What We Believe

We see a community that honestly and humbly pursues Jesus Christ. We see a community where the emphasis is not on perfection, but on resting in and responding to Him by submission to the Holy Spirit. We see a place of refuge where people are not met with condemnation and judgment, but with compassion, empathy, and the message of salvation. This pursuit of Jesus and an authentic desire to be Christ-like will be a defining characteristic that motivates all our decisions.

We see Foothill Bible Church Elderwood as a humble, genuine, and authentic community, where religious pretenses are an awkward exception to the rule.

We see a community characterized by the leading of and bold obedience to the Holy Spirit, demonstrated by decisions and actions not based on human wisdom but on trust in God’s goodness, His Word, and His love.

We see a community where love and truth prevail; love that is founded in the reality of Jesus’ love, love that is based in the fact that while we were all sinners, Christ died for us. This is love that expects nothing, gives everything; harbors no evil or resentment, always forgives, and doesn’t keep an account of wrongs suffered. We see this love demonstrated by caring for, accepting, encouraging, and sharpening one another.

We see a community that rejoices in the biblical model of marriage, family, and gender identity. We see a community that celebrates the God-given roles for men and women through ministries that strengthen the family by encouraging men and women in their unique design and giftedness. We see a community of compassion and truth for those who struggle to comprehend these biblical truths amid the contradictory and false messages of culture. (Gen. 1:27; 2:18-25)

We see people growing in a passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ by being and making disciples by the power, and to the glory of God. We see a process that follows our mission statement of “Knowing, Serving, Sharing”. The process is outlined as: attending the worship service, committing to Sunday School, engaging deeply in an Acts 2 group and service, with the goal of multiplication and strengthening of the body of Christ.

Actively attend the worship service: This looks like drinking deeply in the opportunity to glorify and praise God in our worship time, as well as be equipped to live a life of worship after Sunday ends.

Engage in an Acts 2 Group: This looks like fully engaging in each of the five elements of an Acts 2 Group—fellowship, worship, Bible instruction, service, and outreach. The community and love that is to characterize the church is realized within a smaller group of believers. In addition to that, this context provides the opportunity to learn to walk with Jesus by following in His footsteps, namely, doing what He spent much of His time doing, ministry and outreach.

Multiply & Serve: This looks like sharing your faith and not only drawing people to eternal life in Jesus, but drawing them after you in a pursuit of Him. This often occurs through service to the Lord. The qualifying standard of a disciple of Jesus is that one makes disciples of Jesus.

We believe the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, to be the verbally inspired Word of God without error in the original writings. We believe they are the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men and for all Christian faith and life. The Bible is full and complete and is not to be added to nor be taken from.

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all having the same nature, attributes and perfection.

We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness, infinite in wisdom, measureless in power. All believers have free access to the Father through Jesus Christ who is the only Mediator between God and man. God has called all believers to do good works, not as the basis for but as the evidence of our salvation.

We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, the eternal and only begotten Son of God. We believe in the incarnation of Christ, being conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of virgin birth and sinless in his life. Being fully God and fully human, Christ made vicarious atonement for the sins of the world by his death on the cross. We believe in his bodily resurrection, the first fruits of the first resurrection, which thus guarantees the bodily resurrection of all believers. We believe in His ascension, His personal, premillennial, and imminent return for His church.

We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He indwells all believers. We believe that it is also His ministry to guide, instruct, and further empower the believer for godly living and service. We believe that the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of His gifts for the perfecting of the saints today. Every believer has been given a special gift at the time of conversion as listed in Romans 12:6-15. No single spiritual gift is required for all believers. (John 14:16-17 and 16:7-11; Titus 3:5; and Heb. 2:1-4)

We believe that man was created in the image of God and by the direct act of God. However, through Adam’s sin, man fell into sin and is therefore lost and in total depravity. We believe that only through the grace of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit can salvation and spiritual life be obtained. We believe that salvation is a sovereign act of God, and that once a person is truly saved, he is eternally saved, being kept by Jesus Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the reality of heaven, which is the eternal reward of the saved. We believe that Christ will come to receive unto Himself His bride, which includes all believers throughout the church age. We believe this will precede the great tribulation, subsequently followed by Christ’s establishment of his millennial kingdom on earth.

We believe in the reality of Hell and the Lake of Fire, which is the eternal punishment of the lost. The lost include all unsaved humanity, Satan, and all the fallen angels who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. We believe in the church, a living spiritual body of believers, of which Christ is the head and of which all regenerated people are members. We believe that a local church is a company of believers in Jesus Christ associated for worship, work, and fellowship.

We believe that the Lord established two ordinances for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. We believe God has laid upon the church the task of proclaiming to a lost world the need for acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and the enthroning of Him as Lord and Master.

We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life. (Ps 139.)

