Mission and Vision Statement

Membership Information Handbook | PDF File
Membership Response Booklet | PDF File

Mission: To glorify God by discipling believers and evangelizing the lost.

Vision: To equip succeeding generations, so that they may understand God more completely. To provide the tools to apply this knowledge in all areas of life more consistently and comprehensively, so that every member may develop “a wise and understanding heart” (1 Kings 3:12).

Far too many Christians are not even aware of the rich theological heritage that is theirs, because they have never been exposed to it! Tragically, because they lack the proper grounding in the truth, they are easily tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men. Free Grace Bible Chapel seeks to reestablish the historical, biblical moorings of the church, and to reintroduce our members to a comprehensive theological system of truth that will produce wisdom in their minds, godliness in their lives and unity to all reality.

The Historical Roots of the Protestant Church

We teach our members Reformational truth—how God used Martin Luther to herald the great Protestant Reformation, bringing the church out of fourteen hundred years of theological poverty and intellectual darkness. It was the first great doctrine of the Reformation that brought the church out of the Dark Ages: Sola Scriptura—the Latin phrase that means “By Scripture Alone.” When Martin Luther translated the Bible from Latin into German, he put the Scriptures into the hands of the common people, where before it had only been in the hands of the ecclesiastical elite, and thus Luther and the Reformers reintroduced the first principle of Christianity: the word of God alone is truth. Sola Scriptura extricated the church from the subjective opinions of men and the traditions of the church, and set them free to think biblically—and therefore, to think objectively. As Dr. John Robbins has so cogently noted, all of Western civilization sprang from that rich garden of objective truth. Sola Scriptura laid the foundation on which to build the church, the home—and from there, schools, businesses, and flourishing societies.

Free Grace Bible Chapel resonates to the Reformers’ cry of Sola Scriptura… and to the other great “Sola’s” that were reintroduced by the Reformers:

The five “Solas” were the five fingerprints of the Reformation, indelible marks of identity that distinguished historical, biblical Christianity from the pseudo-Christianity that had existed for century after dark century prior to the day of the Reformers.

We seek to build Free Grace Bible Chapel on the same foundation of solid rock. “We preach (Christ),” Paul wrote to the Colossians, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Free Grace Bible Chapel will equip the saints and help them to become mature believers in Christ. The local church is strong when it is being instructed in a comprehensive, self-consistent system of truth. Therefore, the preaching will begin with the first principle of Christianity—Sola Scriptura—and stress the last principle—Soli Deo Gloria! However, members will not be presented merely with these two vitally important bookends; they will come to a mature understanding of the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27) that lies between them, equipping every family to build a solid theological house that will weather any storm.

Where Free Grace Bible Chapel Came From

Free Grace Bible Chapel is a "Sovereign Grace Bible Church", these words are not selected glibly. The first word is "Sovereign". Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, reveals the irrefutable fact that God is a sovereign God. No thing and no one acts independently of the will of God. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things,” Paul wrote, “to whom be the glory forever” (Romans 11:36). Every sermon and every lesson is intended to exalt and magnify God as the Supreme Sovereign over His creation. We unflinchingly assert that man—and all his thoughts, actions, and choices—are foreordained under the absolute sovereignty of God. Not one bird falls to the ground apart from our Father’s will (Matthew 10:27)—could the events of history and the affairs of men be any less important to Him? “He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,” Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged in his inspired doxology to the Sovereign Lord. “No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” (Daniel 4:35).

However, the doctrine of God's sovereignty does not negate man's responsibility. It must be proclaimed that man is responsible for all his thoughts and deeds, because God is the sovereign Judge of all mankind. There is nothing in man that makes him independent of God. God is the only Being that is independent in His will, thoughts, and actions. Therefore, God's sovereignty is the theological fundamental that establishes man's responsibility. Because God has sovereignly written His law on man's heart and in His Word, man is responsible and accountable to God (Deuteronomy 29:29).

