Christ Universal Gospel Ministries believes the Holy Bible to be uniquely, completely and fully inspired and the written Word of God.
We believe that the Holy Bible is free of mistakes ( inerrant), that it could not be wrong on any subject (infallible) and that its words comes from God Himself through specially chosen inspired prophets.
We believe and accept the Scriptures as the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
We believe that this inbreathed Word of God by the Holy Spirit can heal and quicken each drooping heart and is the only true ground of all Christian Fellowship and unity.
We believe that the Word of God is our moral compass as the operating manual for human behavior and its moral and values transcend human thinking. It laws are guides and signposts for human thoughts.
We believe that the Old Covenant contained in the Old Testament was preparatory to the New and that its institutions were temporary in character.
We believe that the New Testament manifested through Our Lord Jesus Christ constitutes the permanent fulfillment of the Old.
We believe that the central theme of all messages in the Bible is the Salvation of Mankind pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ through whom salvation has been offered to mankind. Is of Christ Jesus that the Scriptures of the Old Testament bear witness and He is the One that scriptures of the New Testament proclaim.
We make the following declarations of faith
We believe in the Trinity as the central doctrine of the Christian religion, the truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God.
We believe that in this Trinity of Persons the Son is begotten of the Father by an eternal generation, and the Holy Spirit proceeds by an eternal procession from the Father and the Son.
God the Father
We believe in the existence of God as one Living and True Almighty God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible. God is most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working in all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will for His own glory.
We believe that God is most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.The Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him and withal most just and terrible in His judgment, hating all sin and Who will by no means clear the guilty.
We believe that God is the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all things in the universal and we affirm that the universe exists by the power of God’s Word and Spirit.God is the Eternal Ever-Present Spirit [Omnipresent], All-Powerful [Omnipotent], All-Wise [Omniscience], and All-Good, the Source of our happiness and perfection. The Alpha and Omega, Who ever was, and is and shall be, time without end.
We believe that God is a Loving Father and has manifested His Truth, holiness, goodness, power and glory in the Son by the Holy Spirit, compound in unity as the Blessed Trinity to who are honour, praise, and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
We believe in the Supremacy and the sovereignty of God the Father Almighty and He is ever qualified with attributes of Supreme greatness for He compromises the whole Heavens and the Earth, God is the Evidence and the Hidden.
We believe that God is greater than our understanding and made Him known in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ Our Lord
We believe that Christ Jesus is God the Son, the Begotten Son and the Living Word of God Who becomes flesh through miraculous conception by the Holy Ghost and born of Virgin Mary. He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in One Person forever.
We believe that Christ Jesus is the Promised Delivered, lived a sinless life, who voluntarily atoned for the sins of mankind, was crucified, buried and raised from the death through the resurrected power of the Father, and will come back in full glory and majesty to judge the living and the dead.
We believe that Christ Jesus is our living Lord, the Source of our salvation; He is able and willing to save.
We believe that Christ died on the cross in order to bring everyone who trusts Him into a right standing with God.
Holy Spirit
We believe in God the Holy Spirit, is a Person really distinct as such from the Father and the Son; He is God and consubstantial with the Father and the Son. The Third Person of the Godhead, the Spirit of the Father shed abroad, omnipotent, omnipresent, performing an inexpressibly important mission upon earth, convicting of sin, of righteousness, and of judgments, drawing sinners to the Saviour, rebuking, pleading, searching, comforting, guiding, quickening, teaching, glorifying, baptizing and enduing with power from on high those who yield to His tender ministrations, preparing them for the great day of the Lord’s appearing.
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God; the Spirit of Christ, the Eternal Spirit; the Spirit of truth; the Spirit of grace; the Spirit of glory; the Spirit of life; the Spirit of wisdom and revelation; the Comforter; the Spirit of promise; the Spirit of adoption; the Spirit of holiness and the Spirit of faith.Yet, notwithstanding this difference as to origin, the Persons are co-eternal and co-equal: all alike are uncreated and omnipotent.
