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Articles of Religion
1. Faith in the Holy
Trinity
We believe in the one living and true God, both holy
and loving, eternal, unlimited in power, wisdom and goodness, the Creator and
Preserver of all things. Within this unity there are three persons of one
essential nature, power and eternity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. The Father
We believe the Father is the Source of all
that exists, whether of matter or spirit. With the Son and the Holy Spirit, He
made man, male and female, in His image. By intention He relates to people as
Father, thereby forever declaring His goodwill toward them. In love, He both
seeks and receives penitent sinners.
3. The Son of God
We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He was
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly
man. He died on the cross and was buried, to be a sacrifice both for original
sin and for all human transgressions, and to reconcile us to God. Christ rose
bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and there intercedes for us at
the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all humanity at the last day.
4. The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit
who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is of the same essential nature,
majesty, and glory, as the Father and the Son, truly and eternally God. He is
the Administrator of grace to all, and is particularly the effective Agent in
conviction for sin, in regeneration, in sanctification, and in glorification. He
is ever present, assuring, preserving, guiding, and enabling the believer.
5. The Sufficiency and Full Authority of the Holy Scriptures for
Salvation
We believe that the books of the Old and New Testaments
constitute the Holy Scriptures. They are the inspired and infallibly written
Word of God, fully inerrant in their original manuscripts and superior to all
human authority, and have been transmitted to the present without corruption of
any essential doctrine. We believe that they contain all things necessary to
salvation; so that whatever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is
not to be required of any man or woman that it should be believed as an article
of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Both in the Old and
New Testaments life is offered ultimately through Christ, who is the only
Mediator between God and humanity. The New Testament teaches Christians how to
fulfill the moral principles of the Old Testament, calling for loving obedience
to God made possible by the indwelling presence of His Holy Spirit.
6. God’s Purpose for Humanity
We believe that the two
great commandments which require us to love the Lord our God with all the heart,
and our neighbors as ourselves, summarize the divine law as it is revealed in
the Scriptures. They are the perfect measure and norm of human duty, both for
the ordering and directing of families and nations, and all other social bodies,
and for individual acts, by which we are required to acknowledge God as our only
Supreme Ruler, and all persons as created by Him, equal in all natural rights.
Therefore all persons should so order all their individual, social and political
acts as to give to God entire and absolute obedience, and to assure to all the
enjoyment of every natural right, as well as to promote the fulfillment of each
in the possession and exercise of such rights.
7. Marriage and the Family
We believe that every person is created in the image of God, that human
sexuality reflects that image in terms of intimate love, communication,
fellowship, subordination of the self to the larger whole, and fulfillment.
God’s Word makes use of the marriage relationship as the supreme metaphor for
His relationship with His covenant people and for revealing the truth that that
relationship is of one God with one people. Therefore God’s plan for human
sexuality is that it is to be expressed only in a monogamous lifelong
relationship between one man and one woman within the framework of marriage.
This is the only relationship which is divinely designed for the birth and
rearing of children and is a covenant union made in the sight of God, taking
priority over every other human relationship.
8. Personal Choice
We believe that humanity’s creation in the image of God included ability
to choose between right and wrong. Thus individuals were made morally
responsible for their choices. But since the fall of Adam, people are unable in
their own strength to do the right. This is due to original sin, which is not
simply the following of Adam’s example, but rather the corruption of the nature
of each mortal, and is reproduced naturally in Adam’s descendants. Because of
it, humans are very far gone from original righteousness, and by nature are
continually inclined to evil. They cannot of themselves even call upon God or
exercise faith for salvation. But through Jesus Christ the prevenient grace of
God makes possible what humans in self effort cannot do. It is bestowed freely
upon all, enabling all who will to turn and be saved.
9. The Atonement
We believe that Christ’s offering of himself, once and for all, through
His sufferings and meritorious death on the cross, provides the perfect
redemption and atonement for the sins of the whole world, both original and
actual. There is no other ground of salvation from sin but that alone. This
atonement is sufficient for every individual of Adam’s race. It is
unconditionally effective in the salvation of those mentally incompetent from
birth, of those converted persons who have become mentally incompetent, and of
children under the age of accountability. But it is effective for the salvation
of those who reach the age of accountability only when they repent and exercise
faith in Christ.
10. Repentance and Faith
We believe that for men
and women to appropriate what God’s prevenient grace has made possible, they
must voluntarily respond in repentance and faith. The ability comes from God,
but the act is the individual’s. Repentance is prompted by the convicting
ministry of the Holy Spirit. It involves a willful change of mind that renounces
sin and longs for righteousness, a godly sorrow for and a confession of past
sins, proper restitution for wrongdoings, and a resolution to reform the life.
Repentance is the precondition for saving faith, and without it saving faith is
impossible. Faith, in turn, is the only condition of salvation. It begins in the
agreement of the mind and the consent of the will to the truth of the gospel,
but issues in a complete reliance by the whole person in the saving ability of
Jesus Christ and a complete trusting of oneself to Him as Savior and Lord.
Saving faith is expressed in a public acknowledgment of His Lordship and an
identification with His Church.
