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Articles of Faith

I) The Bible is God’s Message to Mankind

  • The Holy Bible is a book of world history and sacred teachings recorded by righteous men who were directly inspired by God to do so. In its pages, sincere people can learn about their Maker and find God’s plan for mankind in general and individuals in particular.
    • I Peter 1:10-12, 22-25
    • II Peter 1:19-21
    • I John 5:8-12

II) The Trinity and Christ’s Divinity

  • God is the combination of three individuals: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Therefore Christ, though having been human, is also divine.
    • Genesis 1:26
    • Matthew 28:19
    • John 1:1-5, 14
    • John 10:30
    • Colossians 2:8-9
    • Hebrews 1:1-3
    • I John 5:7

III) Creation

  • God created the universe, world, and all of life and nature in 6 days.
    • Genesis 1:1, 31
    • Genesis 2:1-2
    • Romans 1:20

IV) The Spiritual Fall of Mankind

  • Sin, or wrong doing, entered the world through the first couple created by God: Adam and Eve. They were created in God’s image spiritually, having His divine nature.
    • Genesis 1:27
  • But they acted contrary to God’s nature and disobeyed God’s command. At that instant, the divine nature in mankind died and was replaced by a sinful nature, which has been passed down by heredity to all common humanity.
    • Genesis 2:16-17; 3:1-11; 5:3
    • Ephesians 2:1-10
  • Because of the compulsive sinful nature, acts of sin are universal among unsaved people who are old enough to know right from wrong.
    • Romans 3:23
  • Only one person has proved uncommon in that He lived to an adult age and died without committing any willful sin, which is the son of God: Jesus Christ.
    • Hebrews 9:11-15, 28
    • I Peter 2:19-25
  • Through His gospel and atonement for the sins of mankind, Christ made possible that people can be forgiven of their sins, have a change of nature, live a holy life without knowingly doing wrong, and secure a home in an eternal heaven after this life is over.
    • Romans 6:1-23

V) Christ Paid Sin’s Penalty for All Mankind

  • Christ entered the human race through a miraculous virgin birth.
    • Isaiah 7:14
  • He lived a sinless life and died a violent death so as to pay the penalty for the wrong doing of all mankind for all time.
    • I Peter 2:21-25
  • Shortly after his sacrificial death, Christ arose from the dead by the power of God and is now returned to the heaven from which He came. From that position, He communicates with the consciences of people on earth to lead them to salvation and also works through people who are obedient to Him so as to help their fellow man to likewise make peace with God, become obedient and a part of God’s church.
    • Ephesians 1: 15-23
    • Hebrews 4: 14-16; 7:24-28

VI) Justification/ Regeneration

  • When anyone believes that Jesus Christ took the punishment for their sins, and offers forgiveness for them, and they humbly ask God for that forgiveness, a supernatural transaction instantly occurs: God does forgive them of all sins, but He also changes their nature from a fallen, evil one, to a righteous nature like His own.
    • Acts 3:18-21
    • II Corinthians 5:17-18
    • II Peter 1:2-4
    • I John 1:9
  • Now, though they will be tempted at times to do evil, they naturally want to do what is right and have the God-given power to resist all temptations. This is called in the Bible, regeneration or being born again.
    • John 3:1-8
    • Romans 6: 1-6
    • I Corinthians 10:13
    • Titus 3:5
    • I John 3:5-9

VII) Baptism by Immersion

  • Knowing that when one is born again, the old sinful nature dies and a new divine nature takes its place, God has ordained that after this happens to people, they should publicly demonstrate it by being literally “buried” in water, then immediately “arising” from that figurative grave. This serves as a sort of public bridge-burning, wherein the regenerated person openly displays that they have left the life of sin and are now living a new and holy life by God’s grace. This is called baptism.
    • Matthew 28:19
    • Romans 6: 1-6
    • Colossians 2: 10-13
    • I Peter 3:18-21

