GOD — There is only one true God who is the eternal King, Creator and Redeemer of all that is. He has revealed Himself to be eternally self-existent — one being in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

THE WORD — The Bible is inspired, inerrant (without error), authoritative and complete Word of God. While some versions of the bible may have slight differences due to mistranslation, the original manuscripts do not. (See note for scripture interpretation below)

HUMANITY — Men and women were created in the image of God to know and enjoy Him. God’s high value for freedom gave Adam and Eve (and all humanity through them) the choice to stay connected with God or disconnect from Him through disobedience. Because they chose sin - sickness, death and judgment entered the world and now creation experiences the effects and consequences of sin.

JESUS — The Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God, was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin, Mary, and is God’s Anointed One, empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring God’s kingdom on earth. He was crucified for our sins, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended into heaven, and is now seated at the righthand of God the Father. He is “true God” and “true man.”

SALVATION — We are saved by God’s grace, through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Anyone can be restored to fellowship with God through repenting, believing and receiving Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

THE HOLY SPIRIT — The Holy Spirit, convicts, regenerates, justifies, and adopts us as we enter the kingdom of God as His sons and daughters. The Holy Spirit is still at work today giving power to believers for the works of ministry and enabling them to move in His gifts as recorded in Romans 12:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. We believe that 1 Corinthians 13:8-12 (which is often used to say that the gifts have ceased) is referring to Jesus as “The Perfect” and the gifts will only cease to be needed at His second coming.

NEW NATURE — Every person who puts their trust in Jesus and accepts Him as their Lord and Savior is saved from their sins and receives eternal life with God in heaven (Romans 10:9). We also believe that at the time of salvation believers are transformed into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), given a heart of flesh for their heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26), is given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), is no longer a slave to sin but is seen by God as a saint (Romans 6:6) and are given a completely new identity in Christ as seen in scriptures like Ephesians chapters 1-3 and others.

THE CHURCH — God decided that the calling to advance His Kingdom would be left to the church. The word Ecclesia is the Greek word used for church. Originally it meant an assembly of Greek citizens who, when gathered, represent their Nation and carry the rights and authority of Greece. So, when Jesus named called His followers to build His ‘ecclesia’ he intended that we gather as citizens of His country (Hebrews 11) to represent heaven and carry the rights and authority of Heaven! We are called to bring heaven to earth as we spread the Gospel, represent the King and advance His Kingdom! 

As His church we participate in baptism of believers, communion as remembrance and giving offering as a sign of reliance in God as provider and partners with Him in building His church and taking care of the poor. 

The church is called the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” It’s important to note that God gave those graces to people as gifts to His church so that we, the Saints, would all be equipped to ministry until we reach unity! That may seem impossible, but we serve the God of the impossible. So, as God’s church we work together for unity in the faith. 

Revelation 19:7-9 also speaks of how the bride of Christ, His church, is made ready for Jesus’ return. No matter how dysfunctional the global church may have seemed in the past or may seem today, it is important to see that God says we will be ready, we need to work every day to be the mature and beautiful bride that Christ deserves. Regardless of the evil and destruction facing the world today, we will always have hope. We are called to be salt and light, we are called to show the world to the love of Christ and the kindness of God that leads to repentance.

SCRIPTURE INTERPRETATION — We believe that the Word needs to be interpreted from a historical and cultural hermeneutic. These fancy words simply mean that we interpret scripture based on research into the culture of the time, what the writer intended and what the reader would have understood. We cannot interpret scripture based on our biases, our culture or our understanding. We are blessed to live in a time where so much information is at our fingertips. We take the call of scripture interpretation very seriously, while choosing humility and love in the way we share truth. We try not to allow division based on non-salvation issues. 

Some examples of unique understanding from using a historical and cultural hermeneutic for interpretation is that we believe in women in ministry (the scriptures where women are told not to teach or speak in church were for specific women or issues at in specific places). We also see that having women wear head covering as we recognize again that it was a cultural request. In the same we see that Paul speaks a lot about slaves but those were cultural issues and God’s heart is not for slavery (remember it was God’s chosen people – the Israelites who were the slaves of that day and culture).

For more research and biblical backing on these subjects please email connect@limitlesschurchca.com