What We Believe

The following doctrinal statement of faith dictates the teaching at Calvary Chapel of the Palouse:

We believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible and authoritative Word of God.  
2 Timothy 3:16-17 "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work."

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three distinct persons:
The Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.

We believe God the Father is an infinite, intament Spirit, who is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, justice, mercy, grace and love. That He is invested completely in the spiritual well being of His image bearers. That He is faithful and mighty to save, from sin and death, all who would come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God."

We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ as the visible image of the invisible God. Being both fully man and fully God. Conceived by the Spirit of God and born unto a virgin. That He performed many miracles, was tempted by satan in His humanity, yet lived a completely sinless life, making Him the spotless Lamb and wholly perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins of all humanity. That He took on the punishment for Himself that which we deserved and sacrificed Himself for us that we may be restored To God by faith in Him. We believe Jesus Christ died a literal death on the cross, was buried, and physically rose to life again victoriously conquering sin and death.
John 1:14  "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth."

We believe in the Holy Spirit. Who dwells in the hearts of the saints, that is those who are saved (John 14:17.) That He convicts the world of sin because they do not believe in Christ, righteousness because Jesus has gone to be with the Father and we no longer see Him, and judgement because the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:7-11.) We believe in the separate act of the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be a repetitive empowering act for service and ministry and not a continual one. We believe the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 are still dispersed to believers and fully functioning today in an orderly conduct.

We believe that humans were made in the image of God. That they are created male or female. That all humanity originated from Adam and Eve who were created on the sixth day of creation. We believe by one man (Adam), sin entered the world and corrupted all of creation bringing forth death, decay, and disease. That each human being, from the time of the fall, onward, is born into sin. That each person is responsible for their own sin, but that through repentance of sin and recognition of Christ as Lord and Savior, forgiveness, redemption, and salvation are available to all. At that moment a person becomes born again and is a new creation, being sealed by the Holy Spirit to spend eternity with God.

We believe it was always God's will for His image bearers to be in constant communion with Him. Still, when sin entered the world we were eternally separated from God. Thus, through His loving mercy and faithfulness, He had a plan to redeem His dearly loved creation and restore us back to Him through the perfect sacrifice of the only One worthy. Jesus Christ took our place and accepted the full wrath of God upon Himself that we could be saved and restored to God for eternity, just as it was always supposed to be. We believe every human has free will, making any love returned for God genuine and unforced.  We also believe that God, being omniscient, knows who will, and will not choose to return love for Him.

We believe in the universal body of believers to be the Church and the Bride of Christ. Of which He is the head and all born again believers are members of.
We believe that Christ committed two ordinances to the Church:
 1. baptism
2. communion
We believe that water baptism is a fully immersed outward proclamation of an inward faith to express to other witnesses that one has already decided, by their own free will, to follow Jesus.
We believe that the purpose of communion is to remember Jesus Christ's broken body and His shed blood on our behalf and that when we partake of communion we recognize and agree with this to be true.
We believe that both baptism and communion are open to all of those who place their faith and authority over their lives in Jesus Christ.

We believe that Jesus Christ died a literal death and rose back to literal life. That in doing so we too will be raised again with Him (Romans 6:5.)
We believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church where all of the saints who have passed away will be raised first, followed by the saints who are still alive. That Christ will return to earth with the Church to rule (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
We believe in the resurrection of the saved and unsaved. That those who are saved with be raised to eternal life, and those who are not saved will be raised to eternal condemnation (Revelation 20:11-15.)