The Salvation Army
Purpose: The Salvation Army serves human needs of anyone, anywhere, regardless of race, color, creed, sexual orientation, gender or age. The Salvation Army provides a wide range of programs inclusive of infants to senior citizens, and works aggressively to end intergenerational cycles of abuse, poverty and chronic unemployment. The Salvation Army has been successfully assisting the homeless, the hopeless, and the helpless in 125 countries worldwide, for now 150 years in too many different programs to mention them all.
The Salvation Army continues to be one of the most trusted names in charities. We have worked hard to keep our name true to our founders original mission. Our founder, William Booth, (1829-1912) had a vision to lift the lifeless, help the homeless, sober the drunk, and care for the neediest women and children. That vision was memorialized just before his death in a speech he gave to Englands parliament. While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!
The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination. Our tag line is "Doing the Most Good.
The Salvation Army's eleven articles of faith reflect our determination to remain faithful to our standards and principles.
1. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.
2. We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.
3. We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.
4. We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.
5. We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocence, but by their disobedience, they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall, all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.
6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.
7. We believe that repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.
8. We believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.
9. We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.
10. We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
11. We believe in the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, in the general judgment at the end of the world, in the eternal happiness of the righteous, and in the endless punishment of the wicked.