The following is an overview of principles stated in these chapters. This is not an exegetical study of the passage. There are volumes that do that hard work. Rather, this is a statement to guide the teaching of Foothill Bible Church Elderwood, whether from the pulpit in corporate worship or home Bible study groups sponsored by the church.

In discerning the source of ideas no one gifted by the Holy Spirit would say “Jesus is accursed.” In contrast, to state, “Jesus is Lord,” is the work of the Holy Spirit.

There is a variety of spiritual gifts but the Holy Spirit is the sole author. There is a variety of ministries fulfilling the Lord’s purposes. All expressions of the Spirit exist for the benefit of the body of Christ, the church. In 1 Corinthians 12:11, the Spirit distributes gifts as He wills.

Listed among spiritual gifts are those expressions considered as “sign gifts”. These are gifts that were given to the first apostles to authenticate the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. We teach that these special gifts (namely, miracles, tongues/interpretation, prophesy [predicting specific future events as in eschatological passages], command healing (such as Peter’s healing of the lame man at the temple), ended with the apostolic age. This is not to say God is no longer in doing the miraculous, but that individuals are not given permanent gifts in these categories as the apostles were gifted. The position paper on cessation addresses this. Charles Hodge quoted Chrysostom (349-407): “This whole passage is very obscure; but the obscurity arises from our ignorance of the facts described, which, though familiar to those to whom the apostle wrote, have ceased to occur.”

The apostle Paul specifically states not every believer is an apostle, prophet, teacher, worker of miracles, having gifts of healing, tongues, or interpretation of tongues. He then exhorts to “earnestly desire the greater gifts and segues to “a more excellent way.”

Chapter 13 is the critical conjunction of chapters 12 and 14. Love is to be the glue holding the multi-faceted body of believers together. To clarify the supremacy of love, he states prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will end, but love will not. The perfect will supersede the partial. What abides are faith, hope and love with love the greatest of the three.

Chapter 14 exhorts for the church (not individuals) to pursue the greater gifts; Specifically, those gifts that edify the church. Then follows the distinction of prophecy and tongues, the dominant discussion in today’s Protestant church. The gift to pursue is prophecy (also listed in Romans 12). There are two uses of this word. One is to predict specific events in the future. The other is to declare God’s Word, or give penetrating insight to the sins and errors of the church, calling believers to repentance. This latter is the dominant action of Old Testament prophets. The prophets did predict specifics of the coming of the Messiah and the end of history. They also accurately predicted specific judgment brought by invading nations. However, the bulk of the prophets’ writings were denouncing sin, and proclaiming the word of God, calling His people to repentance. It is this latter sense we understand prophecy in this chapter as the preferred gift to build up believers. We understand this to be expository preaching of the Bible “unfolding the mind of God and applying it to the daily struggles of life.”

“The prophet’s special gift was the edification, exhortation, consolation, and instruction of the local churches.” It was not to predict future events.

The passage then focuses on the gift of tongues. The word for tongue is the common Greek word for language. “The gift of tongues is the gift of supernaturally speaking languages never learned.” The passage indicates that tongues were used in addressing God, not the congregation/group (1 Cor. 14:14, prayer is not talking to people, but to God). Though the apostle said he spoke in tongues more than all of them, in the church he would only speak with intelligent (mind) language. The core issue addressed is the requirement for order and not chaos in the assembly of the church. The second primary concern is that the body of Christ is edified. If the congregation does not understand, they cannot benefit. Those are two controlling factors in this unique expression. A defined procedure is outlined for the leader responsible for the gathering should someone seek to demonstrate this expression. To protect the church from false tongues, another is to interpret. If such is not present, the speaker is to be silent for the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet (1 Cor. 14:32). Tongues, healings, miracles necessitated a degree of order to prevent indiscriminate use of these expressions, which are subject to abuse. There is also a restriction of women speaking in tongues or prophetically to the congregation.

There are four lists of gifts in the New Testament: Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12: 8-12; Ephesians 4:10-11; 1 Peter 4:11. Each one has different gifts mentioned, with some overlapping. It is therefore best to recognize that there are numerous gifts given to the church for its functioning and administration, with not one place in Scripture giving a list that is complete.

However, one can recognize three distinct categories of gifts in the church: sign, speaking and serving. The sign gifts had one function: they authenticated the teaching of the Apostles and were a sign to unbelieving Israel (2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:3-4; Mark 16:20; 1 Cor. 14:22). It is generally recognized that sign gifts include the spiritual gifts of tongues, prophecy, miracles, and healings. They were needed to authenticate the message of the Gospel and to establish the foundation of the church, a new religious category established by the Lord Jesus Christ. This was very important because before the New Testament was written, people had no standard for judging the truthfulness of someone who preached, taught, or witnessed in the name of Christ. Once the foundation of the church was laid, the primary focus of the gospel was no longer Israel, and the New Testament was in place, these sign gifts were no longer needed. As such, the sign gifts are also no longer seen as normative in the modern church. Speaking gifts include teaching, preaching, and exhortation. Serving gifts include all other gifts such as giving, mercy, gift of helps, administration, leading, etc. These last two categories are for the building up (edification) of the church (Eph. 4:11ff).

