BELIEF STATEMENT OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

 STATEMENT OF FAITH

WHAT WE HOLD TO BE BIBLICALLY TRUE AND SCRIPTURALLY SOUND

Without God initiating His revelation of Himself to us, there is no true knowledge or true understanding of His person or being.

He injected Himself into our reality and revealed Himself to us simply because of His grace.  If He were not to initiate a way to know and understand Him, we could not, nor would we want to. 

God has manifested Himself as and in Jesus Christ, the final and ultimate understanding of revelation.   He has revealed and relayed the revelation of Himself through His Apostles, as it is recorded in the Holy Bible.

Having said that, the following statement of faith, not exhaustive, is what we have come to know as true and right:

Statement of Faith

1. GOD

We believe in one Infinite and Eternal self-existing God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, distinct and eternal in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Indeed, God never attempts to prove His existence, and states He simply Is.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

He is eternally and ever Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent. In Him belongs all cosmic preservation, regulation and governing preserves, regulates, governs and directs all things so that nothing in the world happens without either his causation or permission. God is the author of good but not of evil. Yet, ultimately, even evil is governed by God in so much as God limits it to an end fitting with his overall plan and purpose.

2. THE BIBLE

We believe the Scriptures as originally given by God, both Old and New Testaments, to be the inspired Word of God, spiritually infallible, entirely trustworthy, and the supreme, final authority in all matters of faith, understanding and conduct.

 

3. JESUS CHRIST

We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life and died on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for all sinners. He paid the price for our sin and resurrected bodily on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father. He will return personally and visibly at the end of the age to fully establish God's Kingdom. We believe that the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection were provided for the salvation of all people but is effective only for those who believe. Christ's death and resurrection provide the only ground for justification and salvation, and only those who believe and continue in Jesus Christ become born of the Holy Spirit and thus become children of God. He alone is the author and finisher of our faith.

4. THE HOLY SPIRIT

The Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, convicts saints and sinners, enable sinners to believe, regenerates the repenting sinner, indwells, reveals, guides, instructs, and empowers the believer for ministry and godly living and service.

5. THE GRACE OF GOD AND SALVATION

We believe that humanity was created in the image of God but fell from its original sinless state through willful disobedience and Satan's deception, resulting in eternal condemnation and separation from God. In and of ourselves apart from the grace of God in the world (what some may call “prevenient faith”),we can neither think, will, nor do anything good, including believe. But the grace of God extends to, prepares and enables sinners to receive the free gift of salvation offered in Christ and his gospel. Only through the grace of God can sinners believe and so be regenerated by the Holy Spirit unto salvation and spiritual life. It is also the grace of God that enables believers to continue in faith, so that all good deeds, intents, spiritual growth and blessings that can be had, can only be obtained and sustained by the Spirit of God and must be ascribed to the grace of God. We believe that salvation is God’s grace and is through grace and grace alone. No manner of work can obtain or maintaining salvation.  It is all of grace through faith in the substitutionary death of Christ Jesus, and that upon repentance and confession of Christ as Lord and savior, one is brought into a relationship with the father and obtain eternity in His presence.

6. THE RAPTURE

While we don't subscribe to a pre trib rapture, we know that God is returning for His Church. Therefore, we live lives of holiness, growing in the biblical faith of Christ, rooted in God and His word in preparedness to have to endure through the tribulation.

We believe in the visible second return of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the dead and of believers to eternity in the presence of God, everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord, and the resurrection of unbelievers to judgment and eternal punishment.

We believe in the day when the Lord shall descend from heaven, and the saints of God shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (The Rapture) and Jesus will take His people to Heaven.

- 1Thessalonians 4: 16-17

We do not believe that day is Imminent (His return with no sign), but will come with signs that will precede His arrival;

- 1Th 5:4

We do not believe that the rapture will be before the tribulation, but after.

- Matthew 24:29-31, Rev. 10:7   1 Corinthians 15:51-52

But, whether pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib, Jesus Christ is coming back, and He's coming back for a people faithful, prepared and looking for His return. We need to play an active role in building up our faith right where we are by abiding in Him.

We reject:

(1) “Positive confession” of the “Word of Faith” movement, that teaches that God can be commanded to heal or work miracles according to man’s will. This also places our desires and wants above those of God’s.

(2) Human prophecy that supersedes the Scriptures,

(3) The incorporation of humanistic, secular psychology and philosophy into Biblical teaching,

(4) The over-emphasis of the spiritual gifts, experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of Biblical teaching.

(5) That one can live a lifestyle of self-centeredness, sensuousness, promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, hatred, etc. and still be saved. This is not to say that you lose your salvation every time you sin, have a weakness or addiction. However, salvation cannot be kept by those who consistently, willingly, habitually and unashamedly maintain a lifestyle contrary to the will and the Word of God. Salvation is of and by God and Him alone. We cannot maintain our salvation. But we are commanded to maintain a relationship with God through Christ. Christ’s warning of not abiding in Him, is to risk being cast in hell. (John 15:4-6)

In Christ’s Service

Rev. E.L.Lewis

Christ’s Remnant Church