Statement of Faith

Statement of Faith Of Rochester Chinese Christian (Baptist) Church

(A Baptist Church)

Effective date: Jan. 10, 2006

ARTICLE 1 Name

The name of this organization shall be called Rochester Chinese Christian (Baptist) Church (RCCC), as registered with the State of Minnesota. It is in association with Calvary Baptist Church of Rochester as a sister church.

ARTICLE 2. Purpose and mission

The purpose of this church shall be to promote, using Chinese as the primary language, the worship of the Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; to systematically proclaim and teach the Word of God; to bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; to provide opportunity for believers to grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; to obey, as God enables, the commission of our Lord in missionary endeavor both at home and abroad as stated in Matthew 28: 19-20 and Acts 1,8; to discover, assist, and generally encourage men and women in the dedication of their lives for definite Christian service; to distribute Christian literature, such as is expedient to the spread of the Gospel of Christ and the promotion of the work of the Lord.

ARTICLE 3. Statement of Faith

Section I. the Bible

We believe that the sixty-six books of the Bible are the inspired Word of God in the original autographs, that it was written by men controlled by the Holy Spirit, and therefore without error. It must not be modified with addition or deletion. It is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice.

Section 2. The Trinity

We believe in the Trinity of the Godhead; there is one God, eternally existing in three equal but distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the omniscience, omnipotent, omnipresent and only holy One. His sovereignty pervades all things.

Section 3. God, the Father

We believe in God, the Father, and rejoice that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and eternal damnation all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. We believe He has a paternal relationship to believers only.

Section 4. God, the Son

We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son. He was with God in the beginning, born of a virgin, sinless in His life, who atoned for the sins of the world by His death, burial, and bodily resurrection. We believe in His ascension into Heaven, His perpetual intercession for His people, His personal coming in the air for His church prior to the seven year tribulation, and His return to earth at the close of the tribulation to establish His millennial Kingdom.

Section 5. God, the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, who convicts, regenerates, baptizes, indwells, seals, and fills. We believe Spirit baptism takes place at the time of regeneration and that the filling of the Spirit is manifested by the fruit of the Spirit rather than by any specific spiritual gift.

Section 6. Creation

We believe in the direct creation by God in six solar days, of the physical universe, man, and lower forms of life, without the process of evolution; and also that the early chapters of Genesis are literal and accurate history. God is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Section 7. Spirit Beings

We believe that God created an innumerable company of sinless spirit beings. They are messengers of God. They worship God in his heavenly throne and minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. One of these, though created holy by God, sinned through pride, thereby becoming Satan, the Devil, the enemy of his Creator, leading a host of angels in rebellion against God. He became the god of this age and the ruler of all the powers of darkness and is destined to the judgment of an eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

Section 8. Mankind

We believe that all men are sinners by nature and under the condemnation of God. The only remedy for this condition is Holy Spirit regeneration through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ as payment for one's sins. We believe regeneration is the irrevocable act of God, thus securing the believer for all eternity. We believe the Bible does not teach that God created any person for the purpose of condemnation.

Section 9. Final Destinies

We believe that the souls of believers in Christ do at death immediately pass into His presence and there remain until the resurrection of the body at the rapture when soul and body reunited shall stand before Christ to be judged of their Christian works for the giving of rewards; and they shall then be associated with Christ forever in glory. The souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final resurrection at the end of the millennium for judgment; the result of this judgment will be that all will be cast into the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

Section 10. The Church

We believe the Church is a living spiritual body, of which Christ is the head and of which all regenerated people are members. We believe that a local church is a company of believers in Jesus Christ baptized on an acceptable confession of faith associated for worship, work and fellowship and having two offices, pastor and deacon. We believe that to these visible churches were committed, for observance throughout the church age, the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper, and that God has laid upon these churches the task of witnessing to a lost world to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and of building up the saints in the faith once for all delivered. We believe that human betterment and social improvements are the inevitable by-products of the Gospel and edification.

Section 11-Separation

We believe that separation is a doctrine as well as a practice and that the separation principle runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We believe that true spiritual fellowship is the result of a common faith and practice. We believe there are at least four aspects of Biblical separation.

a. Political separation - the separation of the church from the state. The governing of the Church is directly accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. Personal separation - the separation of the believer from the world and sin in order to serve God. This involves a separation from acts of sin, the world system, the unbelievers, heretics, and false teachers. Meanwhile, we must proclaim the gospel to them in the spirit of loving your neighbor as yourself.
c. Ecclesiastical separation - the separation of the church from apostasy. Each local church is independent and autonomous and must be free from interference by any other ecclesiastical authority. We believe we are to reprove apostates rather than recognize them, to rebuke rather than to reason with them, to reject rather than to receive or unite with them.
d. Practical separation - the separation of the believer from an erring brother. We believe that we must separate from those who continue in disobedience to the Word of God. This includes the troublemaker, the disorderly, and the immoral brother. However, we should still love them as we would towards a non- believer, leading to repentance and submission to the teaching of the Word of God.