STATEMENT OF BELIEFS
The following belief
statements were taken from our ministry's "Truth
or Tradition" web site, but clearly and accurately reflect our personal
beliefs so I'm including them here for the convenience of our readers. Each
of the links included at the end of every statement takes you to an expanded
reference for that belief - which I urge you to review in more detail.
We believe the Scriptures are God's "heart" revealed to mankind. The
reason God wants us to know the truth is so we can live it and share it with
others. God wants us to be "imitators" of Him, and His chief characteristic
is love. Truth without love is vanity; love without truth is sentimentality.
We believe the following are the crucial teachings of Scripture, crucial
because misunderstanding them detracts from the quality of one's life, that
is his ability to reverence and obey the one true God and His Son.
Can we really "know" God?
We believe that the Scriptures are "God-breathed," perfect in their
original writing, without flaw or contradiction, and provide the only sure
and steadfast basis for faith. Understanding the Scriptures is attainable by
applying logic and sound principles of biblical interpretation, in
conjunction with the spirit of God in us.
The Bible: You Can Believe It!
We believe that God, the Creator, the Father of Jesus Christ, is "the only
true God" (John 17:3), holy and separate from all His creation. He is a
personal God who has committed Himself to us in writing.
47 Reasons why our Heavenly Father has no equals or "co-equals"
We believe that Jesus Christ, the "last Adam," is the only-begotten Son of
God. He was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, suffered and died
as a payment for all men's sin, was raised from the dead and exalted to the
position of "Lord" by God His Father.
Jesus: God’s right hand man
We believe that "the Holy Spirit" is another name for God, while "holy
spirit" is God's gift of His divine nature that a person receives when he is
born again, the "spirit of truth" that Jesus promised. He differentiated
between these two when He said, "That which is born of the Spirit is
spirit."
The Giver and the Gift
We believe that all nine "manifestations" of the gift of God ("holy
spirit") are available, desirable and profitable to every believer to
operate by faith, in conjunction with God's energizing.
The Gift of Holy Spirit: Every Christian’s Divine Deposit
We believe that today, in the "Administration of the Secret," salvation is
permanent for those who have once confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and
believed that God raised Him from the dead. We believe that when one adheres
to Romans 10:9, he is "saved," "born again," "sealed," "anointed," "clothed
with power from on high" and "baptized with holy spirit." This baptism in
holy spirit is the "one baptism" of Ephesians 4:5.
25 Reasons why Salvation is Permanent
We believe that when a person dies, his life is gone and he no longer
exists anywhere in any form. He stays dead ("asleep") until he is "awakened"
from the dead by the Lord Jesus for judgment unto either everlasting life or
everlasting death. The only hope for the dead is the resurrection of mankind
from the dead by the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn from among the dead.
Is there Death after Life?
We believe that there is a scriptural distinction between the Church of
the Body of Christ and Israel. The Church to which believers today belong
began on the day of Pentecost and will end with a Rapture of all Christians,
followed by a period of tribulation for Israel and then Christ's
thousand-year reign on Earth. The "Mystery" ("Secret") revealed in Ephesians
is that those from both Jew and Gentile would be joint heirs, joint
partakers and members of a joint body ("one new man"). This secret is not
revealed in the Old Testament, the Gospels or the Book of Revelation, and
was first made known to the Apostle Paul. The Church Epistles (Romans
through Thessalonians) form the nucleus of Scripture written to the Church.
23 Reasons to believe in a Rapture before the Great Tribulation
We believe that the Lord Jesus is the Head over all matters to the Church,
His Body. Church leaders derive their authority to serve only as they walk
worthy of their calling to the end that their character and their example
earn them recognition from those they serve.
Servant - Leadership
We believe that God is love; He is good and righteous, and not the author
of evil, sin or suffering. When the First Adam made his free-will decision
to disobey God, he transferred his God-given dominion over the earth to the
Devil. Satan is now the "god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4); the world is now
under his dominating influence (1 John 5:19) and it is he who now holds the
power of death (Heb. 2:14). When the "Last Adam" comes again, He will
eventually destroy the Devil and put an end to evil.
Is there a Devil?
