STATEMENT OF FAITH

As an ecclesiastical nonprofit religious corporation, Christ For The Nations, Incorporated (“CFN”) accepts the Holy Bible as the inspired, infallible, revealed will of God and the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice. For the purpose of maintaining general unity, CFN adopts this Statement of Faith, Doctrine, and Beliefs, which are CFN’s foundational statements, religious beliefs, and tenets.

As a religious corporation, and according to the Holy Bible, we are not required to provide, and we specifically choose against the provision of, services, accommodations, facilities, goods, or privileges to an individual if such request is in violation of CFN’s religious beliefs as duly set forth in CFN’s governing documents, policies, and the Holy Bible. However, any and all decisions pertaining to providing such services shall be carried out in a manner that promotes the salvation (i.e., the redemption of man from the bondage of sin and the biblical acceptance of the provision of Jesus Christ for eternal life) of all persons.

As a religious corporation, we believe that living contrary to (i.e., conflicting with, disobedient to, and/or in opposition with) the Holy Bible is sin, but also believe, sponsor, support, and practice repentance according to the Holy Bible.

We believe that in order to preserve the function and integrity of CFN, it is imperative that all persons employed by CFN in any capacity, or who serve as members, volunteers, students, or interns, should abide by and agree to this Statement of Faith, Doctrine, and Beliefs (CFN’s foundational statements, religious beliefs, and tenets) and conduct themselves accordingly.

1.01       Doctrinal Beliefs

1. We believe the Bible is God’s standard and measurement for believers.
2. We believe in a personal experience of salvation by faith in the name of Jesus and obedience to His Word.
3. We believe in the Baptism of The Holy Spirit and the operation of spiritual gifts.
4. We believe in an intensive evangelization by preaching, teaching, and healing according to the Gospel of God’s kingdom.
5. We believe in personal holiness and separation from the world.
6. We recognize that all true believers, regardless of denomination and organization, are baptized of one Spirit into one Body, thus fulfilling Christ’s prayer for unity.
7. We believe in the Christian’s hope of an imminent, personal return of the Lord Jesus.

1.02       Religious Beliefs

A.    Statement of Unacceptable Behaviors and Lifestyles

The following are examples, and not an exhaustive list, of some of the behaviors and lifestyles that violate the belief systems of Christ For The Nations, Incorporated:

1. God created males and females for the purpose of the continuance of the human race, for the purpose of procreation as an act of marriage (Genesis 1:26-28). Therefore, it is unacceptable for people to change (alter, adapt, modify, convert, or pervert) the God-ordained and God-intended purpose and use of the human body and human sexuality.

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female. These two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and likeness of God. Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person.

Behaviors, lifestyles, and sexual misconduct such as disorderly conduct or lewd, indecent, or obscene conduct or expression, homosexuality, bisexual or transsexual conduct, same-sex marriage, sodomy, lesbianism, bestiality, incest, pornography, pedophilia, premarital sex, adultery, transgender, any attempt to change one’s gender or appear as the opposite gender, or disagreement with one’s biological gender is sin, offensive, an abomination, and detestable to God. And, accordingly, it is considered absolutely inappropriate (i.e., unsuitable, unfitting, and wrong), unacceptable (i.e., improper, intolerable, deplorable, and offensive), and prohibited by CFN, its pastors, staff, employees, students, volunteers, etc.

1. 1. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22)
   2. If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. (Leviticus 20:13)
   3. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves . . . For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful. (Romans 1:24-32)
   4. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites . . . will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
   5. Knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:9-11)
2. Works of the flesh. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
3. Adultery.
   1. Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding; He who does so destroys his own soul. (Proverbs 6:32)
   2. You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28)
   3. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)
4. Fornication.
   1. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders . . . (Mark 7:20-21)
   2. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord . . . (1 Corinthians 6:13-16)
   3. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Ephesians 5:5)
5. Sexual immorality.
   1. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
   2. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality… (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5)
   3. . . . as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)
6. Witchcraft and sorcery.
   1. For rebellion is the sin of witchcraft… (1 Samuel 15:23)
   2. There shall not be found among you anyone who… practices witchcraft, or is a soothsayer, or is one who interprets omens, or is a sorcerer, or is one who conjures spells, or is a medium, or is a spiritist, or is one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord… (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)
   3. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery . . . sorcery, hatred, contentions . . . (Galatians 5:19-21)
7. We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, pedophilia, any attempt to change one’s gender or appear as the opposite gender, or disagreement with one’s biological gender, is sin, offensive, an abomination, and detestable to God. Hence, CFN opposes any such sexual immorality. (Leviticus 20:10-20)

