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Statement of Faith
Statement of Faith
Why do we need a Statement of Faith?
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We live in a rapidly changing society and culture, where churches and individuals constantly face issues that challenge their biblical understanding and convictions. Amid these changes and challenges, some might tend to take a weaker position on important biblical issues for the sake of pleasing others or protecting their passions or privileges. Paul himself experienced the same challenge and addressed it in 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, where he encouraged the church not to lose heart and not to practice any “cunning or to tamper with God’s word,” but to stand firm in faith with an “open statement of the truth.” Having a clear Statement of Faith will always help the church stand firm in its faith and biblical principles, no matter what challenges it may face.
However, no Statement of Faith can replace the inspired, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God. Any Statement of Faith serves three primary purposes. First, it serves as a summary of the main doctrinal beliefs that shape the theology of the church. Second, it binds the church in one clear conventional unity. Third, it protects the church from any subjective interpretation of Scripture.
How did Mission Quest develop its Statement of Faith?
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Mission Quest created its Statement of Faith based on three biblical and widely accepted statements of faith: The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability’s Statement of Faith (ECFA), The Chicago Statements on Biblical Inerrancy and Hermeneutics (1978), and The Nashville Statement on human sexuality and gender roles (2017). Our goal with this Statement of Faith is to ensure that all our missionaries affirm the basic biblical truths that should guide all Christians from all denominations. All Mission Quest missionaries, staff, and volunteers are required to sign a copy affirming that they believe in all the articles of this Statement of Faith and will not live or teach anything that contradicts it.
The Bible
God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God’s witness to Himself. Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. The Holy Spirit, Scripture’s Divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
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(2 Timothy 3:15-17; Isaiah 8:20; Luke 16:29, 31; Ephesians 2:20; Romans 1:19-21; Romans 2:14,15;
Psalms 19:1- 3; Hebrews 1:1; Proverbs 22:19-21; Romans 15:4; 2 Peter 1:19, 20)
God
There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in Himself all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him, all creatures owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. God exists in three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being, and each equally deserving worship and obedience.
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(1 Corinthians 8:4, 6; Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10; Isaiah 48:12; Exodus 3:14; John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17; Deuteronomy 4:15, 16; Malachi 3:6; 1 Kings 8:27; Jeremiah 23:23; Psalms 90:2; Genesis 17:1; Isaiah 6:3; Psalms 115:3; Isaiah 46:10; Proverbs 16:4; Romans 11:36; Exodus 34:6, 7; Hebrews 11:6; Nehemiah 9:32, 33;
Psalms 5:5, 6; Exodus 34:7; Nahum 1:2, 3)
Creation
In the beginning, it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible.
Everything that he had made was very good.
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(John 1:2, 3; Hebrews 1:2; Job 26:13; Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:16; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27;
Genesis 2:7; Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 1:26; Romans 2:14, 15; Genesis 3:6)
Fall
We believe that, although God created man morally upright, he was led astray from God‘s Word and wisdom by the subtlety of Satan‘s deceit, and chose to take what was forbidden, and thus declare his independence from, distrust for, and disobedience toward his all-good and gracious Creator. Thus, our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original innocence and communion with God.
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(Genesis 2:16, 17; Genesis 3:12,13; 2 Corinthians 11:3; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12, Titus 1:15; Genesis 6:5;
Jesus Christ
We believe in the deity and humanity of Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His present rule as Head of the Church and in His personal return in power and glory.
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(Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 1:19, 20; Acts 3:22; Hebrews 5:5, 6; Psalms 2:6; Luke 1:33; Ephesians 1:22, 23; Hebrews 1:2;
Acts 17:31; Isaiah 53:10; John 17:6; Romans 8:30; Psalms 45:7; Acts 10:38; John 3:34; Colossians 2:3;
Colossians 1:19; Hebrews 7:26; John 1:14; Hebrews 7:22; Hebrews 5:5; John 5:22, 27; Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:36)
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Baptism is not a prerequisite to salvation. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on the testimony of the Holy Scriptures alone, for the praise and glory of the triune God alone.
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(Acts 4:12; Romans 10:14-17; 1 Pet 1:10-12; Rom 10:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Rom 3:5-8, 21-26)
Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
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(1 Chronicles 16:24; Matthew 28:18-9; Acts 1:8; Acts 13:47; Romans 10:13-14; Matthew 24:14; Rev 14:6)
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Death, Resurrection, and the Coming of the Lord
We believe that when Christians die they are made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, and are taken consciously into the presence of Christ, which is more glorious and more satisfying than any experience on earth. We believe in the blessed hope that at the end of the age Jesus Christ will return to this earth personally, visibly, physically, and suddenly in power and great glory; and that He will gather His elect, raise the dead, judge the nations, and establish His kingdom. We believe that the righteous will enter into the everlasting joy of their Master, and those who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness will be consigned to everlasting conscious misery. We believe that the end of all things in this age will be the beginning of never-ending, ever-increasing happiness in the hearts of the redeemed, as God displays more and more of His infinite and inexhaustible greatness and glory for the enjoyment of His people.
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(Genesis 3:19; Acts 13:36; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 6,8; Philippians 1:23; Hebrews 12:23; Jude 6, 7; 1 Peter 3:19; Luke 16:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 15:51, 52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Job 19:26, 27; 1 Corinthians 15:42, 43; Acts 24:15; John 5:28, 29; Philippians 3:21; Acts 17:31; John 5:22, 27; 1 Corinthians 6:3; Jude 6; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Matthew 12:36; Romans 14:10, 12; Matthew 25:32-46; 2 Corinthians 5:10, 11;
2 Thessalonians 1:5-7; Mark 13:35-37; Luke 12:35-40; Revelation 22:20)
Marriage
We affirm that God has designed marriage to be a covenantal, sexual, procreative, lifelong union of one man and one woman, as husband and wife, and is meant to signify the covenant love between Christ and his bride the church. We deny that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous, or polyamorous relationship. We also deny that marriage is a mere human contract rather than a covenant made before God.
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(Genesis 2:24; Leviticus 18:22; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 7:2-16; Ephesians 5:23-33)
