Section 1. Authority and Interpretation of Scripture.
We believe the original autographs of the Bible to be the inspired, only infallible interpretive Word of God to edify and train us up in the ways we should go[1] and unveils God’s plan to bring the kingdom of God to earth as it is in heaven[2]; and the Bible is best interpreted within the cognitive framework of the biblical writers[3] and remains applicable to us in every nation, culture, and time.[4]
When there are discrepancies in Biblical manuscripts we will lean to the older more ancient manuscripts for our correct understanding of the Holy Scriptures as God’s autographs.[5]
Section 2. The Nature of God and the Deity of Christ.
We believe that God is only, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit[6], and exists outside of creation and is not one with creation.[7] For by Christ, God created all things spiritual and physical.[8]
We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the embodied Name and Word of Yahweh[9], in His virgin Birth,[10] in His sinless life,[11] in His miracles,[12] in His victorious and atoning death through His shed blood on the cross[13], in His bodily resurrection[14], in His ascension to the right hand of the Father[15], that all ruling authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him after the resurrection[16], and in His personal return in power and glory[17].
Section 3. The Present Activity of the Holy Spirit.
We believe in the present activity of the Holy Spirit, who indwells within the living temple of every believer[18], enabling those loyal to Christ to live a godly life[19], and empowers them to reveal the oracles of God to others and the world[20].
Section 4. Humanity as the Image of God.
We believe every human being, male and female, is created as the Image of God[21]. This means we are God’s representatives on earth[22], to live as God would live in human form[23], entrusted with reflecting God’s character[24], administering God’s wisdom[25], and advancing God’s purposes among creation[26]. The identity as imagers of God is not based on ability, age, or merit, but is a sacred calling given by the Creator to all people[27].
Section 5. God’s Design for Sexuality and Marriage.
We believe God’s plan for sexual activity is to be expressed only within the context of marriage between one man (an adult male human) and one woman (an adult female human)[28], that God created male and female as unique biological persons made to complete each other[29], to grow closer through intimacy[30], and to be fruitful and to multiply[31]. Biological sex is binary, determined through the gametes humans are born with[32]. Gender is also biological, determined through binary biological and environmental factors in the womb, and is expressed variably in different cultures through history[33].
Section 6. The Sanctity of Life.
We believe that human life is sacred from conception to its natural end[34]; that we must have concern for the physical and spiritual needs of all fellow human beings[35].
Section 7. The Three Great Rebellions.
We believe in the first great rebellion of humanity, described in the Garden of Eden, when humans rejected who they are as imagers of God, believed and submitted to a lie, condemning humanity to be exiled from the Giver of Life through sin, and to die in mortality[36].
We believe in the second great rebellion of the spiritual sons of God who left their designated estate in heaven[37], who increased human depravity through the skill to create metallurgical weapons[38], to dehumanize women into sex objects[39], and to enslave humanity to occult spiritual forces[40]. These same sons became embodied on earth, defiled themselves with women to produce giants[41], from whose destroyed bodies came disembodied spirits that now torment mankind[42]. All of this demeaned humanity’s God-given image-bearing status and led to the judgement of the great flood[43].
We believe in the third great rebellion when God divided the nations and assigned them to heavenly princes at Babel[44], which hold the nations in spiritual bondage[45]. These powers and principalities continue to rule unjustly[46], until Jesus’s death and resurrection disarmed them and began reclaiming the nations for God’s kingdom[47].
Section 8. The Kingdom and the Two Ages.
Through these three rebellions, the world was held under a domain of darkness, “this present age”[48] with the promise that the “age to come” would see God judging sin and the powers to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven[49]. The “age to come” was announced first by John the Baptist and began at the Cross consummated after the resurrection when Jesus was enthroned as king and every power was placed under His subjection[50]. With the Resurrection of Jesus, the Age to Come broke into this present age[51] and we currently live in the tension of the kingdom conflict, in which we do not yet see everything under the Lord’s rule over the nations[52].
Section 9. Salvation and Divine Calling
Thus, we believe that all people everywhere are slaves to false gods, sin, and death[53], and face the judgement of God[54], and that faith in the risen King Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved from slavery to the spiritual powers, sin, and death[55].
