Our mission at Lord’s Heritage Church is to labor to promote the family unit so that future generations are introduced to Jesus Christ. Our global mission activity is designed to benefit God’s children living in poverty.
The Lord’s Heritage Church is a church built through inviting fellow-laborers of the Word to become members of our part of the body of Christ. We look for those who make it a life’s mission to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and then build a church around them to offer support, encouragement, and edification in the Word of God.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
Creation
We believe that God, in the beginning, created all that exists out of nothing, ex-nihilo, in six literal days and that He rested on the seventh day. It was on the sixth day that God created man and woman in His own image and that they lived in perfect harmony with God.
We believe all three persons of the Godhead took part in creation. Through the disobedience of Adam, the perfect harmony in which man lived with God was disrupted affecting the entirety of man and his nature. The disobedience of Adam brought sin and death into the world and the need for redemption and renewal.
Biblical support: Gen 1:1-2; Ps 33:6; John 1:3; Col 1:16; Rom 11:36; Gen 1:27; John 1:3; Exod 20:11; Rom 8:20-21; Eph 2:1-2; Rom 5:12.
The Trinity
We believe that God is one divine entity composed of three district persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
We believe each person of the Godhead is equally God, sharing an eternal nature. God the Father is eternal, without beginning and without end. God the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. God the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from both the Father and the Son.
We believe the Trinity is the one true God, the God of creation in whose image mankind was made.
Biblical support: Gen 1:26; John 1:1-4; John 10:30; John 15:26; John 14:11; John 17:5; John 17:22; 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor 6:11; Matt 1:20.
God, the Father
We believe God the Father to be the first person of the Holy Trinity, infinite and perfect in every way. There is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom all things exist.
We believe he works all things according to His will. He loves His creation and desires obedience from His faithful. He is merciful. He is just. He disciplines His children. He is invisible. He is able to do all things. He is a giver of gifts, especially the gift of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in the Son.
We believe he transcends the world and is therefore not within the world, yet every good and perfect gift comes from Him.
We believe he sends the Holy Spirit as an advocate for His children. He gave His only Son for the salvation of mankind raising Him from the dead as a signal of His acceptance of His sacrifice.
Biblical support: 1 Cor 8:6; John 3:16; 1 John 3:1; John 14:21; John 14:23; Luke 6:36; Matt 5:48; Deut 8:5; Prov 3:11-12; John 17:24; John 10:28-30; 1 John 2:16; Jas 1:17; Rom 8:32; John 1:18.
God, the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ is God, the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. He was with God since the beginning and He was God. He was born of the virgin Mary and became man. He is fully God and is fully man enduring all the temptations that are common to man.
We believe He was sent by God, not to condemn the world, but to bring salvation to all who believe in Him. He was tortured, beaten, and crucified and on the third day, God the Father raised Him from the dead to be an intercessor for us.
We believe He was without sin and yet became sin to offer His righteousness to those who are in Him. He is the pioneer and perfecter of faith through whom eternal life is given by the Father.
We believe He alone offers the path of righteousness and salvation and He will return again, glorified, to judge both the living and the dead and to usher in His eternal kingdom.
Biblical support: John 1:1-5; John 14:6; 1 Cor 5:21; 1 Cor 15:3-4; Rom 8:34; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 2:18; Heb 12:2; Isa 53:5; Acts 4:12; 1 Cor 15:20-24; Rom 10:9; John 8:12; Phil 2:6-8; Luke 19:10; John 3:17; Mark 10:45; 1 Thess 4:14; Isa 9:6; John 1:18.
God, the Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and that He proceeds from both the Father and the Son. He is equally God and was with God in the beginning. He is an advocate for us with the Father and works to sanctify those the Father has justified through the Son.
We believe the Holy Spirit imparts power to the believer, indwells the believer, and brings about regeneration and rebirth. It was through the Holy Spirit that the Scriptures were recorded, and it is through the Holy Spirit that they are understood. Although God chose man as His instruments to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts hearers of the word given power to the gospel unto salvation. He is the seal of the promise God has made for redemption and a world without end.
Biblical support: Gen 1:1-2; John 14:16; John 14:26; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor 6:19-20; Eph 4:30; 1 Cor 2:11; 2 Pet 1:21; Titus 3:5; Rom 8:26.
The Bible
We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, perfect in its original manuscripts, fully authoritative and without error. The Scripture is absolutely inerrant in that it “is fully truthful in all of its teachings.”
We believe the authority of the Scriptures is derived from their divine origin, not in any way dependent upon the opinions of men. They contain the whole revelation of God’s will to man with the power to bring salvation to everyone who believes.
We believe the Scriptures, properly interpreted, to be wholly and alone sufficient to answer life’s most critical questions.
