I. THE SCRIPTURES: We believe that the Holy Bible was written by persons divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasury and examples of God-worthy behaviors and every kind and caliber of exemplary attitudes and dispositions that lead to enlightenment, inspiration, and instruction. We believe that the supreme and original Author of the Holy Bible is the Almighty God. And we believe that the purpose of the Word of God and its instruction is to perpetuate the realities of salvation and truth without any superficial or artificial discolorations or any secular or religious re-constructive intrusions. We believe that the Holy Bible reveals the principles by which God will judge us, and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian understanding and wisdom and the supreme experiential standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions shall be tried on the day of the Lord. We believe in the infallibility of the Word of God only because God is its Author and Fullness. The Holy Bible shouts out the AMEN to our Faith and Practice.
II. DIMENSIONS OF OUR FAITH EXPRESSIONS: THE ALMIGHTY, TRUE, BENEVOLENT, ONLY GOD. We preface this paragraph with our acknowledgment of the reality that no collected document in human history or literary expression is ever capable of encompassing the fullness of the total extent of the understanding of the consciousness of God. As Christians, we accept the Holy Bible, as contained in the canon of the Old and New Testaments as well as accepting the validity of non-canonical spiritual documentation that affirms God’s Prior Existence, preceding all of the totality of God-ordered creation and we affirm our faith in our Immanuel, that is the Jesus of History and the Christ of Faith. We affirm the validity of all Holy Scripture in so far as they are consistent with our belief in God as the Uncaused Cause, the uncreated Creator, that God was, is, and ever will be first and above all forms of created existence. We believe that the Word of God teaches that there is one, and only one, Living and True God, an infinite, intelligent Presence, who is first and above all forms of created existence. We believe that God, God’s authority, and the God power are absolute, ultimate. and equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious presence in the great work of redemption.
III. THE FULLNESS OF HUMANKIND: We believe that the Word of God, that is, the Christian Holy Bible, clearly and sufficiently elucidates original Christian perceptions and implications of the fallen nature of humankind. We affirm that humankind was created in and for holiness, under the law of his/her Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from the holy and happy state and consequently lapsed into alienation and isolation from God. We do not believe, neither do we affirm that humankind sins today because one person sinned earlier in time. Rather, we believe that humankind was conditioned by God to be able to make decisions because of his God-ordained and ordered free will. But dismissing God, other compulsions and anxieties are allowed to overwhelm and misdirect this free will into creating appetites and desires that inhabit and eventually trivialize humankind’s divine preoccupation. Sin then controls us until the consciousness of the divine presence is regenerated. In consequence of which all humankind are sinners, not by constraint but choice; being the nature utterly void of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil; and therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin, without defense or excuse.
IV. GOD’S REDEMPTIVE GRACE: We affirm the wisdom of the Word of God that the deliverance of fallen humankind is an act of Grace. Grace means God’s free gift that enters our fallen states of being and justifies us as God’s own, delivers us into inheritance by divine adoption and in this transformation, we become sanctified. We affirm that this redemptive experience, this New Life In Grace was obtained through and attained by the Blood of the Lamb of God, our Savior-Redeemer Jesus Christ, through His Divine-ordered, mutually interactive functions as Son of God and Son of Man and in unity with the interactive presence of the Holy Spirit. We affirm that by His Death and Resurrection, the Redeemer, Lord, has atoned for our sins and restores us to wholeness within ourselves and to eternal unity with God. Therefore, we believe that salvation and deliverance of God’s children from sin is an act and experience of God’s Grace through God’s redemptive act in Jesus. We believe that the Word of God teaches that the salvation of sinners is wholly of Grace; through the mediatorial activities of the Son of God; who by divine appointment, designation and selection, God the Almighty Father, freely took upon Himself our nature, yet without sin; He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full atonement for our sins; that having risen from the dead, He is now. Himself, living in the eternal presence of God; and uniting in His wonderful person the tenderest sympathies with divine perfection, He is in every way qualified to be the suitable, the Truly and Fully Compassionate, and the All Sufficient Savior of created existence.
V. JUSTIFICATION: We believe that the experience, JUSTIFICATION, means God’s prior move, without our human cooperation, but drawn by the Divine compassion to our human fallen natures. God-in-Christ, “proves God’s love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us”, Romans 5:8-11. Justification includes the unconditional pardon of sin and the promise of eternal life on principles of righteousness; that it is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood; by virtue of which faith His perfect righteousness is freely imputed to us of God; that it brings us into a most blessed Rest in God, paraphrasing the Epistle to the Hebrews, and favor with God, and secures every other blessing that we, believers, need for our eternal residency in the Kingdom of God. We believe that the Kingdom of God and Eternal Life are real experiences encountered only through the dominance of the Spirit over the flesh. Praise the Lord!!
