Discerning the Truth Statement of Faith

[SERay]

Thank you for taking time to visit this website dedicated to reviewing spiritual movements across the world. This will be an ongoing project requiring the dedication of much research and contributions from spiritually mature and sound writers from various backgrounds. The motivation is to provide revelation unto realization — the unmasking of spiritual fallacies and mystical belief systems. A task few have been moved to achieve because of its sheer magnitude.

“Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” Psalm 119:104

Much of what we see today has been long ago foretold in prophecy as the sign of the end times. A mystical movement that fully deceives and ensnares the undiscerning. A false system of spirituality that is not authored by the Holy Father of creation, but of he who is fallen, who strives for souls to subjugate for eternity. Under the careful supervision of the Holy Spirit, what we share here is from God's eternal counsel, not personal agendas, fabricated beliefs or ecclesiastical heresy hunting.

"Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings." Heb. 13:9

Discerning the Truth and it's contributing writers affirm the historic Christian faith and proclaim the life-transforming Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God's divinely inspired written Word, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments. We believe that it was uniquely, verbally and fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it's contents was communicated in perfection, transcribed and preserved in it's original meaning throughout the ages by his Divine guidance. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.

We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling of our movement, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters, provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone, and that no such interpretation shall become an issue which hinders the ministry to which God has called us.

• There is one true God, eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - each of whom possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and the characteristics of personality.
• Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. Hence, He is perfect Deity and true humanity united in one person forever.
• He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute, thus satisfying divine justice and accomplishing salvation for all who trust in Him alone.
• He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died.
• He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where He, the only mediator between God and man, continually makes intercession for His own.
• Man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God; thus, he was alienated from his Creator. That historic fall brought all mankind under divine condemnation.
• Man's nature is corrupted, and he is thus totally unable to please God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
• The salvation of man is wholly a work of God's free grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works or goodness or religious ceremony. God imputes His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, and thereby justified them in His sight.
• It is the privilege of all who are born again of the Spirit to be assured of their salvation from the very moment in which they trust Christ as their Savior. This assurance is not based upon any kind of human merit, but is produced by the witness of the Holy Spirit, who confirms in the believer the testimony of God in His written word.
• The Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ, imparts new life to them, continually indwells them from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. His fullness, power and control are appropriated in the believer's life by faith.
• Every believer is called to live so in the power of the indwelling Spirit that he will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but will bear fruit to the glory of God.
• Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, His Body, which is composed of all men, living and dead, who have been joined to Him through saving faith.
• God admonishes His people to assemble together regularly for worship, for participation in ordinances, for edification through the Scriptures and for mutual encouragement.
• At physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship with the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing.
• At physical death the unbeliever enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from the Lord and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation.
• Jesus Christ will come again to the earth - personally, visibly and bodily - to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
• The Lord Jesus Christ commanded all believers to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation. The fulfillment of that Great Commission requires that all worldly and personal ambitions be subordinated to a total commitment to "Him who loved us and gave Himself for us."

The Spirit of the Lord impressed upon me saying "I will set thee up as a trumpet upon the wall. Go forth and proclaim all that I will be showing thee. Warn the inhabitants within that they may walk the paths of safety."

"Many tender-minded Christians fear to sin against love by daring to inquire into anything that comes wearing the cloak of Christianity and breathing the name of Jesus. They dare not examine the credentials of the latest prophet to hit their town lest they be guilty of rejecting something which may be of God. They timidly remember how the Pharisees refused to accept Christ when He came, and they do not want to be caught in the same snare, so they either reserve judgment or shut their eyes and accept everything without question. This is supposed to indicate a high degree of spirituality. But in sober fact it indicates no such thing. It may indeed be evidence of the absence of the Holy Spirit. Gullibility is not synonymous with spirituality. Faith is not a mental habit leading its possessor to open his mouth and swallow everything that has about it the color of the supernatural. Faith keeps its heart open to whatever is of God, and rejects everything that is not of God, however wonderful it may be. Try the spirits is a command of the Holy Spirit to the Church. We may sin as certainly by approving the spurious as by rejecting the genuine. And the current habit of refusing to take sides is not the way to avoid the question. To appraise things with a heart of love and then to act on the results is an obligation resting upon every Christian in the world. And the more as we see the day approaching." — A. W. Tozer

"Each person should not believe every word and premise, but should carefully and unhurriedly consider all things in accordance with the will of God. For such is the weakness of human nature, that evil is often more readily believed and shared with others over what is good and true. But those led of God's genuine spirit do not easily believe every thing that is told them, for they know that the world's way is decadant and that people's hearts are reprobate, which comes words of deception and false ways. It is wise not to be hasty in speech, nor to cling stubbornly to ones own opinions. Take counsel of wise and conscientious souls who are known to walk the path of rightrousness." — Thomas a Kempis 1450 A.D.