Statements of Beliefs

This statement of faith is intended to help the IBC be a gospel-centered church, able to effectively minister to the world that is in Boston.

The Bible - The Bible is the record of God’s Plan of Salvation.

We believe in the verbal inspiration by God of the entire Bible, as contained in the original manuscripts of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, and that the original manuscripts are trustworthy and without error.

God — God, as Trinity, is the origin of all relationships, and is the One who seeks to restore the relationship between Himself and people.

We believe the one true and living God is Trinity. He is one in essence, but with three eternal, personal distinctions. These are revealed to us as Father, Son (Jesus Christ) and Holy Spirit, who are equal in every divine perfection. They perform distinct roles, yet consistently work together in perfect relationship.

God is the creator of all things, and created people in His image to have fellowship with Him. Because of sin, the perfect relationship between God and man was broken. But God is seeking to restore the relationship through the work of the Trinity.

The Father — Within the Trinity, the Father is the leader in restoring the broken relationship between people and God.

We believe that the Father is the head of the Trinity. As the Father, God has a special relationship with the Son, with the Holy Spirit, and with humanity. The Father sent His unique Son to be the Savior of the world. The Holy Spirit, with His life-giving ministries, is said to proceed from the Father. While God is the creator of all humanity, He is the personal Father to those who believe in Him and in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why we address God as “Father” in our prayers.

Jesus Christ — Jesus brought salvation to people by dying and then being raised from the dead.

We believe that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, has always existed. His human body was supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit and born in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary. He is one Person possessing two natures, and so He is both fully God and fully man at the same time. Because of this, He lived a sinless life and was able to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice. He died in our place, taking the punishment for our sins. He then physically came back to life, and went back up into Heaven. There He is seated on the right hand of God, appealing to God on behalf of those who believe in Him. He will return to the earth one day, in keeping with His promises.

The Holy Spirit — The Spirit is the giver of salvation who draws men back to God.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. He has been and will continue to be active throughout eternity. He inspired the writing of the Bible. Today, the Holy Spirit is in the world convincing people of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He is also calling out a people for God from among all people groups.

He regenerates those who believe, places them into the body of Christ, lives within them, and produces in them the fruit of the Spirit. He calls individuals believers to Christian service, and helps and guides them in that service. Although, by the time the New Testament Scriptures were written the revelatory (sign) gifts had ceased, the Holy Spirit continues to supernaturally gift believers for the building up of the body of Christ (the church).

Creation — God created all things in order to extend His life and love to the people He created.

We accept the Genesis account as being an historical record — that God created all things and that originally He created all things as good. We believe that God made all things in six literal days. Creation was meant to show the glory of God and to be a blessing to the creatures God created.

The Spirit Realm — Angels are beings created by God who try to either help or prevent the salvation of man.

We believe that God created an innumerable company of spirit beings known as angels. Many of these angels continue in their holy state and are the ministers of God. However, Lucifer (now known as Satan, the Devil or the Evil One) and many other angels rebelled against God. These fallen angels still continue to oppose God and His work of redemption, even though Jesus’ death and resurrection will ultimately lead to their defeat.

Man — Man, created in God’s image, is the central focus of God’s salvation.

We believe that man was created in the image of God. In the beginning, Adam, the first man, enjoyed a perfect relationship with his Creator. However, Adam chose to disobey God. Because of his disobedience, Adam’s relationship with God was broken, and he came under the sentence of death.

Because of the unity of the human race, and because all people are physically descended from Adam, everyone (with the exception of Jesus Christ) is born with an inclination toward sin. This sinful disposition, or nature, has caused each of us to disobey and dishonor God. Because of this, we all deserve the consequences of sin: physical death, separation from God, broken relationships with other people, and personal, psychological problems. However, since people are made in the image of God, we remain valuable to God. While there is nothing anyone can do to earn salvation, God’s work throughout history has been to provide salvation to all people by restoring the broken relationships between God and man.

Sin — Sin has broken our relationship with God.

We believe that every person sins. Sin is any action, thought or motive that goes against the moral character of God. We believe that sin entered history when Lucifer rebelled against God. Sin entered human history when Eve, Adam’s wife, followed the advice of the Evil One, and she and Adam disobeyed God. As a result of their sin, mankind’s relationship with God was broken. Throughout all of history, all of the problems and tragedies of the world are a result of this first sin. This is why we need the gospel — to fix our relationship with God.

Salvation — The gospel, accepted by grace through faith, is the only way of salvation.

Salvation is the complete restoration, or repairing, of the relationship between God and man. Grace is the unmerited, or undeserved, gift of God. We believe that salvation is only possible by the grace of God, through the death of Jesus Christ.

