We believe the Bible to be God’s Word
The books of the Bible are God’s written revelation to man, God-breathed and God-inspired, without error or misleading. Not only is the Bible infallible, nothing else is or can be central for our beliefs and practices but The Word.
Because we believe the Bible, this is what we believe about the following:
- We believe there is only one true God, who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Godhead is true God and a mystery of the Godhead cannot be fully understood this side of heaven. We believe that man is created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam’s sin mankind became alienated from God, each person inherited a sinful nature, unable by his own strength to remedy his lost condition.
- We believe the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man (without ceasing to be God) having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Christ came in order that He might reveal God and Redeem sinful man. He accomplished our Redemption through His death on the Cross as our sin-substitute sacrifice, only able to be performed by God. His body literally physically was resurrected and thereby conquered death. We believe the Lord Jesus Christ is now in heaven, exalted at the right hand of God, where He fulfills his ministry.
- We believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person of the same nature as God the Father and the Son: He was active in the creation, He convicts men of sin, He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled, and He is the supernatural agent in regeneration and sanctification. We believe the Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher who guides believers into all truth. All who are saved can and should be filled with the Spirit—asking, receiving and manifesting the gifts he gives each to build up the Body today here on earth. Wisdom is the Holy Spirit’s strong ministry to man.
- We believe salvation is the gift of God, given to man by grace (not earned by man’s efforts) and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Each Believer can know they are saved and kept by God’s power and are thus secure in our Christ. Believers can enjoy complete assurance of their salvation, but the Word clearly also teaches not professing faith while living in sin, and encourages individual works which God has called us to do.
- We believe that the Church, which is the body and bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations. The local church is at the very heart of God’s kingdom plan of redemption and sanctification. Parachurch ministries such as Wisdom4Dads exist to serve Christ-and-Spirit-centered, Bible-applying local churches, sharing their services.
- We believe in the existence of Satan, a fallen angel, who is the declared enemy of God and man. Satan is not God’s equal opposite, but the devil is an angelic creature, and can do nothing without God’s sovereign permission (as we see expressed in the book of Job).
- We believe in the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. We believe the souls of those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation pass immediately into His presence at death, and remain in fellowship until the resurrection at His Second Coming, when soul and body reunite with Him forever in Glory. The souls of Unbelievers remain after death in misery until the final judgment of the great white throne when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the lake of fire into everlasting destruction from the presence of God.
- We believe Christians should live in a walk of faith within God’s plan for each of us, bringing us into daily prayer to keep our lives centered upon our Lord and Savior, who commands separation from sinful attitudes and behavior. It is the obligation of every believer to seek to live up to the truths of His Word, to love the needy, to defend the defenseless and to share in compassion and by grace-filled example the vibrant life in the Spirit available through God the Father’s sacrificial Gift (Jesus) on the cross.