We accept and embrace Gods' Holy Word,
found within the Holy Scriptures in their entirety
as the only authority in matters of life, faith and practice.
Therefore,
The Sword Of Truth - Church of the First Century
hereby adopts this Confession of Faith as our Biblical Doctrine:
1. We believe the Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament Writings to
be verbally inspired by God; inerrant in the original manuscripts, and
the supreme and final authority of faith and life.
2. We believe in The One and The Only God.
The God of all creation, holy, eternal, self-existent,
and self-revealing in three distinct persons -
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. We believe in Yahushua Hamashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin
birth, His perfect Deity and humanity. We believe in His substitutionary
atonement for our sin, His bodily resurrection and victory over death,
His visible, imminent, return for His church, His glorious and literal
kingdom over all the nations for a thousand years, and His eternal reign
with the Father in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
4. We believe in the personality of the Holy Spirit, who convicts the
world of sin, regenerates, indwells, baptizes, seals, guides,
teaches and sanctifies all who become children of God through
faith in Yahushua Hamashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ.
5. We believe that man was created by God,
sinless and in the very image of God.
But through Satan's temptation, the rebellion of Eve
and the weakness of Adam, sin brought both spiritual and physical death
not just to themselves but to all mankind, who are totally lost and have
within themselves absolutely no possible means of recovery or salvation
except through the acceptance of Yeshua Hamashiach,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice on the cross.
6. We believe in salvation by grace alone,
through faith in Yahushua Hamashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom all believers have a present possession, eternal life,
a perfect righteousness, acceptance in the family of God,
deliverance and security from all condemnation, and every spiritual resource
needed for life and godliness. This is not to say we can now live as we
please thereby dismissing the Laws of God, but is to say that we are
now free to live to serve Him who has saved us; that IF we stay in Him and
He in us, our eternity with Him is secure.
7. We believe in separation from this present world in its evil ways,
worldly amusements, unclean habits, and that we should seek the things
that are above, walk as He walked, and be careful to maintain good works
lest we pervert our freedom into license thereby loosing our very souls
to Hell for all eternity. As the Apostle Paul to Timothy in his second
letter 4:6-8 GNT "As for me,the hour has come for me to be sacrificed:
the time is here for me to leave this life. I have done my best in the
race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now
there is waiting for me the prize of victory awarded for a righteous
life, the prize which the Lord will give me on that Day - and not only
to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.
8. We believe in the personality of Satan, the Devil, the arch enemy of
God and man, in the eternal conscious punishment of the lost in a
literal hell of torment.
9. We believe that the Church is an elect company of believers, the body
of Christ, chosen by God before time began to glorify His Son
Yahushua Hamashiach, The Lord Jesus Christ, by an aggressive effort to
disciple all nations through the preaching of the Gospel.
10. We believe that Yahushua Hamashiach, the Lord Jesus Christ, has gone
to prepare a place for all saved, that their souls go to be with Him at
death, that their bodies will be resurrected or transformed at His
second coming, at which time they will be rewarded according to their
works.
11. We believe that the Church shall, in all its endeavors, be supported
by God's financial plan of “Tithe and Offering”. The subject of the
Tithe is the only place where we are challenged to "test" God in His
promises.
12. We believe that the ordinances of the Church, given by our Lord, are
baptism (by immersion) and the Lord's Supper (Holy Communion).
13. We believe that God has ordained the institution of marriage, and
that institution consists of one man and one woman.
14. We reject, by God's inspired and Holy Word, any notion that God
created people to be homosexuals or that homosexuals can live in open
rebellion to God's Holy Law and be received into God's grace all the
while maintaining an unrepentant lifestyle. Therefore, no person living
in any lifestyle which is outside of God's will (homosexual, adulterous,
or "living together" with out benefit of marriage) shall not be accepted as a
member of this Church or enjoy any benefits of this Church (baptisim,
communion, membership, choir or any other church activity).
15. We believe in the sanctity of human life.
We further issue this statement: Abortion is murder,
and nothing short of the most vile form of child abuse known to man.
Nobody has the right to murder an unborn child for any reason whatsoever.
16. We believe in the First Century example of church organization wherein
the Pastor is the leader and teacher, the elders support the Pastor,
Deacons see to the needs of the poor and women visit and care for the sick
and teach other women the ways of God.
17. We believe that God's design for His church is for the Pastor to be a man
following the Biblical example of The Holy Priesthood and the letters of Paul
(Corinthians chapters 11 - 14 and Timothy, chapter 2).
This does not exclude women from ministry for there are many
opportunities and needs which exist for Christian women to minister
and teach God's Word to other women and children.
We are committed to serve as God has outlined in His word.
Women may be called to the ministry but may not teach or lead men
before God in His holy house unless prophesying by His command.
We choose submission to God's Word over the will of man.
our Statement of Faith.