Because God is righteous, He requires that sin must be punished. Jesus fulfilled this requirement by dying in our place. He took the penalty of death that we deserved, completely paying the price for our sins. When we trust that Jesus died for us, God declares that we are righteous, Jesus covers us with His righteousness, and our relationship with God is restored. Even though we still sin, God will never punish us for our sins, because of the work of Christ on our behalf. As Christians, our relationship with God is eternally secure and can never be broken again. However, God continues to work in the lives of Christians to change them, over time, to be more like Jesus Christ.

Salvation is made effective to us only when we place our personal faith in Jesus Christ. Salvation is not something we can earn through doing good things, but is possible only by the grace of God.

Sanctification — God is at work in the lives of Christians, helping each of them to grow into an abundant and worthwhile life.

We believe that there is a progressive, or ongoing, sanctification, which allows Christians to become and act more like Christ. Just as we are saved through our faith and trust in Christ, we are also being conformed, or changed, by our faith and trust into the image of Christ. As we obey God and allow the Holy Spirit to work within us, He will help us to live our lives the way that God intends us to as Christians.

When Christ returns for His Church, each Christian will be fully and finally sanctified. Throughout eternity, every aspect of our lives will be in perfect relationship with God. Dispensations — Understanding God’s instructions for this age enables us to effectively proclaim the gospel.

Dispensations are periods of time in which God gives people certain responsibilities. These responsibilities are intended to help man in his relationships with God and God’s creation. We believe that God uses the dispensations to bring about His ultimate purpose on earth — the removal of sin and death, and the restoration of all things. Dispensations are not ways of salvation. Salvation has always been by grace through faith.

Although several dispensations cover the entire history of mankind, only three of these (Israel and the Old Testament Law, the current Church age, and a future 1,000-year kingdom) are thoroughly covered in the Bible. Understanding the unique nature of the Church age, in which God is using individual churches to spread the gospel to the world, enables Christians to be effective gospel witnesses.

The Church — The Church acts as God’s ambassador of salvation to all people.

We believe that the Church is a living body, established by Christ, in which Christians may become all that God desires them to be. As Christians grow and mature spiritually, the Church itself also is unified, built up and matured. In this way, both Christians and the Church are perfected together.

There is both a universal and individual aspect to the Church. The Universal Church is made up of all those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior during this Church-age dispensation. The Church will continue to grow and expand, as people become Christians, until Jesus Christ draws all believers to Himself, which happens at the end of the Church age. We believe that individual churches are gatherings of believers who desire to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Churches are organized for the purposes of united worship, fellowship, administration of the ordinances (baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper), edification, discipline, and effective promotion of the work of Christ throughout the world. Within each church, Christ is the supreme Head. Each member has direct access to God, and has the ability and responsibility to seek His will. God has established the offices of pastor and deacon to provide oversight and care for the church. Since every Christian has direct access to God, and has the privilege to seek His will, the business of the church is decided by the entire membership of the church. Each individual church is directly responsible to Christ. Although there is great value in fellowship and cooperation with other churches of similar/like convictions, we believe that churches should not limit their ability to share the life of Christ by ministering with those who are compromising gospel-centered truth.

When disputes arise between believers within an individual church, we do not believe that matters should be taken to civil court. Disputes should be settled within the church, as all believers in Christ are brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The Family — God has designed the family to provide humanity with its most important loving and nurturing relationships.

We believe that God as Trinity created the family as a primary way of communicating His goodness, and in order to provide caring and nurturing relationships. God designed the family based upon the marriage of one man to one woman. Sexual activity outside of a publicly recognized, biblically defined marriage is in violation of God’s will. Children are a good and natural result of a loving relationship between a married man and woman, with marriage providing a safe and stable relationship in which children may be raised in the nurture and discipline of the Lord. Both the family and the church, as the family of God, are to protect children from physical or sexual abuse.

Civil Government — Christians cooperate with civil government for the purpose of caring for the needs of people.

We believe that God gave us civil government in order to ensure a just and fair society. Therefore, it is important for Christians to interact with government and to submit to all civil authorities. God has directed that individual churches be a blessing to the world, and so churches should cooperate with civil authorities as they both work for the good of people. However, civil government should not take over the God-given role of the church.

The Future — Christians will never be judged for their sins, and will experience the fullness of their salvation in the Kingdom.

We believe that the Bible explains what will happen in the future. These future events include the Rapture (when all the Church will be gathered together to be with Jesus Christ), followed by the Tribulation (a time of God’s judgment on the world), the Kingdom (the literal one thousand-year rule of Jesus Christ on earth), and finally the Eternal State (when God’s children will live forever with Him, and nonbelievers will spend eternity apart from God). For Christians, the historical account of God and His relationship with man will end where it began: the perfect relationship between God and man is permanently restored and the curse of sin is removed forever. However, the unbelieving of all ages will suffer eternal punishment.