Our Testimonies
Our Beliefs
Statement of Faith – First Century Gospel Church
FCGC BELIEFS
Believing on the LORD Jesus Christ is committing our life to submit to His authority and control and being willing to surrender completely in His Will–surrender all!
When we repent and confess our sins, accept the LORD Jesus Christ as our Savior by faith, and are born-again from above, we then come into union with the LORD Jesus, receive His Holy Spirit, and become a member of God’s Family. The Holy Spirit will also give us the strength and will to obey God, and do His Will in all things; i.e., turning our life over to His full control (1st John 3:1,2; Romans 8:16-17).
This commitment to surrender our life to Christ requires a complete change of living: our will for His Will, being willing to learn God’s Will and obey it. When we read the LORD Jesus’ Words in Matthew 7:20-27 for instance, we learn that obedience is necessary. We must also read and study these other passages, to learn what God expects of us (Hebrews 3:6,15; Romans 11:22, 1st John 2:3-6; Colossians 1:23; 1st Corinthians 15:2; John 6:66; John 8:30,31; Luke 8:13; John 14:23; 1st John 1:6; John 15:14; Romans 8:9; 1st Corinthians 7:19; John 9:31 and John 12:26). We are warned repeatedly in these Scriptures that obedience and submission to God’s Whole Will are NECESSARY!
- We believe in the Triune God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in triune immersion for baptism by going into the water as our LORD Jesus Christ did. We believe in the partaking of the LORD’s Holy Communion (the LORD’s Supper) (Matthew 3:16; 28:19; Colossians 2:12; Luke 22:19-20; 1st Corinthians 11:23-26).
- We believe the teachings of Scripture (The Holy Bible) in the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God (2nd Timothy 3:16; 1st Thessalonians 2:13; 2nd Peter 1:21).
- We believe and teach that all men have sinned (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Therefore, we conclude that all must die because of sin. More than that, all are dead–spiritually and judicially, in trespasses and sins of which the wrath of God must descend in condemnation (Ephesians 2:1-3; John 3:18,36).
- We believe in the doctrine of the Atonement: that Christ died for our sins, that His death was sacrificial and absolutely necessary for man’s redemption. We are not redeemed by the doctrine of the atonement, but by the atonement itself: the precious Blood of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:22;27,28;10:12; 1st John 2:2; 1st John 4:10).
- We believe the sacrifice of the Son of God was the vicarious offering for sin by which God’s righteous demand was satisfied. Through His Blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins; for the LORD Jesus Christ suffered for us, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God (Ephesians 1:7; 1st Peter 3:18).
- We believe in the bodily Resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ. The whole plan of Salvation was based on the Death and Resurrection of the Sinless Son of God. By His Resurrection, Christ has proven that God is Almighty and Satan a defeated foe. The Resurrection of the Son of God was necessary in order that believers in the LORD Jesus Christ might know that God’s justice has been satisfied and that they are justified (Romans 4:25).
- We believe in the Substitutionary Death of our LORD Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross for our sin. The death of Christ is the central fact in God’s Plan of Redemption. The Blood of the Son of God was shed for the remission of sin, and we, who are sinners have been justified before God, through faith, merely by believing in Him as the Son of God and only Savior (John 3:16), through trusting in Christ and what He accomplished on Calvary’s Cross (1st Corinthians 15:21,22).
- We believe that the testimony of God is that, he that believes on the Son has Everlasting Life. Faith is to place reliance upon God’s Witness and to believe in His Son. To believe God’s revelation is to acknowledge that God is true. To reject it, is to make Him a liar. The former is faith, the latter unbelief! (John 3:36; John 6:40; 1st John 5:10; Revelation 21:8).
- We believe that for a man to gain Heaven, he must be regenerated by God: born again from above by the Holy Spirit. It is through faith in God, faith in Christ’s Atonement Sacrifice that a man is saved and regenerated (John 3:16,18,36; John 5:24). Only God can save (Acts 4:12).
- We believe that, like repentance, faith is not an act of merit upon the part of him who experiences the evidence, rather, it is a divinely implanted conviction (Romans 10:17).
- We are not saved by faith; we are saved by Grace through Faith! Faith is simply the channel through which God’s Grace to us is received. It is the hand that reaches out and receives the Gift of His Love. (Ephesians 2:8,9).
- We believe in the New Birth whereby new life is communicated to the recipient: Divine Life–Christ Himself living in the heart by the Third Person of the Trinity, His Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20; 1st Corinthians 6:19,20).
- We believe that our position, by God’s Grace and through Faith in Christ, is that we are now united with Christ, born anew by the Word and the Spirit; are new creations in Christ, possessors of Divine Life. (Romans 6:4-6).
