Lamplighter Christian Ministries

We are committed to the positive transformation of lives resulting from a loving and personal encounter with Jesus Christ

 

We Further Believe . . .
About God
There is one God, Who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Genesis 1:1,26-27; 3:22; Psalms 90:2; Matthew 28:19; I Peter 1:2; 2 Corinthians 13:14

About Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is true God and true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He died upon the cross, the Just for the unjust, as a substitutional sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood. He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of the Majesty on High as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His Kingdom of righteousness and peace. Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1-5, 14:10-30; Hebrews 4:14-15; I Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:3-4; Acts 1:9-11; I Timothy 6:14-15; Titus 2:13

About the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to indwell, guide, teach and empower the believer and convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. II Corinthians 3:17; John 16:16-17; Acts 1:8; I Corinthians 2:12; 3:16; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 1:13; 5:18

About the Bible
The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice. II Timothy 1:13; 3:16; II Peter 1:20-21; Psalm 119:105-106; Psalm 12:6; Proverbs 30:5

About Salvation
Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men, and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life and become the children of God. Romans 5:1; 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 1:4-6; 14:6; Titus 3:5; Galatians 3:26

About Holy Living
It is the will of God that each believer be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service. This is a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion. Ephesians 5:18; I Thessalonians 5:23-24; Acts 1:8; II Corinthians 2:5-6

Details, details . . . details

We believe that "all scripture is inspired by God" (Lit. God-breathed), and that holy men of God "were moved by the Holy Spirit" to write the very words of scripture. We believe that this divine inspiration extends equally and fully to all parts of the writing, historical, poetical, doctrinal and prophetical - as appeared in the original manuscripts. We believe that all the scriptures center about the Lord Jesus Christ in His person and work in His first and second coming, hence that no portion, even of the Old Testament, is properly read, or understood until it leads to Him. We also believe that all the scriptures were designed for our practical instruction. Mark 12:26,36, 13:11; Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Acts 1:16, 17:2-3, 18:28, 26:22-23, 28:23; Romans 15:4; I Cor. 2:13, 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21

We believe that the Godhead eternally exists in three persons - The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit - and that these three are one God; though separate, they have precisely the same nature, attributes and perfections, and are worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence and obedience. Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 12:29; John 1:14; Acts 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Heb. 1:1-3; Rev. 1:4-6

We believe that God the Father is eternal, holy, changeless, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He is also faithful, merciful, loving, just, righteous, and infinitely concerned with all men. His work can be seen in creation, calling and caring for Israel, in providing a Redeemer, in His sovereign control of the universe and His future fulfilling of all His coming promises. Psa. 19:1, 36:5-7, 90:2, 139; Gen. 12; Acts 15:16-17; Gal. 4:4; Dan. 4:3, 34; Jer. 9:23-24

We believe that, as provided and proposed by God and as pre-announced in the prophecies of the Scriptures, the eternal Son of God came into this world that He might manifest God to men, fulfill prophecy, and become the Redeemer of a lost world. To this end He was born of the virgin, and received a human body and a sinless human nature. Luke 1:30-35; John 1:18, 3:16; Heb. 4:15

We believe that, on the human side, He became and remained a perfect man, but sinless throughout His life; yet He retained His absolute deity, being at the same time very God and very man, and that His earth-life sometimes functioned within the sphere of that which was human and sometimes within the sphere of that which was divine. Luke 2:40; John 1:1-2; Phil. 2:5-8

We believe that in fulfillment of prophecy He came first to Israel as her Messiah-King, and that, being rejected of that nation, He, according to the eternal counsels of God, gave His life as a ransom for all. John 1:11; Acts 2:22-24; I Tim. 2:6

We believe that in infinite love for the lost, He voluntarily accepted His Father's will and became the divinely provided sacrificial lamb and took away the sin of the world; bearing the holy judgements against sin which the righteousness of God must impose. His death was therefore substitutionary in the most absolute sense of the just for the unjust and by His death He became the Savior of the lost. John 1:29; Rom. 3:25-26; 2 Cor. 5:14; Heb. 10:5-14; I Peter 3:20

We believe that, on departing from the earth He was accepted of His Father and that His acceptance is a final assurance to us that His redeeming work was perfectly accomplished. Heb. 1:3
We believe that He became Head over all things to the church which is His body, and in this ministry He ceases not to intercede and advocate for the saved. Eph. 1:22-23; Heb. 7:25; I John 2:1

We believe that the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, though omnipresent from all eternity, took up His abode in the world in a special sense on the day of Pentecost according to the divine promise, dwells in every believer, and by His baptism unites all to Christ in one body, and He, as the Indwelling One, is the source of all acceptable worship and service. We believe that He never takes his departure from the church, nor from the feeblest of the saints, but is ever present to testify of Christ, seeking to occupy believers with Him and not with themselves nor with their experiences. We believe that His abode and work in this special sense will cease when Christ comes to receive His own at the completion of the church. John 14:16-17, 16:7-15; I Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:22; 2 Thes. 2:7

We believe that in this age, certain well defined ministries are committed to the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of every Christian to understand them and to be adjusted to them in his own life and experience.

