What We Believe

1 – The Bible, in its original documents, is the inspired Word of God, the written record of His supernatural revelation of Himself to man, absolute in its authority, complete in its revelation, final in its content and without any errors in its statements.

2 – There is one God, eternally existent, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is manifested in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

3 – The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God who took on flesh and dwelt on earth. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, he was without sin, and he gave Himself as a substitutionary sacrifice by shedding His blood and dying on the cross. He then rose from the dead. This was to pay all sins (past, present, and future) of mankind, but only effective for those who believe.

4 – God is sovereign and in His sovereignty He gave man a free will to accept or reject the salvation that He has provided. It is God’s will that all would be saved and that none would perish. God permits man’s destiny to depend upon man’s choice.

5 – Each member of the human race is fallen, sinful, and lost. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential for salvation of man. The moment a person trusts in Christ as Savior, they are born again and immediately indwelled by the Holy Spirit whereby they are sealed until the day of redemption.

6 – Man is saved by grace (unmerited favor) through faith in Jesus Christ and nothing of man enters into his salvation. It is a free gift. Man’s efforts, regardless of how good or well-intended, before or after salvation, have nothing to do with it. Salvation is based on the finished work of Christ and nothing can be added to it.

7 – The Church is composed of all true believers. By the Holy Spirit we are all baptized into one body of Christ. Water baptism is not essential for salvation but is a testimony to the world. Water baptism is to be done by immersion to show the death, burial, and resurrection.

8 – Every child of God possesses eternal life, being justified by faith, sanctified by God, sealed with the Holy Spirit, and is safe and secure for all eternity. He cannot lose his salvation. However, a Christian can, through sin, lose his fellowship, joy, power, testimony, and reward and incur the Father’s chastisement.

9 – A child of God has two births—one of the flesh, the other of the Spirit—giving man a flesh nature and a Spirit nature. The flesh nature is neither good nor righteous. The Spiritual man does not commit any sin. This results in warfare between the Spirit and the flesh, which continues until physical death, or the return of the Lord. The flesh nature of man does not change in any way with the new birth, but it can be controlled and kept subdued by the new man.

10 – There will be a resurrection of the saved and of the lost: of the saved unto eternal life and of the lost unto eternal conscious punishment.

11 – The personal, pre‑tribulational, premillennial return of Jesus Christ for his own is an event known as the Rapture. This will be followed by a seven-year Tribulation period. The conclusion of the Tribulation is the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ which will introduce the millennial reign of Christ.

12 – Satan is a real person, the author of sin and he and his angels will be eternally punished.

13 – God can heal but physical healing is not in the atonement. God heals miraculously today when it is His perfect will to do so. Healing cannot be claimed through the guarantee of the atonement. At times it is God’s will for sickness not to be removed.

14 – The gift of tongues (languages) was a manifestation of the Spirit’s power solely for the demonstration of God’s wisdom, purpose and power in the establishment of the early church and always was in a language that was in use. Tongues fulfilled its purpose in the first century and ceased to be used before the completion of the New Testament.

​

15 – A child of God is not under the law but under grace—saved by grace and disciplined by grace.

16 – Repent (metanoeo) means a change of mind. Repentance in salvation means a change of mind from any idea of religion that man may have and to accept God’s way of salvation. It does not mean to “turn from sin,” and does not in any sense include a demand for a change of conduct before or after salvation. To insist on this is to add an element of works or human merit to faith. Penance is payment for sin. Penitence is sorrow for sin.

17 – The general plan of salvation in God’s Word in a brief outline that is believed and practiced by the Dayspring Baptist College is as follows:

• Establish the fact that all men are sinners. Isaiah 64:6, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, James 2:10.

• Establish the fact that the penalty of sin is death. Ezekiel 18:20, Romans 6:23.

• Establish the fact that you must be perfect to enter heaven. Habakkuk 1:13, Revelation 21:27.

• Establish the fact that man can do nothing to obtain this perfection. Romans 4:5, Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:8‑9.

• Show how God provided a sin‑bearer in the person of Jesus Christ and imputes to man His righteousness. Isaiah 53:6, II Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9, I Peter 3:18.

• Establish the fact that man needs only to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior for salvation. John 1:12, John 3:16, Acts 16:31.

• Establish the fact that man can be certain of his salvation now and that his salvation cannot be lost because eternal life is eternal. John 6:37 & 39, John 10:28, Hebrews 10:10‑14, I Peter 1:5.

​

18 – God has ordained marriage and all that pertains therein to be between a man and a woman.

19 – We believe the following regarding Genesis and creation:

• The first eleven chapters of Genesis are literally true and are the real history of the early Earth.

• The universe was created by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In its original state it was completely perfect. Because of the disobedience of the first humans, Adam and Eve (who were real, literal people created on the sixth day of Creation), all creation was sentenced by God to death and decay and eventual destruction. We reject all concepts of a pre-Adamic race as is taught by the “Gap Theory.”

• God created the universe by His spoken word in six literal twenty-four-hour days.

• In the young earth view supported by the genealogies and other references to time found in the Bible.

• That the biblical Flood of Noah’s day was a real, global event which was the result of the judgment of God on sinful mankind.

• That the Flood caused much of the observable geology of the Earth, including most of the fossil graveyards of untold numbers of plants and animals that are found worldwide.

• That Noah and his family survived the Flood and are the ancestors of all mankind now living. They spread over the face of the Earth after God confused their languages at the Tower of Babel.

​

20 – Dayspring Baptist College holds to the doctrines known as the Baptist Distinctives.

• The sole authority of Scripture.

• The autonomy of the local church.

• A regenerated church membership.

• The priesthood of all believers.

• The separation of church and state.

• Two ordinances for the local church:

  • Baptism by immersion of believers only.

  • The Lord’s Supper as a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice.

21 – Dayspring Baptist College does not accept the tenets of either Calvinism or Arminianism or any other man-made theology.