- Détails
- Catégorie : Presentation
Confession of faith
God
We worship only God, in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Creator of all things, He is holy, almighty, love, eternal. We believe that God revealed himself in history, first in that of his people Israel, and then definitively in his Son Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ foretold by the prophets. It is this revelation that is the Holy Scripture.
The Holy Scriptures
We believe the Bible is divinely inspired. The Holy Spirit sovereignly directed the origin and formation of the writings that compose it. These Scriptures are uniquely the written Word of God. Document of the covenant between God and his people (Old Testament), between God and the community of all those who accept the salvation offered in Christ (New Testament), the Word reveals God’s mind, his will and his love for the world. It contains all that is needed to lead us to Him who is our salvation, Jesus Christ, and so that we put our lives in service to God. It is the supreme reference to test all belief, all tradition and religious practice. It derives its authority from God alone to govern the life of the believer and the Church.
Humanity, the fall and its consequences
We believe that God created humans in His own image. He has created them free, holy, and enjoying communion with himself. At the instigation of Satan, the first human separated himself from God by conscious disobedience, thus losing his original state. By this act of disobedience, sin, resulting in death, entered the world. The sinful nature has spread to all humans. The entire humanity, in this break in relationship with God, now lives under the dominion of evil and incurs the Judgement of God.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ, only Son of God for all eternity, is the only mediator between God and men. He came among humans, fully God and fully man, two natures remaining distinct in their perfect union in his person. He taught us all that is necessary for our salvation. He showed us through his life, free from all sin and full of the power and love of the Father, what the holy life that God wants for us is. He performed the work of our redemption by giving his life on the cross as a living and perfect sacrifice to wash away our sins and reconcile us to God. Resurrected and alive eternally with the Father in his glory, he is Lord.
Salvation
We believe that God, having accomplished his promises of salvation in Jesus Christ, calls the sinner under the action of the Holy Spirit to repent of his/her sin, to turn to God, to accept, by faith, the atoning work of Jesus Christ and to be united with him in his death and resurrection. He/she receives therefore, by the grace of God, forgiveness of sins. Justified by faith in Jesus Christ, he/she now lives in right relationship with God, that of a child before his/her Father. He/she is reborn into a new and eternal life and enters into the kingdom of God. Faith necessarily produces works pleasing to God and a life more and more conformed to his will.
The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit, Third Person of the Trinity, makes the reality of salvation alive, beneficial and effective, in the heart of man. Living thus in the believer, the Holy Spirit leads him in glorifying the Lord through a life of prayer and persevering fidelity to the truth of Scripture. He is the guarantee of his/her eternal inheritance. The Holy Spirit makes believers fruitful, enabling them to discern God’s will and gives them the gifts necessary for their edification, for serving the Church and as a witness in the world.
The Church
The Church is the people that God gives himself to through Jesus Christ to celebrate the glory of his grace, to proclaim the good news of salvation and to be his witnesses in the world by their right actions, by their mercy and by reconciliation. We believe that God has established ministries of the Word with the purpose of getting to know one another, to call sinners to believe in Jesus Christ and to then join together with God’s people, and to grow in the Christian life.
Local churches
We believe that a local church, formed according to the Word of God, is a community of believers, baptized on profession of their faith. Tangible and visible representation where she is located, of the universal Church, the Body of Christ, she is independent of any authority other than Jesus Christ. However, she cannot live in isolation: fraternal ties linking her with other churches in solidarity. All members of the local church, partners in a voluntary commitment, implement, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the common good, the gifts they have received. The churches also recognize the offices that God gives to some of their members to carry out particular functions as taught in the New Testament.
Baptism
We believe that, as taught in Scripture, the believer is called to publicly confess their faith through baptism. Baptism shows visibly the reality of the work of God’s salvation and the believer’s union with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. We believe that according to the New Testament, baptism is done by immersion in water, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and is normally followed by admission into a local church.
The Lord’s Supper
We believe the Lord calls his disciples to break bread and to drink the cup of the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of him, thus announcing his death until his return. In doing so, they profess that by their communion with the living Christ, they are part of one body and are united together in one spirit.
The return of Jesus Christ, our hope
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will return from heaven as he ascended to it, for the renewal of all things and the full manifestation of the work of salvation. All the dead will rise and every man will be accountable to God for his life. Those found righteous in Jesus Christ will go to eternal life and the others to eternal punishment. God has promised a new heaven and a new earth. He himself shall dwell with his people: this is what we await.
Apostle’s Creed
Since its drafting in the early third century, a written confession of faith brought Christians together. This does not refer to the Catholic church but the church consisting of all those, whatever their Christian denomination, who acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord. With them, we say:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, He died and was buried: He descended into hell. The third day he rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven; He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From where he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the holy universal Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and of eternal life.
Amen.
Text of the official Confession of Faith of the Federation of Evangelical Churches Baptist de France (FEEBF) adopted by Congress in Boulogne-Billancourt, May 5, 1989
