WHAT WE BELIEVE
These are the BIBLICAL TRUTHS we lay the foundation of this ministry, Revival House Los Angeles, on.
We believe in:
THE BIBLE
John 5:39-40, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Peter 1:19-21
Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the revelation of God to humanity. Scriptures are inspired by God's Holy Spirit, Who guided humans to write His Word. It is reliable through all time for expressing to humanity Who God is, how He relates and involves Himself with humanity, and how humans are to react in faith and practice towards Him. When correctly translated and interpreted, it bears the fruit of God's Spirit, which is a life in full relationship with God in His love.
GOD
Genesis 1:1-3,26, Exodus 3:14, Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19, John 10:30, John 14:26, Philippians 2:5-7,
1 Timothy 2:5, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 John 4:16
There is One God, Who is the Self-Existent One. God is love, and He loves all people. He is the Creator of all things in Heaven and in Earth. From the beginning, He exists as three persons, in which the Father is God, Jesus is God, and Holy Spirit is God. They are separate only in task and function, but they are the One and Only God of the Universe.
JESUS,
OUR LORD
Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:15, 2 Samuel 7:12-14, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 52:13- 53:12, Daniel 9:24-26, Malachi 3:1, Matthew 16:13-17, Mark 14:61-62, Luke 18:31-33, Luke 24:36-43, John 3:16-18, John 4:25-26, John 10:30, John 14:6-7, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 17
Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, is the Messiah, the Son of God. The Bible declares that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to restore humanity after their fall, He is the prophet promised by Moses, the King descended from King David to reign forever, born of a virgin, Who came as promised to the Jewish people during the era of the Second Temple. He lived a sinless life, He worked miracles, He was crucified, and He bodily rose to life again three days later as promised in prophecy. Now, He sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven as humanity's only Mediator between them and the Father. Jesus is the only way to the Father because Jesus and the Father are One. Jesus is God, so to deny Jesus is to deny God.
SALVATION OF GRACE,
THROUGH FAITH
Joel 2:32, John 1:12, Acts 2:21, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9-13, Ephesians 2:8-9
Humanity's only hope of returning into a relationship with God is through faith in Jesus, His death as atoning for their sins, and His resurrection as defeating the consequences of their sins. This salvation is obtained only through faith and confession of that faith by calling only on the name of the Lord Jesus. Salvation is freely given by God's grace to all humans who will accept it. A human becomes a child of God when they believe in and receive this free gift of salvation.
ALL
PEOPLE ARE
WELCOME
Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 28:19, Acts 19:4, Romans 6:4
All people, regardless of age, race, nationality, socio-economic class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or any other social division, shall come into the full experience of God's Kingdom and receive the born-again experience through Jesus. All believers are a united people through Jesus.
FALL OF HUMANITY
Genesis 1:26-28, Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3, Romans 3:23, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 1 John 1:8, 10
Humans were created by God in His image. Just as God exists in three persons, humans exist in three persons: body, soul and spirit. Humans were created to have a relationship with their Creator. God gave authority over the earth to humanity, but humanity rebelled, and sin entered the world, which resulted in physical death and spiritual death by separation from God. Because of this rebellion, no human is without sin or evil in their nature, which keeps them from a relationship with God.
SANTIFICATION
John 3:3, Romans 6, Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Galatians 5:19-26, 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, 2 Timothy 2:21, Hebrews 2:11, Hebrews 10:14-17, Hebrews 12:14
God's love changes humanity to more perfectly love Him, love humanity, and love oneself. When a believer first comes into faith, they become a new creation and are born again, and God's Holy Spirit enters their life to begin to work on them to remove sin and to set the believer apart from the hatefulness and selfishness of the world. The evidence of salvation is living a life filled with Christ-like love by leaving sin through sanctification from His Spirit. However, the believer has salvation no matter where they are in being sanctified because it is an ongoing process of allowing God's character to develop in them. The aim is to be more and more like God, which cannot happen without Jesus and His Spirit.
BAPTISM
Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 28:19, Acts 19:4, Romans 6:4
Jesus taught and demonstrated the practice of water baptism, which is a way for new believers to symbolically identify with His death and resurrection. It is an outward and public demonstration of what is going on in the believer's spirit. They are dying to sin as they are dipped into the water, and they resurrect into their new life with God as they are lifted out of the water. This is the baptism of repentance.
