The sixty-six canonical books of the Bible are given by the inspiration of God and together comprise the only inerrant and infallible authority for faith and practice. There is one true and living God, eternally existing in three Persons -Father, Son and Holy Spirit- who are equal in power and glory. God is most wise, most holy, most loving and gracious, and most just in all His judgments. God is the source and creator of all beings and He controls all things by His wise and holy providence. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became truly man without ceasing to be truly God, having been supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God and to provide redemption for sinful man. Being without sin, Jesus Christ made perfect atonement for sin through His death by crucifixion as a propitiatory and substitutionary sacrifice. Justification is secured to us by His bodily resurrection from the dead. Having ascended into heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ occupies the place of pre-eminence at the Father's right hand where, as High Priest for His people, He ministers as intercessor and advocate. The same Lord Jesus Christ will return to earth personally - bodily and visibly - with power and glory, to bring to fulfilment God's purposes for both the righteous and the wicked. The Holy Spirit is a Person, is God, and eternally possesses all divine attributes together with the Father and the Son. He convicts of sin, regenerates and indwells believers, reveals spiritual truth, guides, sanctifies and comforts the people of God. Every believer is commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Man was created in the image of God. Through the disobedience of the first man, Adam, the entire human race fell into sin and was alienated from God. Because of his depraved nature and actual transgression, every man stands under the divine judicial sentence of death. Salvation is the gift of God offered by grace and is received by man only through personal faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Genuine salvation is manifested in a pattern of life that is pleasing to God which includes confession before men. The church is a spiritual organism comprising all who truly believe unto salvation, whatever their affiliation with organized Christianity. Christ Himself is the head of the church which is His body, and members are responsible to Him for personal growth, for mutual care and for witness to the world. At death the spirits of the believers depart to be with Christ in conscious blessedness. At Christ's second coming their bodies shall be raised and changed to be like His and they shall be with Him forever. Unbelievers will be raised from the dead to be judged by God and to suffer eternal conscious punishment.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 September 2007 )
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