We attest that God inspired our Articles of Faith for Love In The WORD Church and you can read and study those Articles via a pop up window that displays them. Even though some of the words are intentionally theological, please do not let that keep you from reading our Articles and then asking God to confirm or deny our assertion.
Our name and logo was designed to keep our core values straight at all times during the life of this Church. Love is the basis of the Gospel and the WORD (the only one who could ever fulfill the Davidic Covenant found in 2 Sam 7) is our Advocate, King, and High Priest. To us, purple is the heart of God because it represented royalty in biblical times and still does to us today! Out of the heart of Jesus which can be seen in both testaments of the Bible, we see the heart of humanity (red) being transformed by the cross and the risen Lord Jesus! That being said, we assert that the Bible is the WORD of God and that its meaning is never in error and it never tires when defending its precepts or principles. In fact, if a Bible verse as interpreted conflicts with another verse, we believe that our meaning is in error and we must “harmonize” our interpretation with the entirety of the Bible to apply its meaning correctly. Just as it is the Law, not Laws, of Moses, the Bible is the WORD, not Words, of God. What we draw from this point is that God is eternal and never changing so if the Israelites were expected to keep every one of the 600+ laws to keep the Law, we as modern-day saints (followers) of Christ, must keep the WORD in its entirety. We are not ALLOWED to change the Bible’s meaning to justify sin in our lives. The Bible is our standard and being a standard, by definition, means it NEVER changes!
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
[Mat 5:17-19 KJV]
We believe that to God all sin is sin and that we are ALL sinners saved by grace [see Rom 3:23]. That means that the pastor or shepherd is just like the sheep and that the Church is a hospital where people come to get well. The Love of God is unconditional, but salvation IS conditional on a confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. [see Rom 10:9] God still loves those who He, not us, will send to Hell because only grace can keep mercy from robbing justice! Grace comes from the cross and the Risen Lord Jesus. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” [Matt 28:18] and at the stoning of Stephen in Acts, the WORD says that he looked up and saw “Jesus sitting in the place of honor on the righthand of the Father.” [Acts 7:55] So while we love everyone, we must preach the Full Gospel without apology. We will need to love everyone, but not everyone that loves us or that we love will be allowed in heaven! Revelations clearly states that we must all stand on our own to be judged, BY GOD’s council, for Heaven or Hell according to our works while yet in the flesh [Rev 20:11-13]. We believe that if we are sharing the Gospel in full to all, if we are loving well, the hearer will always hear and feel our love and any conviction to change is coming from the WORD and not us! Our job is to Love Others Well! Let the WORD do the work! So ALL are welcome!
We believe in a real Heaven and a real Hell and a real Zion coming to the earth and that sin is being out of the will of God. Upon confession (statement) of the Lord Jesus Christ according to Paul, we are justified which means made in right standing with God due to the original sin or the Fall of Adam and Eve. Once that confession happens, we’re brought from unclean (evil and sinful) to clean. The progress does not stop here because the Lord in Leviticus states emphatically that we are to be holy because He is Holy [Lev 11:44]. The process of going from clean (good) to holy is called sanctification and is a “process”, not a statement, and Paul describes this principle throughout the Book of Romans. So applied to todays life, if we confess Jesus, no matter who we are or how we are living, we are saved from the effects of eternal damnation due to the original sin (justified) [Rom 10:9], but we are expected to continue to “set ourselves apart” (sanctify) [Rom 1:7; 12:1, NIV]. Paul alludes to another salvation “set before him that was nearer than when we first believed” [Rom 13:11, NIV]. This is the principle of crossing into glorification which happens for many at the Second Advent of Jesus as He enters His Kingdom here on earth to fulfill the Davidic Covenant as the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of David, High Priest, and King found in II Sam 7.
We believe that God gave all humanity free will! So everyone must be free to choose how and when they worship God. If someone has another faith altogether, we are not released from the two greatest commandments of loving God and neighbor! So we see that there is no physical difference between the believer and the non-believer. We are all sinners, but there IS a spiritual difference in that the believer is made new [2 Cor 5:17 NIV] and this difference counts [Gal 6:15 NIV]. So our duties as members of Christ’s Church is to share our faith with, our love for, and care for all humanity while hating even our own sin!
We do not believe in “church membership” in any particular church. We, upon confession, are already members of Christ’s Church and therefore citizens of heaven. There is no further need for another membership, so believers should feel free to go and come as they please and participate with any other part of the Church or Body of Christ, regardless of its name and public personae. We call our participants in the covenant here at Love In The WORD “family” to bring constant attention to our unity rather than our diversity. Therefore, we focus our attention daily on the “Love of God, the WORD of God, and the Care of God”!
We believe in the movements and working of the Holy Spirit still today and that revelation for ourselves and others in still active and very present on the earth. Therefore, we believe in the speaking in tongues in the decency and order explained in the WORD [1 Cor 14]. We believe that the Holy Spirit is often sidelined today and that it is essential to the process of sanctification and the “proper” application of the WORD to our daily lives. We believe that while praise is an attitude and posture that takes on many forms, worship is found in how we interface with God’s creation. We worship and honor God when we help a neighbor or care for the widow or the fatherless. We worship and honor God when we are honest with our dealing with humanity and when we honor God’s gift of free agency and free will to humanity. We will not speak ill of other people’s faith or worship styles, we will stand on Bible principles and our purpose to expose and oppose Satan and his followers at every turn and through the power of the WORD, LOVE, and Tolerance!