What We Believe

This is what Living Sword Ministries holds and teaches. It isn't a creed anybody is asked to sign. It's here so you know exactly where the material on this site is coming from before you read it.

Every point below stands or falls on the Bible. If you think something here is wrong, we want to hear about it. Write us at Ken@livingswordministries.org.

The Bible

We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, breathed out by Him and given through men He moved to write it (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). It's true, and it's the final authority for what we believe and how we live.

Scripture stands above tradition, above denominational teaching, above church councils, above any pastor or teacher, and above anything published on this site. When any of those disagree with the Bible, the Bible is right and they're wrong.

Creation

We believe God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, and that He made man in His own image.

God

We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three Persons, one God, equal in nature and power.

Jesus Christ

We believe Jesus Christ is God the Son, fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, died on the cross as the substitute for sinners, shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins, was buried, and rose bodily from the dead on the third day.

He ascended to the Father and He's coming again.

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is God, a Person and not a force. He convicts the world of sin, gives new birth to those who believe, lives in every believer permanently from the moment of faith, and seals them until the day of redemption.

Spiritual gifts

We believe the Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers to build up the church, and He gives them out as He decides (1 Corinthians 12:11; Romans 12:6–8). Every Christian has been given something to use in serving others.

We believe the miraculous sign gifts, including speaking in tongues, prophecy, and the gift of miraculous healing, served a particular purpose when the church was being founded. They confirmed the message of the apostles at a time when the New Testament wasn't finished yet (Hebrews 2:3–4; 2 Corinthians 12:12). We believe that purpose has been fulfilled, and these aren't the normal gifts of the church today.

This isn't a claim that God has stopped working, stopped healing, or stopped answering prayer. He hasn't, and we pray like He hasn't. It's a statement about the sign gifts as ongoing abilities in the church.

We hold this position without questioning the salvation of Christians who read these passages differently.

Man and sin

We believe man was created by God in His image, and that sin entered the world through Adam. Every person since has sinned and is separated from God by that sin, and nobody can fix it by his own effort.

We believe the consequence of sin is real. Physical death, and apart from Christ, eternal separation from God. Hell is real, and the Bible speaks about it plainly.

Salvation

We believe salvation is by the grace of God, received through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works of any kind. Paul says it plainly in Ephesians 2:8–9. Grace is the source, faith is how you receive it, the whole thing is God's gift, and works are shut out so nobody can boast.

The Bible defines the gospel for us. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1–4).

We believe the shed blood of Jesus Christ is central to all of this. Without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22), and it's through faith in His blood that God declares sinners righteous (Romans 3:24–25). Salvation isn't just God feeling kindly toward mankind. It was bought at the cross. His blood is enough!

Salvation isn't earned, kept up, or finished off by anything a person does. Not by baptism, church membership, giving, sacraments, religious observance, cleaning up your life, or being sincere. It rests entirely on the finished work of Jesus Christ, received by faith.

Repentance is a change of mind. That's what the word means, and that's what the Bible means by it when it comes to salvation. Biblical repentance isn't turning from sins, it isn't a promise to do better, it isn't feeling bad about your behavior, and it isn't a work you perform to qualify for God's acceptance. It's a change of mind about who Christ is and what He has done.

Saving faith is believing the gospel, that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again, and trusting Him and His finished work alone for salvation. Faith isn't a work, and it adds nothing to what Christ accomplished. It receives what He already did.

The security of the believer

We believe a person who has trusted Christ is sealed by the Holy Spirit and is eternally secure. Salvation can't be lost, given up, or undone by failure, because it never rested on the believer's performance in the first place.

Jesus said He gives His sheep eternal life, that they'll never perish, and that nobody will snatch them out of His hand (John 10:28–29).

We also believe this has to be said carefully. Security isn't permission. A believer who sins is still a child of God, but God disciplines His children (Hebrews 12:6), and sin brings real consequences in this life. Being saved and walking faithfully aren't the same thing, and the Bible calls believers to both.

The Christian life

We believe a believer is called to grow in the knowledge of Scripture, in obedience, and in love. That growth is the result of salvation, never the cause of it.

We believe every Christian is responsible to read and understand the Bible for himself, and to test what he's taught against it (Acts 17:11).

The church

We believe the Church is the body of Christ, made up of every person who has trusted Jesus Christ for salvation. You don't join it, inherit it, or get voted into it. A person belongs to it the moment he believes.

We also believe local churches are God's design for believers here on earth. Real congregations where Christians gather to worship, learn the Bible, fellowship, serve, and hold each other accountable. A Christian isn't meant to live out his faith alone.

