We are a ministry committed to the Lordship of Christ and each other. We recognize that the development of Christian character must of necessity be an individual and a corporate endeavor. We believe that God communicates with man; that it is His intention to reveal Himself and His ways. The following are some of the standards and values to which we are committed:
We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God; that God, through the Holy Spirit, moved upon the authors of the Scriptures in such a way that they faithfully, accurately, and completely recorded all that God intended them to record-, that the Scriptures are a reliable, accurate, and fully trustworthy account of God's nature and character, of His actions in human history, of His laws, and of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We affirm that the Scriptures are to be the standard of faith and practice by which the life of the church and the lives of its individual members and their families are to be governed. We also affirm that the Scriptures are the standard by which all revelation and tradition is to be judged. We believe that there is a progressive aspect to God's revelation - that there are areas of truth which are taught in Scripture, but which we do not fully understand until the Holy Spirit further illuminates them.
I. GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON,
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the one God, revealed in the Bible, as the only true, eternal,
and living God. He is infinite in being and perfection; He is spiritual,
immortal, and invisible. He is an intelligent and personal being. He is
creator, redeemer, and sovereign ruler of creation. He is infinite in
holiness, goodness, faithfulness, mercy, righteousness, justice and all
other perfection, and is due the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and complete within Himself.
He accomplishes all things according to His righteous will for His own glory.
He reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes, but without diversion of nature, essence, or being. God the Father determines all things after the counsel of his own will; God the Son is the Word who speaks that which the Father has determined; God the Holy Spirit is the dynamic power of God who brings these things into being. The three persons act out of one will.
The Father sovereignly governs His creation and human history by His wise and holy providence. He is all-powerful, all-living, and all-wise, righteous in all His fatherly love for all who become His children through Jesus Christ by caring for them. His purpose is to prepare a family of redeemed people on the earth to show forth His glory.
Jesus Christ is God the Son. He is eternally the uncreated Word of God. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was God Incarnate and perfectly revealed and did the will of the Father. He took upon himself human nature and identified fully with humanity, yet remained wholly without sin. He honored the divine will and law by obedience, and through His death on the cross. He made provision for the redemption of all who would believe in Him. He was raised from the dead and appeared to His disciples. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God the Father, where He is the one mediator, effecting the reconciliation between God and man and providing access to the Father for the believer.
The Father has established Him as Lord over all things, and has appointed Him as judge of the world. He is the Head of the Church. He will return in power and glory at the end of the present age to judge the world, to reign with His people, and to complete His redemptive mission by establishing in full measure the kingdom and reign of God. He will then return to the Father the government of all things, so that "God may be all in all."He presently dwells in all believers through the person of the Holy Spirit as the living and ever-present prophet, priest, and king, representing God to humanity, humanity to god, and being fully entitled to reign as King.
The Holy Spirit exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He calls people to Jesus and effects regeneration. He inspired the authors of Scripture and has superintended both the recording and transmission of the Scripture. He grants revelation to men and women, enables them to understand and obey the truth and illuminates and quickens God's Word to them. He comforts, teaches, and guides God's people, and empowers them to obey God, to cultivate Christ-like character, and to be witnesses to Jesus Christ. He bestows upon them the spiritual gifts by which they serve God in and through the Church.
II. MAN
We believe that man was created in the image of God as the crowning work of
His creation. Man stood in a unique relationship with his creator and was
commissioned to rule the earth under God's headship.
Through the temptation of Satan, man transgressed the command of God and fell from his unique relationship to God; thus all his inherit both a nature and an environment twisted by sin. Because of sin, man is separated from God. Only the grace of God can restore man to his original calling; to live in fellowship with God and to fulfill the purposes for which he was created.
III. SALVATION
We believe that salvation involves the redemption of the whole person and
is available only in and through Jesus Christ. It is offered to all people,
and is appropriated and experienced by those who respond in faith to God's
call to submit to His Son as Lord and Savior. Jesus, through the shedding
of His blood, obtained eternal redemption for those who through faith
believe in Him. This faith is a gift from God and is by the convicting work
of the Holy Spirit, which enables a person to repent of his sin and self
determination. Repentance is followed by baptism in water and the receiving
of the Holy Spirit. The gift of righteousness enables the believer to live
a life of obedience to God's law, to cultivate and maintain right
relationships, and to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
IV. COVENANT LIFE
We believe that God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. Through covenant, God binds Himself to His people, and His people to Himself. God extended covenant to us in Jesus Christ. This covenant encompasses both promises which make available to us the inherited riches which belong to Christ and demands which are to be faithfully met.Entering into Gods covenant involves entering into fellowship with God's people. The primary demand of the covenant is that we as God's people love one another. This is the command of the Lord Jesus. Loving one another involves learning to serve, admonish, and support in a brotherly fashion. Practically speaking, this is experienced in relation to those who are closest at hand.
