We Believe...
In the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In His virgin birth, sinless life, powerful miracles, the sacrifice of His vicarious and atoning death.
In God revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In His bodily resurrection, ascension and future return to earth as both Lord and King.
In the absolute inspiration of Holy Scripture.
That justification is by grace through faith in our Lord's sacrificial death on the cross.
That we have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ and we are being sanctified by a process in which the believer is changed to reflect the character of Jesus by yielding to God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
That every convert is to be baptized by immersion.
That the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an endowment of power available to every Christian at or subsequent to conversion. As a result, spiritual gifts should be manifest with balance and guidance from the local church ministry.
That the church is God's chosen instrument to proclaim and manifest God's kingdom on the earth. The message and mission of the church is "the gospel of the kingdom" which simply means the "rule" of God. Our responsibility then is to enforce the victory of God over every dark and godless influence, until King Jesus returns.
Articles of Faith
Section 1. Of The Holy Scriptures.
The Bible is the very word of God; it is inerrant, infallible. inspired, and the final revelation of God to man.
Both the Old and New Testaments have been inspired by God through plenary and verbal inspiration, thus securing for man an infallible record of truth.
The Bible is fully authoritative providing the terms by which all the created universe must be interpreted, granting man an infallible rule of faith and practice, and revealing God's will to man.
The Bible has, by God's providential care, been kept pure in all ages.
Note: For a fuller expression of our faith in the Bible, we recommend and affirm the following document : "The Chicago Statement On Biblical Inerrancy."
Section 2. Of The Doctrine Of God.
There is only one living and true God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, Who is self-existent, eternal, supreme, incomprehensible, almighty. God is Spirit in Whom all divine attributes or perfections inhere and from Whom they cannot be separated.
God's attributes are both incommunicable and communicable. These incommunicable attributes, of which man cannot partake and which emphasize God's transcendence, are the independence or aseity* of God (God is sufficient unto Himself, dependent upon nothing besides His own being); the immutability of God (God does not and cannot change); the infinity of God (in relation to time, God is eternal, in relation to space, God is omnipresent); and the unity of God (God is singularly one and in no sense composed of parts or aspects that existed prior to Himself).
The communicable attributes of God stress God's immanence. God is light; God's knowledge of Himself is self-contained, self referential, and absolute. God is holy, internally and externally perfect. God is sovereign, omnipotent, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and righteous will.
God exists as a tri-personality, the Trinity, co-substantial without subordination, co-eternal, and co-equal; three distinct persons in unity whose diversity and unity are underived.
Section 3. Of The Doctrine Of Man.
Man is created in God's image, originally with moral attributes of true knowledge, true righteousness, and true holiness while, at the same time, possessing none of God's incommunicable attributes. Man is like God, but on a creaturely scale. God is infinite and man is finite.
Man was created from the earth to have dominion over the earth. As a prophet, man was to interpret the world; as a priest, man was to guard the world and consecrate it to God's glory; and as a king, man was to rule over the world as God's vice-regent.
As a creature, man was to live in accordance with the laws which God had placed in His creation, being both responsible and accountable to God. Adam and Eve, being tempted by Satan, sought to interpret the universe without reference to God. By this sin, they fell from their original communion with God.
Defiled in all parts and faculties, man now inherits the guilt of sin, the corrupted nature, and the death of sin which passed to all Adam's posterity.
Section 4. Of The Doctrine Of Christ.
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the second person in the Trinity (Godhead), existing from all eternity with the Father, fully equal with the Father; Who in the incarnation assumed a human nature. In Christ, the human and divine natures are so related that they are "two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation" (Creed of Chalcedon).
God, in His eternal purpose, chose His Son to be the mediator between God and man. Christ, as true Prophet, did reveal to man the will and word of God; as true Priest, did reconcile this world unto God by offering up Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice; and, as true King, did subdue, restrain, and conquer His people and all His enemies.
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, was made under the law, did perfectly fulfill the law, suffered, was crucified, and died. He was buried, yet saw no corruption; and on the third day, He arose from the dead. He ascended into heaven where He lives to make intercession and from where He rules from the throne of David until all His enemies are made His footstool.
Section 5. Of The Doctrine Of Salvation.
