Beliefs

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES OF JUDEO-CHRISTIANITY
We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the inspired and infallible Word of God, notwithstanding any scribal disputes or questionable modern liberal translations, and contain all things necessary concerning the knowledge of salvation. The Word of God is the primary resource and final authority on Christian doctrine and practice. When there is personal division over interpretation and application, both apostolic tradition and an individual’s conscious accountable to God, is respected. However, we corporately teach and practice what is consensually believed and agreed upon within the governing Canons of the Communion we are part of.

FAITH IN THE ONE AND ONLY GOD
We believe in the complete fullness of the only and true One God in Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the mystery hidden from the beginning of time, spoken and written of by God’s holy prophets in past times, and revealed in the fullness of time through God’s incarnate Son Himself, and then to and through His holy apostles and prophets from the last times. This truth also effects this church’s vision.

ONE CHURCH WITH LORD JESUS CHRIST AS HEAD
There is only one Church, as the Holy Scriptures state, but we acknowledge the reality of its divisions. With a view towards unity, we believe in being evangelical-biblical, pentecostal-charismatic, sacramental-liturgical all at the same time, because the Word, the Spirit, and the Sacraments agree with each other and should not be separated as they have been over time for various reasons. We understand the religious divisions of the past, but we look forward to the re-unification of catholic, orthodox, protestant, independent, and messianic, et al., through the work of God. All are called to be one in the Christ Messiah, Jew and Gentile alike, according to the Holy Scriptures, and because God is One.

We maintain historical apostolic succession and also appreciate the God-given strengths of the different denominations, historical reforms, and renewals by the Holy Spirit, and so we remerge them to once again allow for the fullness of worship, theology, and practice in unity, with love, respect, and freedom. This will be taught ongoing in the Mission so that wisdom, understanding, and knowledge can be obtained so that Christians can mature as disciples and in how they live out their faith with God and one another. Everybody can both humbly and excitedly learn and grow.

A Christian does not have to be a loyal follower of any one apostle, whether named Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, Thomas or others including any Protestant “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, or teachers”, but to Christ Jesus the Son of Man who is the always-true and only-infallible “apostle and high priest” of our faith -ref Hebrews 3:1. All Christians are called to wholly follow Jesus as Lord, while they also submit to the pastoral care of and follow the good examples of delegated Church leaders, who hopefully care for the flock of the Rock in a faithful way, as they are accountable to the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one Lord of all, and over all.

THE ONGOING WORK 0F THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS
We believe in the ongoing presence, filling, and active work of the Holy Spirit in the Church today, including the five-fold functional roles of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, given “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” – especially since that has not happened yet, and so, although we acknowledge the foundational uniqueness of the original 12 apostles, we disagree with cessationist theology on the grounds of both biblical, historical, and active Christian witnesses. We believe in the continual three-fold positional offices of bishops, priests, and deacons which overlap with and compliment the five-fold functional roles. We believe in all the gifts of the Spirit for the priesthood of all believers which are distributed according to the Lord’s will, as God’s Word states, as God calls all believers to the service of the Lord and to His saints in every generation until the Lord Himself returns in power and glory. We reject full-preterism theology as errant, misleading, divisive, and disturbing.

SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS
We believe that a person is “saved by grace through faith” in the finished work of Jesus Christ and must be “born-again of water and the Spirit” as Jesus said, in order to enter the Kingdom of God, being sanctified throughout their life by the Holy Spirit while remaining in the faith of Christ Jesus. It is not sufficient to merely depend upon church attendance, religious rites, works, or membership in a church organization, for salvation, without having personal faith and a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God works in and through the Church, but the Church is not God. God knows everything and everyone and who belongs to Him in truth.