11. Justification, Regeneration and
Adoption
We believe that when one repents of personal sin and believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ, that at the same moment that person is justified,
regenerated, adopted into the family of God, and assured of personal salvation
through the witness of the Holy Spirit. We believe that justification is the
judicial act of God whereby a person is accounted righteous, granted full pardon
of all sin, delivered from guilt, completely released from the penalty of sins
committed, by the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by faith alone, not
on the basis of works. We believe that regeneration, or the new birth, is that
work of the Holy Spirit whereby, when one truly repents and believes, one’s
moral nature is given a distinctively spiritual life with the capacity for love
and obedience. This new life is received by faith in Jesus Christ, it enables
the pardoned sinner to serve God with the will and affections of the heart, and
by it the regenerate are delivered from the power of sin which reigns over all
the unregenerate. We believe that adoption is the act of God by which the
justified and regenerated believer becomes a partaker of all the rights,
privileges and responsibilities of a child of God.
12. Good
Works
We believe that although good works cannot save us from our sins or
from God’s judgment, they are the fruit of faith and follow after regeneration.
Therefore they are pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and by them a
living faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.
13. Sin After Regeneration
We believe that after we have
experienced regeneration, it is possible to fall into sin, for in this life
there is no such height or strength of holiness from which it is impossible to
fall. But by the grace of God one who has fallen into sin may by true repentance
and faith find forgiveness and restoration.
14. Sanctification: Initial,
Progressive, Entire
We believe that sanctification is that work of the
Holy Spirit by which the child of God is separated from sin unto God and is
enabled to love God with all the heart and to walk in all His holy commandments
blameless. Sanctification is initiated at the moment of justification and
regeneration. From that moment there is a gradual or progressive sanctification
as the believer walks with God and daily grows in grace and in a more perfect
obedience to God. This prepares for the crisis of entire sanctification which is
wrought instantaneously when believers present themselves as living sacrifices,
holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ, being effected by the
baptism with the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart from all inbred sin. The
crisis of entire sanctification perfects the believer in love and empowers that
person for effective service. It is followed by lifelong growth in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The life of holiness continues
through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving
obedience to God’s revealed will.
15. The Gifts of the Spirit
We
believe that the Gift of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself, and He is to be
desired more than the gifts of the Spirit which He in His wise counsel bestows
upon individual members of the Church to enable them properly to fulfill their
function as members of the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit, although not
always identifiable with natural abilities, function through them for the
edification of the whole Church. These gifts are to be exercised in love under
the administration of the Lord of the Church, not through human volition. The
relative value of the gifts of the Spirit is to be tested by their usefulness in
the Church and not by the ecstasy produced in the ones receiving them.
16.
The Church
We believe that the Christian Church is the entire body of
believers in Jesus Christ, who is the founder and only Head of the Church. The
Church includes both those believers who have gone to be with the Lord and those
who remain on the earth, having renounced the world, the flesh and the devil,
and having dedicated themselves to the work which Christ committed unto His
church until He comes. The Church on earth is to preach the pure Word of God,
properly administer the sacraments according to Christ’s instructions, and live
in obedience to all that Christ commands. A local church is a body of believers
formally organized on gospel principles, meeting regularly for the purposes of
evangelism, nurture, fellowship and worship. The Wesleyan Church is a
denomination consisting of those members within district conferences and local
churches who, as members of the body of Christ, hold the faith set forth in
these Articles of Religion and acknowledge the ecclesiastical authority of its
governing bodies.
17. The Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord’s
Supper
We believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the
sacraments of the church commanded by Christ and ordained as a means of grace
when received through faith. They are tokens of our profession of Christian
faith and signs of God’s gracious ministry toward us. By them, He works within
us to quicken, strengthen and confirm our faith. We believe that water baptism
is a sacrament of the church, commanded by our Lord and administered to
believers. It is a symbol of the new covenant of grace and signifies acceptance
of the benefits of the atonement of Jesus Christ. By means of this sacrament,
believers declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
We believe that the
Lord’s Supper is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ’s death and of our hope
in His victorious return, as well as a sign of the love that Christians have for
each other. To such as receive it humbly, with a proper spirit and by faith, the
Lord’s Supper is made a means through which God communicates grace to the
heart
18. The Second Coming of Christ
We believe that the
certainty of the personal and imminent return of Christ inspires holy living and
zeal for the evangelization of the world. At His return He will fulfill all
prophecies made concerning His final and complete triumph over evil.
19.
The Resurrection of the Dead
We believe in the bodily resurrection from
the dead of all people— of the just unto the resurrection of life, and of the
unjust unto the resurrection of damnation. The resurrection of Christ is the
guarantee of the resurrection which will occur at Christ’s Second Coming. The
raised body will be a spiritual body, but the person will be whole and
identifiable.
20. The Judgment of All Persons
We believe that the
Scriptures reveal God as the Judge of all and the acts of His judgment are based
on His omniscience and eternal justice. His administration of judgment will
culminate in the final meeting of all persons before His throne of great majesty
and power, where records will be examined and final rewards and punishments will
be administered.
21. Destiny
We believe that the Scriptures
clearly teach that there is a conscious personal existence after death. The
final destiny of each person is determined by God’s grace and that person’s
response, evidenced inevitably by a moral character which results from that
individual’s personal and volitional choices and not from any arbitrary decree
of God. Heaven with its eternal glory and the blessedness of Christ’s presence
is the final abode of those who choose the salvation which God provides through
Jesus Christ, but hell with its everlasting misery and separation from God is
the final abode of those who neglect this great salvation
more can be
found at http://www.wesleyan.org/beliefs/