Mission Go!

The following Declaration of Principles are intended to state in concrete form those scriptural truths, that the corporation is to promote by the use of its assets and property. It is the wish and intention of the incorporators that these truths shall always be held, taught and defended in any services held on property belonging to Mission Go, Inc.

1. We believe the Bible is, in the fullest sense, the very Word of God, given by inspiration of God, inerrant, authoritative and sufficient, in the original manuscripts, written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and is the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and Christian behavior. The Bible, including all the Books of the Old Testament and the New Testament, is Holy Scripture and the inspired true Word of God, fully authoritative and our only absolutely trustworthy guide for life and faith.

2. We believe in one (1) true, good, and living God who is of one substance, power and eternal purpose, eternally existing in three (3) persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the same in substance, equal in power, glory and without division of nature, essence or being. The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. The persons of the Trinity are equal in every divine perfection. They execute distinct but harmonious functions in the work of creation, history, providence, and redemption. God, the Trinity, One in three persons, possesses all life, glory goodness, and blessedness in and of Himself. Although the word "Trinity" is not contained in the Scriptures we use the term to convey the collective nature and being of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit as revealed in His Word.

3. We believe in God the Father, an everlasting, infinite, perfect personal being who is the sovereign and rightful ruler of all that exists. The Father is perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. God created all things and upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things by His wise and holy providence according to his infallible foreknowledge and the immutable counsel of His own will. God, in His ordinary providence, makes use of all natural and spiritual means yet is free to work without, above, and against them at His pleasure. He does this to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and grace. He is sufficient in Himself, not standing in need of any creature that He has made. He conducts Himself with steadfast mercy towards humanity. He draws men to Himself through His Son, forgiving the sin and delivering from death those who come to Him through Christ for salvation. The Father hears and answers prayer according to His wisdom, love, and providence. He will carry out all things in their proper time and order that they would consummate in Jesus Christ to reveal the supremacy of His name and purposes especially including the power of His love.

4. We believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten eternal Son, very God of very God, and the image of the invisible God. He took upon Himself our nature; being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and manifested in a body of flesh. He lived a sinless life, performed many signs and wonders, and taught the words of eternal life. He offered Himself as a penal substitutionary atoning sacrifice for sinners. He was physically crucified, suffered, bled, died and was buried. By the blood of His cross, He secured for us eternal redemption and made a way for life everlasting. Salvation is found in and through Christ and Him alone. It is only because of His shed blood that we may approach the throne of grace and receive pardon for our sins from the Father. He was raised from the dead on the third day and appeared to His disciples in His resurrected body. He later ascended into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father and is perpetually interceding for the saints. He awaits the time when the Father will send Him personally back to earth to a final resurrection of His people and judge His creation to usher in the final portion of redemptive history. He is due from angels, men, and every other creature whatever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them. At His appearing, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

5. We believe in the Personality of the Holy Spirit of God, -the Third Person of the Trinity, and that it is He who convicts of sin, quickens into life, and regenerates the sinner, making him a son of God, through Faith in Christ Jesus. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. As our abiding helper, the Spirit effectually calls, sanctifies, empowers, baptizes, indwells, guides, teaches, and equips all believers for service and witness. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit guides, governs, and protects the child of God from spiritual defeat and oppression.

6. We believe that God created all things visible and invisible for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness. We believe that God, as absolute sovereign, created man, the universe and all that is in it in six (6) literal twenty-four (24) hour days. He created every molecule and galaxy. He created each species of life separately and finished His work by creating Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam. We believe that the universe has its beginning and end in God's will. The universe is in no sense independent of Him and creation does not reflect a prior deficiency but its formation and maintenance represent a continuing exertion of His creative power and ability. Both Adam and Eve were created equally in the image of God without sin. He endued them with knowledge, righteousness, and holiness having God's natural law of conscience written in their hearts and the power to fulfill that law. They lived with the possibility of transgressing since they were left to the liberty of their own will. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man and woman in His own image and therefore every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

