Revelation

• There is the revelation of creation and there is revelation of the Word of God
• Revelation by creation provides proof of God but does not provide the means by which a person can be saved
• Only revelation by the Word, Jesus Christ, can provide for salvation
• The revelation of the Word of God is completed, a closed canon of  66 books, under the two divisions of the Old and New Testament
• The Christian Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the infallible and only authoritative revelation for all mankind
• The Old Testament is equally important as the New Testament
• Progression in revelation from the Old Testament to the New Testament is on the basis of fulfillment, not replacement – such as…
  • Jesus Christ is the one true Jew, the one seed of Abraham, through Whom all the families of the earth are blessed, even as the promises were spoken to Abraham and to His seed, Who is the Christ (Gal. 3:16)
  • The church, being the body of Christ, is the fulfillment of Israel, the elect of God, the people of God
  • The priesthood of Levi is fulfilled by the universal priesthood of believers
  • The temple of the nation of Israel is fulfilled in the body of Jesus Christ, of whom all believers, being members of His body, are also temples of the Holy Spirit
  • Upon Jesus’ death the whole sacrificial system was fulfilled so that now all by the spirit have full and free access into the presence of God
  • The Law is fulfilled in Christ, not annulled

God

• God is Triune: for all eternity the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have been in perfect communion with one another
• God is One: each of the Persons of the Godhead mutually and exclusively indwell one another as One alone
• God is the Almighty
• He is a spirit (not possessed of a body)
• The dominant attribute of God is Love
• God is outside of time and therefore has always known personally all those in Christ, which is His foreknowing us before the foundation of the world
• God is holy, eternal, infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, and autonomous
• God is still God though His will is not being done on earth
• God will accomplish His perfect will against all those in opposition to Him
• Just as all have been created by God, so all will appear before God to give an account in the Day of Judgement
• God will reward those in Christ with the joy of eternal life in His immediate presence and will judge those outside of Christ with eternal damnation away from His presence in hell

The Creation, Man, and The Fall

• Prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth God created angels in the image of God, in all holiness and blessing, beholding the unveiled glory of God in heaven
• God created the angels to be ministering spirits for the sake of humanity
• A third of the angels rebelled under the leadership of Satan and are cursed without the hope of redemption because they sinned against the clearest light in the presence of God
• God created hell for the devil and his angels
• God created the heavens and the earth in a state of darkness because the reality of evil was already present with the rebellion of the angels
• God literally created the heavens and the earth in the space of six days with a repeated emphasis on separations resulting in what is good, foreshadowing the work of redemption that God would accomplish in Jesus Christ
• God created mankind in His image, male and female, in a state of innocence and peace, with communion with God and with a good work to do in the Garden of Eden
• God gave dominion to mankind over His creation and created all of creation for the benefit of mankind (even the stars were created on the fourth day as signs for those on the earth!)
• God exclusively created Eve for Adam to be his mate for life for the mutual benefit of each other
• Homosexuality is in direct violation with God’s act of creation, as evidenced by procreation and prohibited by divine command
• Life only exists on the earth and God has given only the earth for our habitation
• The fruit of the false teaching of evolution makes the discovery of life elsewhere in the Universe a necessary driving force in our present day
• Upon the creation of every human, at the moment of conception, a life is begun that is eternal, because the image of God cannot be annulled
• Mankind is God’s greatest creation and the world view that we are mere animals and that the earth is our mother is an abomination
• Every human has a body, a spirit, and a soul
• One human is worth more than all animals put together and even the whole earth, as even every human shall exist after the destruction of the earth and the Universe
• God created every single person for the ultimate purpose of being a bodily temple that is filled with Himself, which is glorification, without the threat of evil ever causing a separation from God again
• In violation of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, mankind fell into a state of condemnation and immediately died spiritually, resulting in the eventual physical death of the body
• Mankind fell into a state of sin and death, came under the power and dominion of Satan, which is why there is every evil thing plaguing humanity and creation
• Upon the Fall God cursed the ground Man was created from, not Man himself, showing a hope in a new creation – found in the last Adam, the Christ
• In fulfilment of Jesus’ resurrection at the General Resurrection, every human will be possessed of an immortal body that cannot be subjected to the first death anymore
• All of mankind outside of Christ will be subjected to the second death with a body that cannot be destroyed for all eternity in hell
• All of mankind in Christ will be glorified in their immortal bodies

