Statement of Faith « Standing Firm

An Illumination and My Statement of Faith

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? ~Numbers 23:19

God does not need us to serve Him or His good purposes. He does not need us to do His bidding or make His words come true for the fulfillment of His will. There is one God and he is the maker, preserver, and ruler of everything. For man’s sake, God reveals himself to us through three “offices” which are equal and harmonious. God the creator, the Holy Spirit our providential source and Jesus Christ the redeemer of all who believe that He is the Son of God.

God does involve himself in our daily lives. Jesus Christ gave us the model of prayer in the Lord’s prayer which shows us how involved God our Creator is in our lives. “Give us this day our daily bread”, “forgive us our trespasses”, “lead us not into temptation”, “deliver us from evil”, are all past, present, and future ways God works in our lives, but He is not limited to these works. God is not limited.

God does not need our relationship with Him. He does not need our words or our thoughts or our speculation. He does not need. Jesus Christ does not need. The Holy Spirit does not need. The three are all One in unity, they are God and God does not need.

The Attributes of God – What I Believe

God is all-knowing, all seeing, all knowing, unchangeable – His love is from everlasting to everlasting, He is immortal, eternal, faithful, omnipotent, omnipresent, He is infinite, He is omniscient, He is jealous, He is righteous, He is merciful, He is incomprehensible, He is impartial, truthful, wise, loving, and patient. He is also justly wrathful.

Statement of Faith

The Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit in order that the world may be convicted of sin and error, so that regeneration through the blood of Jesus Christ – the new birth, where we become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit for our sanctification and empowerment, not so that God may blessed by our presence with Him but so that we may be blessed by Him and in order that we may bring Glory to His Son Jesus Christ.

We, man, are in need of redemption because of original sin. We are born opposing God because of this sin. For two thousand years there has been only one way to be redeemed and that is through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, sent by God and born of a virgin birth so that He was born righteous and pure, not under the curse of the original sin in fulfillment of the law. He was buried and rose again on the third day, ascended to the Father where He makes intercession for believers today. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out to all who believed and followed Jesus Christ and the pouring out continues today. After death there can be no redemption – once the Truth is seen there is no need of faith and it is by faith that we must receive and believe.

Jesus Christ is our Mediator, our High Priest, our Sovereign and our Righteous King, our Kinsman Redeemer, and the Lord and Messiah of the lives of those who believe in Him. I believe in Him as my Lord and Saviour and I believe that He is the only Son of God.

He will make a glorious appearance at the end of this age and His Kingdom will have no end. He will return in the victory that is already His and He will depose Satan from his current throne which God has allowed for a time because of the original act of rebellion by the first humans, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed God and through their rebellion lost their purity and cursed all future generations.

Regeneration is a gift offered to man which overcomes the curse through the grace of God. A gift freely given in order that we may be reconciled to Him. One that requires something of us and that is the rejection of our sin, turning away from evil, and this is done through the work of the Holy Spirit who enlightens the mind so that we may understand and delight in the word of God. We are justified in our faith by God’s glorious richness and acquitted of our sin because of Jesus Christ and not through anything that we ourselves can do.

Through sanctification we become passionate for God’s holiness and have a desire to become thoroughly cleansed and sanctified in order that we may humbly bring glory and honor to Him, our God the Father and to His Son Jesus Christ.

We detest all evil and any evil that comes near or enters into our heart – for to not be pleasing to God the Father is abhorrent.

As believers in Christ Jesus and partakers in communion with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are preserved by God – not by ourselves, and not through anything that we can do. Our outward partaking of communion is a pledge, a renewal, and an outward display to others in the body of our right relationship within the body of Christ.

Those given to the Son, stay with the Son and no one and nothing can pluck them from His hand, not even themselves, though some may fall into sin and lose comfort and joy, hurt Christ’s church, and worldly judgment upon themselves. Once sin is repented of they are renewed into fellowship.

The body of Christ is the true church and the local body is the local expression to be encouraged and edified so that we may work together for the building up of the body, for corporate worship, and for outreach into the world. The local body of believers has the responsibility of holding members accountable to the deeds done before man of local believers who have placed themselves under their authority.

At death the bodies of believers and unbelievers both sleep for a time until both will be raised, some to judgment and others to glory. At this judgment every thought, every deed, and every intention will be scrutinized. Jesus Christ will be both advocate for believers and judge of all. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment, which is eternal separation from God and the righteous will have communion with Him for eternity.