The Beliefs of First Evangelical Haitian Church
God
We believe in one God, in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, maker of all existence and of all eternity. We believe in the omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Immovable God (Eccl.12:13; Matt.28:18-19; 2Cor.13:13; John 1:3). We believe that God revealed himself in the creation, in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Scriptures (Gen.1:1; John 1:1).
Jesus Christ
We believe in the absolute divinity of Jesus Christ, in his being as a person, in his eternal existence with the father in his glory before his incarnation, in his miraculous birth from a virgin. We believe in his life free from sin, his expiatory death, his body resurrecting, his triumphant ascension, his ministry, as the mediator and his glorified return to meet and take home the universal church of believers. (John1:1-5; Rom.9:5; John14:3; John17:5; Eph.1:20; Phil.2:5-11; Apoc.19:11-16).
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the trinity and absolutely divine in his sole being. We believe that He can win over the sinner from justice and from judgement; that He can breathe new life into the believer, sanctify, illuminate and comfort those who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. (John 15:26; 16:7-14; Eph.2:1-18; 2Cor.3:7).
The Church
We believe that the local Church shall be an assembly of believers in Jesus Christ called out of the world, sanctified, and set apart for the edification of saints, spreading the word of God, and evangelizing in various ways. WE also believe that the church shall be an independent sovereign body, giving value to her special gifts, precepts and privileges which were duly accorded to her under the lordship of Christ, who is the Head of the church.
The Bible
We believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible, in its entirety as the source and the authority of our faith. We believe that the bible is the complete word of God, made up of the Old and the New Testaments. The Bible is made up of 66 books inspired word for word and written as dictated by the Holy Spirit, free of mistakes. We also believe that the Bible is the sole reference of the true basis for the practical Christian unity.(2 Tim.3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Sam.23:2; Luke 16:29-31; John 12:47-48; Act 1:16).
The Return of Jesus Christ
We believe in the imminent personal, physical, and glorious return of Jesus Christ to be caught up in the air with his Church, which shall be made up of the repented and resurrected believers as well as the converted living people. (1Thes.4:13-18; John 14:2-3). We believe in the judgement of the works of Christians, Christ being the Judge in view of the retribution of the just. (2 Cor.5:10) We believe in the establishment of the judgement kingdom to punish the unbelievers and those who rejected the work of salvation of Christ and His return to catch the universal church. (Apoc.6:12). We also believe in the return of Christ to put an end to the reign of Satan and the installation of the millenary kingdom on earth.
Salvation
We believe that man was divinely created in the image and figure of God. He became depraved because of his sins and consequently faced physical as well as spiritual death, whereby, he is separated from God We also believe that all men born of Adam inherited the sinful nature and need to believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation. (Gen.1:26; Ps51:7; Rom.5:9-10) We believe that Salvation is through God s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, Who suffered on the cross at Calvary for us. (Eph.2:8; John3:16; Es.53:4-16; Heb7:25).
Satan
We believe that Satan is a fallen angel, the enemy of Christ and His church, that he is the god of his world, and his destiny is punishment and suffering in the eternal hell of fire. (Mat.25:41; John 5:19; Apoc.26:10 1Peter 5:80).
The ordinances
We believe that Jesus Christ instituted two ordinances for His Church:
- Baptism by immersion. The baptism by immersion is a public manifestation by which the believer confesses his faith. It portrays the reality of the work of God s salvation and the unity of the believer with Jesus in his death and his resurrection. Tis baptism is administered under the confession of the faith of the believer in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We also believe that baptism by immersion does not have any salvation virtue and can not in any way purify or cleanse the believer of his sins. (1 Peter3:21).
- The Holy Communion. We believe that the Holy Communion is the symbol of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross for the sinners. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ himself commanded unto the disciples to take Holy Communion in his directives. (1 Cor 11:23-26)
Marriage
We believe in the sacred and indissoluble nature of marriage. (1 Cor.7; Rom 13:1-7)
The gifts
We believe that when a person accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, he receives one or many gifts from the Holy Spirit to enable him to perform work within the church of Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 12:14; Eph.4:4-12). Some of the gifts (languages) were temporary, that is they were given in support of the ministry of the first believers of the church.(the apostles of the 1st century)(1 Tim 5:23; 1 Cor. 13:10-11).