What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of Calvary Burlington based on the foundational truths taught in the Bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God, that the sixty-six Books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit of God and, therefore, entirely free from error; that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian union.

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of Jesus Christ; in His eternal existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory; in His virgin birth (by which He entered the human race as a perfect man), sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatory ministry, and personal return.

We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit who convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; who regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ.

We believe that Satan exists as an evil personality, the originator of sin, the archenemy of God and humankind.

We believe that humanity (male and female) was divinely created in the image of God, that they sinned, becoming guilty before God, resulting in total depravity, thereby incurring physical and spiritual death.

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly by grace, through faith and not of works; that this salvation is instantaneous and not a process; that in salvation the sinner is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life as the gift of God; that all who are saved by faith in Christ are kept by the power of God unto eternal salvation and shall never perish; and that the proper evidences of salvation appear in fruits of repentance, faith, and newness of life; that every saved person is justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.

We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ; in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust; in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and in the judgment and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.

We believe that the local church is a company of believers who, having professed personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are obedient to the Lord in Baptism by immersion. They have been called out from the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the observance of the ordinances.

We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the Church. We believe the two church offices are Pastors/Elders and Deacons.

We believe that there are only two ordinances for the Church regularly observed in the New Testament:

1. Baptism: This is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby that person obeys Christ's Command and sets forth one's identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.

2. The Lord's Supper: This is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and fruit of the vine, which symbolize the Lord's body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He comes.

We believe in the entire separation of church and state.

We believe in religious liberty; that every person has the right to practice and propagate his or her beliefs.

We affirm the tradition of the early church, which recognized the special character of the first day of the week, the day on which our Lord arose from the dead. Although every day is to be lived for the glory of God in obedience to Christ, the first day of the week is in a special sense an appropriate day for corporate worship and service.

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the earth.

We believe that marriage is an institution established by God for the union of one man and one woman for companionship and usually given to the propagation of children.
For definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’, see definitions outlined in Calvary Baptist Church General Operating Bylaw #1 (Section 1.1).

We believe that life is sacred from conception to natural death and that any act to prematurely end life, such as abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, is contrary to the will of God and the teachings of the Bible.