What We Believe About …

The Bible

The Bible is the inspired Word of God, giv­ing a true his­tory of the cre­ation of heaven, earth, and human­ity and con­tain­ing a cor­rect prophecy of the ages to come regard­ing heaven, earth, and the des­tiny of human­ity. More­over, there is no sal­va­tion out­side of what is taught in its pages.

God

There is only one God (Deuteron­omy 6:4). He is the cre­ator of heaven and earth, and of all liv­ing beings. He has revealed Him­self to human­ity as the Father (Cre­ator), in the son (Sav­ior), and as the Holy Ghost (indwelling Spirit).

Father

God is a Spirit (John 4:24). He is the Eter­nal One, the Cre­ator of all things, and the Father of all human­ity by creation.

He is the First and the Last, and beside Him there is no God (Isa­iah 44:6).

There was no God formed before Him; nei­ther shall be there any after Him (Isa­iah 43:10).

Son

Jesus is the Son of God accord­ing to the flesh (Romans 1:3) and the very God Him­self accord­ing to the Spirit (Matthew 1:23). Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16); the cre­ator of all things (Colos­sians 1:16–17); God with us (Matthew 1:23); God made flesh (John 1:1–14); God man­i­fested in the flesh (I Tim­o­thy 3:16);He which was, which is, and which is to come, the Almighty (Rev­e­la­tion 1:8);the mighty God, ever­last­ing Father, and Prince of peace (Isa­iah 9:6).

Jesus Him­self tes­ti­fied of His iden­tity as God when He said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:7–11) and “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).

It took shed­ding of blood for the remis­sion of the sins of the world (Hebrews 9:22), but God the Father was a Spirit and had no blood to shed. Thus He pre­pared a body of flesh and blood (Hebrews 10:5)and came to earth as a man in order to save us, for in Isa­iah 43:11 He said, “Beside me there is no Sav­iour.” When He came in flesh the angels sang, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Sav­ior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost is not a third per­son in the God­head, but rather the Spirit of God (the Cre­ator), the Spirit of the res­ur­rected Christ. The Holy Ghost comes to dwell in the hearts and lives of every­one who believes and obeys the gospel, as the com­forter, Sus­tainer, and keeper (John 14:16–26; Romans 8:9–11).

Sin

Sin is the trans­gres­sion of the law, or com­mand­ments of God (I John 3:4). The guilt of sin has fallen upon all human­ity from Adam until now (Romans 3:23). The wages of sin is eter­nal death (Romans 6:23; Rev­e­la­tion 20:14) to all those who refuse to accept sal­va­tion as set forth in the Word of God.

Sal­va­tion

Sal­va­tion con­sists of deliv­er­ance from all sin and unright­eous­ness through the blood of Jesus Christ. The New Tes­ta­ment expe­ri­ence of sal­va­tion con­sists of repen­tance from sin, water bap­tism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remis­sion of sins, and the bap­tism of the Holy Ghost, after which the Chris­t­ian is to live a godly life (Acts 2:36–41).

Water Bap­tism

Water bap­tism is an essen­tial part of New Tes­ta­ment sal­va­tion and not merely a sym­bolic rit­ual. It is part of enter­ing into the king­dom of God (God’s church, the bride of Christ), and there­fore, it is not merely a part of local church mem­ber­ship. (See John 3:5; Gala­tians 3:27).

Mode of Baptism

Water bap­tism is to be admin­is­tered only by immer­sion. Paul said, “We are buried with him [Jesus Christ] by bap­tism (Romans 6:4; see Colos­sians 2:12), Jesus came up “out of the water” (Mark 1:10), and Philip and the eunuch went down “into the water” and came up “out of the water” (Acts 8:38–39).

Jesus’ death, bur­ial, and res­ur­rec­tion are applied to our lives when we expe­ri­ence New Tes­ta­ment sal­va­tion: “Repent [death to sin], and be bap­tized [bur­ial] every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis­sion of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost [res­ur­rec­tion].” (See Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1–7; 8:2).

