At Living Faith, we believe that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone; and the Word of God is our authority and the sole basis for the teaching and preaching in our church. Here are more specific details of our doctrine:
SCRIPTURES
We believe the Bible, in its original manuscripts as contained in the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, to be the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God, and the only infallible authority for faith and practice. The Word of God shall be the sole basis and foundation for the preaching and teaching ministry of this church. (2 Tim. 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21)
GOD
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each eternal in being, identical in nature, equal in power and glory and having the same attributes and perfections. (Matt. 28:19; John 14:16-20)
THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST
We believe Jesus Christ, God the Son, always existed with the Father, but at His incarnation was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. As God/Man, the Lord Jesus became perfect humanity and Deity in one person forever. The Lord Jesus was sinless in His nature and life, making atonement for the sins of the world by His death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into Heaven, His perpetual intercession for His people at the right hand of God and His literal pre-millennial return to earth. (Luke 1:26-38; John 1:1,14; Matt. 1:18-25)
THE PERSON OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the deity and the personality of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts the unsaved of their need for Christ. The Holy Spirit is the agent of the New Birth, who at the time of salvation permanently indwells, seals and baptizes the believer into the body of Christ. He further ministers to the believer, teaching, interceding, guiding, filling, and imparting spiritual gifts. (John 14:16-17, John 16:8-15, Rom 8:6-17)
MAN
We believe that man was directly created by God in His image and likeness, and was originally free of sin until the fall (Genesis 3). Every person is born in the sinful condition inherited from Adam and also becomes a sinner by their choice to disobey God's absolute perfect standards. Every human being outside of Jesus Christ is under the sentence of separation and death and is powerless to change their sinful standing without the grace of God. (Romans 3:23;5:12; 6:23)
SALVATION
We believe that salvation from the power and penalty of sin is only found in the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ. Full and complete forgiveness of sin, salvation from eternal death and the reception of eternal life cannot be earned by good deeds or religious works. Salvation is offered to man as a free gift of God's grace. It is received as a person repents and exercises saving faith in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3: 5-7, John 10:28-29; Romans 5:8-9)
THE CHURCH
We believe the local church is a congregation of believers who have come together in a local assembly for the exaltation of God, edification in the faith, encouragement in Christ, equipping of believers for life and ministry and the expanding of the gospel both locally and in the world.
THE ORDINANCES
We believe that the Lord¹s Supper and water Baptism are the only divinely instituted ordinances to be practiced in this age. Baptism shall be by immersion, and for believers only.
RESURRECTION and JUDGMENT OF MAN
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, both the just and the unjust; in the eternal conscious punishment of the lost and the eternal joy of the saved. (Rev. 20:11-15; 22:12-14; 1 Cor. 15:1-58)
END TIMES
We believe that Christ will, at any moment, return in the air to rapture His church, which is comprised of His saints, and that a tribulation period of approximately seven years shall follow, after which He will come to earth with His saints to rule for a thousand years. After this the wicked will be judged and cast into the everlasting lake of fire. (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-57; Dan. 9:27; Mat. 24:15-21,27; 25:46 Rev. 19:10-15,20)
SATAN
We believe that Satan is a person, the father of lies, the author of the fall of man, and that he shall be eternally punished. (Job 1:7; Gen. 3:1-19; John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8, Rev. 20:10)