Core Beliefs
The Brook Ministries holds to the full doctrinal statement below; however, partners in ministry need only agree with these seven essentials:
- the Trinity
- the full deity and humanity of Christ
- the spiritual lostness of the human race
- the substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Christ
- salvation by faith alone in Christ alone
- the physical return of Christ
- the authority and inerrancy of Scripture.
Full Doctrinal Statement
Authority of Scripture
We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as verbally inspired of God and without error in the original writings. The Scriptures are authoritative and without error in any category of knowledge and are the final authority in all matters about which they speak. The Scriptures are to be interpreted in a normal and literal way, and are understood as the believer is guided by the Spirit of God.[i]
The Trinity
We believe in one God eternally existing in three equal persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.[ii]
Pre-eminence of Jesus Christ
We believe that God the Son became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, who was begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is true God and true man.[iii]
Atonement
We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins as a substitutionary sacrifice and that all who believe in Him are declared righteous on the basis of His shed blood.[iv]
Resurrection
We believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there for us. Jesus now serves as high priest, intercessor, and advocate on our behalf with the Father.[v]
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a person and is God, possessing all the distinctively divine attributes. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He regenerates, seals, and sets apart the believer to a holy life. He baptizes the believer into the body of Christ and indwells him permanently.[vi]
Sin
We believe that the first man sinned and consequently experienced not only physical death but also spiritual death (which is separation from God), and thus cast the entire human race into sin. All human beings are born with a sinful nature, and in the case of those who reach moral responsibility, become sinners in thought, word, and deed.[vii]
Salvation
We believe that whoever by faith receives Jesus Christ as his Savior becomes a child of God. This salvation is not the result of any human effort or merit.[viii]
Eternal Security
We believe that all true believers are kept eternally secure by the power of God through the new birth, the indwelling and sealing of the Holy Spirit, and the intercession of Christ.[ix]
Victory
We believe that all believers still possess a sinful nature in this life, but that God has made full provision for believers to overcome this sinful nature and to live for God through identification with Christ, a knowledge of the Scriptures, and by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.[x]
The Church
We believe that the church in its invisible form is universal, the true body of Christ. All believers from the day of Pentecost until the church is caught up to heaven are members of the universal church regardless of organizational affiliation. We believe that Christ ordained the observance of water baptism and the Lord’s Supper until He returns.[xi]
Bodily Resurrection
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men. Believers are resurrected to enjoy life with God. Unbelievers are resurrected to experience judgment and then eternal suffering apart from God.[xii]
Satan
We believe in the reality and personality of Satan, and that he attempts to defeat Christians. However, we believe Christians can overcome Satan’s schemes by applying Scriptural truth.[xiii]
The Return of Christ
We believe in the imminent, pretribulational, personal return of Christ for the church. All members of the body of Christ, living and dead, will at that time be caught up to be with the Lord forever.[xiv]
Eschatology
We believe in the personal, bodily, visible, and premillennial return of Jesus Christ in the glory of His Father to set up on the earth a kingdom in which He shall reign in righteousness and peace.[xv]
[i] John 10:35; Matt. 5:18; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Tim. 5:18; 1 Cor. 2:14-16; John 16:12-15
[ii] John 6:27; Heb.1:8; Acts 5:3,4; Deut. 6:4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Matt 28:19; Is. 48:16
[iii] John 1:14; Matt. 1:18-25; Matt. 26:38; John 11:33; John 8:40; Heb. 1:8; Heb. 2:14
[iv] 2 Cor. 5:14; Mark 10:45; Rom. 3:24-26; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 5:8-9
[v] Rom. 1:4; John 20:25-27; I John 2:1; Heb. 7:25; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11
[vi] 2 Cor. 2:10, 11; 12:11; Is. 40:13, 14; Ps. 139:7; Titus 3:5; John 3:5-7; 14:16-17; 16:8; Eph. 1:13; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9
[vii] Gen. 1:26,27; 2:17, 3:6; Rom. 5:12-19; Eph. 2:1-3, 4:18; Mark 7:20-23; John 2:24,25
[viii] John 1:12; Eph. 2:8,9; Rom. 3:28
[ix] John 10:28-30; 14:16,17; 1 Pet. 2:23; Eph. 4:30; 1 John 2:1; Rom. 8:38-39
[x] Rom. 7:15-21; 6:1-11; 8:11-13; Eph. 2:10
[xi] Col. 1:18; Eph. 4:4-6; Acts 1:5, 11:15,16; 1 Cor. 12:13, 11:24-26; 1 Thess. 4:13-17; Matt. 16:18, 28:19
[xii] 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 20:4-6; John 5:28-29; Dan. 12:2; Rev. 21:1-8
[xiii] Eph. 6:10-19; Luke 10:18; Job 1:6-12; John 8:44
[xiv] 1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-53; Titus 2:13
[xv] Acts 1:11; Matt. 24:30; Rev. 20:4-6; Is. 9:6-7; Is. 11:2-5