STATEMENT OF DOCTRINES AND BELIEFS - ComingOne.com - HOME

God is the person who created and sustains the universe. He is a Spirit who fills every part of heaven and earth. He is the one and only true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is holy, just, all powerful, all knowing, eternal, loving, and Lord of all.

Jesus Christ is God in every way and has existed forever. He is the only begotten Son of the Father, born in the flesh to a virgin. He is perfect, holy, and sinless. He is the complete and perfect expression of God the Father, is one with the Father, and is one with the Holy Spirit. He created, sustains, and fills the universe. Although He emptied Himself of His heavenly privilege and apparent glory, He was always God, always possessed the power and perfection of God, and was always and will always be the same Person as God. He submitted Himself to the will of the Father, was rejected by mankind, suffered, and died on the cross for the sins of the world. He was raised bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of the Father. He is the promised Messiah of Israel. He is the only way to receive forgiveness of sins, imputed righteous, and eternal life. He is the one and only Savior of the world and the only way to know God. His Spirit dwells in ever reborn believer. He is coming again to rapture and resurrect the saints, restore Israel, judge the nations, and establish His Kingdom on earth.

Purpose of the Crucifixion - Jesus Christ came to earth to give Himself as the first and final sacrifice for the sins of the world. His death is a complete and timeless substitutionary sacrifice, a ransom for every sin that has ever been or ever will be committed. This gift must be received by faith in order to be ratified as an irrevocable covenant in the believer's life.

Eternal life is the free gift of God to anyone who receives Christ and is born of His Spirit.

Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.

The New Birth is essential for salvation and for living a life of obedience to and fellowship with God.

Assurance of Salvation - Every believer can and should be assured of their salvation. It is impossible for any born again believer to lose their salvation in any way by any means. Regeneration through the Holy Spirit eternally seals and guarantees the salvation of every believer.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit - Every believer who receives Christ as their Savior is immediately baptized in the Holy Spirit once and for all time. No additional anointing or baptism of the Spirit or is needed or possible. Jesus Himself makes every believer complete and fulfills our every need.

Authority of God's Word - The Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are the written Word of God and are historically accurate and absolutely, exclusively trustworthy. They are the highest authority in all matters of truth, doctrine, practice, and revelation for all mankind and each believer. No other writing, revelation, teaching, experience, or prophesy has the authority of God's Word. No translation is exclusively inspired or authoritative.

Born into Sin - Every person in the world is born into a fallen state of sin: selfish, dishonest, and hostile to God. Every person on Earth is or was on their way to judgment and punishment for their sins and an eternity in hell without hope and without God. Only repentance and faith in Christ can change the outcome of this certain fate.

Sin is not only thought and action but also he natural state of the human heart. Trying to live a righteous life without being reborn of God' Spirit is impossible. Doing good deeds, keeping a set of rules, or following a religion have no power to change the sinful nature of the human heart.

The Church consists of every truly reborn believer in Christ throughout the world. No single organization, hierarchy, fellowship, or authority today can truthfully claim to be the one and only true church. Jesus Christ, the Gospel, and the Word of God hold exclusive authority in the Church.

Baptism and Communion are the only sacraments given by Christ to be observed by the Church. Neither is necessary to be saved or to be declared righteous before God.

Satan is a powerful spiritual being, a fallen angel who became the embodiment of evil when he rebelled against God and became His adversary. Together with the the demons, he controls the world as it continues to rebel against God. He attacks and accuses believers to render them fruitless but is effectively defeated by faith, prayer, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the preaching of the Gospel.

Hell is real, an everlasting fire where those who have rejected God's salvation will be justly punished for their every sin. While there will be different severities of punishments for different types of sin, hell is an eternal, conscious, and inescapable condition of all who die without Christ.

We come directly to God through Christ; listen, believe, and obey His Word and Spirit without any other intermediary. No church, person, minister, group, hierarchy, ritual, theology, political entity, priest, doctrine, family, fellowship, translation, or publication has any authority, ability, or right to come between God and the individual believer. Every believer is a priest before God, free from all spiritual authority except Christ.

Faith without works is not dead. Faith is not completed by works. Works are not the other side of faith. We are saved and made righteous before God by faith and faith alone. No one can be saved by depending upon works in any way for salvation.

Obligations of the Believer - Every believer who has received Christ is obliged to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Every believer is called to live a life of faith, prayer, witness, fellowship, love, generosity, and praise in obedience to the written Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Every believer's purpose in life is to serve Christ, cultivate a love relationship with Him and His people, and bear fruit for His Kingdom.

The Christ Centered Life - A close, abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is the most vital concern of every believer's life.

The End Times - The end of history will begin as sudden birth pains with seven years of tribulation starting with an unprecedented period of warfare, famine, and persecution of believers. It will spawn the rise of the Antichrist, a world dictator; and will include a series of unprecedented cosmic plagues. Right after the Tribulation, Jesus Christ will return to earth to rapture the Church, rescue Israel, and destroy the armies of the world. He will establish a thousand year reign in Israel, followed by: a final conflict, the Great White Throne Judgment, the dissolution of the universe, the creation of a new heaven and earth, and the appearance of the New Jerusalem where believers will live with Him for all eternity.

Post Tribulation Rapture - The Scriptures teach that the church, living and dead, will be caught up to meet Christ well after the Tribulation is under way, as the Apostle Paul writes, at the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet of Revelation. Not a single verse of Scripture states that the rapture will occur before the Tribulation begins.

The New Testament Canon - It is clear that the epistle of James is an apocryphal book, being mistakenly included by translators as being equal to the Apostle's writings. James not only fails the test of apostleship, but also fails the test of the Gospel concerning faith as the sole requirement for righteousness and salvation, directly contradicting the Apostle Paul's teachings in Romans and Galatians. Precedence has been established on this by James' exclusion from many of the earliest lists of New Testament books, as well as Martin Luther's conclusion that it is an "epistle of straw," has nothing of the Gospel about it, and is unequal to the other New Testament writings. Any writing included in the New Testament as Scripture must meet three criteria: 1. Preaches Christ and His Gospel 2. Must be the teaching and witness of one of the Apostles. 3. Proven to be historically genuine and doctrinally sound, in agreement with the most reliable, undisputed New Testament Scriptures.

The Jews and Israel - Israel and the Jews are the genetic offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Kingdom of Israel will be restored to the Jews exactly as written in the Prophets when Christ returns. The land of Canaan was given by God to Abraham's decendants as an eternal, irrevocable covenant and is the sole right of the Jewish people to possess. Gentile believers have an obligation before God to bless the Jews, help protect them, and be a witness to Christ among them.