A philosophical starting point inevitably determines the end product. If the theological system of a church body begins with the autonomy of man, rather than the sovereignty of God, the end product is a very prideful Christian, who glories in his independence. At Free Grace Bible Chapel, man is dethroned, and the sovereignty of God is proclaimed and exalted.

Next, is “Grace”, because the biblical doctrine of man teaches that man is a slave to sin, and can do absolutely nothing to earn God’s favor. This gospel truth stands in opposition to man’s desire to offer his works in order to make himself pleasing to God. “And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.” (Romans 11:6). Grace completely rejects the works of man, and therefore God—and God alone—is glorified in His eternal plan of salvation (Sola Gratia, Soli Deo Gloria).

The next word is “Bible”. Scripture alone is the foundation for our faith and practice. No preacher or teacher has anything worthy to say, nor any authority to proclaim what is truth. We do not gather to listen to the philosophies of men; we assemble with eager anticipation to learn of God’s revelation to man, as expressed through Holy Scripture alone. There is no truth, no knowledge, and no understanding outside of Scripture. God has spoken, and we need to reason with our God (Isaiah 1:18) and strive to come to a deeper understanding of what He has revealed to us by His Spirit (Sola Scriptura).

The last word is “Church”. A church is something that the Lord has set about building. The true church does not represent a hierarchical, ecclesiastical body that allows membership on the basis of adherence to certain ecclesiastical traditions. One becomes a member of the universal church by faith in the Person and work of Christ alone (Solo Christos, Sola Fide). Through belief in Christ’s substitutionary death on the Cross, every believer becomes a king, a priest, a saint, and an ambassador of the living God. These are the appellations that are lavished on every member of the body of Christ.

Equipping the Saints for the Work of Ministry

The men, women, and children who come to Free Grace Bible Chapel will not merely hear interesting messages from powerful preachers; they will be discipled. They will grow and increase in the knowledge of God every Sunday. Every member will learn the complete system of thought to which our church ascribes, and this system of historical, biblical, Christian thought will be contrasted to the pseudo-Christian systems of thought that are promoted throughout the world.

Consequently, by studying and learning these theological treasures, every member will be equipped with the knowledge necessary for pulling down the Satanic and pagan strongholds that exist in American culture. They will learn to challenge these arguments and “cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” They will be grounded in a theological system that will enable them to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Members of Free Grace Bible Chapel will thus be equipped with “the whole armor of God,” that is, “the whole counsel of God,” enabling them “to stand against the wiles of the devil,” and “to withstand in the evil day” (Ephesians 6:11-12). The primary weapon for demolishing strongholds will be the strength of Christian thought, not political activism.

The first application for this knowledge, of course, is in the home, where husbands and wives will love one another and build each other up. Homes and marriages will exemplify Christian holiness; the problems of addictions, sexual immorality, and debt that plague so many homes will be confronted with solid biblical answers. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness,” Peter wrote, “through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4, NIV).

Free Grace Bible Chapel will not simply be a group of good friends; the church is not to be a social club. While there will be true Christian love among the membership, our raison d’etre is to gird every man, woman, and child with a mature understanding of Christ and of God. A member who has attended Free Grace Bible Chapel for five years will be more firmly grounded in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ than most seminary graduates. The church will be a hotbed of learning, theological discovery, and biblical wisdom.

God has called us to a disciplined life, where we make time for Bible study, prayer, witnessing, and attending a biblically sound church. Paul compared the Christian life to running a race, and noted that “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25, NASB). We have been called to run a disciplined race—to discipline our minds and our bodies and bring them under subjection to our Master.

The author of Hebrews admonished the Christian church, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14). Members of Free Grace Bible Chapel will have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. As Aquilla and Priscilla took in Apollos and helped him to think more maturely, we will wean believers from the milk diet they have grown accustomed to, and teach them to exercise their minds by reason of use. This kind of maturity will be evidenced when people are shepherded by pastors who exegete God’s Word every Sunday, giving solid, expository preaching—verse-by-verse and book-by-book through the Scriptures—and teaching from a complete, self-consistent system of theology.

