FUNDAMENTALS
OF FELLOWSHIP
Many
Christians suffer today from the same kind of exclusionary mentality that
afflicted the disciples of Christ. Notice how Jesus dealt with this:
Luke
9:49-50
49 "Master," said John, "we
saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he
is not one of us."
50 "Do not stop him," Jesus said,
"for whoever is not against you is for you."
This
exclusionary mentality can be a symptom of pride. “We’re right and you’re wrong! If you don’t believe the same way we do, then
we’re not going to have anything to do with you!” Paul had to deal with the same issue in his
epistles:
Romans
14:1,4
1 Accept him whose faith is weak,
without passing judgment on disputable matters.
4 Who are you to judge someone else's
servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord
is able to make him stand.
2 Timothy
2:23-24
23 Don't have anything to do with foolish
and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.
24 And the Lord's servant must not quarrel;
instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
Titus
3:9
9 But avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are
unprofitable and useless.
Our
nation is facing a life and death struggle over the basic standards of right
and wrong. The spirit of antichrist is
at work in all public arenas that affect popular culture: music, entertainment, education, politics,
and more. In the meantime, the
Towards
that end, we have adopted a statement of the Fundamentals of Fellowship. We believe these fundamental truths to be the
basic, unquestionable principles plainly revealed in God’s Word, and are
absolutely essential to the Christian Faith.
We believe that anyone who believes, teaches, and lives by these truths
is a Christian brother, and Christ desires us to fellowship with and support
him.
1. God is the
sole source of absolute truth. He has
revealed His truth in the inspired and inerrant sixty-six books of the Holy
Bible, which are useful to thoroughly equip us for every good work.
Romans
3:1-2
1 What advantage, then, is there in
being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?
2 Much in every way! First of all, they
have been entrusted with the very words of God.
2 Peter
1:20-21
20 Above all, you must understand that no
prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the
will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.
2 Timothy
3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is
useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that
the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Peter
1:2-3
2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
3 His divine power has given us
everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who
called us by his own glory and goodness.
2. There is one
true God, maker of heaven and earth, Who rewards those
who earnestly seek Him.
Geneis
1:1
1 In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.
Isaiah
45:18
18 For this is what the LORD says-- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and
made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it
to be inhabited-- he says: "I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Hebrews
11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and
that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
3. All men are sinners, and deserve the wrath of a holy God.
Ecclesiastes
7:20
20 There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins.
Romans
3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
Romans
5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world
through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men,
because all sinned…
Jeremiah
17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
I John
1:8
8 If we claim to be without sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
II Thessalonians
1:8-9
8 He will punish those who do not know
God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 They will be punished with everlasting
destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of
his power
4. It is only
through the shed blood of the LORD Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, that
we can be reconciled to God.
John
14:6
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John
1:1,14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John
3:16
16 "For God so loved the world that he
gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life.
Matthew
26:63-64
63 But Jesus remained silent. The high
priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if
you are the Christ, the Son of God."
64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus
replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of
heaven."
Matthew
26:27-28
27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and
offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.
28 This is my blood of the covenant, which
is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews
9:22
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly
everything be cleansed with blood, and without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
5. Salvation is
by grace, through faith in the completed work of our LORD Jesus Christ.
Romans
3:22-24
22 This righteousness from God comes
through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
24 and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Ephesians
2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
9 not by
works, so that no one can boast.
6. God desires a
covenant relationship with His people, whereby He bestows upon them His
blessings, and they obey Christ’s commands.
Genesis
17:7
7 I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the
generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Galatians
3:29
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
John
14:15
15 "If you love me, you will obey what
I command.
Deuteronomy
7:9
9 Know therefore that the LORD your God
is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand
generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
Deuteronomy
11:26-28
26 See, I am setting before you today a
blessing and a curse--
27 the blessing if you obey the commands of
the LORD your God that I am giving you today;
28 the curse if you disobey the commands of
the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following
other gods, which you have not known.
Hebrews
10:35-36
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it
will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you
have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
7. The
Holy Spirit lives in every believer, uniting all believers into one body. The Holy Scriptures originated through His
divine inspiration. He teaches us all
things, reminds us of the words of Christ, and empowers us to be His witnesses
to the world.
1 Corinthians
12:13
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-- and we were all given
the one Spirit to drink.
John
14:15-17
15 "If you love me, you will obey what
I command.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 the Spirit
of truth. The world cannot accept
him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives
with you and will be in you.
John
14:26
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you
of everything I have said to you.
Acts
1:8
8 But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in
Matthew
12:30-32
30 "He
who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
31 And so I tell you, every sin and
blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not
be forgiven.
32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son
of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not
be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
2 Peter
1:21
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the
will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit.
There
are additional requirements in the Word of God for disassociating with someone
who claims to be a Christian brother, such as one engaged in unrepentant sin (1
Corinthians 5:9-11) or one who is lazy. (1 Thessalonians 3:6) This document does not deal with those
issues. But we do believe that these
fundamentals are very close to what 1 Thessalonians speaks of as the teachings
delivered by the apostles, and we do not believe we have biblical authority to
exclude brethren from our fellowship who believe and practice these
things. If you believe these teachings
and desire to live a life of obedience to God’s Word, then we welcome you to
join us in our quest to become men of maturity who diligently seek to enjoy the
fellowship of the Father. (All scripture quotations are in the New
International Version.)