What

What do we believe?

Basically... – At Gateway Fellowship we have Essential Beliefs: Our Unity, and Non-Essential Beliefs: Our Liberty. The teaching in which we find unity are our beliefs about: the Bible, God, Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, Man, Justification, Salvation, Resurrection, the Local Church, Lord's Supper and the Future. In all things at Gateway Fellowship we seek to apply charity in the form of deep love, acceptance and forgiveness for one another.

Bible – We believe in the absolute authority, accuracy and inerrancy of the 66 books of the Bible, its full verbal inspiration of the original manuscripts and its all-sufficiency and final authority as the Christian's rule of faith and practice.

God – We believe that there is but one God, the Creator, Preserver and Ruler of all things, who is perfect in holiness, and in love, infinite in wisdom and measureless in power, and who reveals Himself to us as three distinct entities, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ – We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal and only begotten Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and that He is true God and true man and is the only mediator between God and man.

Holy Spirit – We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, equal with Father and the Son, and of the same substance and nature; that He convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment, that He bears witness to the church, that He is the agent of the new birth, and at conversion He baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ, and that He seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies and helps the believer, indwelling every true child of God.

Man – We believe that man was created in the image of God by direct creation and that he was originally in fellowship and communication with God. By man’s choice he sinned, breaking this fellowship and incurred both physical and spiritual death. Thus all mankind by nature and by choice are sinners and unable of their own selves to reestablish fellowship with God. Apart from Christ all individuals shall be forever separated from God.

Justification - We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, that all who believe on Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.

Salvation – We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, not of works, and that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are born again of the Holy Spirit, thereby becoming children of God.

Resurrection – Jesus Christ – We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven and in His present ministry there for us as High Priest and Advocate.

Resurrection – Man – We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just, the bodily resurrection of the unjust, the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost.

Local Church - Baptism – We believe that the local church is the local expression of the Body of Christ and is a voluntary association of baptized believers equal in rank and privilege, subject to the Word of God, and independent of any external ecclesiastical control whatsoever. We believe that God’s Word commands every believer to be baptized by immersion in water. Though baptism has no saving merit, it does show forth in solemn and beautiful symbolism the believer’s faith in and union with the crucified, buried, and risen Savior.

Lord’s Supper – We believe that the Lords’ supper is a provision of bread and the cup which are symbolical of Christ’s broken body and shed blood; that the Lord’s Supper is partaken by saved individuals in commemoration of the suffering and death of their Lord and in anticipation of His soon coming again; that its observance is to be preceded by faithful self-examination.

The Future – We believe in the personal, visible, imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His Church and in His coming in Glory with the believers to set up His millennial kingdom upon the earth followed by an eternal kingdom on a new heaven and earth. The saved will forever be in His presence and fellowship while the unsaved will forever be separated from God and His fellowship.