1.

THE GLORY OF GOD

1. God’s Majesty
i. God who exists of Himself is worthy to be praised, the Creator of the world out
of nothing to display the greatness of His character and attributes. Our Lord is
the one true God, by His Word designed, caused and sustained all visible or
invisible creatures into being. Though we are God’s possessions, He is not
dependent on creation for His own praise and rejoicing but instead man’s true
blessing is to glorify Him and being found in Christ. As His renown is what
matters most in this world, the whole wisdom of God in the Scriptures instruct
us to satisfy our restless souls in His intrinsic value, pleasures and worth.

2. The Trinity
i. Believing that our one God is a trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
are equally divine, eternally existing Persons, who love, know, and glorify one
another. Each person being perfect, boundless and changeless in His justice and
power, in His love and holiness, in His wisdom and knowledge, and in His truth
and blessedness. Yet each Person has distinct and irreversible functions in
creation, providence and salvation. Through our knowledge of the Father, we
have a true knowledge of the Son; and from the Son, a true knowledge of the
Father and the Spirit; and illumined by the Spirit, we are again carried back to
the grandeur of this one, true God, whose ways are unfathomable. The truth
that there are three Persons in one God holds intact the Good News that it is God
alone who saves sinners; the mutual relation and delight between the Persons
provide believers communion with God; the functional subordination between
the Persons ground our gender-specific roles within the household of faith; and
the unified purposes between the Persons enjoin the church’s mission to the
world.

3. God’s Sovereignty and Providence

i. Humanity, created in God’s image, has been gifted with the will to perform what
his heart desires most but the Lord does whatsoever He pleases. Knowing the
end from the beginning, the only wise Sovereign has planned all things that
comes pass as the Fountain of all goodness not the author of evil in any way.
Thus, what we love to ascribe to God is absolute sovereignty over all things. Yet
His reign doesn’t diminish man’s total accountability for his moral actions or
make God’s freedom contingent upon His creatures.

ii. Human misery and wickedness are not what is supposed to be but for this
broken world, God’s kingdom has been inaugurated to bring about
reconciliation through the exalted Christ. In His comprehensive reign in human
society, believers are being saved from sin’s disastrous effects and receive new
life from death’s corrupting power. As God’s rule continues to prevail through
the church’s ministry, it gradually grows along with man’s impiety and
 challenged by Satan’s deceptions. But when Christ comes again, He will make
things right as Judge of the living and the dead and to have dominion over all of
God’s new creation. It is with such ingratitude, therefore, if the official teachers
of the Church shall defraud believers of this invaluable certainty and
incontrovertible truth- that from eternity God has chosen to spare a people from
His own vengeance utterly out of pure mercy and grace.

iii. Though God is transcendent, He is personally and perpetually active in

governing the universe in its vast array and apart from His sustenance all things
will not function in its course. As humanity receives His compassionate supplies,
the whole of nature awaits full restoration from the corruptions and brevity
from which their Creator had subjected them.

iv. Performed and witnessed since antiquity, validated miracles are credible
signs of God’s activity in this world, the greatest of which was Christ’s
resurrection from the dead. And at His own pleasure, He can overrule the
regular and normal works of nature and intervene in the affairs of men.

2. THE WORSHIP OF GOD

1. The Worship of God

i. The acceptable way of worshipping God is to humbly offer Him what is right by
placing our whole lives in thankful consecration to the Lord. Under the new
covenant, our great high Priest, the Lord Jesus, makes our worship accepted for
what the Father seeks are true-hearted worshipers who are fixated upon the
Gospel. To worship God means that our whole existence as genuine worshippers
is fully integrated: our inward devotion to the Lord extends to our collective,
Church life in public gatherings – steeped in God’s grace. Both privately and
corporately, worshipping God is regulated by the Scriptures, filled with the
Spirit, informed in the best of Christian traditions, and concerned for the
unconverted and marginalized people.

