Statement of Beliefs of the Sandoval Community Church

Whereas we, being an incorporated body of people of like Christian faith:

1.    Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life through His death and the power of His resurrection.

2.    Believe the Bible to be God’s holy inspired word and the revelation of His will to man and accept it as our rule for faith and conduct.

3.    Believe Christian fellowship, mutual edification and evangelical effort, in the form of local churches, is God’s ordained order for His people.

4.    Believe the church assembles for worship, fellowship, counsel, and instruction in the Word of God, and the work of the ministry.

5.    Believe the church should exercise the gifts and commands provided for in the New Testament to obtain the Christian goal, “Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).”

6.    Believe God has called and anointed us to emphasize the fullness of the Gospel through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we have accepted and adopted the following Statement of Fundamental Truths and Constitution. We shall seek, by the grace of God, to be governed by the Constitution as set forth, and will also seek to teach and propagate the doctrines contained in the Statement of Fundamental Truths.
Statement of Fundamental Truths

1.    The scriptures inspired. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, a revelation from God to man, the infallible rule of faith and conduct, and is superior to conscience and reason, but not contrary to reason (2 Timothy 3:15, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter 2:2).

2.    The one true God. The one true God has revealed himself as the eternally self-existent, self-revealed “I AM” and has further revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association, i.e., Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29, Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 11, Matthew 28:19).

3.    Man, his fall and redemption. Man was created good and upright, for God said, “Let Us make man in our image, after our likeness (Genesis 1:26).” But man, by voluntary transgression, fell and his only hope of redemption is in Jesus Christ the Son of God (Genesis 1:26-31, Genesis 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-21).

4.    The salvation of man.
a.    Conditions of Salvation. The grace of God, which brings salvation, is available to all, through the preaching of repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ; the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and being justified, with the promise of eternal life (Titus 2:11, Romans 10:13-15, Luke 24:47, Titus 3:5-7).
b.    Evidence of salvation. The inward evidence to the believer of his salvation is the direct witness of the spirit (Romans 8:16). The outward evidence to all men is a life of righteousness and true holiness.

5.    Gender.  God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male and female.  These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God.  Rejection of one’s biological gender is a rejection of the image of God within that person (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2, Acts 17:26-31, Romans 1:19-32).

6.    Marriage.  The term “marriage” has only one meaning:  the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture.  We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other (Matthew 19:4-6, Genesis 2:18-25, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 7:2-5, Hebrews 13:4).

7.    Sexuality.  Sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest and use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God (Matthew 15:18-20, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
a. We believe to preserve the function and integrity of the
Sandoval Community Church as the local Body of Christ, and
to provide a biblical role model to the Sandoval Community Church
members and the community, it is imperative that all people
employed by Sandoval Community Church in any capacity, or who
serve as volunteers, agree to and abide by these statements on
Gender, Marriage and Sexuality.

8.    Baptism in water. The ordinance of baptism by a burial with Christ should be observed as commanded in the scriptures by all who have repented and believed in Christ as Savior and Lord. In so doing, they are cleansed in pure water as an outward symbol of cleansing, while their heart has already been sprinkled with the blood of Christ as in inner cleansing. They declare to the world that they have died with Jesus and been raised with Him to walk in newness of life (Matthew 28:19, Acts 10:47-48, Romans 6:4 Hebrews 10:22).

9.    The Lord’s supper. The Lord’s supper, consisting of the elements, bread and the fruit of the vine, is the symbol to express our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4), a memorial of His suffering and death (1 Corinthians 11:26), a prophecy of His second coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), and is enjoined on all believers until He comes.

10.    Regeneration. All people who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, turn from their sins and put their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ receive a new birth by which their life is regenerated by the power of God’s Holy Spirit (John 3:3-6, Titus 3:5). From that time forward, God’s Holy Spirit dwells within enabling the person to live a holy life; (1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Peter 1:3-4) giving them power to be witnesses for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8).

11.    The promise of the Father. All believers have the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was the normal experience in the early Christian Church. With it comes a deeper spiritual life and service, the bestowment of this gift and their uses in the work of the ministry (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4, 1 Corinthians 12:1-31). This experience occurs after and is separate from the new birth (Acts 10:44-46; 11:14-16; 15:7-9).

12.    Sanctification. The scriptures teach a life of holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. By the power of the Holy Spirit we may obey the command, “Be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16).” Sanctification is the will of God for all believers and should be pursued by walking in obedience to God’s Holy Spirit. Sanctification is experienced in basically three ways:
a.    Instant or positional sanctification. This is what happens to every person who puts their trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we are saved through faith in Jesus, we are sanctified in the eyes of God through the blood of the cross. As God the Father looks at us, He sees the holiness of Jesus, which is imputed to us, and does not see our sin (Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 14).
b.    Progressive or practical sanctification. This is the process by which we strive to live on a day-to-day basis by considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in holy living through the power of God’s divine nature within our lives (Romans 6; Philippians 2:12, Philippians 2:13, 2 Peter 1:3, 2 Peter 1:4).
c.    Final sanctification. This is when we are totally set free from the presence of sin within our life after seeing Jesus our Lord and being made like Him because of seeing Him as He really is in all His glory (1 John 3:2).

13.    The church. The church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the spirit with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the spirit, is an integral part of the church, which is written in heaven (Ephesians 1:22, Ephesians 1:23, Ephesians 2:22, Hebrews 12:23).

14.    Ministry and evangelism. A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord for the evangelization of the world and the edifying of the body of Christ (Mark 16:15-20, Ephesians 4:11-13).

15.    Divine healing. Belief in the divine act of God that restores physical, emotional, and/or spiritual health often in response to faith and prayer (Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:16-17, Jeremiah 30:17, Jeremiah 33:6).

16.    The blessed hope. The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ, together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, is the imminent and blessed hope of the Church (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Titus 2:12, 1 Corinthians 15:51, Romans 8:23).

17.    The millennial reign of Jesus. The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, the salvation of Israel, and the 1,000-year reign of Christ on earth. (Revelation 19:11-14, Romans 11:26, Romans 11:27, Revelation 20:1-6).

18.    The lake of fire. The devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, and whoever not found written in the Book of Life, shall be consigned to everlasting punishment in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:10-15).

19.    The new heavens and the new earth. We, “according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21, Revelation 22).

20.    This Statement of Fundamental Truths does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs.  The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe.

For purposes of Sandoval Community Church’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy and discipline, our Board of Directors is Sandoval Community Church’s final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.