Christ Centered Community Church
Legaspi st. , Poblacion Alimodian , iloilo
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT:
1689 Confession of Faith shorten
WHAT WE BELIEVE
1. DOCTRINE OF TRINITY / THE TRIUNE GOD
Statement: We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, who know love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is infinite
ly perfect both in his love and in his holiness. He is the creator of all things, visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy to receive all glory and adoration, immortal and eternal. He perfectly and exhaustively knows the end from beginning, sustains and sovereignly rules over all things, and providentially brings about his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore his fallen creation, to the praise of his glorious grace. Summary: God eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we are created to worship the one true God. Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:16-17, Matthew 28:19, 2Cor. 13:14, Exodus 3:14; John 14:11; 1Cor. 8:6 Proverbs 8:22-31; John 1:1-3, 14, 18, 3:16; 10:36; 15:26; 16:28; Heb.1:2, 1John 4:14; Galatians 4:4-6
2. DOCTRINE OF REVELATION
Statement: God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself to fallen human beings in the person of his Son, the incarnate Word. Moreover, this God is a speaking God who by his Spirit has graciously disclosed himself in human words. We believe that God has inspired the words preserved in the Scriptures, the sixty-six books of the Old Testament and New Testament, which records and means of his saving work in the world. These writing alone constitute verbally inspired Word of God, which is utterly authoritative and without error in the original writing, complete in its revelation of his will for salvation, sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do, and final in its authority over every area of knowledge to which its speaks. We confess that both our finitude and our sinfulness preclude the possibility of knowing God’s truth thoroughly, but we affirm that, enlightenment by the Spirit of God. The bible is to be believed, as God’s instruction in all that it teaches; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the word, they are equipped as Disciples of Christ and witnessed to the Gospel. Summary: God has revealed himself through creation, through Jesus, and through the Scriptures. We are called to submit to, study and joyfully obey the authoritative Word of God. Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21, John 8:31-32, Isaiah 8:20, Hebrews 1:1-2, Acts 1:21-22, 1Cor.9:1, 15:7-8, Eph. 2:20, Luke 16:29, Ps. 19:1-3 , Romans 1:19-21, 2 Thess.2:1-2,15 , 3:17, Romans 1:19-21.
3. DOCTRINE OF CREATION
Statement: we believe that God created human beings, male and female in his own image. Adam and eve belonged to the created order that God himself declared to be very good, serving as God’s agent to care for. Manage, and govern the creation, living in holy and devoted fellowship with their maker. Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus and are both called to move beyond passive self-importance to significant private and public engagement in family, church and civil life. Adam and eve were made to complement each other in a one-flesh union that establishes the only prescribe pattern of sexual relations for men and women, such that marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church. In God’s wise purposes, men and women are not simply interchangeable but rather they complement each other in mutually enriching ways. God ordains that they assume distinctive roles, which reflect the loving relationship between Christ and the church, the husband exercising headship in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ, and the wife submitting to her husband in a way that models the love of the church for her Lord. In the ministry of the church of men and women are encouraged to serve Christ and to be developed to their full potential in the manifold ministries of the people of God. The distinctive leadership role within the church given to qualified men is grounded in creation, fall, and redemption and must not be side-lined by appeals to cultural developments. Summary: God created men and women in his image. We are created, dependent beings and recognize that men and women are created to complement one another by assuming distinct roles in the family and church. Scripture: Genesis 1:27-31, Genesis 2:18-25 , Ephesian 5:22-33, 1 Cor. 11:3, Romans 16:1-4, 1 timothy 2:8-15
4. DOCTRINE OF THE FALL
Statement: we believe that Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness for himself and his entire descendant, falling into sin through Satan’s temptation. As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being (e.g. physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, and spiritually) and condemned finally and irrevocably to death, apart from God’s own gracious intervention. The supreme need all human beings is the underserved love of this same God, who alone can rescue us and restore us to himself
Summary: we are sinners by nature and by choice. The just penalty for our is death; apart from God’s gracious intervention, we are under the wrath of God
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 5:12, 19, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 5:12, Genesis 6:5, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesian 2:1-3
Proverbs 22:15, Titus 1:15, John 5:40, Romans 8:7, 1 Cor.15:20-21, Psalm 51:4-5, 58:3.
5. THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION
Statement: We believe that from all eternity God determined in Grace to save a great multitude of guilty sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation, and this end foreknew them and chose them. We believe that God justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and he will one day glorify them, all to the praise of his glorious grace. In love God commands and implores all people to repent and believe, having set his saving love on those he has chosen and having ordained Christ to be their Redeemer. Summary: God does the work of choosing and saving those who put their faith in Jesus. We are called to repent and believe. Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-10, Revelation 5:9-10, Romans 8:29-30, Acts 17:30-31, Matthew 25:34, 1timothy 5:21,
2 Timothy 1:9, Romans 9:11-16, 11:5-6, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 1 Peter 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 5:9-10, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5, Revelation 17:8 ,
6. THE GOSPEL
Statement: We believe that gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ – God’s very wisdom. Utter folly to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved, this Good news is Christological, centring on the cross and resurrection. The Gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central. (The message is “Christ died for our sins…and was raised). This good news is biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the scripture), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witness of these saving events), and intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved)
Summary: The Gospel is the good news of Jesus ‘life, and death, and resurrection. Both Christians and non-Christian need the Gospel. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, John 1:1-4, Romans 10:9-13
7. THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST
Statement: We believe that, moved by love and in obedience to his Father, the eternal Son became human: the Word became flesh, fully God and fully human being. One Person in two natures. The man Jesus, the promised
Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the miraculously agency of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary. He perfectly obeyed his heavenly Father, lived a sinless life, performed miraculously signs, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. As the mediatorial King, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, exercising in heaven and on Earth all of God’s sovereignty, and is our High priest and righteous Advocate
We believe that by his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus Christ acted as our representative and substitute. He did this so that in him we might become the righteousness of God: on the cross he cancelled sin, propitiated God, and by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. By his resurrection Christ Jesus was vindicated by his Father, broke the power of death and defeated Satan who once had power over it, and brought everlasting life to all his people; by his ascension he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him. We believe that salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Because God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, no human being can ever boast before him. Christ Jesus has become for us wisdom from God; our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Summary: Jesus is the promised Messiah of the scripture, fully God and fully man, who has accomplished redemption for sinners, and Jesus is the only way to salvation. Scripture: John 1:14, Matthew 1:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Timothy 2:5, Matthew 28:18 , Romans 3:21-27, John 14:1-3 , 1 Corinthians 1:20-31
8. THE JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS
Statement: We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified. By his sacrifice, he bore in our behalf the punishment due to us for our sins, making a proper, real and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf. By his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demand of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, In order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification. Summary: Jesus’ sinless life and atoning sacrifice is credited to all who trust in him as full payment for their sins, putting them in right standing with God. We are motivated toward obedience because of the gift of justification. Scripture: Romans 3:21-31, Titus 2:11-14, Titus 3:3-8, Phil. 3:9, Acts 13:38-39, Eph. 2:7-8
9. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Statement: We believe that this salvation, attested in all scripture and security by Jesus Christ, is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the father and the Son, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and as the “other” Paraclete, is present with and in believers. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. And by his powerful and mysterious work regenerates spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, and in him they are baptized into union with the Lord Jesus, such that they are justified before God by Grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. By the Spirit’s agency, believers are renewed, sanctified, and adopted into God’s family. They participate in the divine nature and receive his inheritance, and in this age indwell guides, instruct, equip, revive and empower believers for Christ-like living and service. Summary: Ezekiel 36:25-27, Ephesians 1:13-14, John 14:16-17, John 15:26, John 16:8-14; Romans 8:9, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
10. THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Statement: We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessing of the new covenant; the forgiveness of sins, the inward transformation that awakens a desire to glorify, trust, and obey God, and the prospect of the glory yet to be revealed. Good works constitute indispensable evidence of saving grace. Living as salt in a world that is decaying and light in a world that is dark, believer should neither withdraw into seclusion from the world, nor become indistinguishable from it; rather, we are to do well to the city, for all the glory and honour of the nations is to be offered up to the living God. Recognizing whose created order this is, and because we are citizens of God’s kingdom, we are to love our neighbours as ourselves, doing well to all, especially to those who belong to the household of God. The kingdom of God, already present but not fully realized, is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the world toward the eventual redemption of all creation. The kingdom of God is an invasive power that plunders Satan’s dark kingdom and regenerates and renovates through repentance and faith, the lives of individuals rescued from that kingdom. It therefore inevitably establishes a new community of human life together under God. Summary: The kingdom of God is the exercise of God’s sovereignty in all of creation, and will be fully realized in the new heaven and new earth. We take part in advancing the Kingdom of God by living as salt and light in our city. Scripture: Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 22:36-40, Galatians 6:10, Colossians 1:15-19, Revelation 21:1-5
11. DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
Statement: We believe that God’s new covenant people have already come to the heavenly Jerusalem; they are already seated with Christ in the heavenliest. This universal Church is manifest in local Churches of which Christ is the only Head; thus each “Local Church” is, in fact, the church, the household of God, the assembly of the living God, and the pillar and foundation of the truth. The church is the body of Christ is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances. Her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her member’s love for one another and for the world. Crucially, this Gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may proper be overlooked Christ Jesus is our peace he has not only brought about peace with God, but also peace between alienated peoples. His people were to create in himself a one new humanity, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. The church serves as a sign of God’s future new world when its member lives for the service of one another and their neighbours, rather than for self-focus. The church is the corporate dwelling place of God’s Spirit, and the controlling witness to God in the World. Summary: God continues his work on earth through the church. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all by her love for God, and her members’ love for one another and for the world. Scripture: Ephesians 1:16-23, Ephesians 5:25, Matthew 28:18-20, John 13:34, Ephesian 2:14-16, 19-22,
12. BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER
Statement: We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community, the latter with on-going covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us. Divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected Christ, and anticipations of his return and of the consummation of all things. Summary: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are commanded in scripture for believers as a sign of initiation and covenant renewal for followers of Jesus Christ. We practice “believer’s baptism” by full submission at Christ Centered Community Church
Scripture: Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 6:3-5, Matthew 26:26-28, 1 Cor. 11:23-26
13. THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS
Statement: We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with his holy angels, when he will exercise his role as final Judge, and his kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the Just and the unjust – the unjust to judgement and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our Lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. On that day the church will present faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished, God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, ad everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace. Summary: God will physically resurrect all people at the return of Jesus Christ for either an eternity in hell or an eternity in the new heaven and new earth. God will renew creation and his people will joyfully live forever in the new heaven and new earth. Scripture: Revelation 19:11-16, 1 Cor. 15:20-26, Revelations 21:1-5, 2 Thess. 1:5-10, 2 Cor. 5:1-10, Revelation 22:20,