VIII) The Second Instant Work of Divine Grace

  • The original sin of the first humans produced several bad consequences. As already discussed, a hereditary sinful nature became a universal part of human life, as did the acts of sin which that nature produces.
    • Ephesians 2:1-3
  • Regeneration is God’s cure for all that. But there are other consequences. Physical death became the universal end of human life on earth.
    • Romans 5:12-18
  • According to scripture, there’s also an inherited deadness in our mortal body that we live with. Scriptures indicate that deadness is the inability of the human mind to comprehend important spiritual ideas that God wants us to understand so as to be able to live the best, most productive life we can live in service to God and our fellow men.
    • Romans 8:9-11, 28-29
    • Romans 12:1-2
  • By Christ’s atonement for mankind, God has promised that, as He raised Christ from physical death to live eternally in heaven, so He would also raise up all those who are born again.
    • John 6:40, 44, 54
    • I Corinthians 15:26
  • But first, while we’re still living, God has promised to use some of that resurrection power on our mind, to bring back to life the spiritual comprehension that became deadened by original sin.
    • Ephesians 1:12-14
  • This He does immediately by a second miraculous work of His grace called in scripture the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
    • Luke 3:16-17
  • By this grace, we receive our own personal teacher in the Holy Spirit, but also the ability to understand the divine truths He wants to teach.
    • John 14:15-17, 21-26
    • I Corinthians 2:7-12

IX) Christ Built Only One Church

  • God, through the one and only gospel plan of salvation, intended to save many from the power of sin over many generations. Knowing those who are real Christians are so because their Creator saved them all by the same gospel, they together form the one church Christ lived and died to build.
    • Zechariah 6:12-13
    • Matthew 16:18
    • Ephesians 2: 19-22
    • Ephesians 4: 4-6
    • I Peter 2:1-9

X) The Divine Unity of God’s True People

  • Why are there so many separate organizations that call themselves a church? Mankind has created the many denominations and flavors of so-called Christianity by introducing into the gospel an array of competing ideas and interpretations of the Bible.
    • Isaiah 4:1-3
    • II Peter 1:20-21
  • This has complicated and corrupted the one simple gospel plan in the minds of many, so that they have become confused, often disillusioned, and even deceived.
    • II Corinthians 11:3-4
  • Yet, to this day, God’s plan hasn’t changed and Christ is still working through a willing people to build but one church.
    • I Corinthians 1:10
    • Ephesians 4:1-6
  • That church is to live by the complete gospel as God intended, which will produce sinless (holy) living and true unity.
    • John 7:16-18
    • John 17:11, 14-23
  • When saved people come to realize the religious organization with which they identify isn’t teaching and living the pure gospel, they need to find a congregation of true Christians that is, or begin to organize a local congregation of God’s true people.
    • Revelation 18:1-8
    • Revelation 22: 18-19

XI) The True Gifts of God’s Spirit

  • It’s common for religious organizations to teach that the day of special divine gifts that benefit mankind and help drive home the credibility of the gospel, is gone with the original apostles. But there is no such suggestion in the Bible that gifts like divine healing and miracles are obsolete. They’re still available and God’s people should be seeking to obtain them so as to serve God and their fellow man more effectively.
    • Ephesians 1:22-23
    • I Corinthians 12:1-31
    • Hebrews 13:8
  • There has been, however, quite a preoccupation among many religious groups with something called the gift of tongues. There are examples of forms of that gift being practiced that are recorded in biblical history. During the Jewish holiday of Pentecost after Christ’s death and resurrection, the first baptisms of the Holy Spirit occurred. Some recipients of this second grace began to publish the gospel very publicly among throngs of individuals who spoke the native tongue of the variety of different countries in which they lived. Though the gospel spokesmen spoke only the local language, people of all tongues understood them plainly. This useful miracle has been known to occur more recently.
    • Acts 2:4-11
  • Another example of the gift of tongues occurred because prophets had foretold that non-Jewish Christians would miraculously speak in a tongue they didn’t naturally speak, but which the Jews apparently would understand. Though it wasn’t at that time their common national language, this tongue was probably Hebrew, which the Jews understood because they heard it in the synagogues, while their daily language was Aramaic. The gift of tongues of this sort was given by God for the express purpose of being a sign to the Jews, that even if they refused to believe and obey the gospel, God would still have a people He could claim as His own in the Gentiles, many of whom did embrace the gospel. Some false modern teachers claim that this gift, ordained by God to serve a specific purpose for a time, is now one that all Christians must possess. Further, modern tongues is manifested by many languages and gibberish, the meanings of which even the speaker often doesn’t understand. None of these modern ideas are taught by properly understood scriptures, so God’s true people don’t embrace and practice them.
    • I Corinthians 14:21-22
    • Romans 10:19-21
    • Romans 11:9-14
    • I Corinthians 14:32-33