We believe the term “Scriptures” and the term “Bible” refer to the collection of works canonized by recognition of early church leaders and intrinsically authoritative by virtue of the Holy Spirit’s direction in their creation. The canon of Scripture includes all 66 books of the Protestant Bible.
Biblical support: 2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:20-21; 2 Pet 3:16; Matt 5:18; 1 Thess 2:13; Rom 1:16; Heb 13:8; Matt 4:4; Heb 6:18-19; Prov 30:5.
The Church
We believe the church is a universal body of believers professing faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and brought together in unity under Him. This universal church is the body of Christ with Christ as the head. It was kept a mystery until revealed through the apostle Paul.
We believe the universal church is visible and invisible and consists of the entire body of local churches assembling for the purpose of fellowship, edification, renewal, and worship in the name of Jesus Christ.
We believe the members of the local body of believers are given gifts of the Spirit to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, help the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, administer ordinances, and worship the risen Lord.
Biblical support: Eph 1:10; Eph 1:22-23; Eph 5:32; Col 1:18; 1 Cor 12:12-13; 1 Cor 12:28; Eph 4:11-13; 1 Cor 1:2; Heb 10:25; Eph 3:10.
The Fall of Man
We believe the first humans, Adam and Eve, being created perfect and without sin, fell from God’s grace through disobedience to God’s commands. They were fooled by the cunningness of the serpent, Satan, and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We believe the disobedience of Adam separated mankind from a communal relationship with God and brought sin and death into the world. As the seminal head of the entire human race, the guilt of Adam’s sin was passed on to his descendants along with his corrupt nature and the deserved penalty of death.
We believe the corruption that resulted from disobedience affects the entirety of man, everyone descending from Adam, in mind, body, and soul, so that, without God, it is impossible for man to do good.
Biblical support: Gen 2:9; Gen 2:16-17; Gen 3:4-7; Gen 3:14-19; Psalm 143:2; 2 Chr 6:36; Isa 53:6; Rom 3:23; Rom 11:32; 1 John 1:8-10; Rom 5:12; Rom 5:19.
God’s Judgement
We believe there will be multiple future judgments beginning at the rapture of Christ’s church. When those living and faithful to Christ are glorified along with the resurrection of the dead in Christ, they will be subject to the judgment seat of Christ to be rewarded according to what they have done. This is the bema judgment and all who sit before it are saved and will be in heaven, although they themselves might suffer loss.
We believe Tribulation and Old Testament saints will be judged following their resurrection which leads to their reign with Christ.
We believe the sheep and goat judgment will separate living Israel and the Gentiles survivors of the tribulation. The sheep will be saved and enter into the Kingdom, and the goats will be lost and experience the second death.
We believe the final judgment is the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20. The participants of this judgment are all unbelievers who have died prior to the end of the tribulation and will be judged according to their works and then subjected to the second death.
Biblical support: 2 Cor 5:10; 2 Tim 2:5; 1 Cor 9:24-25; 1 Cor 3:12-15; Heb 6:10; Rev 3:11; Matt 25:31-33; Matt 25:41; Matt 25:46; Rev 20:11-15; Dan 12:1-3; Rev 20:4.
Church Ordinances
We believe the ordinances of baptism and communion are signs of the seals of God’s covenant of grace identifying and making holy, that is setting apart, those who profess faith in Jesus Christ and to commemorate His death until He comes again.
We believe baptism is the outward sign of an inward change and is an initiation into God’s visible church. Baptism is an ordinance performed upon believers in Christ and apart from faith in Christ has no redemptive, restorative, or remissive power and is not a requirement for salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith alone.
We believe baptism is correctly performed through full submersion in water of the one professing faith in Christ and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We believe the Lord’s Supper, or communion, is celebrated in memory of Christ’s death on the cross and as a sign of the new covenant in Christ’s blood for salvation to all who believe. Communion calls to memory Christ’s body, which was given up for us, and Christ’s blood, which was shed for the remission of sin.
Biblical support: Matt 28:19; Rom 4:11; Gen 17:10; Col 2:11-12; 1 Pet 3:21; Matt 26:26-29; 1 Cor 10:16; 1 Cor 11:25-26; Gal 3:26-27; Rom 6:3-4.
The Return of Jesus
We believe in the imminent literal fulfillment of the second coming of Jesus Christ.
We believe in a pretribulational rapture of Christ’s church and a premillenial Parousia. Christ’s church will be taken away prior to the tribulation followed by the rise of the antichrist ushering in a 7-year period of tribulation, the last half of which is the Great Tribulation.
