Mount Carmel Bible College exists to disciple willing Christians to a deeper, more passionate commitment to God and others; expressed through increasing knowledge, love, and service.
Mount Carmel seeks to teach the whole Bible and ground our teaching within a historic and evangelical interpretation. Based on that understanding, we believe the following:
We believe that the entire Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s written revelation to humanity, verbally inspired by Him, complete and without error in its original documents. The Bible is our final authority in all it affirms in matters of belief and life.
We believe that the one living and true God exists eternally in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three share the same nature, attributes and glory. As Creator, God is the author and sustainer of all that exists. As Redeemer, He is committed to restoring his creation and will one day complete its renewal in beauty and perfection.
We believe in the full deity and full humanity of Jesus, the Christ. We affirm His virgin birth, sinless life, divine miracles, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, present intercession for us and personal return in power and glory.
We believe the Holy Spirit is active in the world, making people aware of sin and righteousness. When we turn to Christ, the Spirit indwells and renews, declares us righteous and sets us apart for God, guaranteeing our spiritual inheritance. He continues to act in the believer’s life, encouraging and guiding us in all truth, helping us overcome sin and giving us gifts for service.
We believe human beings alone, unlike any other creature, are created in the image of God for unending fellowship with Him and to function as his regents over creation. As such, we hold a special place in God’s heart and plans. As a result of the Fall, however, every human being is sinful by nature and choice and is in need of salvation through reconciliation with God.
We believe that salvation is an act of God’s grace, accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and imparted by the Holy Spirit to all who turn from their sin and trust in Christ. This salvation results in the desire and ability to live a holy life and the assurance of eternity in heaven. Although the believer can lose the joy and power that comes from fellowship with God, and even incur His discipline, the believer’s relationship with God is secure through the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the universal and local Church. The universal Church began with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and includes every born again believer. The local Church is the visible representation of the universal Church and consists of Christians who gather regularly in Christ’s name, forming His visible and tangible body on earth. Each local church is to gather under biblical leadership for teaching, fellowship, worship and prayer, with the goal of living and proclaiming the Gospel to all nations.
We believe in the two ordinances instituted by Jesus for the Church: Believer’s Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These express the Gospel visibly and tangibly in the Christian’s life and in the Church. Through baptism we declare our identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which set the pattern for the Christian walk. Communion is a primary, ongoing expression of thanksgiving that prioritizes the death and resurrection of Christ in the life of the Church and declares our shared existence as his visible and tangible body on earth.
We believe that every person lives only once on this present earth. At the end of history as we know it, each person will be resurrected and appear before God to be judged. Everyone found to be in Christ will be raised to an eternal existence in God’s loving and life-giving presence, while everyone not found in Christ will be condemned to eternal punishment apart from His presence.
We believe in the personal and imminent return of Jesus Christ to the earth, at which time He will defeat the forces of evil and establish His earthly Kingdom. After He has defeated all His enemies, He will hand the Kingdom to the Father, so that God may be all in all.
