Statement of Faith of the Apologetics Resource Center

1. We believe that the 66 books of the Bible, inerrant and infallible in the original writings, are inspired by God and are the supreme and final authority for mankind.

2. We believe that while the truth of the Bible is supported by the witness of the church and many evidences through the ages, these Scriptures are true and are the final authority because they are authored by and are declared to be by God Himself.

3. We believe that God has revealed Himself through His Son and through the Old and New Testaments which bear witness to Him.

4. We believe that there is one true God eternally existing in one essence, nature or Being, yet in three co-equal Persons, the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

5. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, one Person with two natures, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin.

6. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Godhead sent to convict the world of sin - to indwell, guide, empower, sanctify, and provide spiritual gifts in believers - bearing witness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7. We believe that all mankind, uniquely created in the image of God, sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but spiritual death, which is separation from God.

8. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice and atonement on the cross, and was raised bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven for our sin.

9. The true Church consists of all those who have put their faith or trust only in the completed, finished work of Jesus Christ and are therefore justified on the basis of Christ's sole righteousness imputed to the believer by grace through faith alone - those having been born again unto a process of sanctification by the Holy Spirit.

10. We believe in the future return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the just and the unjust, the just to everlasting life, and the unjust to eternal punishment.

11. We affirm that other religions and ideologies are not alternative paths to God, and that human spirituality if unredeemed by Christ, leads not to God but to judgment, for Jesus Christ is the only way.

12. We affirm that God has committed to the whole church and every member of it to the task of making Christ and His truths known throughout the world, and we long to see all lay and ordained persons mobilized and trained for this privileged task.

13. We believe that Christian apologetics is the vindication of Christian truth claims and philosophy of life against the various forms of non-Christian philosophies of life. It is the responsibility of every Christian to be equipped in some knowledge and use of apologetics.

14. We affirm that doing the work of apologetics should include the following three dimensions: (a) Apologetics as proof - presenting a rational basis for faith that confronts unbelief in the believer as well as in the unbeliever; (b) Apologetics as defense - answering the objections and overcoming the barriers of unbelief; (c) Apologetics as offense - demonstrating or revealing the foolishness of unbelieving thought and world-views in conflict with the Christian faith.

15. We affirm that in doing the work of apologetics we are to stress that God is also interested in the character of the Christian and in the manner in which truth is communicated. The Christian must speak the truth in love, not being quarrelsome, able to teach, correcting the error with gentleness, kindness, patience, and humility.

16. We affirm that in our proclamation of the Gospel we recognize the urgency of calling all to decision to receive and follow Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and to do so lovingly without coercion and manipulation.

17. We affirm our obligation as servants of God, to lead lives of holiness and moral purity, knowing that we exemplify Christ to the Church and to the world.

18. We affirm that we who claim to be members of the Body of Christ must transcend the barriers of race, gender, class, and non-essential doctrinal matters within the Body.

19. We affirm that God is calling the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world; so we determine to proclaim it faithfully, urgently and sacrificially until He comes.