We believe that through the Holy Spirit the prophets were directed to foretell the manner of the conception and birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe that through the Holy Spirit, spiritual powers such as powers of prophecy; wisdom; knowledge, or miraculous healing are given.
We believe that the Spirit enabled people of all races, classes, and nations to accept the good news of what God had done in Christ, repent of their sins, and enter the community of faith.
The Three Creeds
We believe in the truths as expressed in the three Creeds: Nicene Creed; Athanasius’s Creed and the commonly called the Apostles Creed for their foundation is in the Holy Scriptures.
God’s Creation and Providence
We believe that in the beginning God created all things through His Word and that Jesus Christ is the Word.
We believe that in Creation, God gave Man a free will, a moral character, a superior intellect and a spiritual nature which distinguishes man from lower animals and stamped man with the image of God.
We believe that God gave Man dominion over the Earth, and is concerned with the lives of His children and He is working for their eternal good.
We believe that God has given Man power of self-determination and holds him responsible for his moral choice.
Man and His Sin
We believe that man was created in the image of God to be sinless, before whom he walked in holiness and purity, but through voluntary disobedience and transgression, man fell from the Eden of purity and innocence to the depths of sin and iniquity. In consequence of this, we believe that all mankind are sinners sold unto Satan, sinners not by constraint but by choice, shapen in iniquity and utterly void by nature of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil, guilty and without excuse, justly deserving the condemnation of a just and holy God. Our sin makes us to fall short of God’s glory that has caused the imposition of the penalty of death on the human race.
We believe that children are born with a nature which will manifest itself as sinful as they mature however when aware of their responsibility towards God must repent and believe in Christ Jesus in order to receive salvation.
We believe that Christ died for us and that through His sacrifice believers will be saved.
The Plan of Salvation
We believe that the plan of redemption was chosen by God because freely and by divine appointment of the Father, Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, the Just for the unjust, taking our place; bearing our sins, receiving our condemnation and dying our death. Fully paying our penalty and signing with His life’s blood, the pardon for those who believe upon Him.
We believe that God’s plan was to deliver man by the power of His grace from the evil force that enslaved man since the fall.
Salvation by Grace through Faith
We believe that by grace all sinners have been saved, we have no righteousness or goodness of our own. Everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation is justified freely by His grace, is saved by grace and has redemption and forgiveness according to the riches of His grace.
We believe that under grace means living under a new administration from God, with a new set of principles with grace as its focus. And that grace broke sin’s chain and opened its prison doors.
Church of Christ
We believe that God’s redemptive work has led to the establishment of the Christian Church. We believe that Christ established His Church when He poured out His Spirit on Pentecost Day.
We believe that in preparation for His Church Christ entered into covenant relationships with Abraham and his seed. Today the spiritual “Seed of Abraham” are those who have faith in Christ and the people of God.
We believe that the Body of Christ is composed of believers from all races and nations.
We believe that the Church is the fellowship of those who are in the Kingdom of Christ, the assembly of those who believe in Him and the brotherhood of the Saints.
We believe that the Church is the corporate dwelling place of God in the Spirit, His Holy Temple. It is the visible body of those who are Christian disciples.
We believe that membership of the Church is dependent upon a voluntary response to God’s offer of salvation in Christ.
We believe that the function of the Church is to demonstrate to the world the will of God, restoration of all lost souls, proclaim to all men the saving power and the intention of God in Christ, to make disciples of all nations, lead all men to the obedience of faith.
We believe that the Church is a brotherhood under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit in the Christian Life
We believe that Christ as Lord and Saviour does His work through the Holy Spirit and convicts of guilt in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. We believe that the eternal purpose of the Holy Spirit is to bring believers home to Jesus Christ as His eternal spotless Bride. He has come to dwell in believers to seal, sanctify, empower and prepare us all for the bridehood of Christ.
