Our faith
of the Federation of Free Pentecostal Churches (BFP KdöR)
(Excerpt from the BFP guidelines – October 2007 edition)
(Excerpt from the BFP guidelines – October 2007 edition)
We believe in the one eternal God of the Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth, who reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in God the Father, the source of all fatherhood, who in mercy and care turns toward humanity and desires that all come to the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, in His love—far beyond all human understanding—He gave His Son for the salvation of a lost world.
We believe in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. In Him, God has definitively revealed Himself to us for our salvation. The Bible—the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, inspired by the Spirit of God—bears witness to this as the infallible guide for our lives, thinking, and actions. As the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ accomplished salvation for all people once and for all through His substitutionary and final sacrifice in His death on the cross. After His resurrection and ascension, He is seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us before the Father.
We believe that Jesus, our Lord, will return in power and glory—bringing the redeemed into eternal glory and the lost into eternal judgment. In Him, God invites all people, as lost sinners, to receive His salvation through repentance and faith.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, who, on the basis of the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, brings new life within us through the new birth and will bring it to completion in the resurrection from the dead. Through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the exalted Lord empowers all believers for service. Through His presence in those who are born again, He produces the fruit of the Spirit. In His divine sovereignty, the Holy Spirit distributes various gifts, ministries, and workings for the mutual edification of believers and for service to the world.
We believe that the church is the community of those redeemed from sin, called out by God, through whom He proclaims His salvation to the world. As the body of Christ, it is also the place of mutual service, to which God calls and equips all its members. Through baptism (by immersion), based on a personal confession of the forgiveness of sins and faith in Jesus Christ, believers are added to the local church. In the Lord’s Supper, the church proclaims the Lord’s death and the shared participation in Jesus Christ as the head of the church, His body, in anticipation of His return.
Participation in Jesus, their Lord, especially includes sanctification and the faithful expectation of healing and restoration of the whole person.