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Oikia Bible Institute
Complete Doctrinal Statement of Faith
The
Scriptures
We
believe that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” by which
we
understand the whole Bible is inspired in the sense that holy men of
God “were
moved by the Holy Spirit” to write the very words of Scripture. We
believe that
this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the
writings—historical, poetical, doctrinal, and prophetical—as appeared
in the
original manuscripts. We believe that the whole Bible in the originals
is
therefore without error. We believe that all the Scriptures center
about the
Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work in His first and second
coming, and
hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read or
understood
until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the Scriptures were
designed
for our practical instruction. (Mark 12:26, 36; Luke 24:27, 44; John
5:39;
16:13; Acts 1:16; 17:2–3; 18:28; 26:22–23; 28:23; Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor.
2:13;
10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21)
The
Godhead
We
believe that God is the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of all
things
visible and invisible, who eternally exists in three Persons—the
Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, having
precisely
the same nature, attributes, and perfections, and are worthy of
precisely the
same homage, confidence, and obedience. (Matt. 28:18–19; Mark 12:29;
John 1:14;
Acts 5:3–4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 1:1–3; Rev. 1:4–6)
Angels,
Fallen and Unfallen
We
believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless spiritual
beings
known as angels; that one, “Lucifer, son of the morning”—the highest in
rank—sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan; that a great company
of the
angels followed him in his moral fall, some of whom became demons and
are
active as his agents and associates in the prosecution of his unholy
purposes,
while others who fell are “reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness for
the judgment of the great day.” (Isa. 14:12–17; Ezek. 28:11–19; 1 Tim.
3:6; 2 Pet.
2:4; Jude 6)
We
believe that Satan is the originator of sin and that under the
permission of
God, he, through subtlety, led our first parents into transgression,
thereby
accomplishing their moral fall and subjecting them and their posterity
to his
own power; that he is the enemy of God and the people of God, opposing
and
exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped; and
that he
who in the beginning said, “I will be like the most High,” in his
warfare
appears as an angel of light, even counterfeiting the works of God by
fostering
religious movements and systems of doctrine, which systems in every
case are
characterized by a denial of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and of
salvation by grace alone. (Gen. 3:1–19; Rom.
5:12–14; 2 Cor. 4:3–4; 11:13–15;
Eph. 6:10–12; 2 Thess. 2:4; 1 Tim. 4:1–3)
We
believe that Satan was judged at the Cross, though not then executed,
and that
he, a usurper, now rules as the “god of this world”; that, at the
second coming
of Christ, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand
years;
and after the thousand years he will be loosed for a short season and
then
“cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” where he “shall be
tormented day
and night for ever and ever.” (Col. 2:15; Rev. 20:1–3, 10)
We
believe that a great company of angels kept their holy estate and are
before
the throne of God, from where they are sent forth as ministering
spirits to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. (Luke 15:10; Eph.
1:21; Heb.
1:14; Rev. 7:12)
We believe
that humanity was made lower than the angels; and that, in His
incarnation,
Christ took for a little time this lower place, that He might lift the
believer
to His own sphere above the angels. (Heb. 2:6–10)
Humanity,
Created and Fallen
We
believe that humanity was created in the image and after the
likeness
of God. God created them male (man) and female (woman).
Men and women are sexually different but have equal
personal dignity. Some men and women are called to remain single; some
are
called to marriage, which is a “one flesh” union between one man and
one woman
intended to end only upon a spouse’s death. This
union allows for
procreation as well as furtherance of the moral, spiritual, and public
good.
Therefore, sexual acts outside of biblical marriage are prohibited by
Scripture.
All
humanity—male and female, whether married or single—are fallen beings.
Through
sin, and as a consequence of that sin, all
humanity lost their spiritual life, becoming dead in
trespasses
and sins, and became subject to the power of the devil. We
also
believe that this spiritual death, or total depravity of human nature,
has been
transmitted to the entire human race, the Man Christ Jesus alone
being
excepted; and that as a result every child of Adam is born into the
world with
a nature that not only possesses no spark of divine life, but also is
essentially and unchangeably bad apart from divine grace. (Gen.