XII) Outward Standard of Appearance

  • Women are to dress and act like women, and men like men.
    • Deuteronomy 2:25
    • I Corinthians 6:9-10
  • Modest apparel is enjoined to women, perhaps because it’s with that gender that it’s most likely to be a problem.
    • I Peter 3:1-6
    • I Timothy 2:9-10
  • But the general teaching of the Bible requires all to avoid both the shame of nakedness and the pride of flashy adornments.
    • James 1:21
  • The biblical order of priority requires that the heart, or spirit of man, be made pure and righteous first, by a miracle of grace.
    • Ezekiel 36:24-29
  • But proper behaviors and a pure and righteous appearance will follow, being natural products of a new and clean spiritual heart and nature.
    • Ephesians 2:1-10
    • I Thessalonians 5:22

XIII) Millennialism

  • There is much confusion in the religious world over the thousand year period spoken of in Revelation chapter 20. Thankfully God isn’t the author of confusion, but of peace and clarity.
    • I Corinthians 14:33
  • Therefore the confusion doesn’t arise from the divinely inspired scriptures, but from men’s private interpretations of them.
    • II Peter 1:20-21
  • Much of the book of Revelation is metaphorical, or figures of speech rather than describing literal scenarios. In John 6:63, Christ tried to help his followers to understand this method of teaching spiritual concepts by using literal figures. We must apply this method in interpreting the book of Revelation to get the understanding God intends to convey. Something else to consider is that John was looking into the future for most of the fulfillment of this prophesy. If we interpret John’s wording as from this perspective of looking for future things not yet well understood in his day, it can help us to understand that many things then predicted can be found fulfilled back in history in our present day. Revelation 20:1-7 begins with the heavenly messenger, or God’s Church led by Christ, defeating Roman paganism, which was well on its way to being accomplished by 270 AD. Yet from that point in history, as open paganism declined in the Roman Empire, Christian religion in general also began to decline because of apostasy. Though there were still many true Christians, that which was publicly hailed as the Christian Church gradually morphed into a mixture of paganism and Christianity, so that by 530 AD, after 260 years of spiritual decline, that mixture rose to public prominence in the form of the Catholic Church. What ensued from there was 1,000 years of Catholic dominance, during which many true Christians still reigned with Christ over known sin: they lived holy lives without willfully sinning by the grace obtained in the first resurrection, which is regeneration, or becoming born again. This Christian reign happened despite the fact that multitudes were persecuted and even martyred by the Catholic organization.
    • Revelation 2:8-11 (Notice in verse 11 the assurance of safety from the second death is the same as chapter 20:6)
  • The binding of the serpent spoken of in Chapter 20 is simply a limit put upon satan for a thousand years so that he couldn’t deceive through any false Christianity other than Catholicism. In 1530 AD, after Protestants like Martin Luther had risen to prominence, the Diet of Augsburg was held and protestant religion organized as an alternative to Catholicism. Though many truths obscured from public knowledge during what history calls the thousand year Dark Ages, were returned to common knowledge by the Protestant Reformation, yet the many Protestant sects that arose clung to various unbiblical ideas and fought with each other. Sadly, those Protestant alternatives to Catholicism became yet more subtle means of distraction, deception, and confusion, obscuring God’s original plan of one Christian Church that is unified by the belief and practice of all Bible truth, without any additions or subtractions imposed by man’s traditions and ideas.
    • Revelation 11:1-10
    • Revelation 13:all
  • In spite of the spiritual darkness and length of the dark ages, Christ still reigned in many obedient lives, whom He had raised from the dead state of sin to walk in the newness of holy living by the first resurrection: regeneration. This trying time is the 1,000 year spiritual reign described in Chapter 20 and also foretold to the Smyrna period Christians as ten prophetic days of tribulation, which is 1,000 years. Thankfully as verse 5 states, many others have experienced that first resurrection since that time, and many others yet will before the end of time, by God’s grace. We’d better not be expecting some form of yet another 1,000 year Christian reign upon earth and find ourselves that far out of step with God’s plan. Further danger is found in the many false ideas attached to millennial theories that will defile and exclude people who embrace them from God’s blessings, exposing them rather to the plagues of His judgment and wrath.
    • Revelation 22:18-19