Beliefs

Calvary Southbury is a place where Jesus is made known, people are being transformed and all are loved. You’ve heard that. But you might also be wondering what we teach and believe. Good for you! Below you will find our positions on major points of doctrine. If you have any questions, feel free to email us.

We believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant, infallible, inspired Word of the Living God and that it is our final written authority in all matters of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16).

We believe that God is the personal, transcendent, and sovereign Creator of all things, eternally existent in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Romans 1:4, Galatians 4:6).

God is a person, eternally existing in three persons, one God as a Tri-Unity, or Trinity. Each of His persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) are distinct, yet co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal. God is omnipresent (everywhere), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipotent (able to do everything according to His divine will). (Galatians 4:6).

Jesus Christ, eternally existing, is the only begotten Son of God. He was born on earth of a virgin and lived a sinless life. He fulfilled all prophesies concerning the birth, life, and death of the Jewish Messiah including His crucifixion on a Roman cross, becoming the ultimate sacrificial Lamb of God.

He arose from the dead three days later, which was the Resurrection. He ascended back to Heaven, to the right hand of the Father, and lives eternally to make intercession for us. We believe in the personal, visible, and pre-millennial second coming of Jesus Christ to the Earth. He will return with His saints and set up a kingdom to which there will be no end.

Jesus Christ is called Lord, Redeemer, Lamb of God, Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, the First-born from the dead, the Alpha and Omega, Bread of Life, Living Water, Creator of the Universe, mankind’s Savior, fully God, and fully man (Revelation 1:6, Hebrews 1:8-9, Psalm 2:7).

The Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal to God the Father and God the Son and of the same substance and nature. He convicts mankind of sin, and He bears witness to the Truth. He is an agent of the “new birth” (John 3) where He seals, adopts, sanctifies, comforts, helps, guides, and teaches those who believe in God the Father and Jesus Christ. He imparts spiritual gifts to believers, witnesses to unbelievers, and indwells forever in every true Child of God (1 Corinthians 12:4-11, John 16:7-15 & Ephesians 1:13-14).

We believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures and that they are valid in the body today if exercised within Scriptural guidelines. Believers are to use the gifts that are given by the Spirit to edify the Body of Christ.

Christian baptism, according to the Bible, is an outward testimony of what has occurred inwardly in a believer’s life. Christian baptism illustrates a believer’s identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The act of being immersed in water represents being buried with Christ, while being lifted from the water identifies with Christ’s resurrection (Matthew 3:16).

The Bible says specifically, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised form the death through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:3-4).

Our services are designed with great emphasis on the Biblical teaching that God will instruct us as to how He should be worshiped (Psalm 5:7, John 4:23-24 & 2 Timothy 3:16-17). We believe that worship of God should be:

Spiritual, therefore we remain flexible and yielded to the Holy Spirit to direct our worship.
Inspirational, therefore we give great place to music in our worship.
Intelligent, therefore we seek the Word of God for instruction.
Fruitful, therefore we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation of our true worship.

Jesus commanded us to preach His life, death, and resurrection to the entire world, and we believe that this is an obligation shared by all believers today (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8).

According to Scripture, all people are by nature separated from God by sin and the cost of such sin is ultimately death. We believe, however, that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all to obliterate this separation by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

When a person repents of sin and accepts Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, trusting in Him alone to save them, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit. All of his or her sins are forgiven, and they become a child of God destined to spend eternity with the Lord in His kingdom. (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:8-9).