The Doctrinal Statement of
Friday Night LYH

We teach that the Bible consists of sixty-six books, the Old and New Testaments, all of which are dually authored, written by men with distinct human personalities, styles, and contexts who were fully guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit. We teach the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture, that the entire Bible (plenary) and every single word within it (verbal) are directly inspired by God.

We teach that Scripture is true, infallible, inerrant, everlasting, and contains the standard by which Christians should conduct their lives.

We teach the literal (not excluding allegory or other literary devices, but correctly identifying these and understanding them according to the normal rules of the text's literary genre), historical, grammatical interpretation of Scripture. While there may be multiple applications of a passage in Scripture, there is but one true interpretation.

We believe the teaching of Scripture to be a most serious endeavor. Because of this, we believe teachers and leaders of the Word are judged more strictly, more is required of them, and they should hold themselves to a higher standard.

God created human beings, both male and female, in His own image, to have fellowship with Him. But through the disobedience of one man, Adam, their relationship with God became separated and sin entered the world, bringing the consequence of death. This caused mankind to inherit a sinful nature, everyone born after Adam being born into a sinful state. As a result, man is unable to restore this relationship and attain a right standing before God through his own efforts. Thus, all men everywhere are separated from God, face the judgment of God, and are in need of a Savior for payment of their sin.

Man's needed Savior is Jesus Christ, the sole bridge between a sinful humanity and God. Through Him salvation is made possible by the shedding of His blood on the cross, offering forgiveness of sins. Salvation is a gift of God, because of His mercy, accomplished by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Salvation happens when, by the power of the Holy Spirit through the conviction of sin, a person's heart is turned from sin towards the Lord Jesus Christ, believing that Christ is Lord and that His death and resurrection provide full payment for their sin. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. When you place your faith in Christ, God credits your sin to Christ, which has been paid for on the cross, and credits Christ's righteousness to you. In this way, your standing and relationship with God are fully restored and you are saved from the power and penalty of sin.

Security of Salvation

We teach that all believers, once saved, are protected by the power of God and eternally secure in Christ and that those who once professed faith but then denied the Lord were never truly saved to begin with.

People will exist forever. Those whose relationship with God has been restored through faith in Jesus Christ will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Those who have not believed in Jesus Christ and remain separated from God will face eternal punishment in hell.

God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three Persons are God, equal, and share one name.

God the Father is first Person of the Trinity, the Father of the only-begotten Son, the eternal, self-existent, personal Spirit, the all-knowing, all-powerful, Sovereign Creator, Author, and Sustainer of all things. He is Infinite Perfection, Holiness, Justice, Mercy, Truth, Grace, Peace, Patience, and Love. He is forever faithful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, the righteous Judge of all the earth, and the giver of life. All things exist for His glory and according to His eternal purpose. He is the source of salvation, made available through Jesus Christ. Anything worth seeking in life is found in Him.

The Son, Jesus Christ, is fully God, just like the Father. Within the Trinity, the Son willingly carries out the Father's plan, revealing the Father, dying, rising, redeeming humanity, and initiating the sending of the Holy Spirit to believers. We teach the harmonious dual nature of Christ, that He is both fully divine (completely God) and fully human, existing eternally with God the Father. Jesus Christ is one divine person, however, His divine nature has a divine will, and His human nature has a human will, and He is sinless in both natures. While these two wills are distinct, they exist in perfect harmony, with His human will always acting in total alignment with His divine will and the Father's purpose. The Son submits to the Father in role and mission, but remains equal in essence and glory. Unlike all people, the Son lived a perfect, sinless life, being the perfect sacrifice necessary to pay for our sins and restore our relationship with God the Father. The Son is also Creator, the source of life, and all things (including cosmic powers, angels, and the physical universe) were brought into existence through Him and for His glory. He holds all things together and has absolute superiority over all creation. The Son, Jesus Christ, not only has victory over death, but authority over it.

The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son, fully divine (completely God), and exists eternally with God the Father and Christ the Son. He provides comfort and spiritual gifts for believers, discernment for daily decisions, assistance in prayer, and guides us to understand God's truth and everything necessary for faith and practice, producing holiness. All the Spirit does is aligned with Christ's character and redemptive work and His teaching illuminates Scripture, convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit lived within certain people in the Old Testament, empowering them for service, and today the Spirit lives with and within believers of Jesus Christ forever, empowering their life and mission. The Spirit is God's "mark" on a believer's life, a permanent guarantee that their salvation is secure forever.

The Church is a community of believers united through their faith in Christ. We teach that once a person has placed their faith in Jesus Christ, the person immediately, by the power of the Holy Spirit, becomes part of a community of believers, the Church, which is the "body of Christ." Jesus Christ is the "Head" of the Church, the Savior and supreme authority of the body. The purpose of the Church is to glorify God by building up believers through teaching, nurturing, and maturing their faith, and helping them grow in unity and Christlikeness. The Church is tasked with being a pillar of truth, proclaiming the gospel, serving others, and demonstrating God's love to the world.

We teach the personal, visible, and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ. While the exact timing of His return is known only to God, the certainty of His coming is our blessed hope. He will return to judge the living and the dead, to finalize His victory over sin and death, and to establish His eternal Kingdom.

