Chinese House Churches

Statement of Faith of Chinese House Churches

Introduction:

In order to establish a common, legitimate criteria of faith for house churches in China, in order to lay a foundation on which overseas Christians churches can enjoy fellowship with us in unity, in order to help our government and people to understand our faith, and in order to draw a clear distinction between us and heresies and cults, a group of key leaders from several major Chinese house church movements met together in a certain location in north China in November, 1998. They prayed together, studied the Bible together, and together drafted the following statement of our faith.

1. The Bible

We believe that all 66 books of the Bible are God-breathed. They were inspired by God through the Holy Spirit to the prophets and apostles who composed them. The Bible is complete and inerrant truth. It has the highest authority. Nobody is allowed to distort it in any way.

The Bible clearly states God’s purpose of redemption of mankind. The Bible is the highest standard of our Christian life and ministry. We are against any denials of the Bible; we are against any teaching or theories that regard the Bible as out of date, or as erroneous; we are also against the practice of believing only in selected sections of the Scripture. We want to emphasize that the Scriptures must be interpreted in light of their historical context and within the overall context of scriptural teachings. While interpreting the Bible, one must seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the principle of interpreting the Scripture by the Scripture. The interpretation should be coherent and consistent, but not based on isolated verses. Biblical interpretation should take into account the orthodox faith that has been taken as the heritage of the church down through history. We are against interpretation of the Scripture merely according to one’s own will, or by subjective spiritualization.

2. Triune God

We believe in the only one true God, the eternally self-existing triune God who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. While sharing the same nature, the same honor and the same glory, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons who have differently functional roles in the work of redemption. The Father planned salvation; the Son fulfilled salvation; while the Holy Spirit applies the salvation. However, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not separate and independent of each other. They are one in unity. The Son reveals the Father; the Holy Spirit reveals the Son; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are together worshipped and praised. We pray to the Father through the Holy Spirit in the name of the Son.

We believe that God created the universe and all things, and He created man in His own image. God has all things in His own control and sustains all things. He is the Lord of human history. The almighty God is a righteous, holy, faithful and loving God. He is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. He manifests His sovereignty throughout human history. The Son and the Holy Spirit are eternal: the Son has the relationship of Son to the Father, but is not created; the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son.

God is spirit. He has no visible form or shape. Christians should worship Him in spirit and in truth. Christians have no other object of worship apart from this triune God. We reject wrong explanations of the trinity, such as: one body with three forms (like water, ice and vapor), or one body with three identities (like the sun, light and heat; or the son, the father and the husband).

3. Christ

We believe that Jesus is God’s unique Son, that He is the Word who became flesh and came to this world. In His perfect humanity He was tempted yet never sinned. He gave Himself to the death on the cross, and shed His blood to redeem everyone who has faith in Him from sin and death. He rose from death, ascended to heaven, was seated at the right hand of the Father, received Holy Spirit from the Father, and sent the Spirit to those who believe in Him. At the end of the age, Jesus is going to come back to judge the world. Christians receive the status of sonship from God, but they remain human; they never become God.

Nobody knows the exact date of Jesus’ return, but we are confident that Jesus will return, and we can also know some of the signs of His return.

We are against any teaching that says Jesus has come the second time in His incarnated form. We are opposed to anyone who claims himself to be Christ. Any teaching that claims Jesus has already returned is a heresy.

4. Redemption

We believe if a person has confessed his sin and repented, if he has believed in Jesus as the Son of God who died for our sin on the cross and resurrected from death on the third day to pardon our sins, and if he has received the Holy Spirit that God has promised, then he is born again and saved. It is by grace and through faith that we are saved. By faith we are justified; by faith we receive the Holy Spirit, and by faith we become the sons of God. We believe that God can keep His children completely in Jesus Christ, while the believers are obligated to hold on to their faith firmly till the end.

We believe that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is an evidence of salvation, and that the Spirit of God testifies with our spirits that we are children of God. We are against the practice of taking any specific phenomenon or personal experiences as common criterions of salvation for all.

We are against any doctrine that teaches a saved person is allowed to freely sin under God’s grace. We are against the teaching of multi-salvation (that one can lose but then gain back his salvation many times); we are also against salvation by keeping the law.

5. The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead. He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of holiness.

The illumination of the Holy Spirit convicts man of his sins, brings him to the knowledge of truth, leads him to faith in Christ and therefore to being born again and salvation. The Holy Spirit leads believers into the truth, teaches them to understand the truth, and guides them to submission to Christ as well as to the fruitfulness of the abundant life. The Holy Spirit bestows upon believers all kinds of power, and witnesses the powerful deeds of God with signs and wonders. The Holy Spirit searches all things.

In Christ, God grants a diversity of gifts of the Holy Spirit to the church so as to manifest the glory of Christ. With faith and desire, Christians can experience the pouring down of the Holy Spirit on them and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We deny any doctrine that teaches the cessation of signs and wonders or the termination of the gifts of the Holy Spirit after the age of the apostles.

We don’t forbid the speaking of tongues, neither do we force people to speak in tongues, or insist that speaking in tongues is the evidence of salvation.

We refute the view that the Holy Spirit is merely a kind of inspiration instead of being a personal member of the Godhead.

6. The Church

We believe that the church is composed of all who are called by God in Jesus Christ. Christ is the head of the church. The Church is the body of Christ, the house of God, and the pillar and foundation of truth.

The church is both regional and universal. It consists of all churches of sound faith currently existing around the world, as well as the churches of the saints down through history.

The church should be governed according to biblical principles. Its spiritual ministry should not be controlled or dominated by secular powers.

Brothers and sisters in the church are members of one body, with each fulfilling its roles. The body builds itself up in love, and grows into Him who is the head. The universal church should reach unity in the faith and in the Holy Spirit, and be united into one in Christ.

