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STATEMENT OF FAITH

 

The following is the foundation of beliefs on which Grace Academy is based. They are also the key elements of Christianity that will be unapologetically taught in various ways through all grade levels. The substance of these statements is that which will be considered primary doctrine in Grace Academy. Secondary or divisive doctrines and issues will not be presented as primary doctrine. When these types of doctrine or issues arise, they will be referred back to the family and local churches for final authority.

Grace Academy is an independent school without institutional ties to a particular church or denomination. Our Statement of Faith is focused on the truths that have bound orthodox Protestant Christians together through the ages, across the boundaries of time, place, race, denomination and tradition.  As such, our Statement of Faith distinguishes between primary and secondary doctrine.

Primary doctrine is defined as doctrines we believe constitute the core beliefs central to Protestant Christian denominations, and which sets Protestant Christianity apart from other faiths. Primary doctrine, as summarized in this Statement of Faith, will be dogmatically taught in various ways through all grade levels and forms the foundation for all other academic inquiry at the school. Secondary doctrine is defined as non-primary doctrines and represents those doctrinal areas where various Protestant denominations may differ.  While we believe there is no liberty to disagree where the Bible speaks clearly, we recognize our own fallibility, and acknowledge that sincere Christians hold differing views on certain issues that are not essential to salvation, our community life together, or our pedagogue.  Particularly in the dialectic and rhetoric stages of our curriculum, treatment of the Statement of Faith may lead to the study of secondary doctrinal issues.  When this occurs, the instructor will strive to teach the various views of orthodox Protestant Christianity from an objective, unbiased, balanced view.  We reserve for the parents and by extension their church the final responsibility to search the Scriptures with their children to resolve such issues.

Primary Doctrines

A. The Bible.  We believe that the Bible is God's written revelation to man, and thus the sixty-six books of the Bible given to us by the Holy Spirit constitute the plenary (inspired equally in all parts) Word of God. We believe that the Word of God is objective, propositional revelation, verbally inspired in every word, absolutely inerrant in the original documents, infallible, and God breathed.  We teach that the Bible constitutes the only infallible rule of faith and practice (John 17:17, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21).

 

B. God.  We believe that there is but one living and true God, an infinite, all knowing Spirit, perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—each equally deserving worship and obedience (Deut. 6:4; Mat. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

 

C. God the Father.  We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace.  He is the Creator of all things. As the only absolute and omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption. His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men, but He is spiritual Father only to believers. He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass. He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events. In His sovereignty He is neither author nor approver of sin, nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures. He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own; He saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ; He adopts as his own all those who come to Him; and He becomes, upon adoption, Father to His own (Gen. 1; Rom. 8:14; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 4:5; Eph 1:4-6,11; Eph. 3:9).

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D. God the Son.  We believe that Jesus Christ is the pre-existent and eternal Son of God who became man in order to reveal God and redeem man.  We believe He was supernaturally conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  In His person, we believe the Lord Jesus combined forever full and undiminished deity with true and perfect humanity to become the God-man. We believe Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinful man, was buried, arose bodily from the tomb, ascended into Heaven where He ministers on the behalf of saints, and someday will come again for His own.  (John 1:18, 8:58, Matt. 1:23, Col. 1:15-17, 1 Tim. 1:15, 3:16).

 

E. God the Holy Spirit.  We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, fully equal with God the Father and God the Son.  Although He is of the exact same essence, we believe He is a personality distinct from the other members of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit, we believe, has an active ministry to the world in general which includes the restraining of evil, convicting of the unsaved and bestowing of God’s goodness on all mankind.  We also believe He has a ministry to every Christian which consists of regenerating, sealing, indwelling, baptizing into the Body of Christ, and the giving of spiritual gifts. Ministries to obedient Christians include filling, assuring, teaching, guiding and comforting (Acts 5:3-4, 2 Thes. 2:3-9, John 16:7-11, Matt. 5:45, Tit. 3:5, Eph. 1:13, 1 Cor. 6:19, 12:13, Eph. 3:20, 1 Cor. 14, James 5:14, Eph. 5:18, Rom. 8:16, 14, John 16:13, 7.).

 

F. Creation.  We believe that the Triune God, according to His sovereign will and for His own glory, created the heavens and the earth without the use of pre-existent material. All living things, we believe, came into being by a direct creative act of God and not by an evolutionary or random process, and thus have an existence distinct from Him and yet always dependent on Him (Gen. 2:4, Prov. 16:4, Acts 17:24, Col. 1:16-17).

 

G. Man.  We believe that man was directly and immediately created by God in His image and likeness. Man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self determination, and moral responsibility to God  We teach that God's intention in the creation of man was that man should glorify God, enjoy God's fellowship, live his life in the will of God, and by this accomplish God's purpose for man in the world  We believe that in Adam's sin of disobedience to the revealed will and Word of God, man lost his innocence; incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death; became subject to the wrath of God; and became inherently corrupt and utterly incapable of choosing or doing that which is acceptable to God apart from divine grace. With no recuperative powers to enable him to recover himself, man is hopelessly lost. Man's salvation is thereby wholly of God's grace through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We teach that because all men were in Adam, a nature corrupted by Adam's sin has been transmitted to all men of all ages, Jesus Christ being the only exception. All men are thus sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration (Gen 2:16-17; Gen. 3; John 3:36; Rom. 3:9-18, 23; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2,1-3).

 

H. Salvation.  We believe salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ, the merit of His shed blood, and not on the basis of human merit or works (John 1:12; Eph. 1:7; 2:8-10; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

 

I. The Church.  We believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, of which He is the head.  We agree with the admonition of Scripture not to forsake the gathering together with fellow believers and therefore advocate active participation in a local church.  The purpose of the church is to glorify God by growing in faith and knowledge of God through instruction in the Word, fellowship, keeping the ordinances, and advancing and communicating the gospel to the entire world (Mat. 28:19; Acts 2:38-43; Eph 1:22; Eph. 4:5, 13-16; Eph. 5:23; Heb. 10: 24-25).

 

As a matter of firm policy, it is mandatory that all members of the Board of Trustees subscribe to the above statement of faith in a manner and method prescribed by the Board of Trustees, either by written statement or by oral testimony before the Board.

Note: References to "man" in our Statement of Faith are inclusive of both genders. 

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. 

And I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. 

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And I believe one holy catholic* and Apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

*The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.