Once in place, there was no longer any need for laying the foundation (the doctrine laid down by Christ and the Apostles), nor was the Gospel particularly directed at Israel as a nation; it was for all ethnicities (Matt. 28:18-20).

The Church was in transition throughout the first century, first in building the foundation and then the “walls” of the Church (Eph. 2:20). The first focus was to reach out first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, or non-Jews (Acts 28: 28-29; Rom. 1:16-17). It is interesting to note that the list given in I Corinthians 12 was written first (about 54-55 A.D.) and is the only one that mentions the sign gifts. One must recognize as well the unique circumstances and cultural setting of the church in Corinth. Romans written 3 to 4 years later (57-58 A.D.) mentions none of the sign gifts. It seems even in the days that Paul wrote to Rome these sign gifts were phasing out (I Cor. 13:8).

Paul writing to the Ephesians (about 60 AD) gives lists of different types of leaders or offices in the church. The first two offices mentioned, Apostles and Prophets, were designed to establish and confirm God’s Word. They ceased to exist with the end of the apostolic age. These are capitalized to designate the unique roles these eye-witnesses of Christ had in establishing the Church. It is acknowledged that lower case apostle (meaning one sent into a cross-cultural setting to establish the church), prophet (meaning insightfully declaring the Word of God) continue to the present along with the evangelist and pastor-teacher. Peter writing in 64 A.D., only gives two broad categories of giftedness: speaking and serving.

It is also interesting to note that in I Corinthians 12, Paul uses the term, pneumatikos (lit. spirituals), to describe divinely-bestowed gifts mentioned in vv. 8-10. But in Romans 12, Paul uses the term charisma (gifts) which is from charis (grace). In I Corinthians, Paul emphasizes the nature and authority of gifts: spiritual endowments empowered by the Holy Spirit. In Romans, he simply emphasizes their source, the grace of God.

Lastly, one must think of why gifts were given: for the unity and the building up of the church (Rom. 12:3ff and I Cor. 12:4-11). Today, so called sign gifts do neither. Tongues specifically do not edify the church as Paul explains in I Corinthians 14, because they are by nature unintelligible and tongues were meant as a sign for unbelievers (specifically Jews who understood foreign speech as a message from God). Sign gifts when used today tend to puff up and promote divisiveness in the church rather than unity. Does that mean that God does not heal today (James 5:13-18 establishes prayer for the sick), or sometimes use another language through someone ministering on His behalf? No, it just means that when God does these things usually it is a one-time situation for a specific purpose, often to confirm His word among unbelievers. Speaking and serving gifts, on the other hand, are abilities that the believer has at their disposal to use at all times when yielded to God and are never taken away (Rom. 11:36). They are given by the Holy Spirit as He wills.

By Dr. Terry Mortenson

In the context, the word day in Genesis 1 refers to six 24-hour days. Every time it appears with “evening and morning” or with a number like “sixth day,” it refers to a 24-hour day.

Did God create the whole universe, including the original plants, animals, and first two people (Adam and Eve) in six literal 24-hour days? Or did creation take place over millions of years?

To answer that, we should remember that the original readers of Genesis were not scientists or Hebrew scholars. Rather, they were former slaves—mostly uneducated— on their way to the Promised Land. The fathers were commanded to teach their children (Deuteronomy 6:1–7), so the Hebrew language in Genesis 1 must have been very clear to the common people, even to children.

When we look carefully at Genesis 1, in Hebrew or even in English, it is clear that God created everything in six literal (24-hour) days. First, we are told that He created the earth in darkness and then created light. Then He called the light “day” and He called the darkness “night.” And then He said (in the original Hebrew) “and [there] was evening and [there] was morning, one day.” He repeated the same statement at the end of the second day through the sixth day.

Everywhere else in the Old Testament, when the Hebrew word for “day” (יוםֹ, yom) appears with “evening” or “morning” or is modified by a number (e.g., “sixth day” or “five days”), it always means a 24-hour day.

On Day Four God further showed that these were literal days by telling us the purpose for which He created the sun, moon, and stars—so we could tell time: literal years, literal seasons, and literal days.

Then in Exodus 20:8–11 God commanded the Israelites to work six literal “days” and rest on the seventh because He created in six “days” (using the same Hebrew word).

Furthermore, Jesus and the New Testament apostles read Genesis 1–11 as straightforward historical narrative. There are additional good scholarly reasons for coming to that conclusion.

There is no biblical or scientific reason to be ashamed of believing in a recent six-day creation. God has spoken clearly and truthfully. Will you trust His Word over the arrogant claims of sinful men?