LifeLite Community ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ข๐ณ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐๐ต (What we believe)
Section 1. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
We believe that the Holy Bible, with its 66 canonized books, is the Word of God. It was written by men who were divinely inspired, and authored by God himself. Free from any error in its content and therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. Its end is our salvation and reveals the principles by whic
h God will judge us. Therefore, it stands as, and will continue to be, the genuine focal point of Christian unity and the ultimate standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. Section 2. ๐๐๐
We believe that there is only one living and true God who is the Creator of all, who is supremely wise, holy, just, righteous, loving, gracious, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, and eternally existing in three-persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. Each equally worthy of our highest love, reverence, and obedience. Section 2.1 ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐
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God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is perfectly sovereign, all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise and the ultimate source of all authority and the judge of all mankind. He demonstrated His great love for His people by sending His one and only Son to be the propitiation for our sins and to satisfy His righteous wrath and justice. God is a loving Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Section 2.2 ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ [๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐]
We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully man and fully God. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, He perfectly revealed the will of the Father and lived a sinless life among us. He was crucified and He died to pay the penalty of our sins through His substitutionary death on the cross. By His shed blood He made provision for the redemption of humanity from sin and we can have salvation through Him alone. The Lord Jesus Christ made a perfect sacrifice for sin once and for all time and was raised with a glorified body from the dead on the third day and appeared to His disciples who was with Him before His crucifixion. Later He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the Fatherโs right hand, interceding for all believers and where He is the Head of the Church and the only Mediator between God and man. We believe He is coming again to the Earth in power and glory to judge the living and the dead and to establish His eternal kingdom. Section 2.3. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and possesses all the divine attributes. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures and He illumines every believer to understand Godโs truth. He exalts Christ, He convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He regenerates sinners and indwells all believers. At the moment of regeneration, He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ and He is the seal by whom the Father guarantees the salvation of believers unto the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit sanctifies and empowers all believers for godly living and bestows spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. Section 3. ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
Humanity is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created us male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man and woman were innocent of sin and were endowed by their Creator with freedom of choice. By their free choice they sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, they violated the command of God, and fell from their original innocence whereby all generations inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as we are capable of moral action, we become transgressors and are therefore under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring us into His holy fellowship and enable us to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created us in His own image, and in that Christ died for us; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. Section 4. ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
We believe that salvation with its forgiveness of sins, impartation of a new nature, and eternal life is solely the work of God, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ on his finish work on the cross. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole person, and is offered freely to all sinners who responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior. We believe that there is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Salvation cannot be earned by anyone through good works, baptism, church membership or any other means. It is a free gift from God received when a person fully trusts in Jesus Christ to be their only Savior and Lord. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. Section 5. ๐๐จ๐โ๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their joy and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Section 6. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ก
We believe that the New Testament church is a spiritual organism and an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers who have trusted in Christ alone as their Lord and Savior and are committed to following Him. We believe in observing the two ordinances of Christ: believerโs water baptism by immersion and the Lordโs Supper as a remembrance of Christโs death and shed blood. We believe that through the church, we are taught that all believers are responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord, and that we are to obey and honor Him through righteous living. Its scriptural officers are pastors/elders (or elders) and deacons. We believe in the Great Commission as the primary mission of the church in making Christ-committed followers of all nations. We also believe that the New Testament speaks of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all ages, believers from every tribe, tongue, and people, and nation. Section 7. ๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ & ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐โ๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐๐ซ
Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his or her faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, we consider it a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. Section 8. ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐จ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ก๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ก
As followers of Christ, we have both a duty and a privilege to spread the message of the gospel to all nations. The new birth of our spirit through God's Holy Spirit brings forth a deep love for others. Missionary work is an essential part of every believer's spiritual life, as commanded by Jesus Christ. He commands us to spread the gospel to everyone. It's our responsibility, as God's children, to consistently share the message of Christ to the lost through our words, actions, and lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ. Section 9.๐
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God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the spiritual unity of a man and a woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the sacrificial, servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his co-worker in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to model for their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents. Section 10. ๐๐ง ๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฌ (๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฌ)
We believe in the blessed hope which is the personal, visible, bodily and imminent coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to receive His saints - both the living and the dead. At His coming in all power and glory, there will be the physical resurrection of all the deadโthe saints to eternal blessedness and the wicked to eternal punishment in the lake of fire - and the perfection of the glorious Kingdom of God in a new heaven and new earth. God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
