OUR OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF FAITH
- We believe that G-d is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, justice, power, and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True G-d in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.
- We believe that G-d’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, G-d created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing and mankind. G-d created all things very good.
- We believe that satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against G-d, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of G-d’s presence and, and as usurper of G-d’s rule, established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on earth.
- We believe that G-d created mankind in his image, male and female, for relationship with Himself to govern the earth. Under the temptation of satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness, and G-d’s judgment of death to earth. Through the fall, satan and his demonic hosts gained access to G-d’s creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to G-d’s judgment of death, and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
- We believe that G-d did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by his providence. In order to bring redemption, G-d established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, G-d bound himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and satan and to bless all the nations through them.
- We believe that as a King, by his mighty acts, G-d later redeemed His people from the bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligations to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of G-d’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.
- We believe that when Israel rejected G-d’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore G-d’s kingdom reign over his people as Messiah forever.
- We believe that in the fullness of time, G-d honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully G-d and fully man in one person, He is humanity as G-d intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as G-d’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s Kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted G-d’s people in His dying for the sins of the world; Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant blessing to Abraham.
- In His sinless, perfect, life, Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took G-d’s judgment for sin which we deserve as lawbreakers. By His death on the cross, he also disarmed the demonic powers. His death upon the cross opened up healing as part of the gospel to be preached.
- As G-d’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing G-d’s reign throughout the whole earth today.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church on the evening of the resurrection, when Jesus breathed upon His disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. This was the experience of receiving the indwelling Spirit bringing “Zoë,” life to them. This is the one baptism referred to in I Corinthians 12:13, baptizing believers into the body of Christ. These disciples and others would later receive the “Promise of the Father” the mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit when the disciples who had earlier received the Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Spirit”. Whereas the receiving of the Spirit on the evening of the resurrection was for life, the Spirit coming upon them in power and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them was the result of Pentecost. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of G-d for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of satan by the evangelization of the world through the proclaiming word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding helper, teacher, and guide. We believe Jesus is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, as a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe that this baptism in the Spirit is almost always subsequent to conversion, that there are very rare occasions that it comes at the time of conversion. But, even with this observation it is difficult to know if it was truly simultaneous or was a few seconds after conversion. We believe the Biblical pattern is for this experience to be subsequent, though there is even in the Bible an instance when it wasn’t,--- the experience of Cornelius in Acts 10, in light of Acts 11:14.
- We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and the exercise of all Biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, for impartation of gifts of the Holy Spirit and the recognition and the empowering of those whom G-d has ordained to lead the Church.
- We believe the divinely ordained leadership of the Church is the five-fold ministry. The purpose of the five fold ministry is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. For this reason, our highest value will be upon models of ministry that are producible in the public which will serve the saints well in ministry in the public arena. We will give away what we have learned; knowing that all we have is by His grace.
- We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of the Holy Scripture so that the Bible is “G-d breathed.” We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament as our final, absolute authority, and only infallible rule of faith and practice.
- We believe that the whole world is under the domination of satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people are therefore under G-d’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts, and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from satan’s dominion and enter into G-d’s kingdom reign.
- We believe in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head all members. The Church was established during the ministry of our Lord, received the Sprit, with its regenerating life, on the night of the Resurrection, and received the “Promise of the Father”, the Baptism or filling with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
- We believe that Jesus Christ ordained two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
- We believe that full release of a harvest in the nations of the world is deeply linked with a visitation of the Spirit to the nation of Israel. We stand with Israel and believe for the salvation of Jewish people around the world-- to be reconciled to Yeshua and become one new man in Messiah as God has always intended.
- We believe that G-d’s Kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible triumphant appearing of Christ- His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of satan all his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the eternal blessing of the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, G-d will be all in all and new heavens and new earth, recreated by his mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which we will live forever.