| I am the
Vine, ye are the branches. He who abideth in me and I in him will bringeth forth
much fruit, for without Me, ye can do nothing."
(John 15:5)
"A vineyard of
wine, sing of it! I the Lord, am its keeper, I water it every moment. Lest anyone damage
it, I guard it night and day."
(Isaiah
27:2-3) |
Vineyard Beliefs and Truths |
Theological Statement
We believe that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite,
unchangeable Spirit perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, and love. From
all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory.
We believe that God's kingdom is everlasting. From His
throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds, and governs all that
exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living
thing, and mankind. God created all things very good.
We believe that Satan, originally a great, good angel,
rebelled against God taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God's presence
and, as a usurper of God's rule, established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the
earth.
We believe that God created mankind in His image, male
and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of
Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness, and God's judgment of
death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's
good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original
sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to
Satan's kingdom of darkness.
We believe that God did not abandon His rule over the
earth, which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God
established covenants, which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with
Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to
sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.
We believe that, as King, God later redeemed His people
by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses,
revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law's purpose is to order
our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God's
Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God's righteous judgment against us and brings us to
Christ alone for salvation.
We believe that when Israel rejected God's rule over her
as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with
David, promising that his heir would restore God's kingdom reign over His people as
Messiah forever.
We believe that in the fullness of time, God honored His
covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His only Son,
Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary as fully
God and fully man in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was
anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God's kingdom
reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the
good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.
Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God's people as His Church to be the instrument
of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on
the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham.
In His sinless, perfect life, Jesus met the demands of the law; and in
His atoning death on the cross, He took God's judgment for sin, which we deserve as
lawbreakers. By His death on the cross, He also disarmed the demonic powers.
The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus' birth from David's
house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into
heaven, and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God's Son and David's
heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God's reign throughout every generation
and throughout the whole earth today.
We believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the
Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing
the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of
God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting
us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world
through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer
in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide.
We believe in the filling or empowering of the Holy
Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present
ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the Biblical gifts of the Spirit. We
practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for
recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.
We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human
authors of Holy Scriptures so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts.
We receive the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority,
the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
We believe that the whole world is under the domination
of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people, therefore, are
under God's just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom
of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts, and sanctifies
through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior. By this, they are released from Satan's domain and enter into God's kingdom
reign.
We believe in the one, holy, universal Church. All who
repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy
Spirit and form the living body of Christ, of which He is the head and all are members.
We believe that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to
the Church: water baptism and the Lord's Supper. Both are available to all believers.
We believe that God's kingdom has come in the ministry of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit
through the Church; and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible, and
triumphant appearing of Christ - His return to the earth as King. After Christ
returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and
works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the eternal blessing of the
righteous and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in
all; and His kingdom, His rule, and reign will be fulfilled in the new heavens and
the new earth recreated by His mighty power in which righteousness dwells and in
which He will forever be worshipped.
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