A. Initial Statement
There is but one God, the Maker/Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself all perfections, and being infinite in all of them. To Him all people owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
Deut. 6:4; Isa. 44:6-8; 1 Cor. 8:4; Col. 1:15-17; 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 1:3.
We reject any and all ancient and contemporary expressions that reduce or deny God’s personality, eternality, infinitude, omnicience, omnipotence and omnipresence. We further reject views that either reduce God to a creature and exalt man by deification. We hold that those who reject or reduce God in this way are heretical and also apostate from the Historic Protestant Orthodox Christian Faith. We also hold as Pagan and heretical the philosophical postulates of Pantheism, Pan-En-theism, Unitarianism (in all forms) and Deism.
We believe that God is absolute in all His perfections, but reject as heretical those who teach that God is absolutely free in His Will and has, can, does, and/or will in the future, act contrary to His holy attributes, essence and nature. Such concepts are reflected in beliefs such as: God can lie, sin and commit criminal or immoral acts. We hold as Pagan those who believe or teach such things.
B. Trinity
1. God is revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are the three persons of the Trinity.
2. Each has personal attributes and distinction. There is no confusion of persons within the Godhead. Thus, we reject the heresies of Sabellianism, modalism, patripassianism, and unitarianism which confuse or deny the persons.
3. In the Trinity there is also no division of substance or essence. Thus, we reject Polytheism, Tritheism, Ditheism, Arianism, and Macedonianism.
4. We receive the Nicene Creed in its statements concerning the doctrine of the Trinity as it sets forth Biblical doctrine against heretics.
The Nicene Creed states:
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.”
5. We receive the Athanasian Creed in its statements concerning the doctrine of the Trinity as it sets forth Biblical doctrine against heretics.
The Athanasian Creed states:
“Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold the true catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish for eternity. This is the true catholic faith, that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without confusing the persons or dividing the divine substance. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is still another. But there is one Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, equal in glory and coequal in majesty. What the Father is, that is the Son and that is the Holy Spirit: The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated; The Father is unlimited, the Son is unlimited, the Holy Spirit is unlimited; The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal; And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal, just as there are not three who are uncreated and who are unlimited, but there is one who is uncreated and unlimited. Likewise the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty. And yet there are not three who are almighty but there is one who is almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet they are not three Lords but one Lord. For just as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge each person by himself to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Christian religion to say that there are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten by anybody. The Son is not made or created, but is begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. Accordingly there is one Father and not three Fathers, one Son and not three Sons, one Holy Spirit and not three Holy Spirits. And among these three persons none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another. But all three persons are coequal and coeternal, and accordingly as has been stated above, three persons are to be worshipped in one Godhead and one God is to be worshipped in three persons. Whoever wishes to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.”
Matt. 28:19; John 1:14; 14:9-11; 15:26; 1:1; 1 Cor. 8:6; 2 Cor. 11:14; Gal. 4:6.
C. Person of the Father
1. God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, is uniquely the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. His Fatherhood is fundamental to the divine being and has always existed. See 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31; Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:3; Rom. 15:6; 1 Pet. 1:3. The Son is said to be “begotten of the Father” in Jn. 1:14, 18; 3:16; Col. 1:15; 1 Jn. 4:9. The Father affirms this relationship in Matt. 3:17; 17:5; Lk. 9:35; Heb. 1:5-10. The Son also affirms this relationship in Jn. 5:17-26; 8:54; 14:12; 17:5; Lk. 2:49.
2. God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, is also the father of the whole nation of Israel. This is stated in Ex. 4:22; Dt. 32:6; Is. 64:8; Mal. 1:6; 2:10.
3. God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, is also the father of all who believe in Christ as stated in Jn. 1:12; Gal. 3:26; Eph. 2:18-19; Rom. 8:14-17; 1 Jn. 3: 1; Eph. 4:6.
4. Some of the works of the Father include the determination of the decree. Ps. 2:7-9; Jn. 6:37-38; 17:4-7; election Eph. 1:3-6; creation 1 Cor. 8:6; sending the Son Jn. 3:16; 5:37; 8:16; raising the dead Jn. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:15; revelation Rom. 1:2; judgment 1 Pet. 1:17; disciplining of sons Heb. 12:9; Jn. 15:1-2.
D. Person of the Son
1. The one Lord Jesus Christ is eternally begotten of the Father, true God from true God, begotten, not made or created in time. He was eternally pre-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit. There was never a time when the Son did not exist. Through Him all things were made.