ii. It is part of service to God not only to observe ecclesiastical duties but also to
engage in public service and legitimate enterprises. In governing authorities, as
in the Christian Church, it is equally evil to aim at making followers and
vanquishing heresies by sheer persecution and brute force. Instead, its powers
as derived from God is the enforcement of justice and vengeance upon the
world’s wicked ways. But the Church’s distinct calling is due obedience and to
pay taxes, to appreciate the arts and sciences, to pray for our country’s
governors and seek the peace of the city in which we live. With diligence,
honesty and godliness, we adorn the Gospel by supporting our own family as
serving our true Master in heaven.1 Pleasing in the sight of God, we imitate
Christ’s example by not assimilating the world’s values, nor by separating from
our neighbor’s concerns but to be contagious in pure compassion in reaching
out to the lost.

iii. The aim of every Christian gathering is to build one another in love, faith,
and hope. It is all-together unique and sacred because it is for the service of God.
Captivated by God’s majesty, the congregation sings spiritual songs, receives the
proclamation of the word, prays for the cause of His kingdom, and keep the
 unity of the Spirit as stewards of peace. It is intelligible, participatory and
orderly in the use of gifts for the good of the people. And we anticipate a time
when the entire redeemed of God bow down to Him who sits on the throne and
savor our Redeemer’s glory forever.

iv. Never are man's pollutions so miserably demonstrated than when we

engage in religious idolatry and use the name of God for our own ends. That God
is spirit, without body or parts, forbids us to make any representations of Him
and of any creature in physical images, or think of God in human forms. But in
the new heavens and new earth we will behold the face of Christ in all His
excellencies, and in all His divine and human qualities. For all veneration and
adoration, we ascribe only to God, who is worthy of full reverence and awe, not
to any saints or ministers, holy books or relics. Since Scriptures teach us that any
person or thing where our hearts place greater value besides God is an idol, we
plead for Christ to cleanse our minds from every form of evil, lust and greed.

3. THE REVELATION OF GOD

1. God’s Revelation & the Knowledge of God

i. We have a God who speaks and communicates—the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit who knows one another from eternity past is our sure foundation for
the knowledge of ourselves and of the world around us. Though we cannot know
Him exhaustively because of limitations and sinfulness yet we can know Him
truly through the inward instruction of the Spirit by impressing the Scriptures
upon our hearts. In His mercy, God chose to clearly reveal His attributes through
nature so that men and women from different nations may acknowledge what is
true wisdom and power. This common knowledge of God among men suffices to
indict us of guilt but not to save us from our sins.

ii. In various events, institutions, and people did God make Himself known and
with a special favor to Israel under the old covenant2. These shadows have
shown the mysteries of His will until the substance was manifested in Christ; to
comfort His people to live by faith in the Gospel He promised beforehand; and to
wait for the grace that was to come. And Jesus Christ is that full and perfect
revelation of God. He has made known the God who is invisible and through
whom God has spoken in these last days. He is both superior and the fulfillment
of all previous mediators of God’s word to men for He himself is the Word of
God, our Priest and King. Since Christ alone is worthy to unfold the sovereign
plans of his Father, all of God’s promises are being accomplished in Him. The
Church, the entire members of the new covenant, have this saving knowledge of
God.

2. The Scriptures
i. The prophets of Israel, together with the apostles of Christ, had committed the
words and actions made by God and through God into writing, which are the
Scriptures of the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic, and the New
Testament in Greek. These sixty-six books are the only written words of God, in
its every word and as a whole, a product of the Spirit’s superintendence on the
human authors. The Church is subordinate to the Scriptures’ intrinsic authority
for it is without error in the original writings, sufficient in all that God requires
 us to do, final in every domain of knowledge to which it speaks, and replete with
God’s will for man’s redemption.

ii. That the Holy Spirit makes the Bible clear for humans to understand is based
upon God’s desire to communicate though there are parts in Scriptures that are
not equally plain among themselves or when it is silent on particular issues.1
And since this sacred Word is growing, active3 and vital to fulfill the Great
Commission, the church is called to make it accessible to all people-groups by
translating it into their vernacular.

iii. The following books from the Old and New Testaments are the supreme
authority for faith and life having all the properties as God’s word, that its
teachings are to be heard, its commands to be obeyed, and its promises to be
trusted:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1

Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah,
Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The Acts of the Apostles, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2
Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2
Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter,
2 Peter, 1, 2, & 3 John, Jude, and Revelation.

