Statement of Beliefs
Theological and Doctrinal Foundations of CRMStatement of Beliefs
We Hold These Core Beliefs:
- That the Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired and are wholly trustworthy and authoritative, and reveal God’s plan of salvation and sanctification for all nations.
- One God and Father who desires all men to come to faith in Jesus, repent and accept Jesus as Lord of their whole lives.
- Jesus Christ of Nazareth as The Divine Son of God, who appeared in flesh, and was born of a virgin. Jesus lived a sinless life, was crucified for our sins, was raised in bodily form for our salvation, ascended to heaven to take His place at the right hand of God, and will come again in Glory. It is in His name that faith, repentance, lordship, confession and baptism for the remission of sins are to be preached to all nations.
- The personal and ongoing mission of the Divine Holy Spirit who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and Who personally indwells Christians to enable them to live godly lives, to minister to one another, and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also believe in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit with the fruit being primary. 1
- The sinfulness of man, his separation from God and dependence on the grace of God brought to us in Jesus, and in salvation through the sacrificial work of Christ as a gift received by grace through faith, repentance, confession, acceptance of Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior, and baptism.
- The participating in the Lord’s Supper as taught and practiced in the New Testament Church with emphasis being placed on the meaning more than on the content of the elements. 2 We encourage a weekly practice of fellowship in partaking of the Lord’s supper.
- The practice of immersing believing, confessing and repentant persons in water into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as part of receiving Christ as Lord and Savior, initial conversion and salvation by grace through faith and repentance. This immersion with faith, repentance and confession is for the forgiveness of sins and places one into the church and into Christ. At his or her immersion one receives the Holy Spirit as a gift. We also believe that God’s creative action through immersion with genuine faith and repentance is the true Biblical meaning of being born again. 3
- The church as a spiritual and God ordained institution, composed of all Christians upon earth as the Body of Christ, to which God has entrusted the great commission of reaching all nations for Him.
- The necessity of righteousness and stewardship on the part of all Christians; love, accepting the lordship of Jesus over one’s life, humility, courage and dependence on God being marks of a disciple.
NOTES:
1. Gifts like tongues, prophecy and miracles have sometimes been misused, faked or overemphasized. So, we feel we must use deep discernment in either using these gifts or when they are used or propagated in our presence. So, while recognizing the possibility today of the so called “miraculous” gifts we want to practice great discernment with their use and recommend to all affiliated with this mission great discernment in their use. Also, we believe that all Biblical guidelines concerning these gifts should be followed. Along with this we affirm our belief that the sensational should not be the focus of our ministry because the greatest miracles of all are when lives are transformed and changed.
Having said this neither do we want to be so doubting and negative that we quench the Holy Spirit of God. We believe God is still alive and working powerfully in our world and personal lives today. But we believe that the Biblical concept of power is broader than just miracles. Power is also demonstrated by patience, hope, love, humility, self control, integrity, morality and faithfulness. For sure, we want to continue to emphasize personal and passionate prayer in all circumstances. We also feel that this prayer should always be done in humility and dependence on God and always including the idea of “if it is God’s will.”
2. We say this because in some cases grape juice may not be available so there may be a need to use something like tea as a substitute. Usually in urban areas this will not be a problem. The problem is usually in rural areas where grape juice may not be available. This assumes that wisdom and caution will be taken not to disrespect the Lord Supper by making it to be a common meal where inappropriate things are used as elements. Usually some form of bread is available in most places. In other cases in some deep rural areas some appropriate substitute might need to be chosen. We assume that one would use common sense in deciding what is appropriate and what is not according to the culture that one is in.
3.We believe that this immersion is not just a bodily act nor just a work of man. It involves the work of God and the whole man: body, mind, and soul. It is not just any immersion but a holy and spiritual one done by the authority of Jesus himself for a holy and deeply spiritual purpose. We say “believing, confessing and repentant” because we are referring to those who are at the age where they can believe, confess and repent. This age varies according to the maturity level of the person and how they have been taught. But for sure infants would be excluded from being baptize because they do not understand about faith and repentance.