Affirmations
1. God Sincerely Loves Every Person in the World
The highest expression of God’s love for the whole world (John 3:16) is Christ dying for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ was declared by John the Baptist as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). The Bible affirms God’s love for all people. His saving love is unrestrictive: the scope is the entire world.
We support teachings which affirm that, because of the fall of Adam, every person inherits a fallen, corrupted, sinful nature and environment inclined toward sin and that every person who is capable of moral action will sin. Each person’s sin alone brings the wrath of a holy God, broken fellowship with Him, ever-worsening selfishness and destructiveness, death, and condemnation to an eternity in hell. But we disagree with theologies which teach that Adam’s sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person’s free will. While no sinner is remotely capable of achieving salvation through his own effort, we deny that any sinner is saved apart from a free response to the Holy Spirit’s drawing through the Gospel.
We support teachings which affirm that grace is God’s generous decision to provide salvation for any person by taking all of the initiative in providing atonement, in freely offering the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in uniting the believer to Christ through the Holy Spirit by faith. But we disagree with theologies which teach that grace cancels the necessity of a free response of faith or that grace cannot be resisted. We deny that the response of faith is in any way a meritorious work that earns salvation.
2. God Sincerely Desires All Sinners to Be Saved
The New Testament words for “world”, “whosoever”, and “all” are universal in scope implying that Christ died for everyone in the world. 1 John 2:1-2 clearly declares, “Jesus Christ… is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 Timothy 2:6 says that Jesus “gave himself as a ransom for all” because of God’s unlimited love (John 3:16) and God’s desire to reconcile the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Although Christ died for all people, only those who accept Christ’s death will be saved.
We support teachings which affirm that the death of Christ on the cross is the only available and effective sacrifice for the sins of every person. But we disagree with theologies which teach that this atonement results in salvation without a person’s free response of repentance and faith. We deny that God imposes or withholds this atonement without respect to an act of the person’s free will. We deny that Christ died only for the sins of those who are preselected to be saved.
We support teachings which affirm that, in reference to salvation, divine election speaks of God’s eternal, gracious, and certain plan in Christ to have a people who are His by repentance and faith. Whosoever believes in Christ (the Chosen One) have become part of God’s chosen people (the Church). But we disagree with theologies which teach that election means that, from eternity, God predestined certain people for salvation and others for condemnation.
3. God Sincerely Invites Every Person to Come and Believe
The Bible makes it plain that Christ will draw all people unto Himself (John 12:32). However, every person will make his own decision to trust Christ or to reject Him (John 3:36). Jesus is “the True Light that gives light to everyone…” (John 1:9) that is why every sinner is given opportunity to respond to God through creation (Romans 1:19,20), conscience (Romans 2:11-16), and the preaching of the Gospel (Romans 10:9-15) so every person is without excuse. People go to hell, not because of their inability to come to Christ, but because they choose not to come to Christ (John 5:40).
God gives everyone sufficient grace to enable them to believe in Him. Not only does everyone receive revelation sufficient to lead to salvation if responded to with faith, but at least once in everyone’s life that divine revelation is accompanied by divine enabling that makes a faith response possible, in the sense that people are justly condemned for failing to believe when God is made known to them on that occasion.
Spiritual “death” simply means spiritual “separation” from God. Because the image of God in humanity was not eradicated after the Fall, human will is free to choose the gift of salvation. Yet, although man has a free will, he has no capacity for saving himself. God by His grace, through the convicting and illuminating work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11; Revelation 22:17), draws people to Himself. People have the responsibility to either accept or resist the prompting of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), thus, no one is ever saved against his will.
We support teachings which affirm that any person who responds to the Gospel with repentance and faith is born again through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is a new creation in Christ and enters, at the moment he believes, into eternal life. But we disagree with theologies which teach that any person is regenerated prior to or apart from hearing and responding to the Gospel.
We support teachings which affirm that the Gospel is the good news that God has made a way of salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ for any person. This is in keeping with God’s desire for every person to be saved. But we disagree with theologies which teach that only a select few are capable of responding to the Gospel while the rest are predestined to an eternity in hell.
We support teachings which affirm that God’s eternal knowledge of and sovereignty over every person’s salvation or condemnation. But we disagree with theologies which teach that God’s sovereignty and knowledge require Him to cause a person’s acceptance or rejection of faith in Christ.
4. God Sincerely Promises Eternal Life to Whosoever Believes in Christ
God makes the provision of salvation for all people, but it is conditioned by faith. Thus, salvation becomes actual only for those who believe, although it is potential and available to all. Faith is a personal response, apart from our works, whereby we are persuaded that the finished work of Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, has delivered us from condemnation and guaranteed our eternal life.
Faith in Christ is the requirement before an individual can experience spiritual birth or salvation. The apostle John states that those who “believed” (active voice) has been “born of God” (passive voice). The word “received” is also in the active voice implying human responsibility (John 1:12).
The apostle Paul affirmed the same idea in Acts 16:31, when the Philippian jailer asked him “what must I do to be saved?”. Paul declared that the only way for a person to be saved is to “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” The word “believe” in this passage is in the imperative mood and in the active voice, which means that the person is being commanded to put his faith in Christ. The word “shall be saved”, is in the indicative mood, which stresses certainty. It is also in the future tense with a passive voice, which means that salvation is a guaranteed promise to those who would believe.
We support teachings which affirm that God, as an expression of His sovereignty and initiative of grace, endows each person with actual free will (the ability to choose between two options), which must be exercised in accepting or rejecting God’s gracious call to salvation by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. But we disagree with theologies which teach that the decision of faith is an act of God rather than a response of the person. We deny that there is an “effectual call” for certain people that is different from a “general call” to any person who hears and understands the Gospel.
We support teachings which affirm that when a person responds in faith to the Gospel, God promises to complete the process of salvation in the believer into eternity. This process begins with justification, whereby the sinner is immediately acquitted of all sin and granted peace with God; continues in sanctification, whereby the saved are progressively conformed to the image of Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit; and concludes in glorification, whereby the saint enjoys life with Christ in heaven forever. But we disagree with theologies which teach that this promise of eternal life is exclusively predetermined only to a preselected chosen few even before the world began.
We support teachings which affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned His church to preach the good news of salvation to all people to the ends of the earth. We affirm that the proclamation of the Gospel is God’s means of bringing any person to salvation. But we disagree with theologies which teach that salvation is possible outside of a faith response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