4. MAN AND HIS FALL IN SIN

1. Solidarity of the Human Race

i. The first pages of Scriptures are masterfully crafted to teach us an historical
Adam and Eve, specially formed by God’s immediate power without the pre-
existence of any species to beget them. Fearfully and wonderfully made, the
significant worth of all persons, men and women alike, young and old, weak and
strong are grounded in man as God’s image-bearer and all other accounts of our
origin aside from man’s solidarity with Adam are untrue. Nature and humanity
are not mere objects of chance but God’s creative product in the span of six days
beckoning all people of all generations to promptly give a grateful heart for this
life.

2. Marriage and Singleness

i. Marriage is a lifelong, covenant union between one man and one woman4 for
mutual construction of Christian love5, the sole context for sexual relationships6,
God’s design for procreation7 and to reflect Christ’s love to the church.8 Though
some men and women are equipped to singleness in undivided devotion to the
Lord yet both callings are pleasing to God and are gifts from our heavenly Father
not one vocation more sanctified over the other.9 But since we are living through
the first and second Advent of Christ, and that this world in its present form is
passing away10, married and single people are summoned to lay up treasures in
heaven and invest in the eternal pleasures of the world to come.11
 ii. Based upon creation and redemption, men and women are of equal worth in the
eyes of God but have different roles in mutual complement at home, in society
and at the church. Husbands are to love and have authority over their wives, and
wives are called to submit to their own husbands—both in partnership to
advance the Gospel and the care of children. And except in extreme medical
cases, abortion or every form of infanticide are detestable to the Lord, who is
personally active in creating human beings from the time of conception.

3. Original Sin
i. But sin is the cancer of every society, a personal affront to God’s holiness, and
the transgression of the law. It is the spring of our selfish conceit, idolatrous acts
and disordered loves. The rich harmony between God and humanity has been
disrupted by the entrance of this culpable evil. And this present and universal
state of affairs began with the disobedience of Adam. Since the first days of
creation up to the time of Moses, God judicially condemns people in Adam who
had violated a command directly given to him and whose first sin brought to the
world spiritual and natural death. From his bad use of free choice, we are the
children of wrath and the penalty of death was inflicted upon all in solidarity
with him.

ii. But the lavishness of grace that is found in Christ is greater than the effects of
Adam’s fall. As our Mediator, Jesus’ definitive, righteous act reconciled God to
man and acquit sinners before God, which sacramental elements and religious
devotions cannot accomplish. As our new representative Head, He has secured
for us new birth, eternal life and a new path of obedience patterned after His
humble conformity to God’s law, the suffering and death on the cross.

4. Common Grace and Total Inability

i. Every good and perfect gift to humanity comes down from the constant
benevolence of God. In spite of man’s evil propensities inherited in Adam, we
still reflect our Creator’s admirable goodness and are able to perform acts of
service to God and neighbor, though tampered by sin. For sin is the perversion
of that which is right in God’s creation and disobedience to His commands
makes it more offensive. It has affected the whole person, leaving no power in us
to seek the Redeemer and initiate whatsoever is good for ourselves.

5. THE GOSPEL AND SALVATION BY GRACE ALONE

1. Christ’s Person and Work

i. The eternal Son became human through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit,
conceived and born of the virgin Mary, with real body and real soul. He is one
sinless person in two natures as fully God and fully man, inseparably joined
together, so as to be the perfect and sympathetic mediator of the Church, not
only as Savior but also as Lord.

ii. Christ’s universal supremacy encompasses over all humanity, angelic powers
and demonic forces of darkness. He commands his followers to faithfully bring
the Gospel in open proclamation and offer freely His exclusive sufficiency.
Grounded upon the costly love of God in giving His Son, believers are being
transformed by the light and truth of salvation found in the Good News, which
 cannot be adjusted or corrupted without reaping eternal ruin and dismembering
the body of Christ.

