Statement of Faith
Community Church of God, of Cooperstown:
affirms the cardinal doctrines of Scripture that have been defended by historic statements of faith. These include the divine inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the original sin nature of man, the atonement for sin by Christ’s shed blood, and the justification by faith in Jesus as the Christ. This statement of faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith and doctrine. The Bible itself is the source of all that we believe. We believe the following statements accurately represent the teaching of the Bible, and therefore, are binding upon all directors, officers, employees, and volunteers of the corporation.
We believe in the one true God, existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are coequal from all eternity, each with distinct personalities but of one essence.
We believe the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and is the sole, infallible rule of faith and practice.
We believe Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, that He entered into the world through the virgin birth, and lived among us without sin as perfect Man and perfect God.
We believe Adam was directly created in innocence and in the image of God and did not evolve from preexisting forms of life. By voluntary transgression, he fell; and thus the whole human race is now sinful by nature and practice, and therefore, under just condemnation to eternal separation from God.
We believe Jesus Christ shed His blood on Calvary as a vicarious substitute for all sinners, was buried and rose again bodily, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, from whence He will personally return.
We believe people are justified by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ without any mixture of works.
We believe the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner; regenerates, sanctifies, and indwells the believer; and fills the believer for effective service.
We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost—the saved unto the resurrection of life eternal and the lost unto the resurrection of eternal condemnation.
We believe Satan is a living being and that hell and ultimately the lake of fire are places of eternal conscious punishment for him, his hosts, and all unbelievers.
We believe in the priesthood of the believer and that God has made provision for each believer to be victorious by being led of the Spirit and not walking after the flesh.
We believe that the born-again believers in local churches are the body and the espoused bride of Christ.
We believe Scripture commands Christians to abstain from all forms of compromise with unbelief.
We believe the Bible gives direct guidance and also sets forth principles for Godly living that when followed honor the Lord and help believers to live life as God designed.
We believe that the Genesis account of creation is neither allegory nor myth, but a literal, historical account of God’s creation of the universe.
We believe that all authority begins with God and that He has ordained and created authority structures to exercise delegated authority within the jurisdictional limits of the family, church, civil government, and voluntary associations.
We believe that God created people as either male or female and that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a marriage between one born a man and one born a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex. We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one’s gender by surgery or appearance.
We believe that the only Scriptural marriage is the joining of one man and one woman for life.
We believe that men and women are spiritually equal in position and value before God as both are created in the image of God, but that God has ordained distinct and separate spiritual and physical functions for men and women in the home and the church.
We believe that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. Husbands and wives are to love, care for, and submit to one another. Children are a heritage from the Lord. Parents are responsible for teaching their children spiritual and moral values through loving instruction, consistent lifestyle example and appropriate discipline, which may include loving corporal correction.
We believe that human life is sacred from conception to its natural end and any willful and deliberate early termination of life is contrary to the will of God.
