RISEN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP CHURCH-UGANDA.

Statement of Faith
What Do We Believe?
• The Bible
• The Trinity
• The Deity and Humanity of Christ
• The Image of God
• The Holy Spirit
• The Work of Salvation
• The Lordship of Christ
• The Intermediate State of Believers
• The Result of Those That Do Not Know Christ
• The Return of the Lord
Statement of Faith
1. We believe that the Bible, containing Old and New Testaments, is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and is completely infallible in the original manuscripts, when correctly interpreted. We also hold that when all the facts become known it will be found as entirely true in all it affirms. Therefore it maintains its position as our complete and supreme authority pertaining to matters of faith and practice. T
2. We believe in God, one in essence, who exists eternally, in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of these persons is coequal and coeternal. God is the Sovereign Creator and Upholder of all things, having spoken all things forth, and now through His omnipotence He providentially sustains and rules over His creation. This God is a completely pure, wise, holy, and loving Spirit that is personally involved in His creation and to whom we are personally accountable.
3. We believe in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ who was fully God and fully man. He was and is the living Word of God and the exact representation of the Father. We hold to His virgin birth, His sinless life, and His vicarious death on the cross which is to be seen as a substitute for our sins. Further, we believe that He was raised again bodily to declare our justification and that He will personally return in glory to claim those that are His. It is only through His salvific life, death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement far above all principalities and powers, at the right hand of the Father that we receive forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to God, and eternal life.
4. We believe that humankind was originally created in the image of God, the Imago Dei, and that this image was seen from two aspects, essentially and functionally (what we are and what we do). Yet because of the fall evil entered into creation and humankind's nature was corrupted. This means that although God's human creatures retained His image in who they were essentially, they were caused by transgression and sin, not to be able to function any longer as God intended. This means that all human creatures in a fallen condition are fully unable to please God and are in need of regeneration and renewal that must come from the work of the Holy Spirit on the basis of the accomplishment and enthronement of Christ. Further, when this regeneration has taken place, the process of progressive sanctification shall begin with the result that each individual member of the Body of Christ will be eventually conformed into His image at the general resurrection to again accurately reflect the image of God.
5. We believe in the Holy Spirit who regenerates sinners causing them to be a new creation in union with Christ Jesus. Further, we hold that the Holy Spirit indwells believers as a promise of the inheritance that is yet to come. It is the Holy Spirit that applies the work of redemption accomplished through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and enables us to live lives pleasing to God according to the power of the resurrected life of Christ within us. Moreover, it is this same Holy Spirit that gives the gifts to men that are enumerated in Scripture, and yet those lists that depict these spiritual gifts are not exhaustive but examples of the work of the Spirit in our lives. It is these gifts, distributed by the Holy Spirit that are given for the common good, to the building up of the body of Christ in love. This must be as God has chosen, that we might recognize that there is none less, nor more important in Christ, and that we all have need of each other. Additionally, SJCF holds that these gifts are still in operation today, yet the canon of Scripture must be viewed as closed, meaning that all things are to be found in submission to the authority of the word of God.
6. We believe that salvation is completely and wholly a work of God's sovereign grace through faith. This means that God's human creatures cannot accomplish redemption as a work, whether entirely through their own efforts, or synergistically by a combination of grace and exertion. Justification is absolutely brought forth solely by God, through His Son Jesus Christ. Because of the imputation of guilt through inherited sin from the first Adam, all sinned, and therefore are not able to please God, yet where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. Our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and because of the efficacious effort of our Savior; the Father's righteousness was imputed to those who believe.
7. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is placed as absolute head over all things concerning the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all and all. This body is a corporate entity, made up of individual believers who have found a sincere faith in Christ Jesus and thereby have been baptized into the body of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is this Church, dwelling in heaven and upon earth by which God will make known His glorious riches and manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.
8. We believe that directly upon the event of physical death every believer enters instantaneously into the presence of the Lord to enjoy conscious, unbroken companionship with Him, while awaiting the resurrection of the body to an eternal state of incorruptible blessing, joy and peace. Conversely, we believe that for all those that do not come to know Christ Jesus, there will at physical death, be an entry into a state of completely cognizant severance from the presence of the Lord to anticipate the resurrection of the body to a state of enduring the just judgment of a God to whom they were accountable. It is in this state that they will suffer day and night forever.
9. We believe that Jesus Christ is not only now ruling over His church, but that He is fully able to save those who draw near to God through Him. This is because of the sure truth that He lives forever to make intercession for them as their Great High Priest. In addition, He will return triumphantly and bodily, in magnificent glory, to take possession of His kingdom. It is at this time that the Son of Man will send forth His reaping angels to gather out of this kingdom all that offends, that they might be removed, bundled, and burnt. It is then that the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.