We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the incoming of the promised Comforter in mighty and glorious fullness to endue the believer with power from on high; to glorify and exalt the Lord Jesus. The Spirit in the life of believers is to give inspired utterance in witnessing of Him in order to foster the spirit of prayer, holiness, sobriety, to equip the individual and the Church for practical, efficient, joyous, Spirit-filled soul-winning in the fields of life; and that this being still the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
We believe that the Holy Spirit bestows the following gifts upon the believing Church of the Lord Jesus Christ: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and interpretation. These gifts are divided to every man severally, as He, the Holy Spirit, wills and that they are to be most earnestly desired and coveted, in the order and proportion wherein they prove most edifying and beneficial to the church.
We believe that the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, should be put forth, cultivated, and diligently guarded as the resultant adornment, the constant, eloquent, and irrefutable evidence of a Spirit-filled life.
Ceremonies and Practices
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples instituted Ordinances to be observed permanently by the Church as symbols of the Christian faith and these were observed by the Apostolic Church. We believe that among these are baptism by immersion; the Lord’s Supper; the washing of the Saint’s feet, the Holy Kiss, the laying of hands in ordination, the anointing of the sick with oil and the institution of Christian marriage. We believe in the observance of the first day of each week by the saints in memory of the Lord’s resurrection.
We believe that water baptism by immersion in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, according to the command of our Lord, is a blessed outward sign of an inward work; a beautiful and solemn emblem reminding us that even as our Lord died upon the cross of Calvary so we reckon ourselves now dead indeed unto sin, and the old nature nailed to the tree with Him. We believe that in baptism we are buried with Him into death and that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. We believe that one must repent to qualify for baptism, turn to Christ in sincere faith and accept Him as Lord and Saviour.
We believe that Baptism sets us in the visible community of Christ’s people and joins us to all other believers by a powerful bond. For both children and adults, baptism is a reminder that God loves us long before we can love him, and for both, God’s grace and our response to it are not tied to the moment of baptism, but continue and deepen throughout life.
We believe in the commemoration and observing of the Lord’s Supper by the sacred use of the broken bread, a precious type of the Bread of Life, even Jesus Christ, whose body was broken for us; and by the juice of the vine, a blessed type which should ever remind the participant of the shed blood of the Savior who is the true vine of which His children are the branches. We believe in observing the communion as an ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ to symbolize the New Covenant, and each believer shall examine him/herself so as not to partake of the sacred emblems carelessly or while living in sin. The Church shall invite to the Lord’s Table only those who have peace with God and with their brethren, and who shares the faith of the Church. We believe that the Lord’s Supper shall be observed faithfully until the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe in the observance of the washing of Saint’s feet as an ordinance instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ and by His example Christ rebuke the pride of rivalry within the Apostles and showed them that Christian discipleship involves obedience to His Lordship and loving service. We believe that this ordinance reminds us of the brotherhood character of the Church of our mutual duty to serve and admonish one another, and for our need for continuous cleansing in our daily walks of life.
We believe that at the beginning of human history God instituted marriage and ordained that a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. We believe that they are no longer two but one and whatever God has joined together, no man should separate.
The Church and Divine Healing
We believe that divine healing is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to heal the sick, and the afflicted in answer to believing prayer and that Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and has never changed but is still an all-sufficient help in the time of trouble, able to meet the needs of, and quicken the body into newness of life, as well as the soul and spirit in answer to the faith of them who ever pray with submission to His divine and sovereign will.
We believe that the Church must exercise a ministry of prayer for those in need and in the anointing them with oil by the Elders of the Church.
Church Relationship
We believe that having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior and King, and having thus been born into the family and invisible body or church of the Lord, it is the sacred duty of the believer, whenever this lies within his power, to identify himself with, and labor most earnestly for the upbuilding of God’s kingdom with the visible church of Christ upon the earth.
We believe that the visible church is a congregation of believers, who have associated themselves together in Christian fellowship and in the unity of the Spirit, observing the ordinances of Christ, worshipping Him in the beauty of holiness, speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, reading and proclaiming His Word, laboring for the salvation of souls, giving their temporal means to carry on His work, edifying, encouraging, establishing one another in the most holy faith, and working harmoniously together as dear children who are many members but one body of which Christ is head.
