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Resolution on the Scriptures Plainly Understood

The messengers of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, meeting together in regular conference June 22–26, 2009, at First Baptist Church in Elyria, Ohio,

Recognizing that God has revealed Himself through creation (Psalm 19:1–6; Romans 1:18–32), His Son (John 1:14–18; 3:2; 14:9; Romans 5:8; Hebrews 1:1–3), and the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:19–21), which consist of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments,

Believing that the Scriptures, as originally written, were verbally and plenarily inspired so that they are infallible and inerrant in all matters of which they speak; that the Scriptures are our authority; that we hold them to be the supreme standard by which all human opinions, actions, and creeds should be evaluated; that the Scriptures are all-sufficient to accomplish God’s purposes for them in our lives and ministries; and that they are the true center of Christian unity,

Affirming that God moved the human writers of the sacred texts to write His Word in the human languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek; that God used human languages to communicate with human beings; that God did not intend for the Scriptures to confuse people or to confound them but to communicate His message to them; that sometimes God directed the human writers to include figures of speech; and that these inclusions are a legitimate means of conveying meaning,

Emphasizing that God gave His Word so that it might be understood, we

Study the Bible so that we might arrive at its “plain” or “normal” sense;

Interpret the Scriptures grammatically, historically, and contextually, taking care to compare Scripture with Scripture;

Reject the role of individual interpreters who try to find their own personal meanings in the texts of Scripture;

Emphasize that the Scriptures are God’s Word, demanding the goal of interpretive objectivity;

Teach that Bible prophecies will yet be fulfilled, just as Old Testament prophecies concerning the ancient nation of Israel and the prophecies concerning the first earthly ministry of the Messiah were fulfilled as might normally be expected;

Anticipate a pretribulational rapture of the church and premillennial return of Christ, so that He might rule over all the earth from the throne of David in Jerusalem;

Observe a distinction between God’s dealings with ethnic Israel and His dealings with the Church;

Affirm the everlasting blessedness of the saved and the everlasting, conscious, physical suffering of the lost;

Thank our great and loving God for His written revelation to us and for His Holy Spirit who helps believers to understand the truth of His Word;

Commit ourselves to diligence and carefulness in the study of the Scriptures, in the original languages and in translation, and to the investigation of the historical and cultural backgrounds of the Bible;

Preach and teach with Scriptural accuracy and confidence, applying the truth of God’s Word to our lives and to the lives of those whom we serve.

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