It has been said that we should never judge a book by its cover. But is this true? After all, when you’re browsing through books at the local bookstore, the first idea you have about whether you want to read a particular book is based almost exclusively on its cover. The same used to be true of churches; just by looking at the name on the sign outside you could get a good idea of what the church believed inside. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily the case any longer, due in large part to the fact that so many churches – and even entire denominations – that once stood steadfastly upon the Word of God no longer do. This makes it even more important, then, for all Christians to ask questions and carefully examine what a church believes before making a decision to become a part of that church. Making a decision to join a church should be an important decision; after all, when we join a church, we are choosing to become a part of that church family.
Here at Pinnacle Baptist Church, we are not ashamed of the fact that we represent the kind of traditional churches that are few and far between today. We stand boldly upon a literal interpretation of the Word of God and believe that there are absolute right and wrongs – a view that is not popular among most of the modernist, contemporary-style churches of today.
Pinnacle Baptist Church is a fundamental, independent Baptist church which is premillenial, pretribulational, missions-minded, and King James Bible only. So what does all of that mean?
Fundamental: A fundamentalist church is one that believes in the historic fundamentals of the Christian faith including such things as the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the trinity, original sin, the Second Coming of Christ, His substitutionary atonement on the cross, His literal and bodily resurrection, salvation exclusively by grace through faith, and the infallibility of Scripture. Please listen to this message by Pastor entitled “Staying with the Stuff: Fundamentalism and Why Every Christian Should be a Fundamentalist”
Independent: PBC is a local, autonomous body of believers. As a church, we own our own facilities and are not accountable to any religious entity outside our own membership. As a church body, we are accountable only to Jesus Christ. While we are not a part of any denomination, hierarchy, or association, we do have the right to associate with other churches of like faith for fellowship, supporting missionaries, and carrying out the Great Commission. Please listen to this message by Pastor entitled “Why Not Southern Baptist”
Baptist: As Baptists, we are neither Catholic nor Protestant. Although it has been largely forgotten, even by Baptists, Baptists were never part of the Catholic church and, therefore, never had to come out of the church of Rome. Even Catholic historians have acknowledged that there have always been Baptist churches existing alongside of and outside of the Catholic church dating back to the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church in the fourth century. While Baptist churches have been called by different names in different places and at different times – usually by their enemies – there is, nonetheless, an unbroken line of churches who believe just like modern fundamental, independent Baptists dating back to the days of the apostles. There are a handful of Baptist distinctives (or “marks” of a Baptist church), but the most important is a belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible and a firm reliance upon it for every aspect of life. Please listen to these two messages by Pastor entitled “Why the Name Baptist” and “The Baptist Remnant: Why Pinnacle is a Baptist Church”
Premillenial: We believe that there will be a physical Second Coming of Christ before He begins a literal one thousand year reign on the earth. Please listen to Pastor’s message entitled “Why Pinnacle is Premillenial”
Pretribulational: We believe that there will also be a rapture (catching away) of the church to meet the Lord in the clouds and be taken to heaven before a literal seven year period of tribulation in which Satan is allowed to run the affairs of this world in a way not yet imagined and in which God pours out His wrath upon lost mankind. This Tribulation will occur just before the Millenial reign of Christ. Please listen to this message by Pastor entitled “Why I Still Believe in the Premillenial Rapture of the Church”
Missions-minded: We believe that it is the responsibility of all New Testament churches to be involved in worldwide evangelisation, both at home and around the world concurrently. Because of this, as a church we choose specific missionary families to support financially and with our prayers on an ongoing basis; and these missionaries are missionaries which we have met personally as a church and voted to support monthly. These missionaries are always sent by their local churches but may also be assisted by independent Baptist mission boards. We currently support missionaries in a number of foreign countries and here in the States; and we support those missionaries through such missions boards as Baptist International Missions, Inc. (BIMI), Macedonia World Baptist Missions (MWBM), and Vision Baptist Missions. Please listen to Pastor’s message entitled “The Biblical Plan of Missions and Why the Cooperative Program is not Biblical”
King James Bible: At Pinnacle Baptist, we exclusively use the King James Bible for all teaching and preaching. While unknown to many Christians, nearly every other modern English version of the Bible has been translated from Roman Catholic manuscripts which leave out and alter thousands of words and even entire verses of the Bible. Conversely, the KJV is translated from the textus receptus (TR) family of manuscripts, also known as the “Majority Text,” which was preserved faithfully for nearly two thousand years through Baptist and anabaptist churches who held tenaciously to the inerrancy of Scripture and, in many cases, died protecting and preserving it from its enemies. Please listen to these two messages by our Pastor entitled “If Two Things are Different then they Cannot be the Same OR Why We Only Use the KJV” and “Subtle Differences OR Why We Only Use the KJV Part 2”
If you’re interested in learning more about our Baptist history or about the history of our English Bible, Pastor’s book “A Clash of Swords” deals with both of these subjects. The book is available from Amazon HERE.