The Lord Jesus Christ

• Jesus is eternally divine, known as the Eternal Son of God
• Jesus emptied Himself voluntarily of His divine form to be born of the Virgin Mary in the real form of our humanity, being born of a woman, without the stain of Original Sin from the seed of Man
• In fulfilment of prophecy Jesus has come as the Son of Man, at the end of the genealogy of Adam, to fulfill all that is lost in Adam
• Jesus’ incarnation was fully possessed of the finite human state, being subject to ignorance, weakness, pain, hunger, thirst, and temptation
• Jesus never sinned
• Jesus was crucified, buried, and on the third day rose from the dead
• Because of His resurrection Jesus is the Son of God in His humanity as a new Adam from a creation not cursed, beginning a new genealogy with Him at the head
• Jesus was glorified in His physical body upon the Acts 2 Pentecost as He was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the only reason why believers are filled with the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit

• The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead, eternally equal to the Father and the Son
• The Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force, Who works to promote all that is about Jesus and His Kingdom
• Upon the Acts 2 Pentecost, when Jesus was glorified bodily with the Holy Spirit, all those who were members of His body, by faith, were also glorified bodily with the Holy Spirit
• Upon faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells believers
• Upon conversion believers are made recipients of the Holy Spirit’s permanent works of Regeneration, Sanctification, and Adoption
• The Holy Spirit works in the world by convicting the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11)

Salvation

• Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ
• God wants and purposes that every single person might be saved
• Jesus died for all
• The atonement is substitionary or vicarious
• The gospel is the promise of eternal life in Jesus
• Those who are truly saved, cannot lose their salvation
• Believers are to live their lives according to the will of God, but are not saved for doing so
• Those who are truly saved and fall into sins that are totally inconsistent with a profession of saving faith will come under God’s sore discipline
• The order of salvation:
  • Foreknown – known of God personally because of faith in Christ from God’s eternal state, outside of time
  • Predestinated – election is not that we might be in Christ, but because we are in Christ. Predestination is based upon God’s foreknowledge and is unto the fruition of our faith, so that we may know that He is working all things out for our good
  • Called – the free offer of salvation pressed upon the heart to respond in faith (many are called but few are chosen)
  • Justified – the objective judicial act of God, because of personal faith in Jesus Christ, resulting in a new standing before God as fully righteous
  •  Glorified – the subjective works of God by the Holy Spirit resulting in three permanent works: Regeneration, Sanctification, and Adoption

Church

• The church is the representation of the body of Jesus Christ, understood both spiritually and physically
• Spiritually, the church of Jesus Christ is a universal and invisible singular body in heaven and on earth – of only those who are in Christ (i.e., saved)
• Physically, local churches are only an imperfect reflection of the spiritual body of Christ, which is only established on the basis of a profession of faith in Jesus
• Physical church membership is necessary in order to establish accountability among members and leadership and to work as a corporate body in order to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ
• Only believers are to be baptised – those who have been baptized as infants need to be baptised upon a public profession of faith
• The only two ordinances of the church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper
• Baptism is by immersion and is only a testimony of the person’s experience of having been buried and risen again in Christ
• The Lord’s Supper or Communion is also only symbolic or a testimony of our feeding on the body and blood of Christ and only to taken by those who believe they are Christians
• The warning in Corinthians against partaking of Communion in an unworthy manner and then judgement is only in how it is observed. Not in drunkeness and feasting, but in solemnly remembering our Lord’s sacrificial act upon the cross
• The only two offices in the physical body of believers are pastors and deacons
• Pastors are males only, while deacons can be both male and female
• Local churches must exercise the discipline of excommunication for those who are not repentant of sins that are inconsistent with saving faith
• The Christian ministry must be about promoting the worship of God in all purity and simplicity, building up biblical homes, and the building up of Christ’s Kingdom
• The corporate church service is to give priority to the ministry of the Word

End Times

• The Second Coming has not occurred yet
• The return of Christ and our gathering together to Him is proceeded by an apostasy among evangelical churches and the revealing of the antichrist
• Jesus’ Second Coming is simultaneous with the Resurrection of the dead and is immediately followed by the Great Judgment of all mankind, with either the eternal reward of heaven or the eternal punishment of hell

Current and Devisive Issues

• Church services should only be traditional
• Women are to remain silent during the church service according to the command of Jesus and the apostles