V. THE CHURCH
We believe that the Church is the people of God - those who are participants in God's covenant in Jesus Christ. The Scripture gives us several pictures of the Church, each of which illustrates an aspect of the Church's nature and function. The Church is Christ's body, with Him as its Head. It is His family with Him as the firstborn. It is His workmanship with Him as its craftsman. It is His temple with Him as its cornerstone, It is His army with Him as its captain. It is His bride, with Him as its bridegroom. It is His flock with Him as the chief shepherd. The goal of the Church is to reflect the glory of God and to make disciples of all the nations. For the accomplishment of this goal, the Lord has given to His Church His Holy Spirit who expresses Himself through:
1) Each individual's particular God-given abilities which are different from and complementary to, those of each other members. Each member is encouraged to function in his own areas of strength in interdependence with his fellow member.
2) The distribution of gifts of the Holy Spirit given to the body to be used and extend the Church.
3) Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service (ministry) so that the body of Christ may be built up.
VI. ORDINANCES AND SACRAMENTS
We believe that God had provided certain ordinances and sacraments which are to be part of the believer's life.
A. WATER BAPTISM: In which the believer makes an open confession that they have turned from sin and are being baptized into one body; further, it is an outward confession to the devil that they no longer belong to him and have been transferred from the government of darkness to the government of God's Son by baptism in water.
B. THE LORD'S SUPPER: in which the participants first remember and acknowledge the death of the Lord Jesus on their behalf, and affirm and renew their covenant with God.
C. RELEASE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: following the believers faith in the Lord Jesus, Christ's Spirit is freely released in the individual to express all gifts, abilities, fruit, revelation, and life as it pleases the Spirit of God, for spiritual maturity and spiritual warfare.
D. MARRIAGE: in which a man and a woman are joined as husband and wife.
VII. AUTHORITY
We believe that God is the source of all legitimate authority, and that all earthly authority is to be subject to and fulfill the intentions of the divine authority.God has enjoined man to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue and rule it. To accomplish this goal He has established for man three spheres of authority, the family, the Church and civil government. Each has its own set of responsibilities, limits of authority, and procedures with regard to wrongdoers. Within each sphere God has established procedures for the correction, discipline, and punishment of wrongdoers. We believe the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of God.
A. THE FAMILY
The family is the basic societal unit - the first place of common worship, common work and common life. It is headed and led by a man, and consists of a man and those under his care: his wife, who is his helper; his children; and any elderly or displaced persons for whom God grants him responsibility. A man, assisted by his wife, has the responsibility to lead, train, educate, and discipline his children according to the principles and methods given in Scripture.
B. THE CHURCH The Church on earth is the redeemed people of God. The Church has been charged by the Lord Jesus to preach gospel of the Kingdom of God, to heal the sick, to cast our demons, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize new members, to teach all of its members all that God has commanded, and to care for the poor, aged, homeless, widows, and orphans. The Church may disciple its members by correction, admonition, reproof, and, if in extreme situations, by a ban from participation in the life of the church community.
VIII. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
AND ACCOUNTABILITY TO GOD
We believe that while God has ordained both civil and spiritual government,
each Christian is individually responsible to God and accountable to Him for
his choices and behavior.
The believers personal access to the Father through Jesus makes him
responsible to:
1) Cultivate his relationship to God through prayer, the study of
Scripture, and obedience.
2) Function as a priest to God through personal praise, worship, and intercessory prayer.
3) Represent the Lord to those around him through his life and words.
4) Be faithful to his conscience.
IX. EVANGELISM
We believe that implicit in Gods command to His people to be fruitful is the responsibility to proclaim the Gospel, to make disciples to the Lord Jesus of all nations, to baptize new members, and to teach them to observe all of God's commandments.
X. SPIRITUAL WARFARE
We believe that God and His people are opposed by supernatural foes in the persons of Satan and his principalities, powers, and demons. We believe that their power has been definitively and decisively broken by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who now lives within each believer.
We believe that Satan is a liar and a thief. As God's people, we have been commissioned and given power and authority to expose Satan's lies and to deliver all who are in bondage and captivity to him. We believe that his power is limited by the sovereign purposes of God and that the Churches' victory over him will be complete.
XI. CHRIST'S RETURN
We believe that every person will stand before God and be judged at the end of this age, and give an account for everything they have done
in the physical body, whether good or bad. For the righteous, this judgment will determine their reward. For the unrighteous (those who have lived a life of rebellion against God's law and gospel), the judgment will determine their punishment. Heaven and hell are real.
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Point Man International Ministries
since 7/31/98