in Buffalo, New York but came to faith in Christ at the age of 15 while attending Hilltop Christian School in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Before being our pastor, he served as an associate and youth pastor at Calvary Bible Church in Fayetteville, NC for three years and as a missionary to Gurgaon, India where he helped in an indigenous church plant. He most recently served as an elder at New Covenant Baptist Fellowship in Angola, NY and has continued his passion for missions and the training of indigenous pastors through Lord of the Harvest Ministries in the Philippines.