Then you have a body of believers that is equipped to obey the two greatest commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… [and to] love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31). Furthermore you have an assembly of Christians that are properly prepared and equipped to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-19), which calls for a balance of evangelism and discipleship.

A Glimpse into the Future:

Clark's Christian Academy; Clark's Bible College; Logos Theological Seminary; The Christian Leadership and Conference Center

Free Grace Bible Chapel will provide the foundation for a Christian day school called Clark's Christian Academy. As our membership grows, we will build a Christian liberal arts college/university, a seminary, and a leadership/conference center.

The early colleges that were formed in America were founded on the tradition of the Reformation; the focus was on truth. These universities were formed not to educate men and women for one particular vocation, but to prepare them for all vocations. The pioneers of American education understood that the most important passage of Scripture regarding education is 2 Timothy 3:16-17—“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

However, as vitally important as the Reformation was, succeeding generations did not continue to take the truth of God’s Word out into every area of life. While the Reformers labored mightily to develop sound doctrine and instruction in righteousness, their posterity has not fully applied the Scriptures to every area of life, such as economics, aesthetics, business, etc. The Reformation needed continued development; it needed a philosopher who would provide a unified philosophy of education. The one person, in our opinion, who has begun this work was a modern-day reformer—Dr. Gordon Clark. We believe that Dr. Clark was the greatest theologian and philosopher that America has ever produced.

Clark's Christian Academy will take the fifty books that Dr. Clark wrote; books that present a self-consistent, unified, comprehensive philosophy of theology and education—and introduce them to the world, in order that a new generation of leaders may utilize and further apply Dr. Clark's theological concepts.

Because of Clark’s emphasis on reason and truth the textbook our students will be exposed to—beginning in kindergarten and continuing through the university level—over all textbooks, will be the Bible. All other texts will be subsumed under the Word of God. There will not be the integration of psychology and the Word, no integration of science and the Word, nor of inductive reasoning and the Word. All these disciplines are tremendously useful, but they do not offer truth—merely information, observations, and opinions. The end products are information, not knowledge.

The source of knowledge for the church and the schools will be God's verbal revelation, not observation. Our method will be deduction, not induction. There will not be a search for truth, but rather the exercise of deducing all knowledge from God’s truth.

Because Dr. Clark placed such great emphasis on man being the image of God, and that image being reason, he wrote a textbook on the discipline of logic. America’s students are not taught how to think they are only taught what to think. Today, we see examples of faulty reasoning in every academic field—indeed, we see illogical deductions in every area of life. One could earn a PhD at any of America’s major universities without ever having studied even one introductory course in logic. Therefore, all our students will complete a course in logic every year, from kindergarten all the way through to graduation from the university and/or seminary.

The course curriculum will present a complete system of thought, and, as with logic, all the six areas of human development (mental, physical, spiritual, social, financial, and emotional) will be taught to students at every grade level. Beginning at the elementary school level, students will learn Latin and Greek vocabulary. Seventy per cent of our English language is derived from these two languages, and this field of study will greatly increase the students’ vocabulary. In addition, elementary school students in the South Florida area will learn conversational Spanish, enabling them to greet many of their neighbors in their native language and to share the truth of Christ’s atoning death with them.

At the high school level students will add the study of French and German to their curriculum because so many of the great theologians of past centuries wrote in these languages. Graduating seniors will have been required to complete each one of Gordon Clark’s fifty books. The students at Clark’s Academy will learn to read, to communicate, to understand, and to persuade as well as the most erudite philosopher.