VI. SANCTIFICATION: GOD’S PURPOSE OF GRACE: We believe that the Word of God teaches that in order to be saved, sinners must be regenerated, or born from above which means to be born of God. We believe that regeneration consists in giving a holy disposition to the mind that it is effected in a manner above our comprehension by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth, so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel; and that its proper evidence appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith, and newness of life. We believe the Word of God teaches that repentance and faith are sacred duties, an also inseparable means to grace, which dwells in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and helplessness and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with sincere repentance, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, Deliverer and Redeemer, and relying on Him alone as the only and All-Sufficient Savior. We believe that the Word of God teaches the eternal purpose of God, according to which God graciously regenerates, sanctifies, and saves sinners; that being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man, it comprehends all the means in connection with the need; that is a most glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, being infinitely free, wise, holy and unchangeable, that it utterly excludes boasting and promotes humility, love, prayer, praise, trust in God and active display of His free mercy; that it encourages the use of means in the highest power; that it may be ascertained by its effects in all who truly believe the Gospel; that it is the foundation of Christian assurance; and that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost diligence. By Divine Sanctification, we mean that God called us into holy beings, expressions of a Hold God for a holy purpose and that is to be set apart for God. Our Savior Jesus indicates and affirms this unique opportunity and privilege of ours by observing in John’s Gospel that He chose us and we did not choose Him and that we would do greater things than He. We believe that it is this special and specific act of divine compassion and generous spirit that shapes us into the character of the commensurate behaviors of those who are freely selected recipients of the divine privilege. So, we are called into being by grace characterized by grace by the transforming power-presence of the Holy Spirit and it is among us, the Body of Christ, and within the interactive energies that we generate by the abounding possibilities of the grace dynamic that God moves among us preveniently and we eternally move toward God cooperatively.
VII. REPENTANCE AND FAITH: We believe that Repentance as turning away from or leaving behind and Faith as believing-in are two significant foundational experiential structures on which Christian life and growth are built. When we turn away from the strangleholds of the past, and or the wretchedness of the present we always do need a strong structure on which to build the new experience to which we have been called. That strong structure is Faith, an experience larger than we are, capable to motivate us into changing definitions of the past and moving us toward recovery, restoration and spiritual illumination. We believe the Word of God teaches that repentance and faith are illumination. We believe the Word of God teaches that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces resident in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convicted of our guilt, shame and helplessness and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with convicted spirits, confession and supplication for mercy at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, Deliverer Redeemer and relying on Him Alone as the Only and All-Sufficient Savior.
VIII. CHRISTIAN SAINTHOOD: We believe that the Word of God by word and text as well as by implications teaches that saints are those active members of the gathered people of God, commonly know as the congregation, who by their commitment, life and dedication, to ministries of Christ, persevere to the perpetual activity and presence in the Kingdom of God. Their attachment to Christ is the grand mark that distinguishes them from superficial professors. We believe God’s Providence watches over their welfare and they are kept by the Power of God through faith that is the redemptive work of Christ and that both here on earth and in the life to come they are in the presence of the Almighty God.
IX. THE LAW AND GOSPEL: We believe the Word of God teaches that the Law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of God’s almighty scheme of judgment and mercy. We believe that God’s judgment is Holy, Just and Good, and that the inability which the Word of God ascribes to fallen humankind to fulfill its precepts, arise entirely from humankind’s love of sin; to deliver them from which, and to restore them through Jesus, the Deliverer and Redeemer, to eternal obedience to the holy Law of love in one great purpose of the Gospel, and of the means of Grace connected with the establishment of the visible Body of Christ.
X. A CHRIST-CENTERED, BIBLE-BELIEVING, BIBLE-TEACHING, FULL-GOSPEL PROCLAIMING EXPERIENCE: We believe the Word of God teaches that a visible body of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges instilled in them by His Word. We are not obligated to the recognition and acceptance of non-biblical institutional impositions either doctrinal or ritualistic on the Word of God. The biblical circumscription and functional integrity of these leadership capacities are sufficient in our Experience and our proclamation, ministerial, missional pathologies are centered on His saving act. We proclaim God’s Fullness in Him and our Sufficiency in Him. We affirm that we are who we are because we are saved by His previenient Grace. We are organized, led and motivated by the Holy Spirit in whom we live and move and encounter the fullness of our being. We affirm our proclamation completely, fully and totally in only Jesus the Redeemer and the Word of God and we have no obligation to encourage or entertain teachings or proclamations not centered on God’s Word. We hold every version of the translated Word to be of equal value. We do not accept biblical paraphrases as God’s Word.
