Aurora ITA

Doctrinal Statement

1. There is one God (Deut. 6:4), supreme in His Being (Dan. 3:3,25,34-36), glorious in His perfection (Isa. 6:3), eternal (Ps. 90:2), existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gen 1:1-3 with John 1:1-3 and Job 33:4).
2. Jesus Christ is the eternal, unique Son of God (Heb. 1:1-3,8), who was born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), lived a sinless life (1 John 3:5), died a vicarious death to atone for our sins (Isa. 53:4-9; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:19-21), physically arose from the dead according to the Scriptures, ascended to the Father (Luke 24:34-43; 1 Tim. 3:16), and will one day come again in power and glory to judge sin (Matt. 24:27-30). He is co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.(Titus 2:13 ).
3. The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person (God) (Acts 5:3,4) who baptizes all believers, at salvation, into the Body of Christ (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 2:12,13; 1 Cor. 12:13), is present to guide, teach, control and empower believers for service (John14:17, 26, 15:26; Acts 1:8; Eph 5:18), and to convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:7-14).
4. The Bible is the Divinely breathed-out, infallible, written Word of God, inerrant in the original texts (2 Tim.3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20,21; John 10:35; Psalm 119:96, 138:2), the only sure and sufficient guide for Christian faith and practice, and the final authority on all matters of life (2 Pet. 1:3,4 with Deut. 29:29). Therefore, we promote the expositional ministry of all the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:8, 1 Tim. 4:13 ).
5. Man was created by God in His own image (Gen. 1:26). By an act of his own will, mankind rebelled and has fallen into sin, thereby incurring physical and spiritual death (Gen. 2:16,17; Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1,2). Man is separated from God (Isa. 59:2) and under condemnation in his impenitent and sinful state (Ps. 7:11 ; John 3:36 ).
6. Salvation has been provided, by grace alone, through faith alone, as a gift for men through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead (Romans 3:24-26, 4:24 ,25; 2 Cor. 5:14-19; Eph. 2:8-9). Those who repent of their sins and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit; their sins are forgiven; they are given a right standing before God; they receive the gift of eternal life, and they become children of God (John 1:10-13; Acts 2:37-40). Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:10 -12). His righteousness is the sole ground of the believer’s justification (Rom. 3:21 -22). The full merit of his righteousness is imputed to every believer ( Rom. 10:4). Believers contribute nothing meritorious to their own salvation (Rom. 4:4-5; Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:9). We believe Christ eternally saves every true believer (John 10:27 -30; Rom. 8:28 -30; Phil. 1:6; 1 Pet. 1:5), and we believe those who abandon the faith completely, simply demonstrate that they were never genuine believers to begin with (1 John 2:19).
7. The church universal consists of all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 1:1-5). The church constitutes the body of Christ in this world, whom Christ has commissioned to proclaim the Gospel to all the world (Eph. 1:22,23; 1 Tim. 3:15; Mark 16:15 ). The local church is the body of believers joined together for worship of God, preaching the Word, edification, fellowship, and observation of the ordinances Christ gave the church, which are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 1:2 with 1 Cor. chapters 11-14). We believe in baptism of believers by immersion (Rom. 6:4,5; Acts 8:38 ,39). We believe and practice the Biblical unity of all those who hold the true doctrine of Christ (John 17:20-23 with John 1:14,17). We are opposed to ecumenical and syncretistic movements with those who deny clear biblical teaching, as expressed in this Statement of Faith (1 John 4:1-4; 2 John 7-11).
8. God ordained the institution of marriage between one man (male) and one woman (female), to become one flesh (Gen. 2:22-25; Matt. 19:4-6). This is the only union that includes a divinely approved sexual relationship, and any other sexual thought or conduct is sin, due the judgment of God (Heb 13:4). All practice of sex other than as God designed it to be enjoyed in male-female marriage is a statement of rebellious sinners against God. Homosexuality was not created or intended by God (Rom. 1:18 -32) but is a gross perversion by rebellious humans, and is a total abomination to God (Lev. 18:22 -30).
9. Being committed to a literal, historical-grammatical principle of biblical interpretation, Aurora Mission’s understanding of Scripture is both Pre-Millennial and Pre-Tribulational. There shall be a second visible and personal coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to establish His earthly kingdom (Zechariah 14:3-9; Acts 1:6-11).
10. There shall be a bodily resurrection of all who are in Christ to eternal bliss in heaven, and of all who are without Christ to eternal punishment in hell (John 5:25-29; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 20:4-6,11-15; 22:3-5; Matt. 25:34,41,46).
11. We believe experience must never interpret Scripture, but rather Scripture must validate all we believe and practice. We therefore reject Charismatic and Pentecostal teaching on the sign gifts and other phenomena attributed to God working through them in this age–speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, miraculous signs, “revelations” and “faith healing” by the laying on of hands (1 Cor. 13:8, 14:1-40; 1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20; Jer. 23:16-32). We believe the true sign gifts that God gave to confirm revelation, passed away with the Apostolic era. We are opposed to all unbiblical false religion that poses as Christian and seeks to blur the division of truth and error (2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 4; 1 Tim. 4:1,2; 2 Tim. 2:15-18; 1 John 4:1-6; 2 John 7-11).
12. In the matter of salvation, we believe that Divine sovereignty (election, foreknowledge, predestination and calling) and human responsibility are two truths that coexist together (Mark 14:21; Rom. 8:28-30; 1 Thess. 1:2- 4; John 6:37; Acts 2:23, 13:48, 16:14,15) and find perfect standing and explanation only in the infinite wisdom and eternal counsel of God (Deut. 29:29; Isa. 55:8,9; Rom. 11:33,34).
13. In the matter of missions and evangelism, we believe that God has sovereignly chosen prayer for the lost, and proclamation of His Word as the means to bring His elect to salvation (Matt. 28:18-19; Acts 10:36-44; 13:2, 14:1; 1 Tim. 2:1-4; 2 Tim. 2:8-10).