MISSION &
HISTORY
Eshcol Baptist Church is located in the California Bay Area. It began as a small church family that met on Zoom through the COVID-19 pandemic. We continue to meet on Zoom while looking forward to establishing ourselves in a physical location. We are still young but hopeful for a bright future. We love our God, our church, and our community. We desire to reach people all across the Bay Area with the life changing truth of the gospel. We invite you to be part of what God is doing.
OUR PASTOR FAMILY
PASTOR PUSHPARAJ MATANGI
The Matangis moved to the United States in 1999. When they moved they made it a priority to find a good, Bible based church. In 2004, they were asked to begin an Indian ministry in the church they were attending and mentored many while building a Godly place for them to call home. Both sang in the choir and Pushparaj served as an usher in addition to being a deacon.
In 2011, Pushparaj graduated from Golden State Baptist College with a Master’s in Pastoral Theology. In 2020, he was asked to fill the pulpit for a small congregation in the East Bay and by the end of the year he sensed God calling him and his family to establish Eshcol Baptist Church. In the beginning of 2021, he accepted the pastoral position, and he and his family now serve the Bay Area through this new ministry
What We Believe
The Bible
- We believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and that they compose the entire Word of God. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible, and God-breathed; and therefore, are the final authority for faith and life. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments are the complete and divine revelation of God to man. (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:20-21)
God
- We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each coeternal in being, co-identical in nature, coequal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.(Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14; John 14:10, 26)
Jesus
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful men. (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Luke 1:35; John 1:1-2, 14; II Corinthians 5:19-21; Galatians 4:4-5; Philippians 2:5-8)
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a representative, vicarious, substitutionary sacrifice; and that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead. (Acts 2:18-36; Romans 3:24-25; I Peter 2:24; Ephesians 1:7; I Peter 1:3-5)
- We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministries of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate. (Acts 1:9-10; Hebrews 9:24; 7:25; Romans 8:34; I John 2:1-2)
The Church
- We believe that the local church is solely made up of born-again persons. (I Corinthians 12:12-14; II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-27)
- We believe that the establishment and continuance of local churches is clearly taught and defined in the New Testament Scriptures. (Acts 14:27; 20:17, 28-32; I Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:5-11)
- We recognize water baptism and the Lord’s Supper as the Scriptural ordinances of obedience for the church in this age. (Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:41-42; 18:18; I Corinthians 11:23-26)
The Eternal State
- We believe in the personal, imminent return of Christ Who will rapture His Church prior to the seven-year tribulation period. At the end of the Tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return with His saints to establish His earthly Messianic Kingdom. (Psalm 89:3-4; Daniel 2:31-45; Zechariah 14:4-11; I Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-18; Titus 2:13; Revelation 3:10; 19:11-16; 20:1-6)
- We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men—the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment. (Matthew 25:46; John 5:28-29; 11:25-26; Revelation 20:5-6, 12-13)
Sin
We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God; and, that all men are sinners by birth and by choice, and, of themselves, utterly unable to remedy their lost condition. (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 3:22-23; 5:12; 6:23; Ephesians 2:1-3; 4:17-19)