We believe the second coming of Christ will happen in bodily form which every eye will see. He will return after the conclusion of the Great Tribulation resulting in the Battle of Armageddon, the judgment and binding of Satan, the resurrection of the dead for judgment, and the 1,000-year reign of Christ in peace. Following the millennial reign of Christ, Satan will be let loose for one final rebellion and final judgment marking the beginning of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Biblical support: Acts 1:10-11; Matt 24:44; Rev 1:7-8; Rev 22:12; Rev 22:20; 1 Cor 15:51-54; John 14:1-3; 1 Thess 4:16-17; Heb 9:28; John 5:28-29; Ezek 37:22-23; Dan 2:45; Dan 9:27; 2 Thess 2:1-4; Ps 110:1; Isa 2:11-12; Isa 9:6-7; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 3:12.
Salvation
We believe salvation includes justification by faith, sanctification through the work of the Holy Spirit, and future glorification at the rapture.
We believe salvation is offered to all men and comes to those God foreknew, the same He also predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, called into His service, and justified, seeing them as righteous by grace through faith in Jesus as Lord and that He was raised from the dead.
We believe such salvation is guaranteed in Scripture and sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Salvation is eternal; eternal redemption, eternal inheritance, eternal covenant, and eternal love.
We believe salvation is offered as a free gift from God which is accessed by grace through faith, not of works. The saved will never be put to shame, nothing in all creation is able to separate the saved from God’s love.
Biblical support: Rom 8:28-30; Rom 10:9; Acts 4:12; Eph 2:8; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:15; Heb 13:20; Jer 32:40; Jer 31:3; 1 John 5:11-13; Rom 5:1-2; Rom 5:5; Heb 6:17-19; Rom 8:33-35; Rom 8:38-39; Eph 1:13; Titus 2:11-12; Phi 1:6; John 10:28-29.
OUR POSITION STATMENTS
Abortion
Mankind was created in the image of God, formed by God and given life by God. Life after Adam and Eve begins in the womb and at conception. Each human being ever conceived was known by God before their formation in the womb. Children are a gift, a reward, and a blessing from the Lord and the life of an unborn child should not be taken through abortion. While situations that endanger the life of the mother are troubling, the rights of a mother do not supersede the rights of an unborn child. Social responsibility is for the rights of the unborn child.
Biblical support: Gen 1:27; Gen 2:7; Ex 20:13; Ex 21:22-24; Job 31:15; Ps 127:3-5; Ps 139:13-16; Jer 1:5; Luke 18:16; Acts 17:25; 1 Tim 5:4.
Gender Issues
Mankind was created in God’s image, but that image was corrupted through original sin. The believer’s identity is found in Christ through redemption and the salvation offered by Christ’s death on the cross. The believer is a new creation, no longer living for his or herself, but for Christ. Humans were created as sexual beings and marriage is the proper context for fulfilling sexual desire. Sex in marriage is a gift from God to be enjoyed between a husband and his wife. God’s design of marriage includes gender roles: the husband is the spiritual leader in the household and the wife is to submit to his godly leadership. Both are equal partners, who, together form the complete image of God. Homosexuality activity is unnatural according to God’s design and is defined by the sex of an individual at birth. Transgender or transsexual operations do not alter God’s intended creation.
Biblical support: Gen 1:27; Rom 1:26-27; Lev 18:22; 1 Cor 6:9-10; Heb 13:4; Eph 5:21-24; Eph 5:25-28; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20.
Human Dignity
Mankind was created in the image of God and every life has dignity and value before God. In the image of God, every person of every race is equal from God’s point of view, the Lord does not show favoritism. God desires everyone to come to repentance. Human dignity demands that God’s children care for the poor, the destitute, the widows, the orphans, those in prison, and anyone in need. The strong must take up the burdens of the weak so that the weak might be lifted up for God’s glory. The Lord will punish those who participate in human trafficking for he desires our sanctification and that everyone learns to control their bodies in ways that are holy and honorable.
Biblical support: Gen 1:27; Acts 10:34-35; 2 Pet 3:9; 1 Thess 4:3-7; James 1:27; Rom 15:1-2; Zech 7:10; Prov 22:16; Luke 12:7.
Marriage
Marriage is a covenant relationship between God and the one-flesh unity of one man and one woman, created in the image of God. It is an earthly example of the relationship that exists between Christ and His church. The purpose of marriage is two-fold: first, to complete the image of God in man, and second, for the purpose of procreation. Through the marriage covenant, a man and a woman are united in love as one flesh. The marriage bed must be kept pure. The husband is to his wife what Christ is to the church. He is to love her as his own body because through the marriage covenant, they are, in fact, one flesh.
Biblical support: Gen 1:27-28; Gen 2:24; Song of 8:6-7; Matt 19:4-6; Eph 4:2-3; Eph 5:25-33; Heb 13:4; 1 Tim 3:2.