Doctrines
The Christ Gospel Churches affirm their acceptance of the Apostles' Creed as an expression of Christian faith. Their Pentecostal emphasis is seen in teaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of glossolalia, or speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4,11,38).¹ However, they do not believe that evidence of glossolalia is a requirement for salvation; rather, it is a gift that Christians can accept as they desire. The church also teaches that water baptism by immersion is a commandment for all Christians (Acts 2:38; 8:12; 9:5,18).¹ The church believes that worship should embrace all kinds of music (e.g., traditional hymns, choruses, country gospel, urban gospel, classical) and musical instruments (e.g., drums, guitars, pianos, saxophones, trumpets, violins). The church welcomes all races and classes of people because it realizes the importance of people being united in Christ rather that being divided among themselves. The church teaches "old-fashioned Holiness" in matters of conduct and dress, but also understands there are different levels of commitment and regards this as a matter of the individual conscience.¹
The emphasis of Rev. Hicks' teachings is that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and that it calls on Christians to grow to spiritual maturity, both in their moral development and in their spiritual love relationship with Jesus Christ, in order to be in the Bride of Christ. The core of her teachings is founded on the principle that the Old Testament Tabernacle was laid out in the form of a cross and serves as a picture or metaphor of Christian believers' spiritual experiences as they grow to maturity in Christ Jesus, as taught in the New Testament (Hebrews 9:8-11; Ephesians 2:19-22). A related core principle is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head over all things, and that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. These concepts can be found throughout Rev. Hicks's numerous publications and in church teachings.
Read more about this topic: Christ Gospel Churches International
Famous quotes containing the word doctrines:
“Talent alone can not make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which by birth and quality is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not otherwise; holding things because they are things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike.”
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“The gloomy theology of the orthodox—the Calvinists—I do not, I cannot believe. Many of the notions—nay, most of the notions—which orthodox people have of the divinity of the Bible, I disbelieve. I am so nearly infidel in all my views, that too, in spite of my wishes, that none but the most liberal doctrines can command my assent.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)