One of the major themes that the school will teach is that no subject is to be studied in isolation. At both the elementary and high school levels, all the subjects will be unified, because there will be an interdisciplinary understanding of how all subjects are unified under one, comprehensive system of truth—namely God’s Word. The physics teacher will explain how her class integrates with history; the history teacher will demonstrate how his class is integrated and interrelated to English; the biology teacher will show how her discipline is interrelated to economics. Students will attend forums where the individual teachers will discuss the interrelationships of their respective courses. And, as Gordon Clark wrote, students will actually observe the expansion of the curriculum, because they will learn to see that all of reality is interconnected, and that truth is one system of thought, which is the mind of God. All of Scripture—all truth—is a unified, interconnected, interdependent system and the students will learn to love searching out and discovering these interrelationships. Until we do that, we will never understand the meaning of the parts, for the parts are explained by the whole. The more connections we are able to make with the whole, the greater will be our understanding of the parts.

The school will equip young men and women to live balanced lives; to see all of life as a whole; to view life through the lens of truth, with a biblical view of both God and man; and to understand that man’s purpose is to glorify God in everything he does. Man’s mind is to be used to think the knowledge of truth.

Clark's Bible College and Logos Theological Seminary will train men and women to think biblically and to reject the neo-orthodoxy that has infected so many seminaries and Bible colleges throughout America. There will be an emphasis on Biblical theology and systematic theology, as well as on the fundamentals of sound expository preaching. The ten doctrines of systematic theology would be taught under one, unified, hermeneutical system of thought that magnifies the sovereignty of God, and not the autonomy of man. These doctrines are:

• Bibliology—the doctrines of the Bible
• Theology proper—the doctrine of God
• Christology—the doctrine of Christ
• Pneumatology—the doctrine of the Spirit
• Angelology—the doctrine of fallen and unfallen angels
• Anthropology—the doctrine of man
• Hamartiology—the doctrine of sin
• Soteriology—the doctrine of salvation
• Ecclesiology—the doctrine of the church
• Eschatology—the doctrine of the last things

In addition to these studies, our graduates will be richly equipped to understand and apply the seven theological fundamentals: Biblical Theology, Systematic Theology, Logic, Hermeneutics, Philosophy, Biblical Languages, and History. They will be thoroughly equipped for sound exegesis of every book of the Bible in order to share the gospel effectively, to disciple the saints and to serve in ministering to the world God has created. The focus for study will not be on one subject or doctrine, such as prophecy, health-and-wealth, or political activism. The emphasis at Clark’s Theological Seminary will be on heralding the whole counsel of God—the totality of God’s revelation to man—so that each young pastor or missionary who graduates from the seminary will truly be “a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).

The Christian Leadership and Conference Center will train pastors, business leaders and servants of the Lord in all aspects of a unified comprehensive system of thought that continually exalts God as the supreme Ruler over His creation. This Leadership Center will provide a theological foundation of leading edge scholarship and research that will take God's Word and apply it in all areas of life. This will be the biblically based think tank for equipping our Christian leaders to help us as we grow and live productive, excellent, and godly lives.

Gordon Clark wrote:
Christian civilization and Christian culture are disappearing. Large groups of earnest orthodox Christians are totally unaware of the rich heritage that is theirs; they are as babes drinking milk, and they need strong milk for maturity. They believe the fundamentals, they preach the heart of the Gospel, and souls are saved through their instrumentality. We praise God for that. But they are not completely furnished unto every good work. A system of Christian schools will give us knowledge of Christianity as it embraces the whole of life, and will produce a complete Christian culture for a complete man.”

The mission and vision for Free Grace Bible Chapel is to build such a school system, established on the solid foundation of a church which grounds all it’s members in the truth of Scripture—teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that every member is thoroughly equipped for every good work.

What can you do to help?
1. Pray for our efforts to bring about the fulfillment of our mission and vision.
2. Tell others about the mission and vision of Free Grace Bible Chapel.
3. Support this ministry both with your consistent presence and financial giving.

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