Sprin­kling, pour­ing, or infant bap­tism of any kind can­not be sub­stan­ti­ated by the Word of God, but are only human traditions.

For­mula for Baptism

The name in which bap­tism is admin­is­tered is vitally impor­tant, and this name is Jesus.

Jesus’ last com­mand to His dis­ci­ples was, “Go ye there­fore, and teach all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). We should notice that He said name (sin­gu­lar) not names. As pre­vi­ously explained, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not names of sep­a­rate per­sons, but titles of posi­tions held by God. An angelic announce­ment revealed God’s sav­ing name in the New Tes­ta­ment: “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his peo­ple from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The apos­tles under­stood that Jesus was the name to use at bap­tism, and from the day that the church of God was estab­lished (the Day of Pen­te­cost) until the end of their min­istry, they bap­tized all nations (Jews–Acts 8:16; Gentiles–Acts 19:5) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, Jesus is the only name given for our sal­va­tion. “Nei­ther is there sal­va­tion in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Bap­tism of the Holy Ghost

The bap­tism of the Holy Ghost is the birth of the Spirit (John 3:5). This spir­i­tual bap­tism is nec­es­sary to put some­one into the king­dom of God (God’s church, the bride of Christ) and is evi­denced by speak­ing in other tongues (other lan­guages) as the Spirit of God give utterance.

It was proph­e­sied by Joel (Joel 2:28–29) and Isa­iah (Isa­iah 28:11), fore­told by John the Bap­tist (Matthew 3:11), pur­chased by the blood of Jesus, and promised by Him to His dis­ci­ples (John 14:26; 15:16). The Holy Ghost was first poured out on the Day of Pen­te­cost upon the Jews (Acts 2:1–4), then upon the Samar­i­tans (Acts 8:17), and later upon the Gen­tiles (Acts 10:44–46; 19:6). “The promise is unto you, and to your chil­dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39).

Tongues

Speak­ing in other tongues as the Spirit of God gives utter­ance is the man­i­fes­ta­tion God has given as the def­i­nite, indis­putable, super­nat­ural wit­ness or sign of the bap­tism of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6).

It was proph­e­sied by the prophet Isa­iah as the rest and the refresh­ing (Isa­iah 28:11–12), fore­told by Jesus as a sign that would fol­low believ­ers of the gospel (Mark 16:17), and expe­ri­enced by Jews and Gen­tiles alike.

The gift of “divers kinds of tongues,” men­tioned by Paul in I Corinthi­ans 12:1–12 and con­cern­ing which he gave reg­u­la­tions in I Corinthi­ans 14:1–40, is given by both for self-edification (I Corinthi­ans 14:4) and for the edi­fi­ca­tion of the church (I Corinthi­ans 14:27–28).

In church meet­ings the gift of tongues is used to give a pub­lic mes­sage, and it is to be inter­preted. Since this gift can be mis­used in pub­lic, it needs proper reg­u­la­tion (I Corinthi­ans 14:23–28). Not all believ­ers exer­cise the gift of tongues, which is dif­fer­ent in func­tion from tongues given by God as the ini­tial wit­ness of the bap­tism of the Holy Ghost.

Paul said, “For­bid not to speak with tongues” (I Corinthi­ans 14:39) and “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all” (I Corinthi­ans 14:8). Who dares to teach or preach to the contrary?

Speak­ing in tongues means speak­ing mirac­u­lously in a lan­guage unknown to the speaker, as the Spirit gives utter­ance. Tongues can be clas­si­fied in two ways, accord­ing to func­tion: (1)speaking in other tongues as the ini­tial evi­dence of the bap­tism of the Holy Ghost and (2)the gift of tongues as men­tioned in I Corinthians.

