2 BASIC BELIEFS OF THIS CHURCH
¡°What you heard from me,
keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with
faith and love in Christ Jesus.
Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you ¨C guard it with the help
of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.¡±
(2 Timothy 1:13-14)
One of the principal functions
of the visible church is to testify God to the present generation. Through her belief and practice, the
Church proclaims to the world the attributes and works of God. With adequate knowledge of the substance of our beliefs, we shall have strength to
keep our faith. Through clear understanding of the implications of our beliefs, we
can live out our faith in sound principles. We have precisely listed the fundamental
truths that we believe in our constitution, as a code of belief for all the
members of the church. It is the
foundation for our faith and unity as well as the reference for our walk and
service.
We may summarize this code of
beliefs into the following four main aspects: (1) We believe
in the Triune God. (2) We believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
(3) We believe in the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. (4) We believe that the Holy Bible is
the Word of God with supreme authority.
The purpose of this article is not to give a detailed interpretation of
Christian doctrine, but rather a simple but vital presentation of the content
of our beliefs to the members of our church. With reference to these fundamental
doctrines, we shall understand the vital difference between the
(1)
The church
believes in and worships the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
The Bible shows us that there
is only one God. He is one Being, but exists in three Persons: God the Father, the Holy Son Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The
declaration made by the Lord Jesus Himself: ¡°Baptizing them in the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.¡± (Matthew 28:19), significantly verifies the
recognition of such doctrine. In
the Old Testament, God had also personally declared His name: ¡°God said to
Moses, ¡®I AM WHO I AM¡¯.¡± (Exodus 3:14) and ¡°Jehovah ¡ is My
name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to
generation.¡± (Exodus 3:15) God is
eternal and self-existent. His
self-existence signifies that He is transcendent, above and beyond all His
creations, whether substantial or otherwise. The self-existence of God also
demonstrates that He is absolutely perfect. Therefore, He needs nothing beyond
Himself to signify His perfection.
God¡¯s eternal existence implies that He is infinite, unceasing, and
forever unchangeable, that He and all His abundance in glory exist eternally,
surpassing time and space.
The Bible also shows us that God has personality and attributes. He is not an impersonal force, but He has
authority, freewill, thoughts and feeling.
Strength wise, He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, as
described in the Scriptures: ¡°How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths
beyond tracing out.¡± (Rom. 11:33).
He creates and controls all things.
¡°For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.¡± (Romans
11:36) He creates all lives in the
spiritual and the physical realms.
For His special purpose, He created man after His own image and
likeness, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Being the Lord of life, He also actively
controls and intervenes in both of these realms. Nothing can disturb His eternal plan and
will. Quality wise, ¡°God is light,
in Him there is no darkness at all.¡± (1 John 1:5). Hence the holiness and righteousness of
God, as well as His kindness and love, are absolute and unchangeable. While God by no means clears the guilty,
He is also full of grace.
Consequently, from these attributes come His judgment, condemnation,
redemption, and justification of mankind.
(2) The church
believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He became flesh and was born into this
world by the virgin birth and through the conception of the Holy Spirit.
Before His incarnation, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was pre-existent
and eternally existent. His personality
as the Son of God shows that He is one of the Persons of the Triune God,
sharing the same dignity and glory with the Father. He existed before all the creations,
being the master craftsman of them.
But He ¡°became flesh and made His dwelling among us¡± (John 1:14) through
incarnation. This Jesus Christ, Son
of God, Who had executed God¡¯s will and plan on earth, did manifest in His
flesh the fullness and perfection of both His divine and human natures. Jesus¡¯
deity revealed the
power and authority of God, so that we may come to know God
through Him - ¡°The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of
the Father.¡± (John 1:18) His
perfect humanity illustrated the perfect integrity of the man God originally
created. He also brought along grace and truth that surpass the requirements
of the law.
Jesus Christ had no sinful
nature, for He was not born of Adam¡¯s race. Nor did He sin, for Satan could find
nothing to accuse Him of. He
is the Lord of all believers and the head of the Church. His speeches and teachings were full of
authority, for His teachings came from God. What He had heard from God, He preached
to the world. His acts were also
full of authority, for ¡°the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what
He sees His Father doing; because whatever the Father does the Son also does.¡±
(John 5:19) In all, He is our sole
object of worship and service.
