Daily Verse
“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” ( Colossians 1:28)
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The
Holy Bible is Acts 13 Christian Ministries' all-sufficient
rule for faith and practice. The following Statement
of Faith that Acts 13 Christian Ministries subscribes
to, is intended simply to clarify our beliefs to
those involved in the Ministries, and to those
with whom we interact; so that we all speak the
same thing (1Cor
1:10, Acts
2:42). The phraseology employed in this statement
is not inspired or contended for, but the truth
set forth is held to be essential to a living faith.
No claim is made that it contains all biblical
truth, only that it covers our need as to these
fundamental doctrines. |
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| I |
We
believe that the whole Bible of sixty-six books contained
in the Old and New Testaments is the Word of God:
that it is inspired of God the Holy Spirit; that
the inspiration is not the concept only, but that
the very words of the original writings were inspired;
that they are a sufficient and complete revelation
from God to man. We therefore build upon the Holy
Scriptures as our rule of doctrine, faith, and practice;
they are our final court of appeal. |
| II |
We believe
in the unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of the
persons therein; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. |
| III |
We
believe that Jesus Christ was God manifest in the
flesh, born of a virgin by the operation of the Holy
Spirit. |
| IV |
We
believe that when the Lord Jesus went to the Cross
and died, while His crucifixion was by man (and that
“according to the predetermined counsel of God”)
His death was of a deeper character – the laying
down of His life deliberately and voluntarily, and
that it had a threefold significance, viz.:
| (1) |
It
was Substitutionary. That is, He who knew
no sin was made sin in our place and bore
all the judgment and penalty of sin that
man might be justified and acquitted through
faith in that atoning death. The rejection
of this atoning death involves the eternal
loss of the sinner. |
| (2) |
It
was Representative. That is, that when Christ
died, in the sight and mind of God, the whole
race in Adam as fallen man died in Him. We
thus judge that if one died in the place
of all, then all died (in Him). Hence the
only ground upon which there can be any relationship
to God is that of a new birth from above
by the operation of the Holy Sprit. |
| (3) |
It
was Victorious. As victorious over sin and
the flesh, so over all the powers of Satan.
The Cross of Calvary registered the final
overthrow of the entire Satanic hierarchy:
securing victory in life of the believer
now; authority for the Church; and ultimately
the destruction of that hierarchy at the
time appointed. |
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| V |
We
believe in the personal physical resurrection of
the Lord Jesus, and that He, in bodily presence,
showed Himself alive after His resurrection by many
infallible proofs. |
| VI |
We
believe that in the same bodily form He will come
again in like manner as He was received up. This
coming, we believe, will be pre-millennial. |
| VII |
We
believe that the Church, according to the word of
God, is composed of those who upon a basis of identification
with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection by
faith, have been truly born anew of the Spirit, baptized
by (that) One Spirit into One Body.
This Church is not an earthly organization,
but a spiritual organism, super-national, super-denominational.
We therefore feel that the pursuit or propagation
of anything of an earthly sectarian character
is contrary to the teaching and spirit of the
Word of God, therefore contrary to the Divine
mind.
Nevertheless, we would strongly disfavor
the propagation of this latter view as such,
believing, as we do, that any course of action
must be taken by all concerned individually
upon a basis of the revelation and conviction
of the Holy Spirit.
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| VIII |
We believe
that what are commonly called ordinances are really
testimonies to spiritual realities, and that these
are four in number; viz.:
| (1) |
Baptism
of believers by immersion: the testimony
to identification with Christ in death, burial
and resurrection. Romans
6:3-11; Col.
2:12, etc. |
| (2) |
The
laying on of hands. The act of representative
members of the Body of Christ, by which a
testimony is borne to the oneness of the
Body in all its members under one anointing,
which is upon the Sovereign Head for all
His members. Upon this ground not made by
the laying on of hands but testified to believers
are sharers in that anointing and are equipped
for whatever may have been the foreknown
purpose of God in, and through them. The
principle also applies to the oneness of
the ministry in the Body of Christ or House
of God (the same thing). Psalm
133:2; Matt.
3:16; Heb.
6:2; Acts
8:17, Acts
9:17; 2
Tim. 1:6, 14; 1
Tim. 1: 18; 2
Tim. 4: 14; Acts
19: 5, 6, etc. |
| (3) |
The
Lord's Table. In this testimony all the other
testimonies are gathered together, and while
the others have to be borne as occasion requires,
the Lord's Table has to be regular and continuous.
It sets forth, or proclaims the substitutionary
and the representative work of Calvary; His
death for us, our death in Him. It declares
the corporate nature of the Church His Body
One Loaf (1
Cor. 10: 16, 17; 1
Cor. 11: 23-30).
It postulates the One life Divine
Life life triumphant over death shared
by all believers, for the life is in
the Blood and the blood is the life. Lev.
17:14; John
6:53, etc.
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| (4) |
The
anointing of the sick. James
5:14. This we believe to be a testimony
to the indwelling Christ as the life of His
members. He is anointed from eternity to
be the life of His people, and to give them
life. The anointing with oil testifies to
this fact. He, as the Anointed of God by
the Sprit has conquered death. As within
His members He is, by the Sprit, the Earnest
of a full and final deliverance from the
bondage of (physical) corruption. This Earnest
is manifested either by the healing of sickness,
or by a quickening and energizing to transcend
infirmity to do the will of God. Which of
these two takes place in each individual
case is in His sovereign choice, both are
seen in the Word of God. This is no mechanical
application of a static ordinance but a testimony
which can only be virtuous in the power of
the Holy Sprit. |
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NOTE
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| With
reference to the above testimonies we do not feel
that it is required of us that we should seek to
propagate them as a system of teaching, or as to
be blindly obeyed by all; but to give them their
place and carry them out as the Lord's people are
enlightened and led by the Holy Spirit in connection
with them. The Spirit must lead in every case: and
it is ours to expound the Word as led by Him. |
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