III. GOD
We believe that there is but one living and true God (1), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (2), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (3)—each equally deserving worship and obedience.
A. God the Father
We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace (4). He is the Creator of all things (5). As the only absolute and omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption (6). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (7), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (8). He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass (9). He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events (10). In His sovereignty He is neither the author nor approver of sin (11), nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures (12). He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own (13); He saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ; He adopts as His own all those who come to Him; and He becomes, upon adoption, Father to His own (14).
B. God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (15).
We believe that God the Father created according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation (16).
We believe that in the incarnation (God becoming man) Christ surrendered only the prerogatives of deity but nothing of the divine essence, either in degree or kind. In His incarnation, the eternally existing second Person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-Man (17).
We believe that Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness (18).
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born (19); that He was God incarnate (20); and that the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom (21).
We believe that, in the incarnation, the second Person of the Trinity laid aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes (22).
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (23).
We believe that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (24).
We believe that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and that He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our Advocate and High Priest (25).
We believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, God confirmed the deity of His Son and gave proof that God has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrection life for all believers (26).
We believe that Jesus Christ will return to receive the church, which is His Body, unto Himself at the rapture, and returning with His church in glory, will establish His millennial kingdom on earth (27).
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the One through whom God will judge all mankind (28)
• Believers (29)
• Living inhabitants of the earth at His glorious return (30)
• Unbelieving dead at the Great White Throne (31)
As the Mediator between God and man (32), the Head of His Body the church (33), and the coming universal King, who will reign on the throne of David (34), He is the final Judge of all who fail to place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior (35).
C. God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect (36), emotions (37), will (38), eternality (39), omnipresence (40), omniscience (41), omnipotence (42), and truthfulness (43). In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son (44).
We believe that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. We recognize His sovereign activity in creation (45), the incarnation (46), the written revelation (47), and the work of salvation (48).
We believe that the work of the Holy Spirit in this age began at Pentecost, when He came from the Father as promised by Christ (49) to initiate and complete the building of the Body of Christ, which is His church (50). The broad scope of His divine activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and transforming believers into the image of Christ (51).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ (52). The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (53).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher, who guided the apostles and prophets into all truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible (54). Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit (55).
We believe that the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church. The Holy Spirit glorifies neither Himself nor His gifts by ostentatious displays, but He does glorify Christ by implementing His work of redeeming the lost and building up believers in the most holy faith (56).
We believe, in this respect, that God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of the saints today, and that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church were for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers (57).
References: (1) Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4; (2) John 4:24; (3) Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; (4) Psalm 145:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:6; (5) Genesis 1:1-31; Ephesians 3:9; (6) Psalm 103:19; Romans 11:36; (7) Ephesians 4:6; (8) Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18; (9) Ephesians 1:11; (10) 1 Chronicles 29:11; (11) Habakkuk 1:13; John 8:38-47; (12) 1 Peter 1:17; (13) Ephesians 1:4-6; (14) John 1:12; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Hebrews 12:5-9; (15) John 10:30; 14:9; (16) John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:2; (17) Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9; (18) Micah 5:2; John 5:23; 14:9-10; Colossians 2:9; (19) Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35; (20) John 1:1, 14; (21) Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:29; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 7:25-26; 1 Peter 1:18-19; (22) Philippians 2:5-8; (23) John 10:15; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; (24) Romans 3:25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; (25) Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38-39; Acts 2:30-31; Romans 4:25; 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1; (26) John 5:26-29; 14:19; Romans 1:4; 4:25; 6:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; (27) Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20; (28) John 5:22-23; (29) 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; (30) Matthew 25:31-46; (31) Revelation 20:11-15; (32) 1 Timothy 2:5; (33) Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18; (34) Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:31-33; (35) Matthew 25:14-46; Acts 17:30-31; (36) 1 Corinthians 2:10-13; (37) Ephesians 4:30; (38) 1 Corinthians 12:11; (39) Hebrews 9:14; (40) Psalm 139:7-10; (41) Isaiah 40:13-14; (42) Romans 15:13; (43) John 16:13; (44) Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jeremiah 31:31-34 with Hebrews 10:15-17; (45) Genesis 1:2; (46) Matthew 1:18; (47) 2 Peter 1:20-21; (48) John 3:5-7; (49) John 14:16-17; 15:26; (50) 1 Corinthians 12:13; (51) John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5; 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:22; (52) 1 Corinthians 12:13; (53) Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13; (54) 2 Peter 1:19-21; (55) John 16:13; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18; 1 John 2:20, 27; (56) John 16:13-14; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 3:18; (57) 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:8-10; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:7-12; Hebrews 2:1-4.
We believe that there is but one living and true God (1), an infinite, all-knowing Spirit (2), perfect in all His attributes, one in essence, eternally existing in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (3)—each equally deserving worship and obedience.
A. God the Father
We believe that God the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, orders and disposes all things according to His own purpose and grace (4). He is the Creator of all things (5). As the only absolute and omnipotent Ruler in the universe, He is sovereign in creation, providence, and redemption (6). His fatherhood involves both His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind. As Creator He is Father to all men (7), but He is spiritual Father only to believers (8). He has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass (9). He continually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events (10). In His sovereignty He is neither the author nor approver of sin (11), nor does He abridge the accountability of moral, intelligent creatures (12). He has graciously chosen from eternity past those whom He would have as His own (13); He saves from sin all who come to Him through Jesus Christ; He adopts as His own all those who come to Him; and He becomes, upon adoption, Father to His own (14).
B. God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies, and in these He is coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal with the Father (15).
We believe that God the Father created according to His own will, through His Son, Jesus Christ, by whom all things continue in existence and in operation (16).