B.    Statement of Marriage Doctrine

1. God created males and females for the purpose of continuance of the human race, for the purpose of procreation as an act of marriage.
   1. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…” (Genesis 1:27-28)
2. We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning:  God instituted marriage as the exclusive union between one man and one woman, as delineated in Scripture. (Genesis 2:18-25) That is the way it has been since the very beginning of mankind, and according to the Holy Bible that is the way it will remain. God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” – so the Lord God formed a woman for Adam (a female who was comparable and compatible with him).
   1. And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

And Adam said:  This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:18-24)

3. Marriage between one man and one woman is honorable.

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

4. Marriage is between one husband and one wife (male and female).

Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:2)

5. Marriage is between one man and one woman (husband and wife), and God joins them together in an intimate bond, and man should not divide it or change it.

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6)

6. Marriage is a means of sexual love and intimacy occurring only between one man and one woman (and no other person). We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. Thus, any form of sexual immorality, including adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, any form of pornography, or pedophilia, is unacceptable. We define adultery as the turning of one’s intimate affections to someone other than one’s spouse. Such affections may, but not necessarily, culminate in sexual activity. Fornication includes any form of sexual intercourse or oral sex.
   1. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress? (Proverbs 5:18-20)
   2. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
   3. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (1 Corinthians 7:2-5)
7. Marriage is a spiritual and natural union between a husband and wife, centered on biblical principles.
   1. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24)
   2. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. (Ephesians 5:25-28)
   3. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Ephesians 5:31-33)
8. Weddings (marriages) are worthy of Jesus’ presence. Jesus approves of marriage, and His first miracle took place at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.
   1. On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. (John 1:1-2)
   2. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. (John 1:11)
9. Marriage is a biblical institution established by God as clearly described in the Bible. CFN highly values the sacred Biblical marriage covenant and recognizes that marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. Accordingly, CFN, its pastors, staff, students, and those living on campus will not participate in same sex unions or same sex marriages, nor shall its property or resources be used for such purposes.

C.    Statement of the Sanctity of Life

We believe in upholding the sanctity and dignity of human life for people of all ages, from conception to natural death; therefore, abortion and euthanasia are immoral and unacceptable.

1. Mankind was created in the image and likeness of God.

God created man in His own image, after His own likeness, and that He gave man dominion over the earth. (Genesis 1:26-27)

2. Natural life begins at the time of conception in the mother’s womb. God knows us as individuals in our mother’s womb. In the womb, we grow and mature until we are prepared for birth.

1. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)
2. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
3. Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb? (Job 31:15)
4. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)

3. Terminating life in the womb is not acceptable. In the womb, babies are recognized distinct individuals who are in the process of development. They will grow and mature in preparation for birth.
   1. As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything. (Ecclesiastes 11:5)
   2. Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me. (Jeremiah 20:17)
4. Terminating life at or after birth (infanticide) is not acceptable. God will deal well with those who do their best to protect the sanctity of life.
   1. Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Paul; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them. (Exodus 1:15-21)

5. It is God’s intention that people live out their full days on this earth, with a full, satisfied life-span. He purposes to take care of His sons and daughters in their old age and He intends on us doing the same for them.
   1. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation. (Psalm 91:15-16)
   2. Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you. (Isaiah 46:4)
   3. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails. (Psalm 71:9)
   4. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing. To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. (Psalm 92:14-15)

D.    Statement of Biblical Repentance

1. True Biblical repentance is available to people who have committed sin. People who commit sin should repent quickly. True repentance is purging the sin out of your life because you abhor it (i.e., truly detest and hate it) and are totally committed to walk away from it and never do it again.
   1. God wants everyone to repent from sins (true Biblical repentance) and there is no other alternative.

1. The Lord is not slack…not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
2. I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. (Luke 13:1-5)
3. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent . . . (Revelation 2:5)
   2. Let being sorry or sorrowful lead to true repentance.

1. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)
2. Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? (Romans 2:4-6)
3. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness . . . (Hebrews 12:14-17)
   3. We should confess our sins, which is the initial evidence of repentance, and we should repent of those sins.

1. 1. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie… (1 John 1:6-9)

1. 4. We should depart from iniquity and cleanse ourselves (i.e., turn from it).

1. Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19-21)
2. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
   5. We should deny ungodly behavior and worldly lusts.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. (Titus 2:11-12)

1. 6. True repentance means we go and sin no more.

She said, “No one, Lord.”  And Jesus said to her, “neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)

1. 7. We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
1. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
2. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21)
3. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)
4. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with the Bible nor the doctrines of CFN. (1 Peter 3:9-12, Matthew 9:36, Jude 1:22-23, Matthew 5:44-45, Ephesians 4:29-32, Mark 12:28-31, Luke 6:31, Galatians 6:1-5)