Our Creed
A creed is simply a statement of what is believed (from the Latin word credo meaning "I believe"). A creed is a confession of faith in a concise form. Creeds are not meant to be taken as Scripture but instead to be a faithful and accurate presentation of what is believed based on what is revealed in the Word of God.
The earliest record of the confession of a Christian creed is Peter's response to Jesus' question of "Who do you say that I am?". Peter's declaration was "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." This was the first and most pure statement of faith in the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Apostles Creed is one of the earliest, most exact, most recieved confessions of faith in the history of the Christian church. It was not written directly by the Apostles but is a wonderful and faithful summery of their teachings as revealed to us in Scripture. The creed reads:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
AMEN.
Cleveland Community Church holds to an historic, orthodox, evangelical understanding of the Christian faith. We stand with Peter in his foundational statment of beleif and accept the summery confession of the Apostles Creed as an accuarate representation of the core doctrines of the our received faith.
A more detailed expression of our beliefs would be as follows:
Scripture
We believe the sole basis of belief is the Bible, God's infallible 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 was written without error. It is the supreme and final authority in all matters on which it speaks.
God
We believe 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.
Christ
We believe 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. We believe 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. We believe He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He lived and died. We believe 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
We believe man was originally created in the image of God. He sinned by disobeying God. Every man is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. We believe 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 justifies them in His sight. We believe 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.
Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to men. He continually indwells believers from the moment of spiritual birth and seals them until the day of redemption. The fullness, power and control of the Spirit are appropriated as believers yield their lives by faith to His desires.
The Church
We believe 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.
Death
We believe at physical death the believer enters immediately into eternal, conscious fellowship from 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.
End Times
We believe Jesus Christ will come again to the earth - personally, visibly and bodily - to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
Salvation
We believe it is the call of the Lord Jesus Christ for all believers to love God through a personal relationship with Him and to love others by proclaiming the gospel throughout the world and to disciple men of every nation.
The ministry of Cleveland Community Church is committed to this call by pursuing the priorities of:
