A STATEMENT OF FAITH

 

“....and [they] cast their crowns before the throne,
saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord....”  
Rev. 4:10-11            


by Bob Thompson

 

 Sylvia and I, by the grace and sustaining love of God, have for many years believed the following: 

1.  We believe in the Virgin birth of Christ—God’s voluntary entrance into the realm of fallen man.  We believe that in life He perfectly fulfilled for us “every jot and tittle” of the law, thus qualifying Himself as “the  Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” and that by dying in our stead He received the punishment our sins so richly deserve.  Three days later He rose from the dead to die no more forever! Matt. 1:23; 1 Timothy 3:16;  Isaiah 53 with 68:18;  Luke 1:27-35;  John 1:29; 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Heb. 10:11-14; 1 Tim. 2:4-5.

2.   We believe SALVATION IS BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH ALONE, that no man can by good deeds,  personal  sacrifice, suffering, or by his own ingenuity enter into “the kingdom of God’s dear Son.”   Rom. 3:19-26; Eph. 2:8-9; John 6:29; Col. 3:1-3, etc.   Sylvia and I received the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior from the guilt and penalty of sin at ages 7 and 15, respectively.

 3.   We believe in the ETERNAL SECURITY of the believer for “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” [RSV].  God can not and will not go back on His Word. See Num. 23:19; Psa. 23:6; 37:28; 1 Cor. 1:8; John 10:27-30; 1 Cor. 1:8. When God says He gives eternal life, we believe it is eternal, not probationary.

 4.   We believe “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” and that by these Scriptures we have, throughout the years, been “THROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS”  [2 Tim. 3:17]          

 5.   We believe that where God has clearly spoken to us in his Word “rightly divided,” we Christians are to “be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same  judgment” 1 Cor. 1:10;  2 Peter 1:3.   

 6.  We believe Christ is building but one church [Matt. 16:18], that He alone admits the members and permits no counterfeits. Acts 2:47; 1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 1:18].   This rules out any and all denominations— from Roman Catholicism on down to the youngest sect in Christendom—as being the church Christ is building.   Man is incapable of building a religious system that Satan can not get his counterfeits into!!

7.   We believe sectarian churches commit two evils—they name and program Christians apart —in violation of  Col. 3:17; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:15; Eph. 4:1-7; Phil. 1:27; 2:2; 4:2; and 1 Peter 3:8), while binding saved and unsaved members in an unequal yoke—in violation of 2 Cor. 6:14-18! 

     We believe 2 COR. 6:18 contains a red-letter promise from God that is overlooked by the vast majority of Christians today:   It reads as follows:  “Wherefore come out from among them [any and all religious ties with unbelievers - see vss. 14-16] and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; [NOW NOTE]: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters,  saith the Lord Almighty.”    2 Cor. 6:17 through 7:1;  Heb., 13:13; Rev. 18:4.   Since God became our Father and we His sons and daughters the moment we were born again, it follows that this promise of a Father-Son-daughter relationship, is a very special one, reserved only for Christians who refuse to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.  

8.    We believe God has commanded each believer to WALK IN HIS [own] FAITH, not that of others.  Hab. 2:4.   We therefore have desired to be as the Bereans in Acts 17:11, to prove all things for ourselves; to walk in what we  truly believe—not in what we’ve been told everybody should believe!

 9.    We believe faithful ministers of Christ will follow Paul’s example of preaching  “THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD.....” i.e. everything essential to Christians achieving spiritual maturity.   Acts 20:26-26;

 10.       We believe PHYSICAL ORDINANCES have no place in God’s program today, that the fleshly rites of Judaism [water baptism, Sabbath keeping, the priesthood, the Passover - today called “the Lord’s supper,” etc.] - “are a shadow  of things to come, but the body is of Christ.”  [Col. 2:13-23].  We believe the Bible reveals a dual walk for Christians during the book of Acts period — Christian Jews continuing to observe the physical ordinances of Moses, with God’s blessings, while obedient Gentiles refrained from “any such thing.” [Acts 15:1-29; 21:24-25; Rom. 14:1-6].   We also believe Christian Jews and Gentiles are NOW to walk as “one new man in Christ” apart from all national, racial and ceremonial distinctions.   Please read these verses carefully:  Eph. 2:14-16; Col. 2:6; Phil. 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:16-17; John 6:63

 11.       We  believe “CHRISTMAS” and “EASTER” are Babylonish, Popish and pagan, [see modern encyclopedias] and make a tragic mockery of Christ.  Highly esteemed, solemnized and venerated by Christians and non-Christians around the globe [see Luke 16:15], we believe these two Satan-inspired holidays should be firmly rejected by all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth.        

Question:  1 Cor. 2:14 says that, “The natural [unregenerated] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him....”   What spirit, then, annually leads untold millions of religious celebrants to lavish their affection on the babe in the manger while they reject the man on the cross?

 12.   We believe the NEW COVENANT, promised to Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-34  (and repeated in Heb. 8:8-12), has no place in the body of Christ during this age of grace.  The New Covenant is almost universally accepted in Christendom as being in effect today, due to an almost universal oversight:  the New Covenant can not be put into force until all evangelism is brought to a halt, when Christians will  no longer urge friends and neighbors to “know the Lord,” as we now do.  (Note Jer. 31:34 in particular).  The body of Christ is blessed under the Abrahamic Covenant, not the New Covenant.  See Gal. 3:6-9.

 NOTE:  If Christ’s blood connects Christians to the New Covenant, then His blood also connects us to the Palestinian and Davidic covenants, for all three were sealed by His blood. [Heb. 9:16] Yet no intelligent, Spirit-taught Christian believes the body of Christ will inherit the land of Palestine with national Israel or that the earthly kingdom of God is our “blessed hope.” Our hope is found in Col. 1:15 and Titus 2:13. 

13.    We believe “LOVE.... is the bond of perfectness,” that without it we are nothing and that all we might say or do for God profits nothing — apart from love.  We believe  it alone can so bind our hearts together as to resolve doctrinal differences that we may present a united front to a divided, warring, scrapping world — in obedience to 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 1:27; Eph. 4:1-6, etc.  “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”  John 13:35; 1 Cor. 13:1-7; John 17:21.

 To the above, we do hereby joyfully set our hand and seal
in grateful allegiance to Jesus Christ our Lord.  
Bob and Sylvia Thompson
Married April 8, 1945

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