THE MARA EVANGELICALCAL CHURCH
STATEMENT OF FAITH
The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God and the only infallible rule of Faith and duty.
There is but one God, and He alone is to be worshipped, He is a spirit, self-existent, self-omnipresent, yet distinct from all other spirits and from all material things; infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, truth and love.
In the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
God who created the heaven and the earth and all things therein, created man, male and female, after His image, in origin, and are brethren.
Man by his own free choice has transgressed God’s law and thereby has involved himself in guilt and corruption. To save man from the guilt, corruption and penalty of sin, and to give them eternal life, God in his infinite love sent into the world His eternal and only – begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom alone man can be saved. The Eternal Son became true man and so was and continues to be the Son forever. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, yet without sin. For sinful men He perfectly obeyed the law of God, and offered Himself a true and perfect sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile man to God. He died on the Cross, was buried and rose again from the death on the third day. He ascended to the right hand of God where He makes intersession for His people, and whence He shall come again to raise the death and to judge the world.
The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, makes man partakers of salvation convincing them of their sins and misery, enlightening their minds in the knowledge of Christ, renewing their wills, persuading and enabling them to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, and working in them all the fruits of righteousness.
God in Christ makes a full and free offer of salvation to all men, and commands them to repent of their sins to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and to live a humble and holy life after His example and in obedience to God’s revealed will. Those who believe in Christ and obey Him are saved, receiving forgiveness of sins, justification, adoption as sons of God, sanctification through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and eternal glory. Believers may also in this life enjoy assurance of their salvation. In His gracious work the Holy Spirit uses the means of grace especially the Word, sacraments and prayer.
The sacraments instituted by Christ are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the washing with water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and is a sign and seal of our union to Christ, of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, and of our giving ourselves to the Lord. It is to be administered to such as repent of the sins and profess faith in Christ their Savior, and to their Children.
The Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the bread and the cup as a memorial of Christ’s death and is a sign and seal of the benefits thereof to believers. It is to be observed by His people till He comes, in token of their faith in Him and His sacrifice, of their appropriation of its benefits of their further giving of themselves to serve Him, and of their communion with Him and with one another. The benefits of the sacraments are not from any virtue in them or in him that administers them, but only from the blessing of Christ and the working of His Spirit in them that by faith receive the Sacrament.
It is the duty of all believers to unite in church fellowship, to observe the sacraments and other ordinances of Christ, to obey His laws, to continue in prayer, to keep holy the Lord’s Day, to meet together for His worship, to wait upon the preaching of His Word, to give as God may prosper from them, to manifest a Christ-like spirit among themselves and towards all men, to labour of the extension of Christ’s kingdom through the world, and to wait for His glorious appearing.
At the last day the death shall be raised and all shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ and shall be judged according to the deeds done in this present life whether good or bad, the unbelieving and the wicked, being condemned, shall suffer the punishment due to their sins, but those who have believed in Christ and obeyed Him shall be openly acquitted and received into glory.