We believe that in the incarnation (God becoming man) Christ surrendered only the prerogatives of deity but nothing of the divine essence, either in degree or kind. In His incarnation, the eternally existing second Person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became the God-Man (17).
We believe that Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness (18).
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born (19); that He was God incarnate (20); and that the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God’s kingdom (21).
We believe that, in the incarnation, the second Person of the Trinity laid aside His right to the full prerogatives of coexistence with God and took on an existence appropriate to a servant while never divesting Himself of His divine attributes (22).
We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His blood and sacrificial death on the cross and that His death was voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, propitiatory, and redemptive (23).
We believe that on the basis of the efficacy of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the believing sinner is freed from the punishment, the penalty, the power, and one day the very presence of sin; and that he is declared righteous, given eternal life, and adopted into the family of God (24).
We believe that our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and that He is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He now mediates as our Advocate and High Priest (25).
We believe that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, God confirmed the deity of His Son and gave proof that God has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Jesus’ bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrection life for all believers (26).
We believe that Jesus Christ will return to receive the church, which is His Body, unto Himself at the rapture, and returning with His church in glory, will establish His millennial kingdom on earth (27).
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the One through whom God will judge all mankind (28)
• Believers (29)
• Living inhabitants of the earth at His glorious return (30)
• Unbelieving dead at the Great White Throne (31)
As the Mediator between God and man (32), the Head of His Body the church (33), and the coming universal King, who will reign on the throne of David (34), He is the final Judge of all who fail to place their trust in Him as Lord and Savior (35).
C. God the Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, eternal, underived, possessing all the attributes of personality and deity, including intellect (36), emotions (37), will (38), eternality (39), omnipresence (40), omniscience (41), omnipotence (42), and truthfulness (43). In all the divine attributes He is coequal and consubstantial with the Father and the Son (44).
We believe that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to execute the divine will with relation to all mankind. We recognize His sovereign activity in creation (45), the incarnation (46), the written revelation (47), and the work of salvation (48).
We believe that the work of the Holy Spirit in this age began at Pentecost, when He came from the Father as promised by Christ (49) to initiate and complete the building of the Body of Christ, which is His church (50). The broad scope of His divine activity includes convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and transforming believers into the image of Christ (51).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign Agent in regeneration, baptizing all believers into the Body of Christ (52). The Holy Spirit also indwells, sanctifies, instructs, empowers them for service, and seals them unto the day of redemption (53).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher, who guided the apostles and prophets into all truth as they committed to writing God’s revelation, the Bible (54). Every believer possesses the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit from the moment of salvation, and it is the duty of all those born of the Spirit to be filled with (controlled by) the Spirit (55).
We believe that the Holy Spirit administers spiritual gifts to the church. The Holy Spirit glorifies neither Himself nor His gifts by ostentatious displays, but He does glorify Christ by implementing His work of redeeming the lost and building up believers in the most holy faith (56).
We believe, in this respect, that God the Holy Spirit is sovereign in the bestowing of all His gifts for the perfecting of the saints today, and that speaking in tongues and the working of sign miracles in the beginning days of the church were for the purpose of pointing to and authenticating the apostles as revealers of divine truth, and were never intended to be characteristic of the lives of believers (57).
References: (1) Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5-7; 1 Corinthians 8:4; (2) John 4:24; (3) Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; (4) Psalm 145:8-9; 1 Corinthians 8:6; (5) Genesis 1:1-31; Ephesians 3:9; (6) Psalm 103:19; Romans 11:36; (7) Ephesians 4:6; (8) Romans 8:14; 2 Corinthians 6:18; (9) Ephesians 1:11; (10) 1 Chronicles 29:11; (11) Habakkuk 1:13; John 8:38-47; (12) 1 Peter 1:17; (13) Ephesians 1:4-6; (14) John 1:12; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5; Hebrews 12:5-9; (15) John 10:30; 14:9; (16) John 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 1:2; (17) Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 2:9; (18) Micah 5:2; John 5:23; 14:9-10; Colossians 2:9; (19) Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23, 25; Luke 1:26-35; (20) John 1:1, 14; (21) Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:29; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 7:25-26; 1 Peter 1:18-19; (22) Philippians 2:5-8; (23) John 10:15; Romans 3:24-25; 5:8; 1 Peter 2:24; (24) Romans 3:25; 5:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; (25) Matthew 28:6; Luke 24:38-39; Acts 2:30-31; Romans 4:25; 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24; 1 John 2:1; (26) John 5:26-29; 14:19; Romans 1:4; 4:25; 6:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; (27) Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 20; (28) John 5:22-23; (29) 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; (30) Matthew 25:31-46; (31) Revelation 20:11-15; (32) 1 Timothy 2:5; (33) Ephesians 1:22; 5:23; Colossians 1:18; (34) Isaiah 9:6; Luke 1:31-33; (35) Matthew 25:14-46; Acts 17:30-31; (36) 1 Corinthians 2:10-13; (37) Ephesians 4:30; (38) 1 Corinthians 12:11; (39) Hebrews 9:14; (40) Psalm 139:7-10; (41) Isaiah 40:13-14; (42) Romans 15:13; (43) John 16:13; (44) Matthew 28:19; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Jeremiah 31:31-34 with Hebrews 10:15-17; (45) Genesis 1:2; (46) Matthew 1:18; (47) 2 Peter 1:20-21; (48) John 3:5-7; (49) John 14:16-17; 15:26; (50) 1 Corinthians 12:13; (51) John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5; 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 2:22; (52) 1 Corinthians 12:13; (53) Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13; (54) 2 Peter 1:19-21; (55) John 16:13; Romans 8:9; Ephesians 5:18; 1 John 2:20, 27; (56) John 16:13-14; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 2 Corinthians 3:18; (57) 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; 13:8-10; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Ephesians 4:7-12; Hebrews 2:1-4.