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STATEMENT OF FAITH

OF CALVARY CHAPEL CHINESE FELLOWSHIP

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IMPORTANCE

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                The pastors, executive committee members, and co-workers at Calvary Chapel Chinese Fellowship believe that it is essential to have a statement of faith which sets forth the position of the church with regard to the major biblical doctrines as well as provides a framework for the Sunday pulpit ministry, Sunday school ministry, weekly Bible study ministry, and weekly family fellowship ministry at the church.  The statement of faith that follows also provides an anchor to protect the church against theological drift.  For this reason, the pastors, members of executive committee, and co-workers are required to sign a statement affirming agreement with this doctrinal position.

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DOCTRINAL POSITION

 

The Scripture

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            We believe in the absolute inerrancy and authority of Scripture,

 

¡P        that the Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the plenary Word of God,

 

¡P        that the Bible is an objective, propositional, supernaturally given revelation, verbally inspired in every word, and therefore without misstatement or defect of any kind, and

 

¡P        that the Bible is altogether sufficient in itself our only infallible rule of faith and practice.

 

The Godhead

 

            We believe that there is but one sovereign, living and true God, perfect in all His attributes (love, holiness, wisdom, etc.), infinite in His being, and eternally existing in three Persons¡XFather, Son, and Holy Spirit, all of whom are one in essence (or nature) and each of whom is to be honored and worshipped equally.

 

            God the Father, the first person of the Trinity, is the Creator of all things who upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events according to His own purpose, is sovereign in providence and redemption, and has decreed for His own glory all things that come to pass.  His fatherhood involves His designation within the Trinity and His relationship with mankind.  (As Creator His is Father to all men, but spiritual Father only to believers.)

 

            God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, is fully God and fully man (one person with two natures).

 

¡P        Before the incarnation, He was God and was with God and who, in the incarnation, accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so became forever the God-man. 

 

¡P        God the Son became man by the miracle of Virgin Birth.  The purpose of His incarnation was to reveal God, redeem men, and rule over God¡¦s kingdom. 

 

¡P        Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of His precious blood as well as His sacrificial, voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, and propitiatory death on the cross.

 

¡P        By His sinless life and substitutional death on the cross, our Lord made a perfect atonement for sin, by which the wrath of God against sinful men is appeased and a ground furnished upon which God can deal in mercy with believing sinners.

 

¡P        Christ was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit to secure our justification and ascended into heaven, there to appear before the face of God as our Advocate and Intercessor.

 

¡P        Christ will return personally to receive the church unto Himself at the rapture and, returning with His church in glory after the tribulation period, will establish His messianic Kingdom on the earth for a thousand years.  During this time the redeemed will reign with Him over all the nations of the world.

 

God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is possessed of all the divine attributes, is coequal and cosubstantial with the Father and the Son, and is the sovereign Agent in the creation, the incarnation, the written revelation, and the work of salvation.

 

¡P        In the work of salvation, His activity includes regenerating those who believe, baptizing them into the body of Christ, indwelling within them, building them up in the faith, transforming them into the image of Christ, guiding them into all truth, bestowing them His gifts, empowering them for service, and sealing them unto the day of redemption.

 

¡P        The Holy Spirit also glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, intercedes for the saints, and convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

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The Creation and Fall of Man

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            We believe:

 

¡P        that man was directly created by God in His image and after His likeness,

 

¡P        that man was created free of sin with a rational nature, intelligence, volition, self-determination, moral responsibility to God, and purpose to glorify God, enjoy God¡¦s fellowship, live his life in God¡¦s will, and accomplish God¡¦s plan for mankind in the world, and

 

¡P        that by personal disobedience to the revealed will of God man lost his innocence, incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death, and became a sinful creature and the progenitor of a fallen race which is universally sinful in both nature and practice, is alienated from the life of God, is under the judgment and wrath of God, has within itself no possible means of recovery, and is in dire need of salvation.

 

Salvation

 

            We believe that salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of Christ¡¦s redemption, the merit of His shed blood, not on the basis of human merit, is a free gift received only by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, includes the whole man (spirit, soul, and body), and includes regeneration, justification, and sanctification.

 

¡P        Regeneration is a supernatural work of God by which the divine nature and eternal life are given.  It is instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of the Word of God, when the repentant sinner, as enabled by the Holy Spirit, responds in faith to the divine provision of salvation.  Genuine regeneration is manifested by fruits as expressed in righteous living, attitudes, and conduct.

 

¡P        Justification is an act of God by which He declares righteous those who, through faith in Christ, repent of their sins and confess Him as Savior and Lord.  This righteousness is apart from any virtue of man and involves the placing of the believer¡¦s sins on Christ and the imputation of Christ¡¦s righteousness to the believer.

 

¡P        Sanctification (separation from sin and being set apart unto God for service), commencing with justification and consummating with glorification, is the work of God by which the state of the believer is progressively brought closer to the likeness of Christ through obedience to the Word of God as well as the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and by which the believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God.

 

¡P        All the redeemed once truly saved are delivered from all condemnation, are kept by God¡¦s power, and are thus secure in Christ forever.

 

The Church

 

            We believe:

 

¡P        that the formation of the church, the body of Christ, began on the day of Pentecost and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His own at the rapture,

 

¡P        that all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are immediately placed by the Holy Spirit into the church, the bride of Christ, of which Christ is the head,

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¡P        that the one supreme authority for the church is Christ,

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¡P        that the biblically designated officers serving under Christ and over the assembly are elders (pastors) and deacons, and

 

¡P        that the purpose of the church is to glorify God by building itself up in the faith, by instruction of the Word, by fellowship, by keeping the ordinances (baptism and the Lord¡¦s Supper), and by advancing and communicating the gospel to the entire world.

 

Angels

 

¡P        We believe that holy angels are created beings and are therefore not to be worshipped.  Although they are a higher order of creation than man is, they are created to serve God and to worship Him.

 

¡P        We believe that Satan is a created angel and the author of sin.  He incurred the judgment of God by rebelling against his Creator, by taking numerous angels with him in his fall, and by introducing sin into the human race by his temptation of Eve.  He is the open and declared enemy of God and man, the prince of this world who has been defeated through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire.

 

Future Life, Bodily Resurrection, and Eternal Judgment

 

            We believe:

 

¡P        that the spirits of the saved at death go immediately to be with Christ in heaven, where they abide in joyful fellowship with Him until His Second Coming, when their bodies shall be raised from the grave and changed into the likeness of His own glorious body, at which time their works shall be brought before the judgment seat of Christ for the determination of rewards, and

 

¡P        that the spirit of the unsaved at death descend immediately into Hades where they are kept under punishment until the final day of judgment, at which time their bodies shall be raised from the grave, they shall be judged according to their works, and cast into hell, the Lake of Fire, the place of final and everlasting punishment.

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Eternity

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            We believe that after the closing of the millennium, the casting of Satan into the Lake of Fire, and the judgment of unbelievers, the saved will enter the eternal state of glory with God, after which the elements of this earth will be dissolved and replaced with a new earth wherein only righteousness dwells.

 

            Following this, the heavenly city will come down out of heaven and will be the dwelling place of the saints, where they will enjoy forever fellowship with God and with one another.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled His redemptive mission, will then deliver up the kingdom to God the Father that in all spheres the triune God may reign forever and ever.

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