iii. This profound privilege of salvation creates great amazement among the
angels. Mighty, flaming spirits as they are who fill the heavenly courts, they
serve as intermediaries between God and man, administrators of the Old
covenant and protectors to the heirs of the New. But it is not to angels that God
have subjected the world to come but to Jesus enunciated in His final and
present Word.

iv. This Gospel announces God’s saving power through Christ’s person and
work. It is news, in that it is a historical and reliable account based on
eyewitness testimonies; it is good news that God have dealt with His own wrath
against humanity; and it is the good news about Jesus, the long-expected Christ
and the ultimate King who died violently and freely as a substitute, who stood
condemned in our place. Since He is fully God and fully man, Christ’s death
completely satisfies both justice and mercy, the Conqueror who triumphs over
the devil and his cohorts. When this Gospel is pronounced in preaching and in
teaching, salvation comes to the person who believes and receives it truly from
the heart. This Good News is a matter of first importance, an essential saving
truth for sinners, and the true treasure of the Church.

v. All the material health and wealth in this world are not absolute signs or
spiritual indicators of God’s love to man, nor are they given to measure the
efficacy of an evangelistic work. These blessings are instruments to help the
needy out of their temporal suffering, and through missions, spread the
treasures of God’s mercy out of our eternal peril. That Christ died while we were
yet enemies is the most decisive proof of God’s love, poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, who grieves in all kinds of envy. As God supplies all our
needs according to His grace, the Spirit teaches us to ask for neither poverty nor
riches, to be content whatever the circumstances may be and to look for the
interests of others, for knowing Christ Jesus and having a glorious body are of
more surpassing worth than what this present life affords.

2. The New Covenant

i. God’s covenant-love with His people is most sure and unshakeable as His
unchanging perfections. When Scriptures speak of covenants according to His
wise and eternal plan, God forever bounds Himself to His creation, to humanity,
and to the people of Israel, until all these previous and inter-related covenants
found its fulfillment in the New Covenant. It is a gracious act and a sovereign
initiative of the Father to save a people for Himself. The sacrifices, the temple
and the High Priest were necessary for the atonement of sins in the past. But
these were not fulfilled in three different and separate institutions, rather in one
and the same Person—in Christ. In this new covenant, the church is only made
up of those who know the Lord, not a mixed people of believers and non-
believers like Israel in the old covenant. This new community is empowered by
the Holy Spirit, as recipients of inward change and transformed life.

ii. The Old Testament writings are not contrary to the New Testament, nor the new
covenant opposed to the old covenant. Though Christians are no longer bound
 by the demands of the Law of Moses and not subject to its sanctions, it continues
to serve as a prophetic witness to the Gospel, as wisdom for living, for moral
instructions, to display God’s righteousness, and to constitute humanity as
sinners before the coming of Christ. But conversely, the continued observance of
the temple, the sacrifice of animals, the mediation of human priests, the Ten
Commandments, the practice of circumcision, and any other commands under
the rubric of the old covenant are being made obsolete and fulfilled in Jesus. Yet
the Old Testament Scriptures, under the authority of Christ’s New Covenant, are
profitable and applicable today for our training in righteousness. As the
principal agent of the priesthood has changed, a change in the law and covenant
follows. And since Christ-like love fulfills the laws of the old covenant, and is
permanent unto eternity, what counts is keeping the commands of God and the
law of Christ, to constantly forgive our neighbor just as Christ forgave us and to
set our affections exalted in love worthy of our Redeemer.

iii. God has wisely set the Ten Commandments neither to justify nor sanctify
humanity for its function is to show the exceeding sinfulness of our sins and our
incapacity to please Him. Rather than this Law serving as an all-encompassing
principle with regard to God’s commands, it is the breadth of love to God instead
and to our neighbor that is breath-taking in its eternal quality. Thus, any person
who approaches God through old covenant means or who obeys His commands
apart from faith have trampled the Son of God underfoot and has detracted from
His all-sufficiency.