(3) The church believes that Jesus Christ died
on the cross for the sin of the world, was buried and then resurrected on the
third day, ascended to heaven later, and will come again in the future. Whosoever believes in Him as personal Savior shall
have everlasting life.
The
redemption by Christ is a vital part of the
church¡¯s belief. Both the content
and the effect of redemption are perfect and complete. Once
Christ was offered for the sin of mankind, as an eternal sin offering, the call
to redemption by grace will never change throughout this dispensation of
salvation by grace. Redemption is
by God¡¯s grace and is entirely initiated and achieved by God alone. It is independent of any human
deed. Redemption shows God¡¯s
requirement for holiness and His righteous judgment. It also reveals God¡¯s unfathomable love and is the foundation of total
forgiveness. Redemption requires
the faith of the person. Such faith
includes our confession of sins, and our recognition and acceptance that the
Lord Jesus died for us. Redemption
implies the function of propitiation, which is to save the fallen mankind from
sin, making them into a new spiritual creation, abiding in God¡¯s authority and
attributes that enable them to become free from the power and law of sin. Redemption denotes the necessity of a
price. It is the sacrifice of the
priceless life of Christ, ¡°the righteous for the unrighteous¡± (1 Peter 3:18),
that our case may be closed after we have been freely justified. Furthermore, the relationship between
God and man is re-established, that we may be reconciled to God in Christ and therefore can rejoice in Him.
Christ ¡°through the Spirit of
holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from
the dead¡± (Romans 1:4), that we may be justified. After the resurrection, He ascended to
the Heavens to prepare a heavenly home for us. However, through the coming of the Holy
Spirit, He still dwells in the hearts of the Christians and guides our lives and
service through His teachings
and the leading of the Spirit.
The Bible promises that those
Christians who have fallen asleep shall wait for their bodily resurrection, and that the living ones shall wait for their
bodily change, and to be taken in rapture.
All these events will be accomplished in sequence when the Lord comes
again. He will lead us into the
heavenly kingdom and eternity. This
will be the result of our faith.
Therefore, we have hope not only in this present life, but the blessing that we will also abide with God in
eternity. Such hope will become the
encouragement of our lives and pursuit, as it is written: ¡°Not that I have
already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to
take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet
to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God
has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.¡±
(Philippians 3:12-14)
(4) The Church believes that the Old and New
Testaments are revelations from God and are the only authority of our beliefs
and daily walk of life.
There are altogether 66
books in the Biblical Canon. All of
them have undergone verification, acknowledgment and declaration by the early
churches. All these books display
one or more of the following characteristics: (a) God¡¯s personal revelations, through
the inspired writings of His prophets and servants in the Old Testament, and
the apostles and servants in the New Testament; (b) the authority of the
teachings by the Lord Jesus Himself;
(c) harmony through the inspirations of the Holy Spirit; (d) cross references among the books
themselves in the Bible.
The revelations of the Bible
have been completed at the end of the book of Revelation. There are no more extensions,
supplements or any other revelation.
The Bible covers all the fundamental truth regarding salvation and
sanctification. To those who seek
God, the Bible is ¡°able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus.¡± (2 Timothy 3:15) To
Christians, the Bible directs us toward the walk of holiness. To this present generation, the Bible
declares God¡¯s absolute standard on morality and daily behavior, and the
separation between righteousness and evil.
This overview of beliefs for
our church outlines the principles that we believe and keep. It is also the framework recognized by churches of fundamental beliefs. God has opened a door of gospel
preaching for us that constantly there are visitors coming to seek salvation.
Therefore we have such a solemn commission to pass on,
accurately and clearly, the contents of the gospel and of our belief that these
sincere and earnest seekers would come to believe in the Lord and receive the
everlasting life. Through having the
life of God, we can demonstrate His noble character that mankind longs for. By sharing the divine nature of God, we
can enjoy true fellowship in love and care. In having
God¡¯s presence and promises, we can experience His protection and blessings. By
casting our hope into eternity, we shall be rewarded with a real security.
The Bible teaches us to ¡°build
yourselves up in your most holy faith¡± (Jude 20). May we keep
learning in His grace that we can have a deeper understanding about God and His
word: to know why we believe, how we believe, and to what extent we have been
keeping our faith. May God edify us to become believers,
keepers and preachers of the faith that in time He will use us to pass on what
we have kept ¡°to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach
others¡± (2 Timothy 2:2).