Our
Beliefs
2Timothy
3:16 -17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may
be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
“Titus
1:9 holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able,
by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict”.
I. The
Scriptures.
We Believe that The
Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of
Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for
its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for
its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It
reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will
remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the
supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions
should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the
focus of divine revelation.
Psalm 119:89,105; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 4:12; 2 Peter 1:19-21.
2. God.
We Believe that
there is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual,
and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the
universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all
powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things,
past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free
creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The
eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with
distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or
being.
A. God the
Father.
We Believe that God
as Father reigns with providential care over His
universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according
to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and
all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through
faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
Genesis 1:1; Jeremiah 10:10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 1 John 5:7.
B. God the
Son.
We Believe that Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His
incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will
of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and
identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the
divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary
death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was
raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the
person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is
now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God,
fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.
He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His
redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-23; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 1 Thessalonians
4:14-18; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 1 John 1:7-9
C. God the
Holy Spirit
We Believe that The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully
divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through
illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts
men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of
regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates
Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by
which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of
final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will
bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens
and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Genesis 1:2; Luke 1:35; John 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:9-11; 1 Corinthians
2:10-14; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21
3. Man.
We Believe that Man is the special creation of God, made in His
own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His
creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In
the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with
freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin
into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the
command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.
Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become
transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man
into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.
The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His
own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every
race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
Genesis 1:26-30; Matthew 16:26; Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-22; Colossians 1:21-22
We Believe that Salvation involves the redemption of the whole
man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption
for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration,
justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart
from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
A. Regeneration,
or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new
creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit
through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable
experiences of grace.
Repentance is a
genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ
and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
B. Justification
is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of
all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer
into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
C.
Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the
believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward
moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit
dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate
person's life.
D. Glorification
is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of
the redeemed.
Matthew 1:21; John 3:3-21,36; Romans 1:16-18; 2 Corinthians
5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:9-22; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 1:3-23
We Believe that Election is the gracious purpose of God,
according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies
sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the
means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign
goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting
and promotes humility.
All true
believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and
sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but
shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and
temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts,
and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves;
yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
John 1:12-14; 3:16; 10:27-29; Ephesians 1:4-23; 2:1-10; 2 Thessalonians
2:13-14; 1 Peter 1:2-5
We Believe that
the New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation
of believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel;
observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the
gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to
extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under
the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation
each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord and the Church.
Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. Both men and women are gifted for service in
the church, as qualified by the Scripture.
The New
Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of
the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and
people, and nation.
Acts 2:41-42; 14:23; Ephesians 2:19-22; 3:8-11; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 3:1-15; 1 Peter 5:1-4
7. Baptism
and the Lord's Supper.
We Believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a
believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It
is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried,
and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the
burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in
Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the
dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church
membership and to the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's
Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through
partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the
Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
Matthew 26:26-30; 28:19-20; Luke 3:21-22; Acts 2:41-42; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 11:23-29; Colossians 2:12.
We Believe that The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It
is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the
resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship
and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day
should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
Exodus 20:8-11; Matthew 12:1-12; Mark 2:27-28; Colossians 3:16.
We Believe that The Kingdom of God includes both His general
sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over people who
willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of
salvation into which people enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus
Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and
God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the
return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
Isaiah 9:6-7; Matthew 3:2; Luke 17:20-21; John 3:3; 18:36; Colossians 1:13; 1 Peter 2:4-10; Revelation 1:6.
We Believe that God, in His own time and in His own way, will
bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ
will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be
raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be
consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their
resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell
forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Isaiah 2:4; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 12:40; John 14:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians
4:14-18; 2 Peter 3:7; 1 John 2:28; 3:2; Revelation 20:1-22
11.
Evangelism and Missions.
We Believe that It is the duty and privilege of every follower
of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make
disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit
means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests
thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly and
repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has
commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every
child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness
undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the
gospel of Christ.
