The Bridge Church
AI summary — doctrinal positions on this page are inferred by AI from this church's own public statements and may be inaccurate.
Inherited from denomination
What Assemblies of God USA teaches
Positions bound by the denomination's confessional standards. This is what the tradition teaches; whether this specific congregation publicly holds each is a separate question — see Statements below.
Affirms
- Believer's BaptismSTRONGBaptist confessions; Pentecostal fundamentals; Anabaptist tradition
- Marriage as one man and one womanSTRONGGenesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4–6; historic universal Christian teaching.
- Permissibility of divorce and remarriagestandardMatthew 19:9 (adultery ground); 1 Corinthians 7:15 (abandonment ground). Practice varies.
- Women in pastoral / ordained officestandardVarious denominational actions (TEC 1976, ELCA 1970s, PC(USA) 1956, AG 1935, CofE 1994 priests / 2014 bishops, etc.)
Denies
- Apostolic SuccessionstandardCongregational and presbyterian polity reject the necessity of tactile episcopal succession.
- Assumption of MarystandardUniversal Protestant rejection — not attested in Scripture; not received as dogma.
- Homosexual practice and biblical sexual ethicsSTRONGRomans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; historic universal Christian teaching.
- Immaculate ConceptionSTRONGUniversal Protestant + Orthodox rejection. Orthodox reject on the grounds that they hold prepurification at the Annunciation, not conception.
- Infant BaptismSTRONGBaptist confessions (New Hampshire; BFM 2000 VII); Anabaptist / Schleitheim; Pentecostal fundamentals
- Perpetual Virginity of MarystandardNatural reading of Matthew 13:55–56 (brothers of Jesus); typical modern Baptist / evangelical position.
- Real PresencestandardMemorialist / Zwinglian view; typical Baptist and Free Church position
- TransubstantiationSTRONGOrthodox reject the Aristotelian metaphysics; Lutherans use 'sacramental union'; 39 Articles Art. XXVIII rejects explicitly; Reformed/Baptist reject substance-change.
Wrestles with
- Pacifism vs. just-warweakDefault just-war framework — usually unwritten. Inheriting at weak confidence.
In their own words
Statements
statement_of_faith
<!DOCTYPE html> Grace — Bristol Bridge Bristol Bridge ☰ Topics Mission About Resources Topic XIV Grace Unmerited favor, or indwelling divine life? If the two traditions could see each other clearly on any single topic, it might be grace. The Protestant ear hears grace and thinks primarily of God's disposition — unmerited favor, the attitude of a King who pardons. The Catholic ear hears grace and thinks primarily of a gift — a share in God's own life, infused into the soul. Both meanings are scriptural. Both are genuine. But the two traditions inherit different emphases from thSource ↗
mission
<!DOCTYPE html> Mission — Bristol Bridge Bristol Bridge ☰ Topics Mission About Resources The Ministry Our Mission The guiding principles of Bristol Bridge. Bristol Bridge exists to restore understanding and Christian love between Protestant and Catholic traditions. We believe that the hostility and caricature that too often characterize these relationships obscure a deeper truth — that Protestantism and Catholicism, for all their genuine differences, are incomplete without each other. Our work is to disarm false assumptions, illuminate what each tradition actually teaches, andSource ↗
about_us
<!DOCTYPE html> About — Bristol Bridge Bristol Bridge ☰ Topics Mission About Resources The Story Why this bridge A ministry born of an academic's curiosity, a pastor's experience, and a brother's death. This ministry has a specific shape because its founder grew up on one side of the bridge, built a professional life in the middle of it, and eventually came to believe that neither side can afford to stay where it is. What follows is personal, not because theology is a matter of personal experience, but because the story matters to why this project exists. Raised Baptist I waSource ↗
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