2. He took upon Himself true human nature, both body and soul, by a virgin conception, yet without sin and without diminishing anything of the deity. He perfectly fulfilled the law, suffered, died upon the cross for the salvation of sinners, was buried, and rose again the third day. He ascended to the Father, at whose right hand He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He is the only Mediator, Prophet, Priest, and King of the Church and Sovereign of the universe.
3. Any opinion which denies the Son’s true deity and true humanity or the hypostatic union of His two natures is damnable heresy. Some of these heresies include: Arianism, which denies the true deity of Christ; Adoptionism, which denies the true deity; false Kenosis theory, which denies the deity, saying that Christ emptied Himself of the deity in the incarnation; Nestorianism, which makes two persons in Christ and denies the hypostatic union of the natures into one person; the false theory of peccability, which says that Jesus could have sinned, thus denying the perfect deity and perfect humanity, which was also condemned at the Council of Nicea with Arius’ other views; Eutychianism and Monophysitism, which deny the true deity and true humanity and hypostatic nature of the two, making the nature of Christ a mixture of the two or a third something; Docetism, which denies the true humanity of Christ; and Apollinarianism, which denies a rational soul in Jesus; Monothelitism, which denies Christ’s human will.
4. We accept the statements of the Nicene Creed as it set forth the Biblical doctrine of Christ.
5. We receive the statements of the Chalcedonian Creed as it set forth the Biblical doctrine of Christ against heretics.
The Chalcedonian Creed states:
“We, then, following the holy fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable soul and body; consubstantial with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin, Mary, the mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of the natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.”
6. We receive the Athanasian Creed as it set forth the Biblical doctrine of Christ against heretics.
The Athanasian Creed states:
“It is also necessary for eternal salvation that one faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became man. For this is the right faith, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at once God and man: He is God, begotten before the ages of the substance of the Father, and He is man, born in the world of the substance of his mother, perfect God and perfect man, with reasonable soul and human flesh, equal to the Father with respect to his Godhead and inferior to the Father with respect to his manhood. Although he is God and man, he is not two Christs, but one Christ: One, that is to say, not by changing the Godhead into flesh, but by taking on the humanity into God. One, indeed, not by confusion of substance but by unity in one person. For just as the reasonable soul and the flesh are one man, so God and man are one Christ…. This is the true catholic faith. Unless a man believe?this firmly and faithfully, he cannot be saved.”
Matt. 1:23; 3:17; 17:5; Lk. 3:22; John 1:1,14; chapter 8; Acts 3:22; Rom. 8:34; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:7; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; 3:16; Heb. 1:2-3; 2:14; 4:15; 5:5-6; 7:26.
E. Person of the Holy Spirit
1. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He possesses personality and is truly God. He proceeds from the Father and the Son.
2. His works include creation, revelation, and inspiration.
3. In the Old Testament He worked indwelling some, enabling some for service, and restraining sin.
4. He was The Personal Agent in the virgin conception, and the anointing, filling, sealing, leading, and empowering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was also involved with the Son and the Father in the work of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. His works in New Testament believers include regenerating, convicting, effectually calling, indwelling, baptizing, sealing, distributing gifts, filling, teaching, guiding, assuring, and interceding.
6. The Holy Spirit distributes gifts to the Church and to each individual member of it as He wills. Some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the early church were temporary, given for the establishment of the Church, for example apostles, prophets, gifts of miracle working and healing (i.e. faith healers), and discernment of spirits.
Most M.D.s do not typically try to find the best online pharmacy viagra sale out of the hundreds that you find on the internet. This method allows it free sample of viagra browse around description to reach the bloodstream much more quickly. Has tadalafil vs cialis been around much longer than other treatments, and has a prolonged effect. One thing every man should know is viagra discount india that erectile dysfunction is a type of sexual dysfunction which affects a man’s ability to achieve and maintain hard-on for a satisfying intercourse. 7. The gift of tongues was a supernatural endowment of speech and understanding of a human language or languages previously unlearned by the recipient. It was given in apostolic times and in apostolic presence as a sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel, as a sign that God was about to cut off national Israel and graft in the Gentiles. Tongues is not angelic language nor non-cognisant prayer language, nor evidence of an experience subsequent to conversion known in Charismatic Theology as the baptism or filling with/in/by the Holy Spirit. Matt. 28:19; Jn. 3:3-6: 14:16-17; 16:7-15; Acts 2:33; 5:3-4; Rom. 8:26-27; 1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13; 5:18; Gen. 11:7; Deut. 28:49; Isa. 28:1 1; Jer. 5:15; Joel 2; Acts 2:8; 1 Cor. 14:21; 2 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:20-21; Heb. 2:4.