iv. The gathering of the church every Lord’s Day is an enjoyment and
anticipation of a full, salvation that we have in Christ. God’s rest in creation, the
Promised Land to Israel and the day of rest they observed on the seventh day,
have all found their completion in Christ. He gives true rest to our weary souls
when He resurrected from the dead and as we cease from our futile works in
finding acceptance in God’s sight. And this unbending belief anticipates the
future Sabbath-rest in the new heavens and new earth. To enhance corporate
worship, we exhort each other to have physical rest, to attend the gatherings of
the church, and refrain from secular pursuits for these will wisely fix our faith
on the overflowing display of God’s glory to the church. On this first day of the
week, we commemorate the Lord’s victory over sin when the Gospel is faithfully
expounded, the Sacraments properly dispensed and Discipline lovingly
enforced.

v. The New Testament writers handle the Old Testament texts and events with
careful attention to its historical sequences in establishing and validating faith in
Christ the Lord as the final means of God’s dealing with man. That we may not be
fraught with teachings of demons, Christ handed down its preservation to the
Church through the apostles’ ministry and office. And in order to perpetuate this
faithful, biblical reading, He also ordained the office of eldership to preach the
Word without diminishing the inviolable privilege of each believer of their
private study and access to the Scriptures.

3. Union with Christ

i. In our union with Christ, believers identify with Christ’s suffering and death,
participate in His resurrection and glory, and are being incorporated into the
 joyful presence of God. Since Christ is the last Adam who obeyed God, the church
is the new humanity. Just as Christ has a glorious, resurrected body, believers
will be as He is—changed into immortality. As Christ is God’s righteousness,
sinful men and women are acquitted in Him. As Christ is our High Priest and
Sacrifice, the church is sanctified in Him and now servants of God. As Christ is
God’s one and only unique Son, the church is adopted as co-heirs with Him. As
Christ is God’s chosen One, the church is the people God elected before creation.
And as Christ received the Spirit without measure, the church is being filled with
the Spirit as a guarantee of future redemption and more spiritual blessings.

4. Definite Redemption
i. Christ becoming the New Israel, all believers are God’s new assembly, the people
of God for His particular love and care, and for whom Christ died. For there were
no accounts of, and there will never be, a collaborative work between God and
sinners in solving the deathly condition of sin and evil. The predestination of the
Father, the sufferings of the Son, and rebirth in the Spirit are all inextricably link
together that any attempt to untie its bond will soon cast doubt on God’s overall
purposes. To ensure that God’s gifts and oaths are irrevocable, and His grace
always a source of wonder, the Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself the burden
of guilt and curses, not of all humanity, nor of any specific race, but only of the
Church, herself the pillar and ground of this truth.

5. Justification of Sinners
i. The Lord who will surely punish the guilty has postponed at the mean time His
full anger upon the Old Testament people through various animal sacrifices and
institutions. But when the time had fully come, Christ became the recipient of
His wrath freeing those who put their trust in Him of all legal charges. In
justification, God simultaneously acquits sinners of condemnation while satisfies
His justice in Christ’s death, and sinners appropriate this blessing by faith. This
verdict is neither earned through the works of the Law, by performance of
religious duties, by faithfulness to God’s covenant, by membership to a church,
nor of any transformation in the sinner, but only through the gracious
declaration of God in counting sinners righteous in Christ and imputing Christ as
sinner on our behalf.

6. Adoption into God’s Family

i. Jesus is God’s unique Son before creation and our union with Him crowns us
with the honor that is due as sons of God and heirs of the promise. Men and
women, alienated from God but who have come to faith in Christ, gain sonship
by means of God’s gracious adoption. Because of this legal status, we are drawn
to the church, the household of God with our brothers and sisters in this life
unto eternity. Accepted into God’s family, believers can now confidently address
God as heavenly Father without fear of wrath or denial, to experience discipline
and sufferings under our Father’s providence, until we reach salvation, the
glorious appearing of the children of God.