- We believe that it is by Grace that we are justified (Romans 3:24). Therefore, since we are saved by Grace, we become justified through Grace. Grace is God’s Free Gift (Ephesians 2:8,9).
- We believe that God’s Justification is our title to Eternal Life. Pardon for sin removes its penalty–death. Justification gives its reward—Life (Romans 5:1-2).
- We believe that Romans 8:4 gives us our relationship to the law: “In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met IN us, (NOT ‘by us’), who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4).
- We believe that just as God had to quicken the deadness of Sarah’s womb–so God must also quicken those who are dead in trespasses and sins.
- We believe that redemption means complete deliverance by a price paid. Christ’s Death on the Cross completed this redemption.
- We believe that man wants to earn rather than receive Salvation. Salvation is based on the loving goodness of God and never on the supposed worthiness of the sinner!
- We believe as the Bible teaches that the Christian is IN Christ, and God sees us only as He sees Christ. Being “IN Christ” we are in God’s sight what Christ is. God’s Word says: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our LORD Jesus Christ. Much more then, having now been justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 3:28 and 5:1,9).
- We believe and trust God alone for protection from any harm without using any human efforts (Psalm 23:1-6; 27:5; 91:1-16; 121:1-8; Isaiah 25:4). We believe that God neither inflicts nor permits sickness and disease to correct or make us grow spiritually (Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 7:11). Rather, God’s Word confirms that most sicknesses, diseases, pains, and troubles are from the devil and his demonic agents (evil or unclean spirits. (Matthew 8:16-16; 12:22; 15:30; Mark 1:34)
- We believe that just as the LORD Jesus Christ ordained and gave His Apostles power to cast out demons (evil spirits), heal the sick, and preach the Gospel, His ordained ministers, elders, and deacons have the same power based on Scripture to cast out demons and heal the sick in the name of the LORD Jesus. (Mark 3:14-15; 6:7-13; Luke 6:1-5)
- We believe and trust God alone for our divine (physical) healing, which is wrought by the Power of God through the prayer of faith and provided for in the Atonement of Christ, without the use of doctors, drugs, or medicine whatsoever. It is pure common sense that since the body was made by God, then He is the only One to be trusted or depended upon for healing. God has been the healer of true believers for all ages (Exodus 15:26b; 2nd Chronicles 16:12-13; Psalm 103:3; 105:37; Isaiah 53:4-5; Matthew 4:23; 8:16-17; Mark 5:25-29; Acts 10:38; James 5:14-15)
- Christian Living: We believe and trust God alone spiritually in order to meet wrongs right. We trust God to empower us to die to self and carry the Cross daily in every aspect of our Christian life. We all know that unless we are fully under the control of God’s Holy Spirit, it is impossible to allow others to walk over us: be everybody’s doormat; everybody’s slave; and everybody’s servant (Matthew 5:38-48; 16:24-27; Luke 6:27-36; John 12:25-26; Romans 6:11; Romans 12:1-2,14,17-20)
- Tithing and Offering: We believe and trust God alone to financially supply all our material needs. We neither appeal for funds nor pass the collection boxes around during church services. Rather, boxes are placed on a counter/table where anyone can privately pay their tithes and offerings. We depend upon God’s Holy Spirit to encourage everyone to cheerfully give to the LORD. In the Old Testament, 10% of a Jew’s income was required for tithing. However, with the abundant Grace and mercy that God has offered Christians through the redemption of His Son, the LORD Jesus Christ, Christians are encouraged to cheerfully give more to the LORD than the minimum 10 percent.
- We believe that the death of the LORD Jesus Christ on the Cross covers every need. That is why it is unscriptural to go into debt by borrowing or purchasing any article with the intention to pay on long term installments. We are not to take thought for the morrow, but to look to God for our supplies a day at a time (2nd Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 4:19; Psalm 50:15; Romans 13:8, Matthew 5:7; 6:11,25-34, Luke 3:11; 11:13; Malachi 3:10; Psalm 41:2-3; Proverbs 19:17). We obey Scripture and highly encourage everyone to work for their own living, and in turn, give generously to God and others who are in need, or through the Church (Proverbs 18:8; Malachi 3:10-12; 2nd Corinthians 9:6-12; Colossians 3:22-24; 2nd Timothy 3:10-12)
- Church. We believe that First Century Gospel Church is composed of all who are united by the Holy Spirit to the risen and ascended Son of God; that by the same Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, and thus, being members one to another, we are responsible in good conscience to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, loving one another with a pure heart fervently (Mathew 16:16-18; Acts 2:32-47; Romans 12:5; 1st Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23, 4:3-10; Colossians 3:14-15). We believe that the LORD Jesus Christ, who is the Head over all First Century Gospel Church (Ephesians 1:22), commands His people to observe four ordinances