7. We reject that the temporary Apostolic gifts are present today, such as miracles, healing, revelatory prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.
8. We reject the Word of Faith/Prosperity Movement and its theology as heretical and Pagan.
F. Creation
We hold the Scriptures to be inerrant and infallible in matters of history, geography, and science and any other subject the Scriptures so address. God created all things from nothing. Adam and Eve were created by God after His own image and likeness in perfect righteousness. We believe in the actual, literal, physical, historical reality of Adam and Eve as the first parents of all mankind, directly created by God in their material and immaterial aspects. We reject and hold as heretical the accommodation to evolution by the concept of evolution of the body (material) but that the soul (immaterial) is a direct creation of God. We also reject and hold as heretical accommodational views that hold that man/mankind is a naturalistic, materialistic mechanism, and the soulish aspects are but chemical processes. We also hold as Pagan and heretical the philosophical postulates of Pantheism, Pan-En-theism, Unitarianism (in all forms) and Deism.
We believe and accept as Biblically and historically true: That God created mankind as either male or female in gender. We reject any concept that confuses the gender distinction. We further believe as Biblically and historically true that God created and established marriage for the safety, common well being, happiness and protection of His creation of mankind. Biblical marriage is defined in Scripture as the union of one man and one woman. We reject as heretical and Pagan any position that circumvents the above stated position and purpose of God, such as: homosexual unions, whether poly-amorous or monogomous, polygamy, bi-sexuality, beastiality, common law marriage, cross-dressing, trans-gender, trans-sexuals, fornication, adultery, or civil unions. We believe these are the contrived expressions of depraved minds. We also reject any other depraved expressions that might well be conceived in the future as contrary to the stated Will of God revealed in Scripture.
We believe in a literal six 24-hour day creational period, with day and night emphasis. We hold to a young earth/recent creation view as Scriptural. We reject and hold as heretical all forms and expressions of evolution: athestic, thestic, progressive, whether ancient or modern. We reject the following views: Day-Age Theory, Revelatory Day Theory, Gap Theory, and any other theory past, present and future that alters a literal six-day, 24-hour creation as defined above.
Gen. 1:2; 1 Cor. 8:6; Rev. 4:1 1
G. Providence
God from all eternity decreed all things that come to pass, and perpetually governs all creatures and events. However, He is in no way the author or approver of sin, nor does His decree in any way violate the responsibility and accountability of man for all his acts and failures to act. God’s Will is singular, but for purposes of discussion, dual. God’s Moral Will is revealed solely in the Scriptures. God’s Providential Will is secret, and is only known by man after the historical fact or by Scriptural revelation but known to and decreed sovereignly by God prior to all creation. God’s decree is not based on His foresight of the actions of His creatures nor any historical events. Rather, all actions and historical events are known to God and infalibly come to pass because of His sovereign eternal decree.
Isa. 46:10; Eph. 1:11; Dan. 4:34-35; Deut 29:29
We reject and hold as heretical and Pagan all views that deny the omniscience of God as expressed by the Moral Government View. This heretical view is held currently by Youth with a Mission, and was held in times past by Charles Finney and is also known as the doctrine of Niscience.
The following books and materials reflect in fuller detail our position on the doctrine of God.
The Triune God: A Historical Study of the Doctrine of the Trinity – Edmund Fortman
The Trinity – Edward Bickersteth
The Trinity – Robert Morey
The Battle of the Gods – Robert Morey
Christianity and Liberalism – Gresham Machen
Origin of Paul’s Religion – Gresham Machen
The End of Liberal Theology – Peter Toon
Jesus Christ Our Lord – John Walvoord
The Virgin Birth of Christ – Gresham Machen
The Holy Spirit – Charles Ryrie
S.G.C. Notes of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement – Roger Evans
Biblical Creationism – Henry Morris
God, Science & Evolution – E.H. Andrews
The Genesis Flood – John Whitcomb and Henry Morris
Evolution: The Challenge of the Fossil Record – Duane T. Gish
Genesis in Space and Time – Francis A. Schaeffer
The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back – Peter Jones
Spirit Wars – Peter Jones
Pre-Christian Gnosticism – Edwin Yamauchi
Gospel Truth / Pagan Lies – Peter Jones
S. G. C. Gnosticism Notes – Roger Evans
Knowing God – J. I. Packer
Christ Before the Manger – Ron Rhodes
The Trinity and the Eternal Sonship of Christ – Zeller and Showers
The Eternal Sonship of Our Lord Jesus Christ – J. C. Philpot
The Ascension of Our Lord – Robert Gromacki
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