Below is our stance on specific issues facing our culture today.

We oppose abortion and believe in the sanctity of human life from conception to its natural end.

We believe God uniquely creates each person as either biological male or female to reflect His image and likeness. To reject one's biological sex is a distortion of this likeness and a rejection of God's design and creative order and transgenderism and/or cross-dressing, including any and all efforts to alter one's physical gender, or appearance thereof, is unbiblical and inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture. We believe God created man and woman as unique biological persons made for each other, and that human sexuality is only to be expressed between a genetic male and a genetic female within the God-ordained covenant of a monogamous marriage, and is not condoned before or outside of marriage in any form. Furthermore, we believe and teach that the use, viewing, and/or distribution of pornography is inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture, ruins witness, destroys relationships, and is incompatible with being a follower of Christ.

We teach that baptism is a testimony of a believer's faith in Jesus Christ, being a symbolic demonstration of union with Him, and that immersion by water represents an immersion into His death, burial, and resurrection, a washing away (death) of the old self and rising to new life in Christ. We do not teach or affirm infant baptism.

We teach that participation in the Lord's Supper (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19-20), also known as communion, is the proclamation and remembrance of Christ's death on the cross for our sins until He comes again (1 Cor. 11:26; Luke 22:19). Therefore, partaking is also affirming one's faith in Christ, and thus only those who believe in Christ should participate, and should be preceded by self-examination (1 Cor. 11:28-32). The Lord's Supper also signifies unity amongst the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17), and though participation affords believers a special time of intimate fellowship, hence the word communion, with Christ by expressing gratitude and remembering His sacrifice, we do not teach or affirm that Christ's words, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," mean the elements actually become or contain the body and blood of Christ, or that Christ is physically present. Christ left the world, returning to the Father (John 16:28, 17:11), and also said, for example, "I am the door" (John 10:9), but in no way is it understood as Jesus transforming into a literal door.

We teach that marriage should include mutual love and submission by both husband and wife (Eph. 5:21), and that the husband is the leader of the family, with the wife respecting his leadership (Eph. 5:22), aligning with God's creative order and design prior to the fall, where leadership was given to Adam (Gen. 2:7, 15-17, 22). However, in order to lead as head of the family, it is the husband's duty to seek the will of God for his family, thus surrendering his will to the Father, as did Christ (Matt. 26:39), not out of compulsion, but selfless, sacrificial love (Eph. 5:25). In doing so, the wife has the love and security of her husband, as the church has the love and security of Christ, while the husband has the love of his wife, as Christ has the love of His church (1 John 4:19; Eph. 5:33).

We also teach that husbands and fathers have been given the primary responsibility for the leadership of their children (Eph. 6:4; 1 Tim. 3:4-5), first by way of being a living example of a life aligned with sound doctrine and godly living (Titus 2:7). Wives and mothers are to prioritize their marriage and children while managing and cultivating the environment in which their children are raised. (Titus 2:4-5).

We also teach that if a man is to be head of the family, and by being joined to his wife they are one flesh (Gen. 2:24), together they now serve as the foundation for the family. Thus, the order of priorities for a husband and wife is to be God, their marriage, then their children, so that what is being built, their family, will not fall.

We teach the Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to believers today according to His will, not ours, for the edification of the Church, not self, and that there is no indication nor implication these gifts must be distributed uniformly across all spans of time, people, or places. We teach that full cessation of spiritual gifts or a uniform continuation of the same are both assumptions and constraints by man placed upon the will of the Spirit.

The Gift of Tongues

Never has there been greater discord surrounding a spiritual gift in recent times than over the meaning of tongues, to the extent that many ministries at both ends of the spectrum omit a public position, often to ensure retention and not turn away potential congregants believing otherwise. Meanwhile, many potential new congregants seek clarity on this very matter. Therefore, a position on the gifts of tongues will be included in this statement, not to divide, but to offer clarity and transparency.

We teach that the gift of tongues is the supernatural ability to speak in a human language that is not one's native language, as seen on the Day of Pentecost when people from diverse origins heard the apostles, empowered by the Holy Spirit, speaking in the people's own native language (Acts 2:3-11). We do not teach tongues being a private prayer language or that Paul prescribed self-edification, but rather offered a comparative device prioritizing corporate edification (1 Corinthians 14) .

As a reminder, though this be our stance on tongues, we do not see the alternate view as a salvation issue, and welcome those who hold that view. Lastly, the identity of a Christian should never be found in that which will not last, but in Him who remains forever.

We teach that men and women are absolutely spiritually equal, both created in the image of God, both having the same way to salvation, both being of equal standing in the body of Christ, and that woman was created to be man's complementary companion.
However, men and women have been given different functional responsibilities within the family and church. Our conclusion is that while the ministry of women is essential to the church, and though men and women work alongside one another for the furtherance of the Gospel (Rom 16; Phil 4:3), the role of pastor and/or elder is to be held only by men, and women are not permitted to exercise leadership over men in the church (1 Tim. 2:11-12, 3:2), aligning with God's creative order and design, where leadership was given to Adam, prior to the fall (Gen. 2:7, 15-17, 22; 1 Tim. 2:13-14). Thus, we believe that Paul's command is for all churches today, transcending culture and society across all spans of time.