XI. BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER: We believe that Christian baptism is a sacrament performed by believers among believers to and upon those who are being called, accepted and restored into the believing community of our Redeemer and Deliverer, Jesus Christ. We believe the only relevance and significance of Christian baptism are water that represents the cleansing Power of Jesus on the surface and regeneration by the Holy Spirit that actually takes place in the person. We do not believe that Christian baptism can be limited or restricted to particular prescribed doctrinal forms or dogmatic anxieties. We believe that Christian baptism and the celebration of the Lord’s supper are expressions of the grace offered us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and as such that grace dynamic should be above and beyond all else and should never be controlled or manipulated by prescribed human doctrinal or ritualistic forms. God, in the Holy Spirit, must be free to act and to move among the pieces of our human will and conscious experiences. We understand from the Wisdom of the Letter to Hebrews that there is an experiential Sabbath which is the Rest of God, and we believers anticipate our ultimate encounter with this rest. Our sacraments are a vital part of the transforming dynamic that lead us to God’s Rest.
XII. THE LORD’S DAY: We believe the Word of God inspires our understanding that the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day, and we refute any teaching or belief that recognizes Sunday as a Christian Sabbath. We know the Sabbath to be Saturday or the seventh day, which are both significant and relevant in some other religious experiences.
XIII. OUR CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE TO NATIONALLY ELECTED AUTHORITIES AND GOVERNMENTS: We believe that the Word of God encourages all Christians to constructive, proper and legal dispositions to civil obedience. We believe that as Christians we must obey the laws of the land, as they constitute the proper governing of God’s children and offer mutual respectability and trust. We believe the Word of God in the book of Romans teaches the inspiration to accept national leaders elected to serve the people as being themselves amenable to God’s divine authority. We believe that Governments are formed and elected to continue God’s work in creation for the interest and good order of God’s ordered existence. We believe that in order to maintain the integrity and providential realities of the human society we Christians are called by God to pray for and conscientiously honor and obey all legally elected governments, especially the government of the people of the United States of America, except only in such matters that are opposed to our understanding of the will of God in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of our conscience and supreme ruler of the whole earth.
XIV. GOD’S IMAGE IN CREATION AND PROCREATION: We believe the Word of God to be definite and the absolute and ultimate Word of Life. We believe that God made man and woman in God’s image and likeness. We believe that God’s intention in the creation of man and woman for procreation was honorable and divine. We believe homosexuality to be a perversion, and a sickness. But we also believe homosexuals are God’s children and are entitled to all the means of God’s Grace that we at the Healing and Deliverance Community Experience of the Holy Spirit can offer them for their restoration to wholeness in God. Homosexuals can receive membership at our Congregation, but homosexuality will not be condoned, accepted, or respected in our Congregation. We believe the Word of God sufficiently and adequately state that homosexuality is wrong in the sight of God. At the Healing and Deliverance Community Experience of the Holy Spirit, we cannot refute or reject this divine injunction.
XV. RIGHTEOUS AND UNRIGHTEOUS: We believe that the Word of God informs us that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the unrighteousness. We believe that all persons are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and sanctified by the Spirit of our God Almighty, and such are the truly righteous in God’s Holy esteem; while all such other persons who continue in impenitence, disobedience and unbelief are in God’s sight unrighteous, and continue to live in the defective states of self-condemnation; and this distinction perpetuates among humankind both on earth and in the life to come.
XVI. THE WORLD TO COME: We believe that the Word of God significantly introduces the Christian experience to the truth that the end of the world is approaching; that at the last day, Christ will descend, and raise believers who have died from the grave for final retribution; that a solemn separation will then take place; that the non believers and unrighteous persons will be adjudged to continue in perpetual restlessness as indicated in Jesus’ illustration in the Gospel according to Luke in the parable of Dives and Lazarus. We believe that at the last day in final judgment, believing and righteous persons will enter into dimensions of endless joy. We believe the Word of God to be true that the final judgment will fix forever the final state of all persons either in perpetual restlessness or eternal joy based on principles of righteousness. We affirm in our proclamation that it is God’s intentional and ultimate will that all persons should enjoy this eternal rest and joy. We also believe in Eternal Life, eternity meaning foreverness with and in God. So that in the NOW of our present existence we can enter into our endless unceasing eternal rest and joy. ETERNAL REST AND JOY! That is the believers’ heaven. It is not a geographic location and absolutely not a “building” made with hands but one that is ETERNAL in the heavens. But “eternal in the heavens” is not a posthumous engagement or activity either. In a rather humble dissection of the term, “eternal” infers posterity, the perpetual ability and capability, a timeless engagement and interaction with God. “Heavens” in the plural form, instead of just “Heaven” exaggerates or maximizes the reality of the phenomenon. “Heaven” which describes a deeper, higher dimensional relationship as we grow into our Godness and goodness. Heaven places believers above and beyond their limitations. This is heaven, perhaps more poetically rendered by Fanny J. Crosby, 1875 in one of our ancient traditional church hymns: “There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea. There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with Thee”. Therefore, we believe in Eternal Life, in the Eternity of God, meaning foreverness with and in God and so in the Now of our present existence we can enter into the then of our spiritual existence so that in eternal life which explains our completeness in God, we affirm that our physical and spiritual natures combine.!