1:26–28;
2:18–24; 3:7–8; Exod. 20:14; Lev. 18:7–23; 20:10–21; Deut.
5:18;
Matt. 5:27–28; 15:19; 19:4–9; Mark 10:5–9; Rom.
1:26–32; 8:8; 1 Cor. 6:9–13; 1 Cor 7:6–8; Gal.
5:19; Eph.
4:17–19; 5:25–27, 31–33; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3; Heb. 13:4; 21:2)
The
First Advent
We
believe that, as provided and purposed by God and as preannounced in
the
prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this
world that
He might manifest God to humanity, fulfill prophecy, and become the
redeemer of
a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin and received a
human body
and a sinless human nature.
We
believe that the Son retained all the attributes of deity in His
incarnation
and that the distinction between the human and divine natures was in no
way
annulled by the union. (Luke 1:30–35;
2:40 John 1:1–2, 18; 3:16; Phil. 2:5–8; Heb. 4:15)
We
believe that in fulfillment of prophecy Jesus came first to Israel
as her Messiah-King and that, being rejected by that nation, He,
according to
the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all. (John
1:11;
Acts 2:22–24; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb 2:9; 1 John 2:2)
We
believe that, in infinite love for the lost, Jesus voluntarily accepted
His
Father’s will and became the divinely provided sacrificial Lamb and
took away
the sin of the world, bearing the holy judgments against sin that the
righteousness of God must impose. His death was therefore
substitutionary in
the most absolute sense—the just for the unjust—and by His death He
became the
Savior of the lost. (John 1:29;
Rom. 3:25–26; 2 Cor. 5:14;
Heb. 10:5– 14;
1 Pet. 3:18)
We
believe that, according to the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ rose
from the
dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and
died, and
that His resurrection body is the pattern of the body that ultimately
will be
given to all believers. (John 20:20; Phil. 3:20–21)
We
believe that, on departing from the earth, Jesus was accepted by His
Father and
that His acceptance is a final assurance to believers that His
redeeming work
was perfectly accomplished. (Heb. 1:3)
We
believe that Jesus became Head over all things to the church, which is
His body,
and in this ministry He continually intercedes and advocates for the
saved.
(Eph. 1:22–23; Heb. 7:25; 1 John 2:1)
Salvation
Only Through Christ
We
believe that, owing to universal death through sin, no one can enter
the
kingdom of God unless born again; and that no degree of reformation
however
great, no attainments in morality however high, no culture however
attractive,
no baptism or other ordinance however administered, can help the sinner
to take
even one step toward heaven; but a new nature imparted from above, a
new life
implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential
to
salvation, and only those thus saved are children of God. We believe,
also,
that our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our
Lord Jesus
Christ, who was made to be sin and was made a curse for us, dying in
our place;
and that no repentance, no feeling, no faith, no good resolutions, no
sincere
efforts, no submission to the rules and regulations of any church, nor
all the
churches that have existed since the days of the apostles can add in
the very
least degree to the value of the blood or to the merit of the finished
work
wrought for us by Him who united in His person true and proper deity
with
perfect and sinless humanity. (Lev. 17:11; Isa. 64:6; Matt. 26:28; John
3:7–18;
Rom. 5:6–9; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 6:15; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:4–9; Titus
3:5;
James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:18–19, 23)
We
believe that the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in
Christ
and that repentance is a vital part of believing and is in no way, in
itself, a
separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other
acts, such
as confession, baptism, prayer, or faithful service, to be added to
believing
as a condition of salvation. (John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29; Acts
13:39;
16:31; Rom. 1:16–17; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 10:4; Gal. 3:22)
The
Extent of Salvation
We
believe that when an unregenerate person exercises the faith in Christ
that is
illustrated and described as such in the New Testament, that person
passes
immediately out of spiritual death into spiritual life, and from the
old
creation into the new being justified from all things, accepted before
the
Father as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Christ is loved, having
their
place and portion linked to Him and one with Him forever. Though saved
individuals may have occasion to grow in the realization of their
blessings and
to know a fuller measure of divine power through yielding their lives
more
fully to God, they are, as soon as they are saved, in possession of
every
spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and are therefore
in no
way required by God to seek a “second blessing” or “second work of
grace.”