Our role as humans includes participating in God’s ongoing plan to reclaim the nations[56], to rule justly under God’s authority[57], and to walk in loyalty and holiness as God’s sons[58].
In Christ, we are restored to this calling, being conformed to the Lord’s image[59], and commissioned to partner with Jesus as co-heirs and members of God’s divine family[60].
[1]2 Timothy 3:16-17 — All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Psalm 119:105 — Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalm 119:9 — How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Romans 15:4 — For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
[2] Matthew 6:9-10 — Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Revelation 11:15 — The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
Habakkuk 2:14 — For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
[3] 1 Peter 1:10-12 — Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating…
Luke 24:27 — And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
[4] Isaiah 40:8 — The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Matthew 24:35 — Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
[5] 2 Chronicles 34:8-2 Chronicles 35:19 – (When the discovery of the lost and ancient text of scripture led to a change in praxis and national renewal, including celebrating the Passover according to Deuteronomy for the first time in several centuries).
[6] Matthew 28:19 — Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 – Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
2 Corinthians 13:14 — The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
[7]Genesis 1:1 — In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
John 1:1-3 — In the beginning was the Word… All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Isaiah 40:25-26 — To whom then will you compare me…? Lift up your eyes… Who created these?
[8] Colossians 1:16 — For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him.
Hebrews 1:2 — …through whom also he created the world.
[9] John 1:1,14 — In the beginning was the Word… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
John 17:6,11 — I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me…
[10] Matthew 1:23 — Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel…
Luke 1:35 — The Holy Spirit will come upon you… therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
[11] Hebrews 4:15 — …one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
1 Peter 2:22 — He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
[12] John 20:30-31 — Now Jesus did many other signs… so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…
[13] Romans 5:9 — We have now been justified by his blood…
1 Peter 2:24 — He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…
Isaiah 53:5 — He was pierced for our transgressions… and with his wounds we are healed.
[14] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 — Christ died for our sins… he was buried, that he was raised on the third day…
Luke 24:39 — See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see…
[15]Acts 1:9 — He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Hebrews 1:3 — After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
[16] Matthew 28:18 — All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Philippians 2:9-11 — God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…
[17] Acts 1:11 — This Jesus… will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
Revelation 19:11-16 — Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True…
[18] 1 Corinthians 6:19 — Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
Romans 8:11 — If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you… he who raised Christ Jesus… will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
[19] Galatians 5:16 — But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Titus 2:11–12 — For the grace of God… training us to renounce ungodliness… and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age…
2 Peter 1:3 — His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…
[20] Acts 2:17-18 — In the last days… I will pour out my Spirit… and they shall prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:1 — Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
1 Peter 4:11 — Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God…
[21] Genesis 1:26–28 — Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… male and female he created them… and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…
[22] “We are God’s representatives on earth. To be human is to image God” (Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 43).
[23] 1 John 2:6 — Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
Ephesians 5:1–2 — Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us…
[24] Colossians 3:10 — Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Galatians 5:22–23 — The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…
[25] Proverbs 4:7 — The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.
James 1:5 — If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God… and it will be given him.
[26] Matthew 28:19–20 — Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Micah 6:8 — He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
[27] Acts 17:26-28 –…he made from one man every nation… that they should seek God… for ‘In him we live and move and have our being…
James 2:1–4 — Show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ… has not God chosen those who are poor… to be rich in faith?
[28] Genesis 2:24 — Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Matthew 19:4–6 — [Jesus] answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female… Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.
Hebrews 13:4 — Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
[29]Genesis 1:27 — So God created man in his own image… male and female he created them.
1 Corinthians 11:11–12 — Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman…
[30] Proverbs 5:18–19 — Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth… be intoxicated always in her love.
Song of Solomon 1:2 — Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.
[31] Genesis 1:28 — And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…’
[32] Debra W. Soh, The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society, narrated by Debra Soh (New York: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2020), audiobook, 7 hr. 38 min, Myth #1 Biological Sex is a Spectrum.
[33] Debra W. Soh, The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society, narrated by Debra Soh (New York: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2020), audiobook, 7 hr. 38 min, Myth #2 Gender is a Social Construct.
