The Constitution of Finished Work Fellowship requires the pastor to prepare, and update as necessary, a basic statement of his doctrinal viewpoint. The following is the pastor’s current doctrinal statement:1. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
I believe the Holy Scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, authoritative, inerrant, and God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; Psalm 119:89; John 10:35)
2. THE GODHEAD
I believe in one triune God existing in three Persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—eternal in being, identical in nature, equal in power and glory and having the same attributes and perfections (Deuteronomy 6:4; John 8:58; II Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 9:14).
3. THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN
I believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God but that in Adam’s sin the race fell, inherited a sinful nature, became alienated from God, and is totally unable to retrieve his lost condition (Genesis 1:26, 27; Romans 3:22, 23; 5:12; Ephesians 2:12).
4. THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST
I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man without ceasing to be God, having been conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man; that He accomplished our redemption through His spiritual death on the Cross as a substitutionary sacrifice; that our redemption is made sure to us by His literal physical resurrection from the dead (John 1:1, 2, 14; Luke 1:35; Romans 3:24, 25; 4:25; 1 Peter 1:3-5); that the Lord Jesus Christ is now in heaven, exalted at the right hand of God, where, as the High Priest for His people, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate (Hebrews 9:24; 7:25; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1, 2).
5. THE PERSONALITY AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
I believe that the Holy Spirit is a Person who convicts the world of sin, indwells all believers in the present age, baptizes them into the Body of Christ, seals them unto the day of redemption, and that it is the duty of every believer to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; Ephesians 1:13, 14; 5:18).
6. SALVATION
I believe that salvation in every dispensation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, whose efficacious death on the Cross provided man’s reconciliation to God (Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-10; John 1:12).
7. THE ETERNAL SECURITY OF ALL BELIEVERS
I believe that all believers are kept secure forever (Romans 8:1, 38, 39; John 10:27-30; 1 Corinthians 1:4-8).
8. THE CHURCH
I believe that the Church, which is now the Body and shall be the Bride of Christ, is a spiritual organism made up of all born-again persons of this age irrespective of their affiliation with Christian organizations (Ephesians 1:22, 23; 5:25-27; 1 Corinthians 12:12-14).
9. THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN
I believe in the personality of Satan who is the open and declared enemy of God and man (Job 1:6, 7; Matthew 4:2-11; Isaiah 14:12-17).
10. THE BLESSED HOPE
I believe that the next great event in the fulfillment of prophecy will be the coming of the Lord Jesus in the air to receive to Himself the dead in Christ and believers who are alive at His coming, otherwise known as the Rapture and Translation of the Church (1 Corinthians 15:51-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:11-14).
11. DANIEL’S SEVENTIETH WEEK
I believe that the Rapture of the Church will be followed by the fulfillment of Israel’s seventieth week, the latter half of which is the time of Jacob’s trouble, the great Tribulation (Daniel 9:27; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:15-21; Revelation 6-19).
12. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST
I believe that the great Tribulation will be climaxed by the (premillennial) return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom (Zechariah 14:4-11; Matthew 24:15-25; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 20:6).
13. THE ETERNAL STATE
I believe that those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do at death immediately pass into His presence; but the souls of unbelievers remain after death in conscious misery until the final judgment of the Great White Throne at the close of the Millennium, when soul and body reunited shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, not to be annihilated, but to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (Luke 16:19-26; 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8; Philippians 1:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Jude 6, 7; Revelation 20:11-15).
14. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BELIEVERS
To “grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,” to the end that his life is consistent with the Lord’s plan, thus bringing both blessing to the believer and honor to the Lord (2 Peter 3:18).
15. CHURCH ORDINANCE
I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper to be observed until His return (Matthew 28:19, 20: 2 Corinthians 11:23-26).
16. SOVEREIGNTY
I believe that God, existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is sovereign and exercises supreme and absolute rule over all creation as a part of and consistent with the essence and attributes of Deity (1 Chronicles 29:11,12; Daniel 4:35; Psalms 24:1; Ephesians 1:11; 2 Timothy 6:15).
17. SPIRITUALITY
I believe that spirituality is an absolute condition in the life of a believer in this dispensation wherein he is filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit, walking in love and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that spirituality is distinct from maturity, that a believer becomes carnal through any act of mental, verbal, or overt sin, and that spirituality (fellowship with Christ) is restored solely by personal confession of that sin to God the Father (John 15:7,8; II Corinthians 5:6; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 5:18; Romans 6:11-13; 1 John 1:5, 9; 2:2; 1 Corinthians 11:30, 31).
18. SPIRITUAL GIFTS
I believe that God The Holy Spirit in grace and apart from human merit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts to believers in this dispensation. Some of the permanent spiritual gifts which exist today are pastor-teacher, evangelist. I further believe that there were temporary spiritual gifts ceased with the completion of the canon of Scripture, examples of which are apostleship, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues, healing, and working of miracles. (1 Corinthians 12, 13; Ephesians 4:7-12; Romans 12:4-8).