(John 5:24; 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom.
5:1; 1 Cor. 3:21–23; Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10; 1 John 4:17; 5:11–12)
Sanctification
We
believe that sanctification, which is a setting-apart for God, is
threefold: It
is already complete for every saved person because the position of each
toward
God is the same as Christ’s position. Since believers are in Christ,
they are
set apart for God in the measure in which Christ is set apart for God.
We
believe, however, that they retain their sin nature, which cannot be
eradicated
in this life. Therefore, while the standing of believers in Christ is
perfect,
their present state is no more perfect than their experience in daily
life.
There is, therefore, a progressive sanctification wherein Christians
are to
“grow in grace” and to “be changed” by the unhindered power of the
Spirit. We
believe also that the children of God will yet be fully sanctified in
their
state as they are now sanctified in their standing in Christ when they
shall
see their Lord and shall be “like Him.” (John 17:17; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1;
Eph. 4:24; 5:25–27;
1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 10:10,
14; 12:10)
Eternal
Security
We
believe that because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects
of His
love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on
the
ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature
of the
divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending
intercession
and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the
unchangeable covenants of God, and because of the regenerating, abiding
presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, all
true
believers everywhere, once saved, shall be kept saved forever. We
believe,
however, that God is a holy and righteous Father, because He cannot
overlook
the sin of His children. Thus, He will, when they persistently sin,
chasten
them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save
them and
keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He who cannot fail will
in the
end present every one of them faultless before the presence of His
glory and
conformed to the image of His Son. (John 5:24; 10:28; 13:1; 14:16–17;
17:11;
Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 6:19; Heb. 7:25; 12:4–11; 1 John 2:1–2; 5:13; Jude 24)
Assurance
We
believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born
again by
the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be
assured
of their salvation from the very day they take Christ to be their
Savior and
that this assurance is not founded on any fancied discovery of their
own
worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His
written
Word, prompting within His children filial love, gratitude, and
obedience.
(Luke 10:20; 22:32; 2 Cor. 5:1, 6–8; 2 Tim. 1:12;
Heb. 10:22; 1 John
5:13)
The
Holy Spirit
We
believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the blessed Trinity,
though omnipresent
from all eternity, took up residence in the world in a special sense on
the day
of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer,
and by
His baptism unites all to Christ in one body, and that He, as the
Indwelling
One, is the source of all power and all acceptable worship and service.
We
believe that the Spirit never departs from the church, nor from the
feeblest of
the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy
believers with Christ and not with themselves nor with their
experiences. We
believe that His presence in the world in this special sense will cease
when
Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the church. (John
14:16–17; 16:7–15; 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:22; 2 Thess. 2:7)
We
believe that, in this age, certain well-defined ministries are
committed to the
Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of all Christians to understand
them and
to be adjusted to them in their own life and experience. These
ministries are
the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will;
the
convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness, and judgment;
the
regenerating of all believers; the indwelling and anointing of all who
are
saved, thereby sealing them for the day of redemption; the baptizing
into the
one body of Christ of all who are saved; and the continued filling for
power,
teaching, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him
and who
are subject to His will. (John 3:6; 16:7–11; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13;
Eph. 4:30; 5:18;
2 Thess. 2:7; 1 John 2:20–27)
The
Church, A Unity of Believers
We
believe that all who are united to the risen and ascended Son of God
are
members of the church, which is the body and bride of Christ, began at
Pentecost, and is distinct from Israel.
The church’s members are constituted as such regardless of membership
or non-membership
in the organized churches of earth. We believe that by the same Spirit
all
believers in this age, whether Jews or Gentiles, are baptized into, and
thus
become, one body that is Christ’s. And having become members one of
another,
they are under solemn duty to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of
peace, rising above all sectarian differences, and loving one another
with a
pure heart fervently. (Matt. 16:16–18; Acts 2:42–47; Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor.
