STATEMENT OF FAITH
We endeavor to draw all of our doctrine explicitly and exclusively from the Bible. We regard the following doctrines as essential, though there are many non-essential doctrines on which we have a perspective (also derived from Biblical conviction). Non-essential doctrines are important but not crucial to a believer’s walk with God. Therefore, we will not allow non-essential doctrines to take priority over those doctrines we see as explicit and essential.
THE TRINITY
There is one God, the Creator of all things, who is eternally self-existent—one God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While each member of the Trinity has different functions, each shares every divine attribute and is equal in power and authority. Father, Son and Holy Spirit together reveal perfect community.
GOD THE FATHER
God the Father is holy and perfect. He is all-powerful, always good, always faithful and ever reaching out to us with the good news of His grace through His Son Jesus Christ, through whom He offers us redemption and eternal relationship. He is the perfect Father who is never changing in His love, compassion and grace for us, always longing for humanity to be restored to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, His Son.
GOD THE SON (JESUS CHRIST)
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary. He is fully “true man” and fully “true God,” and He is the only one who can reconcile us to God the Father. He lived a perfect sinless life that we could not live and was crucified on the cross, where He paid the price for our sin and our shame—the very things that separated us from God. He died for us, was buried, and was resurrected that we may have eternal life. He is the Head of His Body, the Church, and in all things He has preeminence. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father where He rules and reigns as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who will soon return to make all things new.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is fully God. He guides us into all truth and reveals to us God’s righteousness, convicts us of our sin and of the coming judgment. He assures us of our salvation, comforts us, guides us and sanctifies us. The church, from the beginning, was birthed in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and of His power. His Presence and power, manifest in numerous ways including signs, miracles and wonders, is available and needed just as much now as it was at the birth of the church. Therefore the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all believers to build up His church, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives is seen as they obey Him and live lives yielded to Him. He is the one who enables us and empowers us to live supernatural lives displaying God’s power and love.
THE BIBLE
The Bible is God’s word revealed and given to us. The scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in their original writing are fully inspired by God and without error. We accept them as the full and final authority for faith and life—the fundamental record of God’s revelation and character. We believe that God reveals Himself and still speaks today in many ways, but He has given us the Bible as the sufficient, eternal expression of His revelation to test and approve what His will is. Because Scripture is inspired by God it is always relevant to life and experience in truth and in love.
MAN
God created us in His image to enjoy eternal life and relationship with Him and with one another. God’s plan was for us to rule and reign with Him and to fulfill His Kingdom here on earth. However, Adam and Eve sinned, and that sin separated them from God and brought the curse of sin and death into the world that is inherited by all of humanity. Because of this original sin all human beings inherit a sinful nature that results in actual transgression and personal, individual guilt. Mankind is now separated from God—spiritually dead, lost, facing eternity without God, desperately in need of salvation.
SALVATION
There is only one way of salvation, only one way to restore our relationship with God and to deal with our sinful nature and the sin that separates us from Him. That singular way is through Jesus Christ and His blood shed on the cross for our forgiveness. All who repent of (turn away from) their sin and trust Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and become children of God. This salvation is by faith alone and grace alone apart from our deserving or accomplishment. It is a free gift from God, but each person must accept the gift and place their faith in Jesus Christ by believing in Him in order to receive it and experience eternal life. The gift of salvation, made possible through Jesus, is what we refer to as the Gospel.
ETERNITY
God created us to live forever and His desire is that we experience eternal life and communion with Him. Based on our response to Jesus Christ in this life we will either spend eternity with Him in heaven or separated from Him in hell. Soon Jesus Christ is coming back again, as He promised, and there will be a resurrection from the dead. Both believers and unbelievers will be resurrected. The redeemed (believers in Jesus) will receive the eternal blessedness of the presence of God, while the unredeemed (unbelievers) will suffer eternal banishment from God as a result of rejecting His offer of salvation through Jesus.
THE CHURCH
All those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ have been redeemed by Him and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and they together form the Church. Jesus is the head of the Church and all who follow Christ are called to be a part of a local church where they, together with other believers and by the power of the Holy Spirit, advance the Kingdom of God and carry on the ministry of Jesus.
Anthem Church is a non-denominational, autonomous, local church where Jesus is the head and senior pastor (shepherd) who leads His church through a team of ordained elders.
We relate to and partner with an apostolic team called New Covenant Ministries International for the purpose of discipling and equipping believers in Jesus to grow in maturity in following Him.