STATEMENT OF BIBLICAL PURPOSE

The purpose of this Church is to establish, strengthen and maintain the body of Christ. [1]

The above stated purpose shall be achieved by seeking ways and means to facilitate, encourage and release followers of Jesus Christ, sent and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to carry, propagate and establish the Kingdom of God in every sphere of influence, both secular and ecclesiastical.[2] Our understanding of this general objective does not require conformity of personality, style or form, but rather seeks to discover, develop and release those individual gifts and callings which God has deposited sovereignly in the various members of His Church according to His own good pleasure.[3]

We affirm that each individual must answer to God for himself and that no individual, whatever his position, has any right to come between a person and his Lord, the one, true God.[4]

We also affirm that this Church is one body of believers commanded to be of one accord and of one mind; and that where differences exist among individuals as to the character, teachings or commands of God, agreement should be sought diligently through an interpretation of Truth agreed upon by the Governing Elders of this church.[5]

We affirm that the discipling of all nations to the Lord Jesus Christ is central to our purpose and demands the proclamation of the Gospel, in word and in deed, to the ends of the earth.[6]  We affirm that the Gospel we are given to proclaim includes, but is not limited to, the following truths:

^·          That the universe was created out of nothing by the power of God's spoken Word.[7]

·         That God entered into covenant with man, created in His image, to exercise dominion in the earth as His lawful representative.[8]

·         That God has created and ordained three basic institutions under His overarching and sovereign authority: the home, the church, and the state. All three have biblically-assigned spheres of responsibility under God,   every person being subject to these authorities and all authorities being accountable to God and governed by His Word.[9]

·         That Satan, the author of sin and enemy of God and man, tempted man in the garden of Eden; that man succumbed to that temptation, disobeying God's direct command to him, an action which resulted in the cursing of both man and the earth, the separation of man from God, man's loss of dominion in the earth, and the scarring, though not erasure, of

God's image in man.[10]

·         That in the days of Noah God judged the earth by a universal flood, concurrently preserving mankind and land animals by means of a literal ark.[11]

·         That God scattered rebellious mankind at the Tower of Babel through the confusion of language.[12]

·         That God adopted Israel as a covenant people in history.[13]

·         That God committed His law to His covenant people, Israel, the children of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob.[14]

·         That Jesus Christ, God's Son, was sent from heaven to earth by the direct action of God to restore man to covenant with God and dominion in the earth and to break the yoke of the curse incurred in the Garden of Eden for both man and the earth.[15]

·         That Old Testament prophecy of God's Messiah is fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, an historical figure who was fully man, conceived by the Spirit of God, born of a virgin, and fully God.[16]

·         That in His birth, life, death, burial and resurrection Jesus, the unique and only begotten Son of God[17], was verified and approved by God as His Messiah, the Anointed One.[18]

·         That only in the work of redemption by God's extension of grace in Christ, and in the

blood of Christ poured out at the cross, is there forgiveness of and cleansing from sin;

that only through the blood of Jesus do we have access to and reconciliation with the

Father; that only in the blood of Christ are we restored to the purpose for which we were

created, to exercise God's dominion in the earth as His covenantal representatives.[19]

·            That Jesus was delivered up to propitiary death on the cross by the deliberate will and

plan of God.[20]

·            That Jesus was raised from the dead by and for the glory of the Father.[21]

·            That this risen Jesus was highly exalted by the Father, even to His own right hand; and that God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ.[22]

·            That at the right hand of the Father, Jesus reigns over all creation and is subduing all things to His authority.[23]

·            That the witness of the exaltation of Jesus is seen in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this earth which began on the Day of Pentecost (30 A.D.).[24]

·            That we as believers in the Lord Jesus, vessels of His life, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, are witnesses to His resurrection.[25]

·            That Jesus has charged His followers to disciple all nations to obedience to His Word.[26]

·            That the witness of the living church of God includes the working of miracles through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in the believer, including divine healings, speaking with other tongues, supernatural words of wisdom and knowledge, spontaneous prophecy and all other biblical manifestations of the Spirit.[27]

·         That the church is Christ's body on the earth.[28]

·         That Jesus will return bodily to this earth.[29]

·         That Christ's literal rulership shall be established on earth.[30]

·         That there will be a resurrection of the dead, just and unjust, on the day of final judgment.[31]

·         That Satan and his followers, including human covenant-breakers, will be cast into an
eternal lake of fire.[32]

·         That God's covenant-keepers will enter into a sin-free, eternal, new heaven and new earth.[33]

B.         STATEMENT OF FAITH

Our Church purposes are derived from the faith we affirm.

1.            The authority for our faith, vision, governance, ministry, and activity is the Holy Bible. We receive it as the written expression of the foundation on which we build, which is Jesus Christ.[34]

2.            We affirm that:

a.            It is the written Word of God, the written revelation from God of Himself, pointing in all its parts to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word incarnate, and, therefore, fully and properly understood only when that end is realized.[35]

b.            It is discernible only by God's Spirit who indwells the believer and teaches
all things, even those things hidden from the natural mind but revealed to
the Spirit-led and obedient.[36]

c.            It is alive, life giving, powerful, effectual and eternal, breathed into men by God, and inerrantly set down in writing by those men as they were moved by God to do so.[37]

d.            In its original manuscripts it is the infallible rule in every aspect of our lives, profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness, superior, though not contrary to, reason and conscience.[38]

3.        We further affirm that:

a.            There is one God[39] who is Spirit[40], the living[41] and self-existent

"I AM" of Scripture[42], without beginning and without end[43]; the same, yesterday, and today, and forever[44], by whom all things were created[45] out of nothing by the spoken Word of God. Upon this Creator God all things are utterly dependent.[46]

b.            This one and only God is transcendent over His creation; He is

visible in His creation; and His image fills His creation.[47]

c.            He is not only the Author of His creation but also the possessor of it, as well,[48] whose rule over all the works of His hands is at once eternal and unchanging and progressively increasing in history.[49]

d.            He is infinite in power,[50] infinite in knowledge,[51] and infinitely perfect in His Being.[52]

e.            This Author, Sustainer, and Ruler of creation is also, rightly, Judge of all the works of His hands.[53]

f.            This God of Scripture is revealed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each and together co-equal and co-eternal, each and
together of the same substance, each and together having all the attributes of God as revealed in Scripture.[54]

g.            This, our God, is a personal God, calling us to loving obedience in relationship to Him and justly commanding our worship in every arena of life.[55]

4.        We further affirm that:

a.            Every man, everywhere, as he is born into this world, unacted

upon by Divine influence[56], is utterly without power or ability to respond to God's call to relationship with Him, to obedience, and to worship. His powerlessness and inability to do so are the direct consequence of the law of sin and death, resident in man as the sin nature.[57]

b.            The law of sin and death, or, as it is resident in man, the sin

nature, passed to all men everywhere from and through Adam, the first man formed by God in His own image, to exercise dominion in the earth as God's lawful representative. In his position as federal head or representative of his race, Adam willfully disobeyed God's commands.[58]

c.            Through his willful transgression of God's law Adam lost man's

dominion in the earth; brought upon man and the earth God's curse; and incurred for all men everywhere God's just and right sentence of death, which is separation from God who is Life.[59]

 d.        As possessor of the sin nature, man is "covenantally dead", that

is, outside the covenant of God, unable to please God, alienated from the life of God, at enmity with God and His law, and without hope.[60]