7. Faith and Perseverance

i. A genuine Christian is a person who firmly continues in the Gospel until the
end.12 The faith he exercises is a gift of God, a sinner’s proper response to God’s
grace in Christ, and though it varies in degrees and intensities, yet it is still true
 faith if Christ our Lord is its object. The saving message that justifies is also the
word of God that sanctifies to all followers of Christ whom God has chosen from
eternity. We are already saved, are being saved and will be saved through Him
who works in us. As pilgrims longing for a better and heavenly country, we
receive and accept warnings from Scriptures with fear and trembling for
without consecration no one will see the Lord.

ii. The perseverance of the saints involves battle, difficulty and struggle in this
present life but it also includes gladness for this privilege received. A child of
God is not forced to continue in the faith, but he or she likes it and persists
through adversity in the way of weakness through the all-sufficient grace of
Christ. Though believers are not yet what they ought to be and what they hoped
for, they are no longer what they once were—as slaves to sin. Despite the war
waged by the Devil on the Church and the persecutions brought by this world,
our sanctification in Christ has irrevocably made us saints by calling through
Him who loves us and washed us from sins.

6. THE CHURCH

1. The Church
i. The Church is God’s assembly which consists of all the redeemed in Christ from
every nation, race and culture for the glory of God. She is the Spirit’s temple-
garden, the object of God’s electing love, the pure bride of Christ purchased
through His self-sacrificial grace. Each local church is a manifestation of the
universal church, and of the coming heavenly Jerusalem, awaiting God’s
vindication and future blessings. And each local church has an autonomous
interdependence with churches who holds to the same message of faith that we
may not be shaken with every innovative doctrine that comes from man’s deceit.

ii. Since she is the body of Christ under His authority, the pillar and ground of the
truth, to the Church is given the power of the keys of heaven to bind and loose,
to receive into her membership believers of Christ, and to excommunicate those
who have turned away from the Gospel and its accompanying holy life13.

iii. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic church has ever been and will be God’s
redeemed community here on earth in unity with her Lord in one faith and one
baptism. She is cleansed and protected by the pure teachings of Christ through
the ministry of pastors, bishops, and elders, which is of one office. Their official
validity is grounded, not by a direct succession of office from the apostles or
through a direct link from an early church, but upon the Holy Spirit’s calling,
equipping and sending of men for the faithful preaching of His word with a
congregational consent.

iv. The Church shall make no law on matters to which Scriptures neither
directly speak nor expressly command but that the faithful is bound to God
alone revealed in His written word, who is Lord of the conscience and of
understanding. Wise leaders of the Church will be cautious about overbearing
the people with restrictions and prohibitions that cannot be observed, be it by
necessary consequence deduced from Scriptures, by good traditions of men, by
new revelations of the Spirit or by this Confession in writing.
 2. The Two Sacraments
i. The Lord has instituted only two sacraments, that of Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper. They are to proclaim Christ’s saving benefits in tangible means and to
confirm the faith of all of God’s elect. We place neither confidence nor adoration
on the water, bread and wine, seeing that the sacraments separated by faith in
Christ are but empty shows and have no power to provide grace to the
repentant.

ii. Baptism for believers alone is a sacred picture of conversion in the name of the
Holy Trinity, a sacrament of entrsance into the universal and local Church.
Through the symbolic ordinance of immersion, God has transferred us from the
realm of Adam, sin, and death to the realm of Christ, life and resurrection. The
Lord’s Supper is a sacred thanksgiving of the new covenant we have in Christ
celebrated by all professed believers. Pointing back to His death, the public
administration on the bread and wine does not change their essence in any way
but retain its function as signs and seals of God’s spiritual feeding. By these
tangible elements, Christ regularly reminds His disciples of their forgiven status,
of our continuing repentance, and the assurance of His unchanging love until He
comes again to welcome us at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

3. The Gifts of the Spirit

i. According to His will, our triune God pours out His charismatic gifts to each
believer for the spiritual construction of the church. Like a body with many
parts, the church and her members function together as one with their various
gifts that are of equal dignity. Motivated by a love that supports, believes and
endures, Christians today can employ their temporary charismatic gifts in an
orderly way until we see our Savior face to face.

ii. Since tongues, healing and prophecy under the new covenant will end at the
final age, their practice today is appropriate. They are constructive to the degree
that they serve the good of the church, recognized that not all of them may be
genuine and not be used as criteria for conversion or spiritual growth. Those
who have the gift of tongues should exercise it in private unless there will be an
another interpreter; those who have the gift of healing must maintain their gift
as only channels of God’s miraculous treatment of sicknesses and not to the
detriment on the preaching of the Word; those who have the gift of prophecy
will view their God-given message to specific church circumstances as never
equal to the authority of Scriptures nor must they utter predictions that are in
any essence contradictory to what the biblical writers have already expressed.