Matthew 9:37-38; 10:5-15; 13:18-30, 37-43; Luke 10:1-18 , Acts 1:8; 10:42-48; Romans 10:13-15; Ephesians 3:1-11; 2 Timothy 4:5; 1 Peter 2:4-10; Revelation 22:17.
We Believe that Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and
intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new
birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover,
the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes
of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the
liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is
necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people.
In Christian
education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and
academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always
limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school,
college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the
authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which
the school exists.
Deuteronomy 4:1, 31:12-13; Job 28:28; Psalms 19:7; 119:11; Proverbs 3:13; 4:1-10; 8:1-7; Ecclesiastes 7:19; Matthew 5:2; 7:24; 28:19-20; Luke 2:40; 1 Corinthians
1:18-31; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 4:8; Colossians 2:3; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 2:15; 3:14-17; James 1:5; 3:17.
We Believe that God is the source of all blessings, temporal
and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a
spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy
trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They
are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and
material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to
use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures,
Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly,
systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the
Redeemer's cause on earth.
Genesis 14:20; Leviticus 27:30-32; Deuteronomy 8:18; Malachi 3:8-12; Matthew 6:1-4,19-21; 23:23; 25:14-29; Luke 12:16-21, 16:1-13; Acts 2:44-47; 5:1-11; 17:24-25; 20:35; Romans 6:6-22; 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2; 6:19-20; 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8-9; 12:15; Philippians 4:10-19; 1 Peter 1:18-19.
We Believe that Christ's people should, as occasion requires,
organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for
the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority
over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies
designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most
effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one
another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries
for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament
sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various
groups of Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable between the various
Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and
when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of
loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.
Exodus 17:12; 18:17; Judges 7:21; Ezra 1:3-4; 2:68-69; 5:14-15; Nehemiah 4; 8:1-5; Matthew 10:5-15; 20:1-16; 22:1-10; 28:19-20; Mark 2:3; Luke 10:1; Acts 1:13-14; 4:31-37; 13:2-3; 15:1-35; 1 Corinthians
1:10-17; 3:5-15; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Galatians 1:6-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Philippians 1:15-18.
15. The Christian and the
Social Order.
We Believe that All Christians are under obligation to seek to
make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means
and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of
righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are
rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in
Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every
form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality,
including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography and all form of
unrighteousness and sin. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy,
the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of
the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to
natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and
society as a whole under the way of the principles of righteousness, truth, and
brotherly love. In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to
work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act
in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His
truth.
Exodus 20:3-17; Leviticus 6:2-5; Deuteronomy 10:12; 27:17; Psalm 101:5; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 8:16; Matthew 5:13-16,43-48; 22:36-40; 25:35; Mark 1:29-34; 2:3; 10:21; Luke 4:18-21; 10:27-37; 20:25; John 15:12; 17:15; 1Corinthians 5:9-10; 6:1-7; 7:20-24; 10:23-11; Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; Philemon; James 1:27; 2:8.
We Believe that God
has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is
composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the
uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's
unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide
for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship,
the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means
for procreation of the human race.
The husband and
wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The
marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to
love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility
to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself
graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church
willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as
is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to
respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and
nurturing the next generation.
Children, from
the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents
are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to
teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through
consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on
biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.
Genesis 1:26-28; 2:15-25; 3:1-20; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Joshua 24:15; 1 Samuel 1:26-28; Psalms 51:5; 78:1-8; 127; 128; 139:13-16; Proverbs 1:8; 5:15-20; 6:20-22; 12:4; 13:24; 14:1; 17:6; 18:22; 22:6,15; 23:13-14; 24:3; 29:15,17; 31:10-31; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; 9:9; Malachi 2:14-16; Matthew 5:31-32; 18:2-5; 19:3-9; Mark 10:6-12; Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Ephesians 5:21-33; 6:1-4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 5:8,14; 2 Timothy 1:3-5; Titus 2:3-5; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Peter 3:1-7.