The Committee on Doctrine made the following report which was adopted item by item and then as a whole:

      Whereas, the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice, and our profession of loyalty is that "we earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints," and

      Whereas, we are now at the end of the first century of our work as a religious body and we are about to begin the work of the second: therefore,

      Resolved, That we consider this an opportune time for the General Eldership, as representing the brotherhood of the Churches of God in North America, to put itself on record in the following statement--a statement which we believe to be true to our historical position as recorded by John Winebrenner in 1849, in his "History of Religious Denominations in the United States" and clear as to our attitude toward the modernism of the present:

      We believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God: that the inspiration of its writers enabled them to record truth without error; and that it is our only and all sufficient rule of faith and practice. [119]

      We believe in one supreme God--the Father, Son and Holy Ghost--and that they are co-equal and co-eternal.

      We believe in the miraculous conception, the virgin birth, the vicarious sacrifice, the bodily resurrection, the triumphant ascension and the second coming of Jesus Christ. We believe in his deity--that he was and is, God the Son as well as the Son of God.

      We believe in the gift and work of the Holy Spirit.

      We believe that God made man by an original specific act of creation according to Gen. 1:26, 27; 5:1; 9:6; Psalms 100:3: 1 Cor. 11:7; Col. 3:10; James 3:9.

      We believe in the fall of man, and that his only possible redemption is through the atonement of Christ.

      We believe that man is justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, or by works of his own righteousness.

      We believe in the free moral agency of man, as opposed to his unconditional election or reprobation, i. e., that a man must accept Jesus as his Saviour, and of his own free will continue in the goodness of God to be numbered with the elect.

      We believe that only those who have been born again by the Word and Spirit. and who continue to manifest repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, and to live virtuous and obedient lives will be saved.

      We believe that the sanctification or the person (personality) is instantaneous and simultaneous with regeneration: that the sanctification of the nature, is a gradual growth in grace and truth.

      We believe in Baptism, Feetwashing and the Lord's Supper as church ordinances.

      We believe in Christian unity, in the Lord's Day as a time of rest and worship and that civil governments are ordained of God.

      We believe in the immortality of the soul (that when the believer departs from the body he is consciously at home with the Lord).

      We believe in the resurrection of the dead, in a judgment following the resurrection, and in everlasting rewards and punishments.

      On the consecration of infants and the anointing of the sick we report the following:

      Since these two rites are practiced by only a small minority of our ministers, and we see no scriptural grounds on which they could be adopted as the custom of all, their continuance by the few is certain to cause confusion when pastorates are changed, and such confusion in teaching an practice is liable to develop into the schism which the General Eldership guards against, as set forth in Article XXV of the Constitution.

      We would therefore express our judgment against both the consecration of infants and the anointing of the sick.

      Voted: That Dr. S. G. Yahn be granted permission to substitute the statement on fundamental and distinctive e doctrines just adopted for that part of his tract on "What We Teach and Practice," which gives a summary of the statement of faith published in "History of Religious Denominations in the United States." [121]

[JTS 119-121]

      The "Report of Committee on Doctrinal Statement" was first published in the Journal of the Twenty-Sixth Session of the General Eldership of the Churches of God, May 21-26, 1925, pp. 119-121. The electronic version has been transcribed from a copy of the article provided by Jean Leathers, Archivist of the Churches of God Historical Society.

      Pagination has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 20 August 1996.
Updated 12 July 2003.