The Faith We Embrace

There is only One True God, the Holy Trinity, whose existence, nature and character have been revealed in the history of Israel and supremely in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He is the definitive revelation of God. The scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the written source of our knowledge of this self-revelation. By self revealing actions, God has demonstrated the existence of divine reality and has revealed the nature of God as Trinity. Furthermore, in the scriptural account of God's self-revealing acts to redeem the world (in Israel's history and in Christ), the nature of the Trinity as transcendent over and distinct from creation -- yet lovingly involved in the creation -- is revealed to us.

The nature of God as Trinity is only adequately expressed by naming God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Three Persons of the Trinity are eternally distinct from one another, but are not three different divine beings. While the Three are of the same essence and all Three Persons share equally in divinity and are together the One True God, we profess that the Person of the Father is the fountainhead of divinity.

The Second Person of the Trinity -- God the Son -- became incarnate as the human man Jesus of Nazareth. This is the most profound act of God’s redeeming love for all of the creation and for all of humanity. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary fully human and fully God. This historical reality -- the person of Jesus -- is the way that we come to know God as Triune. Also, the character of God as Holy Love is revealed. Only by the coming of the Son do we know the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the one and only means to humanity’s redemption, because he is the God-man. In his life and his work, he alone reconciles to God all who have true faith in him. His incarnate life, and most crucially his death and resurrection, atone for our sinfulness, heal our broken lives, and make possible a new way of life that is pleasing to God for all who will receive Him. By the Incarnation we see most fully the character of God's loving providence over creation and we are shown most clearly the kind of life that God calls the Church to live out in the world.

From the Father through the Son the co-eternal Holy Spirit is given to all those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the Cosmos. The Holy Spirit is fully equal in divinity with the Father and the Son. He is a personal presence not simply some divine spark or force by which we are empowered in our spiritual lives. To speak of the Spirit's presence in our lives is to acknowledge the divine Person whereby God dwells in our lives. This same Spirit brings to our lives the capacity for us to live an obedient life to God. Prior to the coming of the Spirit in conversion we are (in the words of St. Paul) slaves to sin.

The Holy Spirit plays a central role in the salvation of the world in relationship to Jesus -- the only redeemer. Bby the Spirit the Incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ, was conceived in the womb of Mary. At his baptism Jesus was also, annointed -- in his human nature as Messiah of Israel -- by the Holy Spirit. It was through the power of the Holy Spirit that Christ accomplished his great works and his obedience to the Father as a man. The Father sent the Son and gave him to the world, but the Holy Spirit is the agent through which this miracle is accomplished.

Through Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work in the world and in the life of every person. No one is without the grace-endowed work of the Spirit in their lives. Hence, salvation is a possiblity for all people. (But not all will be saved.) The Spirit makes us able to repent, to have faith, and to surrender our lives fully to Christ's lordship. By the Holy Spirit’s we are able to live in obedience to God, bringing pleasure to God our Father.

The Incarnation and the blessings of grace are necessary for salvation from sin because human beings are separated from the Triune God by sin and disobedience. Sin is more than the sum of all our bad acts and choices. Human sinfulness is a condition of being "turned in upon ourselves" and lacking regard for God's proper sovereign place in our lives. Such an orientation makes us alienated from God and from others. Sin, because God is personal and holy, is an affront, therefore, to God's righteous love.

Our actions cannot undo this. We cannot save ourselves from this separation or its consequences – neither by works nor by our right beliefs. Our salvation is only possible because the Holy Trinity has mercifully acted in grace to redeem us. Yet, God does not save us by divine proclamation, for that would be coercion. Rather, Christ comes to announce the coming of God's Kingdom, to bring our world a proper orientation to God, to bear in himself the consequences of our sinful rejection and neglect of God's sovereign rule, and to make possible radical freedom from the domination of sin in the life of those who believe in him an open their lives to his Lordship.

This grace alone is the source of salvation; and God’s grace is revealed and enacted ultimately in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to be the Savior of the World. His life, death, resurrection and ascension make possible forgiveness from sin and sanctification for those who receive him. Repentance and faith in him, therefore, as the gracious gift of God are the means of entering into the life of salvation.

The Church is an agent of God's redeeming work in the power of the Holy Spirit as a witness to the Gospel as it keeps to the "faith once delivered to all the saints. In true worship of God in the world and by performing acts of service in the name of Christ, the Church fulfills the purpose of Christ's coming, namely to create a new people who share in his life and ministry. A central failing of much of modern theology has been its neglect of the central place that the Church plays in the economy of God's saving purposes.

As the people of God and the Body of Christ, the Church was fully instantiated on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the first disciples. In the earliest days of the Church in the Book of Acts, we find evidence that the presence and marks of the Holy Spirit were crucial for establishing the boundaries of the Church. (Acts 10 and Acts 19.) Hence,we affirm that "where the Spirit of the Lord is there is the one true Church." No Church hierarchy, no doctrinal affirmation, no profession of faith is alone or all together adequate for establishing the Church -- only the presence of the Holy Spirit creating faith in Jesus Christ and a hunger to become pleasing to God the Father by doing his wil. So, the Church is not merely comprised of believers who are living, but also includes the saints triumphant. In Christ and by the Holy Spirit, we have a communion with those who await the Kingdom in the presence of the Lord.

The divisions among Christians that exist in the 21st century could begin to be healed by embracing this generous and Spirit-centered view of the nature of the Church. While there is much room for debate and discussion, the true marks of the Church in the Holy Spirit must include these: 1) belief in God as Trinity; 2) faith in Christ as the Incarnate Son and Savior; 3) acknowledgement of our sinful need of God's grace; 4) growing obedience to the teachings of Christ and the apostles; 5) lives committed to love of each other; 6) a sense of mission to proclaim the Gospel and witness to the Kingdom of God that has begun in Christ.

The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the written revelation of God to the Church. They bear a unique authority in matters of doctrine and the faithful living of the Christian faith. These sacred writings give us an access to the Apostolic faith of the Church in written form. In the view of the board and fellows of Third Millennium Faith, the scriptures reveal to us foundational truths about God’s nature, will, and promises to the church and the world. Because these scriptures contain the witness of God’s self-revelation -- in acts to redeem and insights gleaned by the prophets, poets and apostles -- nothing we say about God or about God's will for our lives can contradict the clear teaching of the canon of scripture.

We affirm that these scriptures are fully trustworthy as a witness to Christ and to God's truth made known the the life of Israel. The scriptures are given to the Church, however, not as a rule book or simply as a manual for right thinking. Rather, they serve the greater purpose of God's providence as a means of grace for our salvation and healing. Through them we find that the Holy Spirit points us to Christ the Living Word of God and through Christ we are allowed to share God's life.

Third Millennium faith recognizes the authority of the first seven Ecumenical Councils of the Christian Church, which were held before the Great Schism which divide the Church into East and West. These councils are recognized because their wisdom clarified for the Church in the first millennium what the "rule of faith" had to be for proper interpretation of the scripture and understanding of the nature of God and Christ. The authority of these councils is recongized in so far as these councils and the creeds they produced offer regulative discipline for Christian worship and formulate doctrinal truths that are either compatible with or inherent in the apostolic witness that we also find in scripture.