These ministries are:
a. the restraining of evil in the world to the measure of the divine will;
b. the convicting of the world respecting sin, righteousness and judgement;
c. and the continued filling for power, of teaching, and service of those among the saved who are yielded to Him and who are subject to His will. John 3:6, 16:7-11; Rom. 8:9; I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:30, 5:18; 2 Thes. 2:7; I John 2:20-27

We believe that Satan was judged at the cross, though not then executed, and that he, a usurper, now rules as the "god of this world"; and that he will be "Cast into the lake of fire and brimstone", where he "shall be tormented day and night forever and ever". Col. 2:15; Rev. 20:1-3,10

We believe the new birth of the believer comes only through faith in Christ. While repentance is a vital part of believing, it is in no way a separate and independent condition of salvation; nor are any other acts such as confession, baptism, prayer or service to be added to believing as a condition of salvation. John 1:12, 3:16,18,36, 5:24, 6:29; Acts 13:39, 16:31; Rom. 1:16-17, 3:22,26, 4:5, 10:4; Gal. 3:22

We believe that when an unregenerate person exercises faith in Christ which is illustrated and described in the New Testament, he passes immediately out of spiritual death into life, and from the old creation into the new; being justified from all things, accepted before the Father just as Christ His Son is accepted, loved as Him and one with Him forever. Though the saved one may have occasion to grow in the realization of his blessings and to know a fuller measure of divine power through the yielding of his life more fully to God, he is as soon as he is saved, in possession of every spiritual blessing and absolutely complete in Christ, and is in no way required by God to seek a "second blessing" or "second work of grace". John 5:24, 17:23; Acts 13:39; Rom. 5:1; I Cor. 3:21-23; Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10; I John 4:17, 5:11-12

We believe that, because of the eternal purpose of God towards the objects of his love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the unworthy, on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all true believers everywhere, once saved shall be kept saved forever. We believe, however, that God is a holy and righteous Father and that, since he cannot overlook the sin of his children, He will when they persistently sin, chasten and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will in the end present everyone of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son. John 5:24, 10:28, 13:1, 14:16-17, 17:11; Rom 8:29; I Cor. 6:19; Heb. 7:25; I John 2:1-2, 5:13; Jude 14

We believe it is the privilege, not only of some but of all, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior, and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience. Luke 10:20, 21:32; 2 Cor. 5:1, 6-8; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 10:22; I John 5:13

We believe that we are called with a holy calling, to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and so to live in the power of the indwelling Spirit that we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But our fallen, Adamic nature, which in this life is never eradicated, being with us to the end of our earthly pilgrimage, needs to be kept by the Spirit constantly suppressed, or it will surely manifest its presence in our lives to the dishonor of our Lord. Rom. 6:11-13, 8:2,4, 12-13; Gal. 5:16-23; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 2:1-10; I Peter 1:14-16; I John 1:4-7, 3:5-9

We believe that Christian service is the responsibility of all believers. Divine, enabling gifts for service are bestowed by the Spirit. While there is a diversity of gifts, each believer is energized by the same Spirit and each is called to his own divinely appointed service as the Spirit may will. Rom. 12:3-8; Eph. 4:1-16; I Cor. 12:1-31; I Peter 4:10-11

We believe that Christian service in the local church is the privilege of those believers who manifest in their lives certain character qualities which reveal an attitude of submission to God and which indicate that they are settled enough in other responsibilities (such as family, personal Christian growth, etc.) to serve. I Tim. 3:1-13

We believe that, wholly apart form salvation benefits which are bestowed, rewards are promised according to the faithfulness of each believer in his service for his Lord, and that these rewards will be bestowed at the judgement seat of Christ after He comes to receive His own to Himself. I Cor. 3:9-15, 9:18-28; 2 Cor. 5:10

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, and in Him is invested supremely all power for its government. According to His instruction, Christians are to associate themselves into particular assemblies or churches; and to each of the churches He has given needful authority for administering purpose, order, discipline, and worship. The representative ministers of a church are Overseers or Elders, and Servants or Ministers. Acts 14:23; Romans 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 1:22-23, 5:23-27, 29-30, 32; Col. 1:18; 1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5; Heb. 10:25

We believe that it is the explicit message of our Lord Jesus that prepared believers be sent forth by Him into the world even as He was sent forth of His Father into the world. We believe that we are divinely reckoned to be related to this world as strangers and pilgrims, ambassadors and witnesses, and that one of our our primary purposes in life should be to make Christ known to the whole world. Matt. 28:18-19; Mark 16:15; John 17:18; Acts 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; I Peter 1:17, 2:11