7. Man was created originally without sin. However, man rebelled and sinned against God thereby sin was imputed to all mankind because in Adam all sinned. Adam and Eve received a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which allowed them, while they kept it, to remain joyfully whole in their communion with God and have dominion over the earth and all living things. Adam and Eve, being influenced and seduced by the subtlety and temptation of Satan, sinned in eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death which is separation from God. God permitted their sin, having allowed it to His own ultimate mercy and glory. By this sin they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God and so became dead in sin and wholly corrupted in all their parts and faculties of soul, spirit, and body. As they were the root of all mankind, the guilt, death, and corrupted nature caused by this sin was imputed and conveyed to all their posterity descending from generation to generation. Since this original corruption, we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good. We are thus wholly inclined to all evil and from this disposition proceeds all actual sin. For this reason, we believe all human beings are born with a sinful nature. This corruption of nature, during this life, remains in those that are saved; and although it is, through Christ, pardoned and mortified, it is never completely overcome until our glorification.

8. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died, as a substitutionary sacrifice, for our sins, satisfying the demands of God's holy law against us as sinners. He made it possible for God to be just and yet be the justifier of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. Therefore, because of the value that God attaches to the finished work of Christ, the sinner is now saved eternally from the penalty of his sin, through personal trust in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross, -not on the basis of his works or good deeds, but alone through the blood of Christ. While acknowledging our finite and incomplete understanding of God's ways, in faith we believe that God, by His providence and eternal counsel, chose some persons to life and salvation before the foundation of the world. These He effectually calls to Himself. Whoever He calls, He will justify and keep by His power through faith to salvation. His choice was of Himself, for His own pleasure and glory, and not with regard to, or with reference to, any foreseen works of faith or deeds in the creature as His motive. His choice prevails and triumphs over human resistance to bring His own to saving faith. Justification occurs by and through Christ and because of His work on the cross and is apprehended through faith. No man is justified in the sight of God partly by Christ and partly by works. Salvation is the gracious purpose of God according to which He justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness and grace, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It precludes boasting and encourages humility. Redemption is God effectually calling His chosen, converting them to Himself, and quickening them from spiritual death to spiritual life. Grace is operative by and through God alone, not in cooperation with man, meaning that those who are redeemed always come to saving faith, as they are made willing to come to Christ by the drawing of God, and receive through faith their redemption and eternal salvation.

9. We further believe that the work of Christ on the cross for sin warrants and impels a universal offering of the gospel to all persons, so that to every person it may be truly said, "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life." Those whom God calls will hear His voice and follow Him. Whoever comes by the drawing of God through the invoking of the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ will not cast out. We believe that by complete and perfect obedience to God and by His suffering and His death, Jesus Christ obtained forgiveness of sins and the gift of His righteousness for all who trusted in God prior to the cross and all who trusted in Christ thereafter. Through living a perfect life and dying in our place, the just for the unjust, Christ absorbed and became sin and succumbed to our due punishment thereby satisfying the wrath of God against us. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the crucified Christ, of which He gave indisputable evidence, appearing unto many, and companying with them for a period of forty (40) days, until He, in the presence of credible witnesses, ascended up to Heaven, where He is now enthroned at His Father's right hand, and engaged for us there as our advocate and great high priest, "ever living to make intercession for us" in the presence of God. Human beings are accountable for their response to the forgiveness, pardon, and reconciliation offered to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. When an individual trusts in Him, the person is justified by God and adopted into His family. God's will for believers is that they exhibit transformed lives evidenced by purity, holiness, and growth in Christ-like character.

10. We believe this present Church Age began with the coming of the Holy Spirit of God on the Day of Pentecost, and that it will continue until the coming of Christ for His Church, the time of which coming is not indicated in Scripture.

11. We believe that all true Christians are constituted by God a "Holy Priesthood", and, as such, are privileged to approach Him in worship, which, as God is a spirit, must be in Spirit and truth. Scripture teaches no distinction in the Church between clergy and laity, all saints being equal in their privilege of worship.

12. We believe that all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are part of the universal Church, which is His body, but that there are also local churches or assemblies on earth into which believers may be received for fellowship, subject to discipline according to Scriptural principles.

13. We believe in scriptural reception into an assembly, and the remembering of the Lord's death in the breaking of bread and drinking of the wine is the right only of those who have been born again of the Spirit of God. This right should, however, be exercised only by those who are walking in fellowship with the Lord.