iii. Recognizing the growing problems of false prophecies and prophets since
the early church, we affirmed Scripture’s uncontested guideline for church
structure and government: that an orderly church is led only by qualified
pastors and deacons, and not by men or women whose gifts of prophecy,
tongues and healing today are independent, equal, or superior from the
Scriptures or from these two offices, even if the church is benefiting spiritually
and physically from their gifts.

7. GLORIFICATION & RESTORATION

 1. The Terrors of Hell
i. Though the soul will perpetuate its incorporeal existence after death, in the
sufferings of hell or in the blessedness of heaven, a final judgment of God awaits
humanity with his body resurrected in union with his soul.

ii. The Lord who has the power to raise a body from the dead also has the authority
to cast man to everlasting suffering, an endless, conscious torment on both body
and soul, which the unbelieving deserves as a just recompense, while removing
all opportunities of ever hearing the Gospel and be saved. Lest we overthrow
God’s truth that the ultimate punishment of hell is only a temporary state, an
unloving and irrational doctrine, we affirm God’s sovereign prerogative to Judge
any unrepentant wicked by subjecting him to an eternal punishment in the
terrors of hell.

iii. The banishing of the fallen angels from heaven and the destruction of
Jerusalem in the early church are but foretastes of God’s fierce anger against all
things impure and defiled. For the sin that originated in Adam is evident beyond
contest in its full effects during wars, famine and apostasy from the faith. True to
his character of impartiality, the Lord will judge each person according to the
deeds done in his body, whether good or evil, including the secret recesses of his
heart. Humanity shall give an account to God whom they most offended, and any
man or woman whose name is not written in the book of life is thrown finally
into the lake of hell-fire.

2. The New Heavens & New Earth

i. We affirm that believers ought to be ready to give an answer to those who ask
about the hope that is in them—this same hope anchored fully on the grace of
Christ’s final coming. But while waiting for the Home of Righteousness, they live
as aliens and strangers in this world journeying to the City which is to come, to
suffer according to God’s will for doing good and not for evil because Christ died
for sins once and for all, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to the new
heavens and new earth, the home of righteousness.

This document is based on Evangelical and Reformation Confessions

Nicene Creed, – http://www.creeds.net/ancient/nicene.htm
Apostles Creed – http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apostles.htm
The Consensus of Zurich, 1549 - http://www.creeds.net/Tigurinus/tigur-bvd.htm
Heidelberg Catechism – http://www.crcna.org/pages/heidelberg_main.cfm
The Belgic Confession - http://www.wts.edu/resources/creeds/belgicconfession.html
Canons of Dort – http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/dort.htm
Westminster Shorter Catechism – http://www.shortercatechism.com/
The Savoy Declaration - http://www.creeds.net/congregational/savoy/
London Baptist Confession, 1689 – http://www.vor.org/truth/1689/1689bc00.html
Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy – http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html
The Cambridge Declaration – http://www.monergism.com/The%20Cambridge%20Declaration.pdf
The Gospel Coalition Statement of Faith – http://thegospelcoalition.org/about/foundation-
documents/confessional/
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1Tim. 5:8
2
Heb. 1:1
3
Heb. 4:12
4
Gen. 2:24; Prov. 2:16-17; Mal. 2:14; Matt. 19:6; 22:30
5
Eph. 5:18-24
6
Gen. 1:28; Prov. 5:15-20; 1Cor. 7:2-5
7
Gen. 1:28; Ps. 127:3
8
Eph. 5:25-30
9
Acts 18:26; 1Tim. 4:1-4
10
Mk. 3:31-35; 1Cor. 7:29, 31
11
1Pet. 3:7
12
Heb. 3:6, 14; 6:11
13
Matt. 13:5; Mk. 4:5; 1Jn. 2:19; Heb. 2:12