The purpose of the church is to proclaim the Gospel, to teach and shepherd believers, to build and send missionaries, to denounce heresies and uphold truth, and to defend the Word. As Christians gather together in the name of the Lord, the number of people meeting together or the location of the meeting should not be limited. Each believer is a priest, and each has the right and obligation to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are against the alliance between the church and politics, or any politics intermingled into the church.

We are against the church’s dependence on foreign political powers for its growth. We are against the church’s participation in any activities that undermine solidarity of national people groups or the unification of the state.

7. The Last Days

We believe Christ will return, but no one except the Father knows the date of His return. On the day when Christ returns, He will come in glory and power on the clouds with the angels. On that day, the angels will blow the trumpet, and those who were dead in Christ will rise first. After that, all born again Christians who are still alive will also be transformed. Their bodies will all be glorified, and they will all be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

The saints will then reign together with Christ for a thousand years, during which Satan will be cast into the Abyss. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released temporarily and will go out to deceive the nations until he is finally thrown into the lake of burning sulfur. After that, Christ will sit on the great white throne to judge man from each nation, tribe and people. Everyone will rise from the dead and be judged before the throne. If anyone’s name is not found written in the book of life, he’ll be thrown into the lake of fire. The former heaven and earth will be consumed by fire. Death and Hades will also be thrown into the fire.

Those whose names are found written in the book of life will enter into the new heaven and the new earth, living there with God forever. We believe that while waiting for the coming of the Lord, believers should serve the Lord with great diligence, preach the Word of life, and bear abundant fruits in their words, actions, faith, love and holiness. We also believe that those who do this shall receive all kinds of rewards.

As for whether the rapture happens before, during or after the great tribulation, we recognize that each denomination has its own conviction, and therefore there is no absolute conclusion in regard to this. The duty of each Christian is to be alert and prepare himself for the coming of the Lord.

Concluding Exhortations

We give our thanks and praise to our almighty heavenly Father who has led us to draft this Statement of Faith. Our desire is that the Holy Spirit will move brothers and sisters in more churches to accept and identify themselves with this Statement, and to read the Statement in the churches so as to strengthen the faith of the believers in resisting heresies and cults, so that together we can welcome the great revival of the church.

May the Lord bless the church of China.

May the Lord bless the peoples of China.

May praises and glory be unto our true and triune God. Amen!

Shen Yi-ping, representative of China Gospel Fellowship

Zhang Rongliang, representative of Chinese for the Lord Church

Zheng Xianqi, representative of Blessed China Church

Wang Junlu, one of the representatives of other house churches in China

(Note: Chinese for the Lord Church is the original Fang Cheng Mother Church; Blessed China Church is the original Fu Yang Church.)

November 26, 1998

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Dying for Their Faith

By Jonathan Falwell

Most people wouldn’t think to look to Congress for spiritual insight, but recently one member of the U.S. House served to remind us of the price many Christians pay for their faith in Jesus Christ.

On July 30, Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., spoke from the House floor to pay tribute to Christian martyr Watchman Nee of China. Rep. Smith noted that Nee is known around the world for his Christian witness and his books are still banned in China today. He was imprisoned for his faith in 1952 and died 20 years later in a labor camp. In his speech, Rep. Smith stated,

“… it is estimated that China has more than 100 million Christians, and millions of them consider themselves spiritual heirs of Watchman Nee. Millions more are rightly proud of the contribution Watchman Nee made to global Christianity – he was the first Chinese Christian to exercise an influence on Western Christians – and indeed of his contribution to world spiritual culture. It is sad that the works of Watchman Nee are officially banned in China – even as they are being discovered afresh by a new generation of Western Christians. It is my hope that Watchman Nee’s collected works can be freely published and distributed within China.”

Untold numbers of Christians face similar fates today. Tragically, American Christians are typically unaware of the violence our international brothers and sisters face for following Jesus Christ.

Voice of China Network has produced a video documenting the story of Jiang Zongxiu, a 34-year-old woman who was arrested in June 2004 for handing out gospel tracts at a local market. While in police custody she was beaten to death.

In North Korea, a 33-year-old mother of three was publicly executed after distributing Bibles in the communist nation. Following her execution this month, the AP reported that Ri Hyon Ok’s parents, husband and children were sent to a prison camp.

In Mauritania, Christian aid worker Christopher Leggett was murdered in June for allegedly spreading the Christian message, Christian Freedom International reports. The husband and father of four had worked in the nation for more than six years.

On July 26, a young Nigerian girl watched as militants raided a small church service and hacked the pastor and his brother to death with machetes. The girl and another woman were then taken to a compound with many other Christian women and girls and told to renounce their faith or face ongoing imprisonment. Stuart Windsor, national director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said:

“Local Christians have expressed disappointment that some Western media have disregarded the targeted nature of attacks on their community, and the brutal murders of Christian pastors.”

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus said:

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Jesus knew that His followers would face persecution and hatred through the centuries. But He offers us wonderful encouragement:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (verse 28).

These Christians who are suffering are dear to our Lord, and they should be dear to us. I like to periodically remind fellow believers that these Christians need our fervent, constant prayers. Their faith has cost them so much. Our hearts should be broken for them and we should be appealing to our great God to comfort and minister to them as only He can.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus stated,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Please join with me in praying that the grace of Christ will become known in unspeakable and mighty ways to the untold numbers of believers who are suffering for the cause of Christ around the globe.

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Persecuted Church Resources on the Web

Open Doors:

www.opendoorsusa.org

Voice of the Martyrs:

www.persecution.com

Int’l Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church:

www.persecutedchurch.org

Voice of the Martyrs, Canada:

www.persecution.tv

Christian Freedom International:

www.christianfreedom.org