19. DISPENSATIONAL PERSPECTIVE WITH SOME EXPLANATION:
I believe that the ministry of John the Baptizer, and of Jesus and the twelve apostles, was focused on the announcement of the coming Kingdom of Messiah. For example in Matthew 3:2 and in Matthew 4:17, John, and then Jesus, called on Israel to repent (have a change of mind) because “the kingdom of heaven (literally ‘from the heavens’) is at hand” (near). Daniel’s seventieth week and the subsequent establishment of Messiah’s kingdom on earth were actually the next steps on the prophetic agenda. The Sermon on the Mount was a guide for preparation for this kingdom as well as the manifesto for the kingdom.
I believe that the twelve apostles (complete with Matthias, who was the legitimate and divinely ordained replacement for Judas in Acts 1) were going forward with the kingdom agenda during the early Acts period. It had been promised that they would sit on twelve thrones over Israel in Messiah’s kingdom (Matthew 19:28). What many refer to as “the great commission” (and it WAS a great commission--Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 24:47-48; Acts 1:8) was a continuation of the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom after the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ. After all, Messiah’s kingdom could only be officially offered to Israel AFTER the Cross (Luke 24:26; 1 Peter 1:11). Indeed the formal offer of Messiah’s kingdom was clearly presented through Peter in Acts 3:19-21. Had Israel, as a nation, repented and accepted the offer, the seventieth week of Daniel would have occurred, followed by the Second Advent of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom. The response of Israel to the offer, however, crystallized with the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. It was then that God began to set Israel aside (Romans 11:25)—TEMPORARILY. God will fulfill all of the covenant promises to Israel after the rapture of the Church of the present dispensation.
Upon Israel’s rejection of Messiah’s kingdom, God, in His grace, saved one of the participants involved in the stoning of Stephen—Saul of Tarsus. It was to this man that the ascended Christ disclosed a great “mystery” (Gr. musterion: something which had been secret until it was made known). Paul writes about this in Ephesians 3:1-9 as well as a number of other places. This was a secret which had been hidden in God—an entire program which was a complete departure from the program which had been revealed though the prophets. The prophetic plan had called for the Gentiles to be blessed (through the covenants given to Israel) through Israel’s AGENCY. This newly revealed (that is, newly revealed to the apostle Paul) program involves the blessing of the Gentiles through Israel’s FALL and her temporary rejection by God. After the rapture, the prophetic plan will resume once again, and the covenant program will again move forward, and all of the covenants to Israel (except the Mosaic Covenant which has been discontinued) will be fulfilled. The other apostles became aware of this mystery after it was set forth by the Apostle Paul. The apostleship of Paul was unique and was distinct from that of the twelve. It was through what Christ had revealed to the Apostle Paul that the other apostles became enlightened as to the new economy in the plan of God.
I believe that believers today are not under the so-called “great commission,” but that we have a no less great commission which has been entrusted to us; a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). Central to this ministry is the “word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19) a.k.a. “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) a.k.a. “the word of the cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18). We are ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) with a message to the lost which is not tied to the announcement of Messiah’s kingdom. The kingdom gospel will resume during Daniel’s seventieth week (Matthew 24:14).
I believe that the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit was the prophesied baptism whereby it was promised that Christ would do the baptizing (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5, 8). This was a unique manifestation of the Holy Spirit whereby Israel had the opportunity to experience a foretaste of the blessings which the New Covenant to Israel would bring; a preview of “the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5). That baptism of the Holy Spirit began to be withdrawn in the later Acts period after Israel had rejected the kingdom offer. The Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby CHRIST baptized must be distinguished from the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the HOLY SPIRIT baptizes every believer into Christ’s Body at the instant of salvation. The former was experiential in nature. The latter is positional in nature. This is why Pentecost is NOT the pattern for the Church of the present dispensation.
I believe that the ritual of water baptism was a ritual associated with the kingdom program for Israel. It was a ritual which illustrated the washing away of Israel’s sins as the people of the nation prepared their hearts to receive Messiah as King. There is no Biblical basis for the assumption that water baptism is a picture of our death, burial and resurrection with Christ, or a picture of our positional baptism. When the Apostle Paul was water baptized, it was in connection with the washing away of sins (Acts 22:16). Water baptism was clearly a part of the commission of the twelve (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38). The Apostle Paul was water baptized because he was saved when the kingdom agenda was ongoing. After Paul was saved, he received progressive installments of revelation directly from the ascended Christ Jesus (Acts 26:16 “…for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things IN WHICH I WILL APPEAR TO YOU”). (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7.) After Paul received quite a bit of revelation about the great mystery, he became aware that his commission did not include water baptism (1 Corinthians 1:17). People try to get around the clear implication of 1 Corinthians 1:17 by saying that Paul wanted to emphasize his preaching of the gospel over and above his water baptism because the Corinthian believers were developing personality cults around those who had baptized them (which they certainly were). But think about it. Could any of the twelve during the Pentecostal era have said that they did not come to baptize? (cf. Matthew 28:19.) Water baptism is not a part of the program for God’s people during the present dispensation. Maybe that is why there is such confusion about it in the Body of Christ. There is no majority of opinion as to how it is to be done (immersion, effusion or sprinkling) to whom it is to be done (infants or professing believers) and what it means when it is done. Some denominations, to their shame, actually teach baptismal regeneration! Some teach that it replaces the ritual of circumcision. Some teach that it is a picture of the believer’s death, burial and resurrection with Christ.
I believe that salvation, in EVERY dispensation in human history, is by grace alone; through faith alone; in Christ alone (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:5).
Lee V. Griffith