14. We believe the Holy Spirit empowers spiritual gifts as God wills to His children. These gifts are designed to testify to the presence of the Kingdom and distributed to equip the saints for worship and ministry to build up the body of Jesus Christ. The miracles and revelatory gifts dispensed to the apostles and prophets of the early church are active today. The use of spiritual gifts is for the purpose of edification within the body that it would be built up in Christ. We believe that God uses these spiritual gifts to display His glory and anointing in individual saints for the work of His ministry established in the timeless message of the Bible. Every born again believer in Jesus Christ receives at least one (1) spiritual gift at the point of salvation, that he might do the work of service within the body of Christ, which is the Church. He desires that they each participate, according to their spiritual gifts, in the task of effectively sharing the gospel message of salvation with those, near and far, who have yet to believe in Jesus.

15. The call and holy privilege of every child of God and of all believers of Jesus Christ is to go and make disciples of the nations. God creates transformed lives evidenced by purity, holiness, and growth in Christ-like character by means of new birth. The Holy Spirit imputes the love of Christ into the hearts of believers, thus transforming their love toward others, for His Name's sake. This results in children of God who actively seek to take the Gospel to sinners and who share in carrying out the Great Commission. The highest purpose for evangelism and missions is that the name of Jesus Christ and the glory of His kingdom be taken to the ends of the earth until He returns.

16. Although not required for salvation or membership in this Mission Community, we believe the Lord Jesus left for the obedience of His people two (2) ordinances, memorial in character, which are to continue during the Church age: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of outward obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior; death to sin; burial of the old life; and resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to a believer's faith in an ultimate bodily resurrection to eternal life with Christ in His Kingdom. The Lord's Supper, consisting of bread, symbolic of His broken body, and wine, symbolic of His shed blood, to memorialize Him who died for us and anticipate His second coming, to be observed according to the Scriptures. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are significant expressions of salvation, worship, and submission to God for the believer.

17. We believe that the scriptures teach that the work of God will be supported by God, and that all people are to hear the Gospel freely. The Scriptural way of raising money for the support of God's work, whether in the Gospel or for the benefit of His saints, is by voluntary offerings by believers, cheerfully given as an act of devotion and worship. We trust God to provide as He will, and that no person, whether believer or not should give under compulsion. We affirm that God is in no way limited in His ability to provide and the Scriptures demonstrate that God has asked only that we trust and obey Him and He will provide for all of our needs.

18. We believe that those who are redeemed and come to saving faith will never lose their salvation but will remain in Him. Every true child of God possesses eternal life by personal faith in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, and, being justified, sanctified and sealed with the Holy Spirit, is safe and secure for all eternity. However, a Christian can through sin, temporarily lose his fellowship, joy, power, testimony and reward, and incur the Father's discipline. They will never fall fully and completely because God, by His grace, preserves them. The intercession of Christ for those God has called is efficacious unto eternity, and fellowship with God may be restored by confession of ones sins to God.

19. We believe in the personality of Satan as a real, active and malicious being, the arch-enemy of God and man, who, having fallen from his estate in which God created him, accomplished the ruin of our first parents, and he is now engaged in seeking to defeat God's purpose in the world, and among His saints by the use of diabolical and subtle devices. God's judgment is that he shall be cast into the Lake of Fire forever.

20. The spirits of the believers, at death, go to be with Christ in Heaven, and later are raised, with new bodies, incorruptible and reunited with their spirits to be forever with the Lord. We believe that Heaven is a real place of eternal blessedness prepared by God for those who have been saved by grace through faith in the shed blood of Christ.

21. We believe in the conscious and eternal punishment of the unbeliever after death. The spirits of those who die out of Christ descend into Hell, their bodies being raised and reunited with their spirits at the Great White Throne, their eternal destiny from thence being the Lake of Fire, a real place of eternal suffering for those whose names are not written in the book of life. In either case. the departed spirit, in the interval between death and resurrection, is not asleep, but fully conscious, whether in bliss or in woe. There is no intermediate state in which the unsaved can atone for his own sins.

22. We believe in the personal and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom.