Statement of Faith
FAITH, HOPE & LOVE, INC.
&
SAPPHIRE FAMILY CHURCH
Meeting in Beautiful Linden Hall
4765 Dorsey Hall Drive, Ellicott City, MD 21042
Friday Evenings: 7:15 PM
Sundays: Coffee & Fellowship 2:00 pm; Praise, Worship & Teaching at 2:30 pm
Our Belief Statement
We believe that the local Christian Church is to be autonomous but in submission and under the covering of a founding apostle and/or his ministry. Our covering therefore is: Dr. Bill Hamon, Founder of Christian International Apostolic Network, P.O. Box 9000, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459.
We Believe
The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and as such is God’s revelation to man and infallible for the instruction of our faith and Christian conduct, and is the Standard by which we will be judged when we give account of our self to our Creator.
We Believe
That in the beginning the Creator made Adam & Eve in His image & likeness (Gen 1:26). Adam & Eve, in falling to the devil’s temptation lost His image (spiritual death) as the Holy Spirit left their bodies when they chose to disobey (Gen 2:17). Ever since, all mankind has inherited their first parent’s spiritual death from “original sin,” being born into the world of the flesh, but lacking in God’s Spirit and image (1 Corinthians 15:22).
We Believe
God’s mercy sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ as a perfect sacrifice for sinful mankind, to redeem him back to Himself from the consequence of original sin. Those who believe and receive Christ activate God’s redemptive process of being re-created into His image (Romans 8:29), as the Holy Spirit comes into their bodies and causes them to be born-again and become the Temple of the Living God (1 Corinthians 6:19).
We Believe
Jesus Christ’s Universal Church is open to all who believe that He came to save people from their sins and who have a desire to love God and do His Commandments.
We Believe
Entrance into His Church is given by the Father when the sinner believes, repents, confesses and receives Christ into his being. Then at this time, through faith, God becomes his Father as he receives a spiritual birth from above. The Greek word for Church is ĕkklēsia which means a “calling out” (of the world system and into the Kingdom of God) as the Holy Spirit gives witness that one is “born again” (John 3:1-7) and “saved” (Romans 5:9). To try to live a Christian life without the presence of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:13), is to miss what the Father intends for His children in Christ.
We Believe
God’s Salvation in Jesus Christ is by His grace through faith and is not of our works lest we should boast (Ephesians 2:9).
We Believe
Those who are born of the Holy Spirit enter into the royal priesthood of God at that time (1Peter 2:9).
We Believe
That after Salvation, water baptism by full immersion is the intent of the Words of Jesus in Mark 16:16.
We Believe
God’s plan for the empowerment of born-again Christians (Acts 1:8) is found in the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in a new language (tongues). This gift of the Holy Spirit is to help Christians mature into the full representation of their Savior and to cause them to be more than conquerors and overcomers in all situations. Using this gift has been likened to the effect of a dead car battery being revived by a hot shot on it. It stirs up our spirit to activate it.
We Believe
The ministries of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher have been restored to the Church, and that each congregation should seek to establish these ministries in their assemblies for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12).
We Believe
Worship to the living God should be in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:23), even as Jesus spoke that the Father seeks such to worship Him. Being empowered by the Spirit and Truth of Christ within, the Christian should have exuberant times of singing (Psalm 100:2), clapping hands (Psalm 47:1), lifting hands (Psalm 63:4), dancing (Psalm 149:3), and shouting praises to God (Psalm 32:11). Some also feel a time to prostrate themselves before the Lord (Leviticus 9:23-24), all to the glory of God.
We Believe
In regularly sharing the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of His great love for each of us. It is a time to be mindful of His untold suffering and death to ransom us from the powers of darkness (1Timothy 2:6), and of the Father’s pleasure in raising Him from the dead (Psalm 16:10), to seat Him at His right hand forever (Acts 5:30-31).
We Believe
The Lord has been moving His Church forward in the last five centuries by gradually *restoring that which was lost in the Dark Ages. Though the Church started out as the Spiritual Kingdom God intended it be, over the years it gravitated into a carnal one in which the Holy Spirit was structured out. The first major step in restoration was accomplished in the 1500s when the Holy Spirit made clear to a young man who was seeking more, that justification was by grace and not of works. This restoration of truth was referred to as the Protestant Movement. In the next few centuries, the doctrines of baptism by immersion were restored, along with the need for sanctification promulgated in the Holiness Movement.
Then in the early twentieth century the baptism in the Holy Spirit was restored and became known as the Pentecostal Movement. This was followed by restoration of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in what was called the Charismatic Movement in the 1960s. In 1988 the office of prophet was restored to the Church and became know as the Prophetic movement, with the restoration of the office of apostle coming next in 1998.
Thus the five fold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher has now been restored to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry and purify the Bride of Christ in preparation for what will become the Church’s finest hour before the return of Jesus.
*We offer many books by Prophet Dr. Bill Hamon, our Bishop who is a Church historian and expert on the subject of Church Restoration.