Holi­ness

After we are saved from sin, we are com­manded, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

We are com­manded to live soberly, right­eously, and godly in this present world (Titus 2:12) and warned that with­out holi­ness no one shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

We must present our­selves as holy unto God (Romans 12:1), cleanse our­selves from all filth­i­ness of the flesh and spirit (II Corinthi­ans 7:1), and sep­a­rate our­selves from all world­li­ness (James 4:4).

If the right­eous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sin­ner appear? (I Peter 4:18).

No one can live a holy life by his own power, but only through the Holy Spirit. “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

Divine Heal­ing

God has made Him­self known through the ages by mirac­u­lous heal­ings and has made spe­cial pro­vi­sions in the age of grace to heal all who will come to Him in faith and obe­di­ence. Divine heal­ing was pur­chased for us by the blood of Jesus Christ, espe­cially by His stripes (Isa­iah 53:5; Matthew 8:16–17; I Peter 2:24).

Jesus went every­where heal­ing those who were sick (Matthew 4:23–24), and He com­manded His dis­ci­ples to do the same (Matthew 10:8). He said con­cern­ing those who believe the gospel, “They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:18). Mighty heal­ings and mir­a­cles fol­lowed the dis­ci­ples wher­ever the gospel was preached.

There is no sick­ness or dis­ease too hard for God. Any of us, our chil­dren, or our friends can be healed by the power of God.

“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him , anoint­ing him with oil in the name of the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have com­mit­ted sins they shall be for­given him. Con­fess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:14–16).

Sec­ond Com­ing of Christ

Jesus Christ is com­ing back to earth in bod­ily form, just as He went away (Acts 1:11). He will catch away a holy peo­ple (His bride, His church) who have accepted redemp­tion through His blood, by birth of water and of the Spirit, and who are found faith­ful when He comes.

“For the Lord him­self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:16–17).

“One shall be taken and the other left” (Luke 17:36). Will we be ready?

The signs of His com­ing are every­where. The days of peril are here indeed, with forms of god­li­ness void of the power of God; soci­ety and pol­i­tics cor­rupted; and people’s hearts filled with pride, blas­phemies, unho­li­ness, love of evil, and love of plea­sures (II Tim­o­thy 3:1–13). These things, together with mul­ti­tudes run­ning to and fro, the increase of knowl­edge (Daniel 12:4), the per­se­cu­tion of the Jews and their return to Pales­tine (Luke 21:24), and scores of other things are start­ing signs that Jesus’ com­ing is draw­ing near.

Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earth­quakes, storms, floods, dis­tress of nations, per­plex­ity, and people’s hearts fail­ing them for fear are sound­ing the solemn alarm that Jesus’ com­ing is at hand (Matthew 24:6; Luke 21:25–28).

“Pre­pare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).

Res­ur­rec­tion

There will be a res­ur­rec­tion of all the dead, both just and unjust.

“Mar­vel not this: for the hour is com­ing, in the which all that are in graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the res­ur­rec­tion of life; and they that have done evil, unto the res­ur­rec­tion of damna­tion” (John 5:28–29).

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God … and the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell deliv­ered up the dead which were in them” (Rev­e­la­tion 20:12–13)> (See also Daniel 12:2; I Corinthi­ans 15:13–23.)

Judg­ment

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg­ment” (Hebrews 9:27). For this rea­son there will be a res­ur­rec­tion for every­one. “For we must all appear before the judg­ment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, accord­ing to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (II Corinthi­ans 5:10).

The eter­nal des­tiny of every soul shall be deter­mined by a just God who knows the secrets of everyone’s heart. “And before him shall be gath­ered all nations: and he shall sep­a­rate them one from another, as a shep­herd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king­dom pre­pared for you from the foun­da­tion of the world.…Then shall he also say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever­last­ing fire, pre­pared for the devil and his angels.… And these shall go away into ever­last­ing pun­ish­ment; but the right­eous into life eter­nal” (Matthew 25:32–34, 41, 46).

*Adapted from the Word Aflame Press Tract “The Apos­tles’ Doc­trine” #6103