12:12–27; Eph. 1:20–23; 4:3–10; Col. 3:14–15)
The
Sacraments or Ordinances
We
believe that water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the
sacraments/ordinances
of the church, and that they are a scriptural means of testimony for
the church
in this age. (Matt. 28:19; Luke 22:19–20; Acts 10:47–48; 16:32–33;
18:7–8; 1 Cor. 11:26)
The
Christian Walk
We
believe that all believers are called with a holy calling to walk not
after the
flesh but after the Spirit and so to live in the power of the
indwelling
Spirit, that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But the flesh
with its
fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being
with us to
the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept by the Spirit
constantly in
subjection to Christ, or it will surely manifest its presence in our
lives to
the dishonor of our Lord. (Rom. 6:11–13;
8:2, 5–14; Gal. 5:16–23; Eph. 4:22–24; Col. 2:1–10; 1 Pet. 1:14–16; 1
John
1:4–7; 3:5–9)
The
Christian’s Service
We
believe that divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the
Spirit upon
all who are saved. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer
is
energized by the same Spirit, and each is called to divinely appointed
service
as the Spirit may will. In the apostolic church there were certain
gifted
people—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—who were
appointed by God for the perfecting of the saints for their work of the
ministry. We believe also that today some are especially called of God
to be
evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and that it is to the fulfilling of
His
will and to His eternal glory that these shall be sustained and
encouraged in
their service for God. (Rom. 12:6; 1 Cor. 12:4–11; Eph. 4:11)
We
believe that wholly apart from salvation benefits, which are bestowed
equally
upon all who believe, rewards are promised according to the
faithfulness of
each believer’s service to the Lord, and that these rewards will be
bestowed at
the judgment seat of Christ after He comes to receive His own to
Himself. (1
Cor. 3:9–15; 9:18–27; 2 Cor.
5:10)
We
believe that some miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit were
unique to
the apostolic period for the provision of new revelation and the
establishment
of the authority of the apostles and prophets. Such abilities and
confirmatory
signs, wonders, and miracles, which centered on individual apostles and
prophets, ceased with the passing of these foundational offices and the
closing
of the era of authoritative New Testament revelation. Even at that
time, prophesying
and speaking in tongues as signs and sources of revelation were never
the
common or necessary mark of the baptism nor of the filling of the
Spirit. While
God may perform miracles in every age as He wills, the ultimate promise
of
deliverance of the body from sickness or death awaits the consummation
of our
salvation in the resurrection. (Acts 4:8, 31; Rom. 8:18–25; 1 Cor. 12:28,
30; 13:8; 14:22; 2 Cor.
12:12; Eph
2:20; Heb. 2:3–4; Rev. 21:3–4)
The
Great Commission
We
believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus Christ to
those whom
He has saved that they are sent forth by Him into the world even as He
was sent
forth by His Father into the world. We believe that, after salvation,
Christians are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as
strangers and
pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that their primary purpose in
life
should be to make Christ known to the whole world. (Matt. 28:18–19;
John 17:18;
Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:18–20; 1 Pet. 1:17;
2:11)
The
Blessed Hope
We
believe that, according to the Word of God, the next great event in the
fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord in the air to
receive to
Himself into heaven both His own who are alive and remain until His
coming and
also all who have fallen asleep in Jesus. This event is the blessed
hope
described in Scripture, and for this we should be constantly looking.
(John
14:1–3; 1 Cor. 15:51–52; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; Titus 2:11–14)
The
Tribulation
We
believe that the translation of the church will be followed by the
fulfillment
of Israel’s
seventieth week, during which the church, the body of Christ, will be
in
heaven. The whole period of Israel’s
seventieth week will be a time of judgment on the whole earth, at the
end of
which the times of the Gentiles will be brought to a close. The latter
half of
this period will be the time of Jacob’s trouble, which our Lord called
the
great tribulation. We believe that universal righteousness will not be
realized
prior to the second coming of Christ, but that the world is day by day
ripening
for judgment and that the age will end with a fearful apostasy. (Jer.
30:7;
Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15–21; Rev. 6:1–19:21)
The
Second Coming of Christ
We
believe that the period of great tribulation on the earth will climax
in the
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will return to the earth as He
went—in
person on the clouds of heaven—and with power and great glory. He will
thus
introduce the millennial age; bind Satan and place him in the abyss;
lift the
curse that now rests on the whole creation; restore Israel to her own
land and
give her the realization of God’s covenant promises; and bring the
whole world
to the knowledge of God. (Deut. 30:1–10; Isa. 11:9; Ezek. 37:21–28;
Matt.
