Bible church

Bible church is a type of Christian church which emphasizes the Bible as its standard, and focuses on the original inerrancy of scripture. It is typically a type of evangelical Protestant church.[1] Bible Churches can be non-denominational or affiliated with a denomination, such as the Bible Methodist Connection of Churches, Bible Missionary Church or International Fellowship of Bible Churches. This dictates whether a particular Bible church would be committed to a certain catechism, Statement of Faith and theology. The International Fellowship of Bible Churches, for example, adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.[2] Nevertheless, many Bible Churches hold to a few commonalities.

A bible church building in California

Bible Churches can be ruled by elders, being of presbyterian polity (not to be confused with Presbyterianism) or could adhere to episcopal polity (in which a denomination has bishops) or congregationalist polity.[2]

In general, Bible Churches are committed to expository preaching, often by teaching verse-by-verse through an entire book of the Bible. This practice, fueled by the belief that the Bible is inerrant, God-breathed, and sufficient (born from the Protestant teachings of Sola Scriptura or Prima Scriptura), is central to the essence of most Bible Churches, and is the source of their name.

Bible Churches almost universally hold to the doctrine of justification by faith, a teaching born out of the Reformation (cf. Sola fide). See also: Five solae

In addition, many, though not all, Bible Churches are premillennial dispensationalists, as the Bible Church movement has largely been attributed to Dallas Theological Seminary, which is a leading dispensationalist institution.