Church Mission to the Community
We believe that God sends us to proclaim the Gospel to those who are bound, to announce that God’s promised kingdom is at hand, urge everyone to repent and believe the good news. Christ has commissioned His Church to go into the world and make disciples of all nations baptizing and teaching them how to observe His commandments.
We believe that the Church is to proclaim by word and deed that Christ gave himself to set people free from sin and self-hatred, from ignorance and disease, from all forms of oppression, and even from death.
We believe that the moderation of the believer should be known of all men; that his experience and daily walk should never lead him into extremes, fanaticism, unseemly manifestations, back-bitings, murmurings; but that his sober, thoughtful, balanced, mellow, forgiving, and zealous Christian experience should be one of steadfast uprightness, equilibrium, humility, self-sacrifice and Christ-likeness.
We believe that God sends the Church to strive for justice by reaching out to those who suffer injustice and defend the excluded, the poor and the hungry, work with others to correct the growing disparity between rich and poor nations, to achieve fair legislation justly administered and enforced, to make the operation of courts and penal institutions more just and humane.
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ has literally loaded down His Church with many and manifold responsibilities and tasks. We believe that the Church must love and glorify God through our Praise and Worship, through our fruit-bearing; through our giving; our preaching and ministry; through believing of God’s Word, through our suffering and our witnessing. We are to display God’s grace, evangelise and act as a restraining and enlightening force in this present world, to edify believers, discipline and provide fellowship for believers. The Church is to given the responsibility to care for poor and the needy and promote all that is good.
The Symbols of the Church
We believe that in the New Testament, there are six main symbols depicting Christ and His Church. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head and the church is His Body. The church which is the Body must be in subjection to the Head; experience unity with the Head; work in glad service for the Head and take direction from the Head.
We believe that Christ is the Bridegroom and the church is the bride and the love of Christ for His church is unconditional, unbounded, unknowable, unmerited, undeserved, unequaled and unparalleled.
We believe that Christ is the True Vine and we are the branches with the following responsibilities: to abide in the Vine; to bear fruit from and for the Vine only; to bear much fruit and be submissive to pruning.
We believe that Christ is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. He is the Good Shepherd because of what He has accomplished in the past- Justification; the Great Shepherd because of what He accomplishes in the present – Sanctification and the Chief Shepherd because of what He shall accomplish in the future- glorification. We believe we are the sheep of His pasture
We believe that Christ is the High Priest and His church as the kingdoms of priests. We believe that we are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that should show forth the praise of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
We believe that Christ is the Chief Cornerstone and we are the living stones built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with our Lord being the chief corner stone in which all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord.
Discipline
We believe that the basis of discipline of a local church is the holiness of God and Our Lord Jesus Christ has given authority to His Church to exercise discipline with the main purpose to lead each member to full maturity in Christ. To restore to full fellowship members who fall away from discipleship, to promote the purity of the Church, to warn the weak and immature of the serious character of the good name and witness of the Church before the world.
We believe that the purpose of discipline is to maintain the standards of the Church to a watching world; to keep sin from spreading throughout the church; to help the guilty person finds his/her way back to God and to escape God’s twofold judgment upon habitually sinning saints.
We believe that for this, the Church employs public teaching, private counselling, intercessory prayer, earnest warning, rebuke and sympathetic encouragement.
The Minister of the Church
We believe that it is the invention of Our Lord Jesus Christ that there should be shepherds in the congregation to feed His flocks, as leaders to serve, to expound the Word of God and administer ordinances.
The Destiny of the Church
We believe that the story of the Church will have a happy ending in the sense that the Bridegroom will get the Bride and will live together happily ever after. We believe that the destiny of the Church of Christ is as follows:
Be caught up by the Bridegroom at the rapture;
be examined and rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ;
be united and seated with Christ at the marriage service and supper of the Lamb;
reign with Christ during the millennium;
share the New Jerusalem and illustrate the glory of Christ throughout all eternity.