[34] Psalm 139:13–16 — For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb… your eyes saw my unformed substance.
Jeremiah 1:5 — Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you…
Exodus 20:13 — You shall not murder.
Job 14:5 — A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
[35] Matthew 25:35–40 — For I was hungry and you gave me food… Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
James 1:27 — Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction…
Galatians 6:2 — Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Proverbs 31:8–9 — Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute… defend the rights of the poor and needy.
[36] Genesis 3:1–24 — (The Fall: the serpent deceives; Adam and Eve sin; exile from Eden)
Romans 5:12 — Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…
Romans 1:25 —They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature…
[37] Jude 1:6 — And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling…
2 Peter 2:4 — God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell…
Genesis 6:1–4 — The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose…
[38] 1 Enoch 8:1 — (Azazel taught men to make swords and weapons…) While non-canonical, this echoes themes known to early Jewish interpretation. See also Genesis 4:22 — Tubal-cain… the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.
[39] Genesis 6:2 — The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive…
Romans 1:24 — God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies…
[40] Leviticus 17:7 — So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore.
Deuteronomy 32:17 — They sacrificed to demons that were no gods…
[41] Genesis 6:4 — The giants were on the earth in those days… when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man…
[42] 1 Enoch 15:8–10 — (The spirits of the dead giants became demons on the earth, according to early Jewish belief echoed in Jesus’s demonology.)
Matthew 12:43 — When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest…
[43] Genesis 6:5–7 — The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great… and the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth…
Genesis 7:11–24 — (The judgment of the Flood)
[44] Genesis 11:1–9 — (The Tower of Babel and the confusion of languages)
Deuteronomy 32:8–9 (ESV) — When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance… he fixed the borders… according to the number of the sons of God.
[45]Daniel 10:13, 20 — The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me… I will return to fight against the prince of Persia…
Ephesians 6:12 — For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers… spiritual forces of evil…
[46] Psalm 82:1–7 — God has taken his place in the divine council… How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
Isaiah 24:21 — On that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven, in heaven…
[47] Colossians 2:15 — He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Matthew 28:18 — All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Acts 2:5–11 — (Pentecost reverses Babel — the nations begin to be reclaimed through the Gospel.)
[48] Galatians 1:4 — [Jesus] gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age…
Colossians 1:13 — He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…
[49] Isaiah 2:2–4 — It shall come to pass in the latter days… He shall judge between the nations…
Isaiah 11:4 — With righteousness he shall judge the poor… and strike the earth with the rod of his mouth…
Daniel 7:14 — And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom…
Matthew 6:10 — Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[50] Philippians 2:9–11 — Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…
Ephesians 1:20–22 — …when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand… far above all rule and authority…
1 Peter 3:22 — Jesus Christ… who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
[51] Hebrews 6:5 — …and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come…
Acts 2:33 — Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God… he has poured out this… (Pentecost as inbreaking of the age to come)
[52] Hebrews 2:8 — …putting everything in subjection under his feet… At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
Romans 8:22–23 — For we know that the whole creation has been groaning… as we wait eagerly for adoption…
1 Corinthians 15:24–25 — Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father… For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
[53] Romans 6:16–17 — You are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin… or of obedience…
Romans 1:21–25 — …they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images… and served the creature rather than the Creator.
Hebrews 2:14–15 — …through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil…
Galatians 4:8 — Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
[54] Romans 2:5–6 — …you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
John 3:18 — Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
[55] Acts 4:12 — There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven… by which we must be saved.
Colossians 1:13–14 — He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son…
Romans 6:22–23 — But now… you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God…
[56] Genesis 12:3 — …in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Psalm 82 (esp. vv. 6–8) — Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
Matthew 28:19 — Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…
[57] Revelation 5:10 — You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.
Micah 6:8 — …what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
[58] Deuteronomy 14:1–2 — You are the sons of the LORD your God… the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession…
Romans 8:14 — For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
1 Peter 1:14–16 — As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance… Be holy, for I am holy.
[59] Romans 8:29 — For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…
2 Corinthians 3:18 — …being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…
[60] …heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…
Ephesians 2:6 — …and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…
1 John 3:1–2 — See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God…