5.        However, we affirm that:

a.        Man is rescued or redeemed from that sentence of death, reconciled to God, and delivered into the Kingdom of God, into the life of God, into Christ Himself, by God's own atoning work in the second person of the Godhead, the eternal Son, Jesus the Christ,[61] fully God and fully man,[62] who came out of God to the earth through virgin birth,[63] lived a sinless life;[64] gave Himself to propitiary death on the cross, shedding His own blood for remission of sin;[65] was buried; descended into Hades taking the keys of Hades and death, breaking forever the power of sin and death; was resurrected bodily;[66] and ascended back to the right hand of the Father,[67] from which position He reigns until all things in heaven and earth are subdued under Him and His kingdom is delivered up to His Father.[68]

 b.       Only in the work of redemption by God's extension of grace in Christ and in the blood of Christ poured out at the cross is there forgiveness of and cleansing from sin; only by God's grace extended through the blood of Jesus do we have access to and reconciliation with the Father; and only by God's grace extended through the blood of Christ are we restored to the purpose for which we were created, to exercise God's dominion in the earth as His covenantal representatives.[69]

c.            As His representatives, we are called to a faith which anticipates and ever prays for the miraculous manifestations of His grace on earth, including supernatural conviction of sin, divine healings, deliverance from demonic strongholds, prophecies, tongues, interpretations and all other miracle workings of His sovereign will.[70]

d.            The redemptive and miraculous work of Christ is proffered entirely upon the initiative of God, entirely by His grace, which is favor unmerited, unearned, and undeserved on the part of its recipient. Man can never deserve, earn or win redeeming favor from God by any act, activity, ceremony or aspect of his nature; he is, in and of himself, utterly and finally, without means to do so. This redeeming favor is a gift proffered from God to man by a decision of love wholly on the part of God and can only be received by trusting in the completed work of Christ and His cross. God has chosen to extend this grace and power as a gift so that no man should boast of his place in Christ, but rather that God's redemptive work in the Lord Jesus, wholly and finally, should be to the praise of His glory. ^[71]

e.        The redemptive work of Jesus was fully completed in His life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension,[72] and is ushered into our lives definitively, progressively, and consummate[73] entirely upon the initiative of God and in no other way, as He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure in receiving His acts of grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.[74]

f.  The redemptive work of Jesus comes to us definitively as the

Father Himself moves by His mercy to draw us to recognition of our need for God and grants us conviction and repentance of sin, birthing us into the Kingdom of His own dear Son and placing us in Christ as we exercise faith in Him, even that faith being a grace gift of God. Inseparable from this definitive work in each individual is God's sending of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to "seal us" to God.[75]

g.            The redemptive work of Christ is revealed in us progressively

as we receive God's grace to give ourselves to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, who "recreates" us into the image of Jesus Christ and becomes in us the very source of all empowering from and acceptable service to God.[76]

h.        For every believer the progressive work of redemption should include:

•          The pattern of the Lord in submission to water baptism, which is a
command of God to be obeyed according to the New Testament
directives.[77]

•          A pursuit of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, being led by Him as sons of
God. That fullness includes the baptism in the Holy Spirit as promised by John the Baptist, the Apostle Peter, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and as witnessed by the early disciples of Jesus. The experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit includes the blessing of communicating with God in a supernatural language of prayer and praise, and the reception of spiritual gifts which the Holy Spirit bestows upon the believer as He wills.[78]

•          External evidence of the indwelling life of Christ. The expression of
the life of Christ, by the very nature of that life, will include an
outworking or demonstration of the nature and character of God
Himself, reproduced in the believer by the grace of God in Christ
through the sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit,[79] including the
supernatural empowering of the believer to live in ongoing victory
over the nature of sin.[80]

•          A lively fellowship with the local church. The progressive work of
redemption further includes the expression of the life of Christ not
only in the context of the church universal but in the context of the

local church, with every believer expected to be a viable member of the particular local body of believers in which God places him.[81]

i.         The redemptive work of Christ will be accomplished consummately when Jesus, having destroyed the last enemy of God, which is death, shall have subdued all rule, all authority, and power to Himself and shall have delivered up the Kingdom to the Father.[82]

3.                   Therefore, we affirm that:

There is one universal church, comprised of genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This church is the pillar and ground of the truth, the body of Christ in the earth, His building, His temple, called out by God to abide in Christ. This one universal church is comprised of many local churches, each expressing the life of God in a given locality. The universal church, as well as the local churches, are under the sovereign headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.[83]