By his fall, Adam not only corrupted himself and all his posterity, but also made necessary the infliction of the prescribed penalty of death. Man was morally polluted, guilty, and incapable of paying the incurred debt.
God chose to accept the unmerited sufferings of Christ as just equivalent for the suffering due to sinners. Jesus, discharging the penalty due man through His vicarious suffering and death, has fully satisfied the justice of His Father and has purchased reconciliation and an everlasting inheritance for His people.
Jesus restores man to holiness and life through His perfect obedience; the merits of Christ's obedience are imputed to His people as their righteousness.
Salvation is by grace; is wholly the gift of God received by faith. Good works are not meritorious ground but rather the fruit and proof of salvation.
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, Who proceeded from the Father and The Son and Who is co-equal with the Father and The Son, does apply to us the redemption Christ purchased for us. The Spirit, working conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and revealing the person and work of Jesus Christ, is the Agent of regeneration, sanctification, and preservation.
Section 6. Of The Doctrine Of The Church.
The universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of God's people, from all ages, gathered into one body under Christ's headship.
Endued with the power of the Holy Spirit, and commissioned to make disciples of all nations (ethnic groupings), the Church, God's holy nation, is the steward of the Kingdom of God, proclaiming the Word, administering the sacraments (baptism and communion), and exercising discipline in terms of the Scripture.
The local church, which is also the body of Christ, is called to represent and embody God's will and purpose in a community and minister Christ's life to all who will respond to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
Section 7. Of The Doctrine Of Last Things.
God has appointed a day wherein He will judge all men by His Son and destroy the last enemy, i.e., death, at the return of His Son.
The Bible teaches an optimistic eschatology. We believe that the Triune God has reigned sovereignly as King of all creation throughout all time and that Jesus is the present King of kings and Lord of lords. We affirm that God's active reign through Christ will increase until it is consummated at the actual, physical, and bodily second coming of Christ.
Millennial views will not be used as a test for orthodoxy.
Section 8. Some Doctrinal Emphases and Distinctives.
We emphasize a covenantal approach to Biblical interpretation rather than a dispensational approach.
We affirm the validity of spiritual (charismatic) gifts continuing until the consummation of the age. We believe that the Ascension gifts of Christ listed in Ephesians 4:11 continue until the church is glorified at the second coming. We also believe that these "Ascension Apostolic Teams"; minister in, through, and beyond the local church.
We believe that the Kingdom of God is present and eternal. We affirm that the Kingdom has come definitively in the Christ-Event (His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension); we believe that the Kingdom is coming progressively in history (like leaven in the lump and seed growing in the ground); and we believe that the Kingdom will come consummatively at the return of Christ.
Note: For a more comprehensive statement on the Kingdom of God, we recommend the Coalition On Revival document on the Kingdom.
*(aseity: the *self-existence* of God: He is sufficient unto Himself, dependent upon nothing besides His own being)
Creeds
Creed comes from the Latan Credo meaning "I believe". A Creed, or Rule of Faith, is a confession of faith for public use, or a form of words setting forth with authority certain articles of belief, which are regarded by the framers as necessary for salvation, or at least for the well-being of the Christian Church.
A creed may cover the whole ground of Christian doctrine and practice, or contain only such points as are deemed fundamental and sufficient, or as have been disputed. It may be declarative, or interrogative in form. It may be brief and popular (as the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds), for general use in catechetical instruction and at baptism; or more elaborate and theological, for ministers and teachers, as a standard of public doctrine (the symbolical books of the Reformation period). In the latter case a confession of faith is always the result of dogmatic controversy, and more or less directly or indirectly polemical against opposing error. Each symbol bears the impress of its age, and the historical situation out of which it arose.
There is a development in the history of symbols. They assume a more definite shape with the progress of biblical and theological knowledge. They are mile-stones and finger-boards in the history of Christian doctrine. They embody the faith of generations, and the most valuable results of religious controversies. They still shape and regulate the theological thinking and public teaching of the churches of Christendom. They keep alive sectarian strifes and antagonisms, but they reveal also the underlying agreement, and foreshadow the possibility of future harmony.
Apostles' Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic* Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
* catholic, with a little “c” is an archaic word meaning, “universal” as opposed to Catholic which refers to the Roman Catholic Church. The former is the meaning here.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy universal and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.