Our Statement of Faith
1. We believe in God, the almighty Lord, creator and sustainer of the heavens and the earth, of everything that exists, visible and invisible.
2. We believe that God is one. He is a being in communion, and the Bible speaks of the Divine in three different, inseparable persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this way, we believe that there is only one God, who is the Holy Trinity. He has one nature, one essence, one being, but God from eternity is in three persons who are united yet distinct at the same time.
3. We believe in God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity. According to the equality of essence and the unity of deity of the Holy Trinity, He is the Father of the only begotten Son of God. As the creator, He is the Father of all the world. In the act of salvation, He is the Father of His chosen ones, giving the opportunity to everyone who believes to become children of God, to belong to the family of God.
4. We believe in God the Son, revealed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages – light from light, true God from true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father; through whom all things were made. For us humans and for our salvation He came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. Jesus is one person with two natures, which are without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation – He is completely God and completely man, true God and true man, of the same nature as the Father in relation to His divinity, and of the same nature as we are in relation to His humanity. According to the Bible, Jesus lived a perfect life without sin. He healed the sick, performed many good acts, taught, and performed miracles. At the end, He suffered and was crucified on the cross for our salvation and as a ransom sacrifice for our sins. He was buried, and on the third day He was resurrected from the dead. He ascended to the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father. He is the eternal savior, interceding for us. Jesus will come back again in glory and power to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.
5. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, of the same essence with the Father and the Son. He convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. He testifies of the Gospel and the truth about Jesus and invites us to come to Him. He leads believers to repentance and gives them life-giving faith. The Holy Spirit enables our conversion, and He is the one who gives us rebirth and testifies that we have become children of God and are saved. He leads us in sanctification, and the fruit of His work in us is good deeds, which we do as a result of conversion and new birth. He consoles us, sustains us, empowers us, changes us, and leads us in all the truth. In that way, the salvation act of the Spirit is absolutely necessary and essential for our salvation. The Holy Spirit is alive and unchangeable. Even today He baptizes and fills His faithful ones with power. He acts through different signs and wonders, heals the sick, and gives different gifts to believers for the common good, including the gift of speaking in tongues.
6. We believe that the church is the faithful people of God who are in sacred fellowship according to the will of God, under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Christ is the head of the church. The church is the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. The church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. It nurtures fellowship among believers; preaches the Word of God; educates and edifies believers as disciples of Christ who pray together, praise, and adore God; serves believers inside the church and people outside of it in the world; and faithfully testifies to the Gospel of Christ for the salvation of everyone who believes. We believe in the priesthood of all believers, but God also calls some to be recognized and ordained for service to God as leaders and pastors of His flock.
7. We believe in the life eternal and resurrection of the dead. Believers, who are justified by faith in Jesus, will be resurrected to eternal life in heaven, and unbelievers will be resurrected to eternal damnation in hell because of their lawlessness. This world will pass away, and Satan with the forces of darkness will be conquered forever. The Lord will create for His people the new heavens and new earth where there will be no evil, no suffering, no pain, no crying, no sorrow, no death; and of His kingdom, glory, and rule, together with His church, there will be no end.
8. We believe that the Bible is God-breathed Holy Scripture and that the Holy Spirit inspired God's servants, prophets, and apostles to write all the books of the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Scripture contains all of the information needed for our salvation, and in that sense it is the completely trustworthy, true, and infallible Word of God. The Bible is our only canon. In other words, it is the only measure and authority for questions related to our faith and our belief practice.
9. We believe that man - male and female - is the crown of God's creation and is created in the image of God to rule and govern over all of creation. Every person has innate dignity and should be respected, helped, and honored. However, man fell in sin, and through original sin all mankind by nature became helplessly sinful. Sin means missing the goal, rebellion against God, self-will, lawlessness, unbelief, disobedience, etc. The wages of sin is death, which means death of the spirit, soul, and body, and eternal separation from God.
10. We believe that man can be saved only by the grace of God and through faith in Jesus Christ. Sinful man cannot earn salvation by his/her efforts, strength, nor deeds of the Law. Justification comes by faith in Jesus Christ, and salvation is received as a gift from the Lord.
11. We believe that the one who believes that Jesus is Lord, that He died for our sins and was raised from the dead, and who repents of his/her sins and turns to the Lord, will be saved and will be born again by the Holy Spirit. The born-again man, renewed by the Holy Spirit, has the strength to please God and to perform good deeds for His glory. In this manner, good deeds are not a condition or a way to salvation but a product or a fruit of the salvation of man.
12. We believe that sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil and surrendering oneself to God. It begins when someone starts believing in Jesus and becomes born-again by the Holy Spirit, and that process continues as long as we are alive. Sanctification is also an act of God's grace through the Word, prayer, and the Holy Spirit, through which we purify ourselves from sin in our thoughts, words, and acts, enabling us to live in accordance with God's will and to long for holiness, so that we will become more and more like Christ.
13. We believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus is the only mediator between us and God and the only savior of the world, and there is no other name and no other way by which we could be saved.
14. We believe that the church, meaning all believers, is called to take part in the Great Commission and to preach the Gospel of Christ to all people from all nations, so that all have a chance to hear the Good News and to believe in Jesus and be saved. The Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit and accordingly, evangelism should spontaneously come out from the church filled with the Holy Spirit. A church which does not evangelize is disobedient to the Lord's commandment and needs to pray for a new filling, obedience, and power of the Holy Spirit. World evangelism calls for the whole church to take the whole Gospel to the whole world.
15. We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to practice two sacraments (holy mysteries), and these are baptism and the Lord's Supper. A sacrament represents an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Baptism is the first sacrament through which the one who believes in Jesus and is born-again through faith, with a visible sign of submersion under the water by a church official in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, makes a covenant of faith with God in front of the witnesses of the church. Submersion under the water is an expression of cleansing, in other words of dying to sin, together with Christ, and being raised to new life in the resurrected Christ. The Lord's Supper (Holy Communion or Eucharist) is the second sacrament through which we renew our covenant with Christ and are reminded of His sacrifice for us. The bread represents the body of Christ crucified for us, and the wine represents Christ's blood shed for us. Through the Holy Communion, we in gratefulness renew our unity with Christ and one another and proclaim that Christ will come again. A believer by his/her decision and conviction is baptized once and for all, and the Lord's Supper is administered on a regular basis, according to the order of every local church.
16. We believe that marriage is a God-constituted institution (heterosexual and monogamous) between one man and one woman.
17. We believe that glory belongs only to God, and therefore we worship God alone - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – and we serve Him only.