24:15–25:46; Acts 15:16–17; Rom. 8:19–23; 11:25–27; 1 Tim. 4:1–3; 2
Tim. 3:1–5;
Rev. 20:1–3)
The
Eternal
State
We believe that at death the spirits and souls of those who
have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately
into His
presence. There they remain in conscious bliss until the resurrection
of the
glorified body given when Christ comes for His own, whereupon soul and
body
reunited shall be associated with Him forever in glory. But after their
deaths
the spirits and souls of unbelievers remain conscious of condemnation
and in
misery until the final judgment of the great white throne at the close
of the
millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of
fire,
not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction
from the
presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (Luke 16:19–26; 23:42–43;
2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1: 23; 2 Thess. 1:7–9; Jude 6–7; Rev. 20:11–15)
Creation
We accept the Genesis account of the six
days of the creation week as a historical record and believe that the
universe
with all that is in it was created by God; and we affirm that living
creatures
were made according to their kinds and were not produced by some
process of
evolution.
We believe that marriage
was divinely ordained to
be the
lifelong and exclusive union of one man and one woman, and we affirm
that the
Scriptures prohibit all sexual intimacy outside of this Biblical,
marital
relationship. We believe that God created both male and female, and
that He
designed gender distinctions between men and women, including the
Biblically-defined
and distinctive roles of husband and wife. Since gender distinctions
are rooted
in divine order, changing or disguising one’s inherited sex (and
correlated
gender) reflective of this order transgresses God’s design. We believe
in the
sanctity of life of all human persons, including the unborn, ailing,
and aging.
The
Dispensations
We
believe that the dispensations are stewardships by which God
administers His
purpose on the earth through human beings under varying
responsibilities. We
believe that the changes in the dispensational dealings of God with
people
depend on changed conditions or situations in which they are
successively found
with relation to God, and that these changes are the result of human
failures
and the judgments of God. We believe that different administrative
responsibilities of this character are manifest in the biblical record,
that
they span the entire history of humanity, and that each ends in failure
under
the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from God. We believe
that three
of these dispensations or rules of life are the subject of extended
revelation
in the Scriptures—namely, the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the
present
dispensation of grace, and the future dispensation of the millennial
kingdom.
We believe that these are distinct and are not to be intermingled or
confused,
as they are chronologically successive.
We
believe that the dispensations are not ways of salvation nor different
methods
of administering the “Covenant of Grace.” They are not in themselves
dependent
on covenant relationships but are ways of life and responsibility that
test the
submission of people to God’s revealed will during a particular time.
We
believe that if people trust in their own efforts to gain the favor of
God or
salvation under any dispensational test, because of inherent sin their
failure
to satisfy fully the just requirements of God is inevitable and their
condemnation sure.
We
believe that according to the “eternal purpose” of God, salvation in
the divine
reckoning is always by grace through faith and rests upon the basis of
the shed
blood of Christ. We believe that God has always been gracious,
regardless of
the ruling dispensation, but that people have not at all times been
under an
administration or stewardship of grace as is true in the present
dispensation.
(1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 2:8; 3:2; 3:9, 11; Col. 1:25; 1 Tim. 1:4)
We
believe that it has always been true that “without faith it is
impossible to
please” God, and that the principle of faith was prevalent in the lives
of all
the Old Testament saints. However, we believe that it was historically
impossible that they should have had as the conscious object of their
faith the
incarnate, crucified Son, the Lamb of God, and that it is evident that
they did
not comprehend as we do that the sacrifices depicted the person and
work of
Christ. We believe also that they did not understand the redemptive
significance of the prophecies or types concerning the sufferings of
Christ;
therefore, we believe that their faith toward God was manifested in
other ways
as is shown by the long record in Hebrews 11:1–40. We believe further
that
their faith thus manifested was counted to them for righteousness.
(John 1:29; Rom.
4:3 with Gen. 15:6; Rom.
4:5–8; 1 Pet. 1:10–12; Heb. 11:6–7)
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