BAPTISM
IN THE SPIRIT
Joel 2:28-29, Matthew 3:11, Luke 24:49, John 14:12, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:4, Acts 2:38-39, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:2-6, 1 Corinthians 12-14, Galatians 5:22-23, James 5:14-15, 1 Peter 4:10-11
All believers are entitled to and should expect and seek the promise of the Father and command of Jesus, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. This is a separate experience from salvation, sanctification, and water baptism, but salvation and a readiness towards the Spirit's sanctification usually occur subsequent or simultaneous to this experience. With the baptism in the Holy Spirit comes the endowment of supernatural power for life and service, and the obtainment of spiritual gifts to be used in the work of ministry. The experience comes with an overflowing fullness of the Spirit, a deepened reverence for God, an intensified consecration to God and His will, and a more active love for Christ, His Word, and humanity.
This was the normal experience in the early Christian church, and it is something God continues to give today to all who will receive it. The common pattern displayed in the Bible is that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is accompanied by the initial gift of the believer speaking with other tongues as Holy Spirit gives them utterance. The speaking in tongues in this instance is the same in essence to the gift of tongues, but it is different in purpose and use.
All the spiritual gifts that God's Spirit gives are active and relevant in today's church. These gifts include prophesy, supernatural wisdom and knowledge, divine healing, spiritual discernment, speaking in and interpreting tongues, and other miracles. They are needed to strengthen God's people and to prove God's existence to nonbelievers until Jesus, the Perfect One, returns to do His final work to rid the world of evil. Although these gifts are important, the supreme evidence of a Spirit-filled life is love. Without Christ-like love, these spiritual gifts are meaningless.
THE CHURCH
Matthew 16:15-19, Matthew 28:19-20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Ephesians 4:11-16, Ephesians 5:25, 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9, Revelation 1:6
God's purpose for the Church is to seek and save nonbelievers, to worship Him, and to build a body of believers that confess that Jesus is Lord. Although we may meet in a building, the Church is not a building; it is not a place. The Church is a body of people, who confess faith in Jesus. Faith that Jesus is Lord is the rock on which the Church is built. He is the head leader of the Church. The Spirit of God lives within the body of believers, who are each equipped with various gifts to work together to achieve its purpose. The Church is led supremely by God, Who gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to lead and equip every believer for work in ministry. All believers are part of the priesthood and are called to ministry in some capacity. Every believer in the Church should desire a more intimate relationship with God, which is why the Church is often referred to as the Bride of Christ.
OUR
JEWISH
HERITAGE
Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 22:18, Exodus 3:6, Isaiah 11:10, Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 49:6, Ezekiel 37:21-28, John 1, Romans 1:16, Romans 11, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Galatians 3:29, Colossians 2:16-17
God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God made a covenant with the Jewish ancestors that through them, God would reveal Himself to all peoples, nations, and tongues. It was promised that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people. The purpose of the Messiah is to bring His people back to the fullness of Torah. The Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus), is the Living Torah, so the fullness of Torah is understood through Him. God revealed Himself to all of humanity through the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. The first believers were Jewish, and Messianic Jews (Jewish Christians) are still a critical part of the Church today. Through faith in Yeshua, Gentile (non-Jewish) believers are now grafted into the Jewish heritage. Because Gentiles are grafted into the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they are allowed to enjoy and encouraged to partake in Jewish customs such as Shabbat (Sabbath) and the feasts, like Pesach (Passover), by understanding that the substance of these customs has been pointing to Messiah all along.
JESUS' SOON
RETURN
Matthew 25:41, John 3:16-21, Acts 1:11, Romans 3:10-20, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, Hebrews 9:27-28, Revelation 12, Revelation 20:12-15, Revelation 22:12-13
Jesus will return to earth to put a final end to all evil, but He is graciously waiting for humanity to repent of their evil and come to faith in Him that they might spend an eternity with Him in His love in Paradise, which is Heaven. Because of their rebellion, all of humanity is evil, so without Jesus, humanity is dead and destined for an eternity separated from God and without His love, which is Hell. If humanity does not reject evil and accept God, then when God finally removes evil, those humans will be caught in the consequences of evil. Hell was only intended for God's enemy, the devil and his followers, fallen-angels who rebelled against God and caused humans to rebel as well, but if a human rejects God until His Son returns, then that human chooses to spend an eternity separated from God in Hell. This is not what God wants for humanity, which is why He sent His Son to save the lost and bring them into faith through His love.