THE SACRAMENTS of GOD’S GRACE AND POWER
We believe God’s grace is active and made available in the Sacraments that are offered, which are biblical and historical, whether or not people recognize or appropriate the grace offered and given. This first includes Baptism, inclusive of both believer’s baptism for adults and younger and also the historic practice of infant baptism (non-mandatory) which has a Scriptural basis and is documented to have begun in the early Church and continues within its elder tree trunks up to the present day. Let it also be understood that we believe that God treats infants and children different than responsible adults. We faithfully celebrate Holy Communion, which is the meal of the New Covenant and which the Church has believed from early apostolic times to contain the mysterious but Real Presence of Christ in the forms of bread and wine, based upon Christ’s own Words and confirmed by the apostle Paul and other Church fathers, in which Jesus declared the elements to be His Body and Blood and much more than a mere mental or symbolic remembrance. His words are “spirit and life” and are true even if we do not comprehend them. No one must believe this absolutely to receive, but this is what is taught, according to the Scriptures and the patristic fathers. However, in order to receive Holy Communion, the meal of the New Covenant, one should have been initiated into the New Covenant family through water baptism, and so anyone not initiated through the grace of baptism should refrain, since eating and drinking the bread and cup “is a participation in His body and blood” (ref 1 Cor. 10:16). If any unbaptized person communicates a desire to participate, which equates to believing in Jesus’ sacrificial death which the bread and cup proclaims until He comes again, then they should also be baptized. Parents of children of any age can discuss this situation with the pastor.

Because of the divided views and historical practices of various Christians regarding the nature, meaning, purpose, and timings of both Baptism and Holy Communion, we respect parental authority concerning their own children’s participation related to these two sacraments and welcome ongoing pastoral discussion for each family. Although any child can receive Holy Communion at any age since it is Jesus who welcomes them and desires to bless them, and as such, it was the original practice of the apostolic Church still continued by the Orthodox today, we will still offer annual “one-time” classes for children to learn about Holy Communion, either in preparation for receiving this sacrament for the first time at the deemed appropriate age or for being officially taught about it, so that all the children together grow up to highly regard and respect it as holy, as Scripture teaches.

We also believe, based upon Holy Scripture, that God’s grace is also active and available in the other five traditionally recognized sacraments, even though they may hold different significance compared to Baptism and Holy Communion. These are Confession (a continuation of baptismal grace), Anointing with Oil for Healing and at the time of Death, and Confirmation through the “laying on of hands”, which is usually offered when an individual is transitioning into adulthood and is encouraged to personally and publicly confess their own faith in Christ, if they have not already or are not yet Spirit-filled. This does not preclude a person from being baptized in the Holy Spirit at a later or earlier age, even in infant baptism because nothing is impossible for God, nor does it exclude a later age ignition of the gift of the Holy Spirit, perhaps after a renewing or empowering encounter with Christ, who Himself was not baptized with the Holy Spirit until the age of thirty although He was already supernaturally born of God in His incarnation. We may also practice the offering of “altar-calls” so that any “unsaved” persons can respond directly and publicly to the hearing of God’s Word preached. We recognize Holy Orders (ordination) also through the “laying on of hands” and officiate Holy Matrimony between a man and woman who both believe and are baptized, being equally yoked, which mysteriously represents the holy union between Christ and His Church, according to the Scriptures.

ANCIENT CREEDS OF THE CHURCH
We believe the three ancient creeds of the historic orthodox-catholic Church provide an adequate summary of the Christian Faith for the corporate body of Christ, individual disciples, and against major heresies. These are the Nicene Creed, Apostles’ Creed, and Athanasian Creed, with the Nicene and Apostles’ creeds occasionally used in the church’s liturgies. We respect other church’s biblical creeds and statements of faith, but we rely upon these ancient three.

SEVEN ECUMENICAL COUNCILS
We believe that the seven ecumenical councils of the undivided Church serve as a safe foundation and baseline of theological unity for Christian faithful everywhere. Decisions made by councils that met after the one Church became officially divided in 1054 A.D., were not made in consensual unity, representative of the one whole Church, and are therefore partially suspect and hence applicable only to that particular divided segment of the Church, i.e. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. whose councils they were, and therefore are not binding upon all Christians everywhere. The word “catholic” that was used in the Nicene Creed means “universal” is not exactly synonymous with “Roman Catholic”, but instead refers to all true believers of the Body of Christ that hold to the apostolic and non-heretical biblical teachings of the historic Christian faith, inclusive of Rome. As stated earlier, we appreciate historical Church reforms including many of the positive contributions of the Protestant Reformation regarding the primacy of God’s Word, the necessity of personal faith, and the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.