Proverbs 20:5
Over 25 years of training the servants of God to apply the Word of God.
Although IBABC was established in 2022, the courses involved in our training and certification process have been implemented and taught for several decades at Beth Haven Baptist Seminary.
Our Foundational Values
1. Authority and Wisdom of the Bible
We believe the Bible (KJV) is the Word of God. God, the Creator of man, knows man intimately and has revealed in His Word the ways in which man can thrive spiritually, mentally and emotionally. The answers to all of man’s needs and problems can be found in the Bible (II Peter 1:3).
2. A Literal, Grammatical Interpretation of the Bible
We believe the Bible is meant to be understood in it’s normal literal sense. We reject counseling methods based upon spiritualizing texts or based upon errant theology (i.e. Calvinism). Our main doctrinal beliefs can be found below.
3. Local Church Ministry
We believe Jesus established the church to meet the needs of believers as well as to propagate the gospel. Biblical counselors have no authority to counsel on their own, outside the structure and authority of the church. We require counselors to receive pastoral permission before counseling a member of their or any other church.
4. A Spiritual Walk with God
We believe God created man a tripartite being (spirit, soul and body). In the new birth, man is indwelt with the Spirit. The Spirit’s purpose is to comfort, teach, and guide mankind into the ways of God, thereby influencing man’s soul (how man thinks, feels, and acts). It is vital that the believers learns to walk in the Spirit.
Our Goals
1. To glorify Jesus Christ in our own personal lives and help others to do the same.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.“
1 Cor. 10:31
2. To allow Christ to change us into His likeness.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
2 Cor. 3:18
3. To help people reconcile to one another and to the Lord.
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
2 Cor. 5:20
4. To train people to resist temptation and live a life of victory over sin.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Cor. 15:57
5. To develop a godly image of who we are in Christ. We are His children, forgiven, accepted and loved.
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.”
Eph. 1:18,19
History
Dr. Richard M. Hays was a well known Independent Baptist counselor. His understanding of Biblical Counseling laid the foundation for the Biblical Counselor’s Seminary which opened in 1996 and ultimately for IBABC.
Dr. Rick Carter Jr. is the pastor of Beth Haven Baptist Church and spends many hours counseling pastors and missionaries. He teaches counseling at Beth Haven Baptist Seminary and holds biblical counseling seminars throughout the US and abroad. He has also written several books on counseling.
Beliefs
The Bible
The Bible
We believe the Authorized King James Bible is the Inspired, Inerrant, Infallible and preserved Word of God for English speaking people and use it exclusively. We accept the Bible as the supreme and only authority in faith and life. We do not hold the Ruckman position of double inspiration.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, and born of Mary, a virgin, and is true God and true man.
Mankind and Sin
Mankind and Sin
We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death, but also that spiritual death which is separation from God and literal eternal judgment in Hell and the Lake of fire: and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature, and, in the case of those who reach the age of moral responsibility, are sinners in thought, word and deed.
Creation
Creation
We believe that the Genesis account of creation is to be accepted literally, not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created directly in God’s own image and was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species.
Atonement
Atonement
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.
Salvation
Salvation
We believe that Salvation is by grace through faith without the addition of any works. We believe that repentance is necessary to salvation. We reject the doctrinal errors of both Calvinism and Arminianism. We believe in both the response of man, and the sovereignty of God, that when man chooses to accept salvation, he is kept by the power of God unto the day of redemption (eternal security).
Baptism
Baptism
We believe in believers only baptism, that baptism by immersion is an answer of good conscious toward God. That salvation and scriptural baptism are requirements to membership in the Local New Testament Church, but that baptism holds no saving power.
The Church
The Church
The Church of our Lord is a visible, local, self governing body of believers who have been baptized and that there are only two ordinances: baptism and the Lord’s supper, both of which are administered only to believers. We reject the doctrine of the universal church.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit
We believe that upon salvation the believer is sealed and indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God. We are non charismatic, and do not believe that speaking in tongues, or signs and wonders are actively being used by the Holy Spirit of God today.
Resurrection
Resurrection
We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there as High Priest and Advocate. We believe as well that because of His bodily resurrection we will also be bodily raised and given a new glorified body to live with Him forever.
End Times
End Times
We are dispensational in theology and believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints and a pre-millennial return of Christ to set up His literal Kingdom on this earth.