We, as members of The Charis Fellowship, in harmony with our historic position, believing the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible to be our infallible rule of faith and of practice, and feeling our responsibility to make known the divine message of the Bible present and the following articles as a statement of those basic truths taught in the Bible which are common to our Christian faith and practice:

1. The Bible: the Word of God, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, verbally inspired in all parts, and therefore wholly without error as originally given of God (II Timothy 3:16; II Peter 1:21).

2. The One True God: existing eternally as three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22; Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14).

3. The Lord Jesus Christ: His preexistence and deity (John 1:1-3), incarnation by virgin birth (John 1:14; Matthew 1:18-23), sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), substitutionary death (II Corinthians 5:21), bodily resurrection (Luke 24:36-43), ascension into heaven and present ministry (Hebrews 4:14-16), and coming again (Acts 1:11).

4. The Holy Spirit: His personality (John 16:7-15), and deity (Acts 5:3-34), and His work in each believer, baptism and indwelling at the moment of regeneration (I Corinthians 12:13; Romans 8:9), and filling (Ephesians 5:18) to empower for Christian life and service (Ephesians 3:6; Acts 1:8; Galatians 5:22-23).

5. Mankind: God’s intentional creation of male and female in His own image and likeness (Gen 1: 26-27). God’s image necessitated both male and female in order to perfectly manifest His glory. He designed, and blessed their one-flesh union to populate the earth (Genesis 1:28). Mankind subsequently fell into sin resulting in spiritual death, depravity, and utter perversion of God’s created order (Genesis 3:1-24; Romans 5:12). Mankind exchanged God’s truth for a lie and their depraved minds deliberately subverted God’s truth and original creation (Romans 1:18-32). This spiritual death can only be reversed by a new birth, a new creation which enables a renewed mind (John 3:3-5, 2 Cor 5:17, Eph 4:23). Any departure from God’s original created order and design at birth is a perversion of God’s intentional creation.

6. Salvation: A complete and eternal salvation by God’s grace alone, received as the gift of God through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-7; 1 Peter 1:18-19).

7. The Church: One true Church, the body and bride of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:25-32), composed of all true believers of the present age (1 Corinthians 12:12-13), and the organization of its members in local churches for worship, for edification of believers, and for world-wide gospel witness, each local church being autonomous but cooperating in fellowship and work (Ephesians 4:1-11). 

8. Christian Life: A life of righteousness, good works, and separation unto God from the evil ways of the world (Romans 12:1-2), manifested by speaking the truth (James 5:12), maintaining the sanctity of the home (Ephesians 5:22-6:4), settling differences between Christians in accordance with the Word of God (1 Corinthians 6:1-8), not engaging in carnal strife but showing a Christ-like attitude toward all men (Romans 12:17-21), exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and maintaining a life of prayer (Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6), including the privilege, when sick, of calling for the elders of the church to pray and to anoint with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:13-18).

9. Ordinances: The two ordinances (that which is commanded until Christ returns) of the church are Baptism (Matthew 28:19-20) and Communion (John 13:1-17; 1 Corinthians 11:20-26, 33-34). Baptism is reserved for believers who confess with their mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9 Acts 16:31). It is the practice of SGCC to baptize new believers by triune immersion, and to participate in the remembrance and proclamation of our Lord’s death and His soon return through frequent partaking of the Bread & the Cup, and periodically reenacting the Lord’s Supper through threefold communion consisting of a common meal, foot washing, and the Bread & the Cup (John 13).

10. Satan: His existence and personality as the great adversary of God and His people (Revelation 12:1-10), his judgment (John 12:31), and final doom (Revelation 20:10).

11. Second Coming: The personal, visible, and imminent return of Christ to remove His Church from the earth (I Thessalonians 4:16-17) before the tribulation (I Thessalonians 1:10; Revelation 3:10), and afterward to descend with the Church to establish His millennial kingdom upon the earth (Revelation 19:11-20:6).

12. Future Life: The conscious existence of the dead (Philippians 1:21-23; Luke 16:19-31), the resurrection of the body (John 5:28-29), the judgment and reward of believers (Romans 14:10-12; II Corinthians 5:10), the judgment and condemnation of unbelievers (Revelation 20:11-15), the eternal life of the saved (John 3:16), and the eternal punishment of the lost (Matthew 25:46; Revelation 20:15).

13. Marriage: We believe God intentionally designed and created humanity male and female. We believe marriage is ordained and instituted by God and, according to the Scriptures, can only exist and be fulfilled between one man and one woman. A civil government’s sanction of a union will be recognized as a legitimate marriage by the church only to the extent that it is consistent with the definition of “marriage” found in this Statement of Faith. We believe marriage is a picture of the relationship of Christ and the Church and is to be a lifelong, covenantal relationship between a man and a woman based on love, respect, mutual submission and personal sacrifice. We believe God intended sexual intimacy to be enjoyed only within the context of the male and female marriage relationship; and that all other sexual relations outside of marriage are personally destructive, sinful, inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible and the Church, and forbidden by God. (Gen. 1:27; Gen. 5:1-2; Mark 10:6; Gen. 2:21-24; Mark 10:2-12; Matt. 19:3-11; Eph. 5:21-33; 1 Tim. 3:2, 12; 1 Peter 3:1-7; Mal. 2:14-16; 1 Cor. 7:10-16; Matt. 5:31-32; Heb. 13:4; Gen. 1:28; 2:25; 1 Cor. 7:2-5; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom. 1:24-32; 1 Thess. 4:1-8; Jude 7).