We believe unity among Christians is real and valuable, and that it's built on shared truth, not on setting truth aside. Cooperation that requires downplaying the gospel isn't unity.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper

We believe baptism is commanded by Christ and is an important act of obedience for a person who has already believed. It doesn't save and it isn't required to receive eternal life. We believe immersion best matches both the meaning of the word and the picture of death, burial, and resurrection given in Romans 6.

We believe the Lord's Supper is a remembrance of Christ's death, observed by believers just like He commanded.

Last things

The Rapture. We believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture. Jesus Christ will come for His Church in the air, and believers, both living and dead, will be caught up to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; 1 Corinthians 15:51–52).

We believe this event is imminent. Nothing prophesied has to happen before it does, and believers are told to be watching for Him (Titus 2:13). We believe the Rapture happens before the Tribulation starts, and that the Church isn't appointed to the wrath that follows (1 Thessalonians 5:9; Revelation 3:10).

The Tribulation. We believe a literal seven-year period of judgment on the earth follows, described in Daniel and in Revelation (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 6–19).

The Second Coming. We believe Jesus Christ will return bodily and visibly to the earth at the end of that period, in power and glory (Acts 1:11; Zechariah 14:4; Revelation 19:11–16). This is a physical, literal return. Not a symbol and not just some spiritual event.

The Millennial Kingdom. We believe Christ will then reign on the earth for a literal thousand years (Revelation 20:1–6).

The resurrection and judgment. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead. Believers to eternal life with God, and unbelievers to judgment before the great white throne (John 5:28–29; Revelation 20:11–15).

The eternal state. We believe those who have trusted Christ will be with Him forever, and those who rejected Him will be separated from Him forever. Both are real and both are permanent.

What we reject

We name these because vague statements let error in through the side door. We're describing teachings, not condemning people.

Any gospel that adds a requirement to faith in Christ. Whether what gets added is baptism, works, law-keeping, sacraments, church membership, or ongoing performance, adding anything to the finished work of Christ produces a different gospel (Galatians 1:6–9).

The prosperity gospel. God doesn't promise material wealth or a life free of suffering in exchange for faith or giving. Teaching that treats God like a way to get money misrepresents Him and preys on people who are already hurting.

Word-of-faith teaching. Faith is trust in God, not some spiritual force a person uses to make things happen. Words don't create reality, and a believer's suffering isn't proof that he didn't have enough faith.

Preaching that empties out the gospel. A message with no sin, no cross, no blood, and no resurrection isn't the gospel, no matter how encouraging it sounds.

Tradition put above Scripture. Where a denomination's practice or teaching contradicts the Bible, the Bible is what binds us.

Unity bought by setting the gospel aside. We'll gladly work alongside anybody who holds the gospel of 1 Corinthians 15:1–4. We won't treat the gospel as negotiable just to seem agreeable.

Calvinism. We reject the doctrines commonly associated with Calvinism: unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the Calvinistic understanding of perseverance, and regeneration before faith.

We believe Christ died for the sins of the whole world, not for a limited number of people (1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:14–15; 1 Timothy 2:6). We believe God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). We believe the gospel is genuinely offered to everybody who hears it, and the invitation is real (John 3:16; Revelation 22:17). A person is saved when he believes.

We reject the teaching that God has unconditionally picked certain individuals for salvation and others for damnation, apart from any response of faith. We reject limited atonement. We reject irresistible grace as Calvinism defines it, meaning the idea that a person can't refuse the grace God extends to him.

We reject the Calvinistic understanding of perseverance when it makes a believer's ongoing performance the basis, condition, or proof of whether he was ever really saved. That moves your assurance off the finished work of Christ and onto your own record.

We reject the teaching that God has to regenerate a person before he's able to believe the gospel. The Bible calls the sinner to believe, and the Holy Spirit gives new birth to those who believe. Salvation is received through faith in Jesus Christ, not through some prior experience of regeneration that makes faith possible.

We don't reject the words election, elect, or predestination. The Bible uses them, and so do we. We believe they have to be understood in light of all of Scripture, including the passages above, instead of being defined by a system laid on top of the text.

Conditional security. We reject the teaching that a believer can lose, forfeit, or stop having eternal salvation. The Bible teaches that the believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit and has eternal life. Salvation rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ, not on how faithful or consistent the believer manages to be.

We aren't trying to build a position by standing halfway between competing theological systems. We're trying to say what the Bible teaches, affirming what it affirms and rejecting what it rejects.

A word about this statement

This ministry is new and one person writes it. That's a reason to check what's said here against the Bible, not to take it on trust.

If you think something on this page is wrong, write me and show me from the Bible. I'd rather be corrected than be confidently wrong in public.

Ken@livingswordministries.org