Former Adventists Philippines
Statement of Faith

A Confessional Declaration of Biblical Christianity

Article 1: Holy Scripture

We believe the Bible comprising the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments is the verbally inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God, breathed out by the Holy Spirit through human authors (2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21). Scripture alone (sola Scriptura) is the supreme, final, and sufficient authority for all matters of faith, doctrine, and Christian living. No creed, tradition, church council, or post-canonical writing, including the writings of Ellen G. White, possesses the authority of Scripture or may be placed alongside it as a co-equal standard of doctrine or prophecy. We further affirm that the Bible is its own best interpreter, that the New Testament provides the authoritative lens through which the Old Testament is to be understood, and that all claims to spiritual authority must be tested by and remain subordinate to the written Word of God (Isaiah 8:20; Acts 17:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Article 2: The One Triune God

We believe in one God eternal, infinite, self-existent, holy, and sovereign who exists in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14). These three Persons are distinct yet one in divine essence, will, and glory. The Father is the fountainhead of all things; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all creation, sovereign over history, and intimately present with His people. He is perfect in love, justice, holiness, mercy, and truth, and is worthy of all worship, trust, and obedience.

Article 3: Jesus Christ, the Son of God

We believe in the full and undiminished deity of Jesus Christ, who is the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, and the only Mediator between God and humanity (John 1:1–3, 14; 1 Timothy 2:5). We affirm His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and birth of the Virgin Mary, His truly human yet sinless life, His authoritative teaching and mighty works, and His voluntary, substitutionary, and atoning death on the cross for the sins of the world (Isaiah 53; Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 2:24). We further affirm His bodily resurrection from the dead on the third day the seal and vindication of His completed work His ascension to the right hand of the Father, where He now reigns as Lord and intercedes as our Great High Priest in the presence of God (Hebrews 7:25; 10:12). We believe in His personal, glorious return at the consummation of all things.

Article 4: The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity fully divine, personally distinct, and co-equal with the Father and the Son (Acts 5:3–4; John 14:16–17). He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; regenerates and indwells every true believer at the moment of saving faith; sanctifies, seals, and empowers God's people for holy living and effective witness (John 16:8; Romans 8:9–11; Ephesians 1:13–14). We affirm, as Continuationists, that the spiritual gifts described in the New Testament including the gifts of tongues, prophecy, healing, and other sign and service gifts have not ceased and remain active in the Church today for the common good, the building up of the body of Christ, and the advance of the Gospel, subject always to the supreme authority of Scripture (1 Corinthians 12–14; Ephesians 4:11–13).

Article 5: Salvation by Grace Alone

We believe that all human beings are fallen in Adam, are dead in sin, and are by nature incapable of saving themselves or contributing to their own justification (Romans 3:10–12, 23; Ephesians 2:1–3). Salvation in its entirety is the gracious work of God: purposed by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Holy Spirit. We affirm that a sinner is justified by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), in Christ alone (solus Christus), to the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria). Justification is the forensic declaration by God that the believing sinner is righteous, on the sole basis of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ received through faith not on the basis of works of the law, Sabbath observance, dietary compliance, or any other human merit or religious performance (Romans 4:4–5; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8–9). We further affirm that saving faith, while alone in justification, is never alone it inevitably produces genuine repentance, love, and the fruit of righteousness.

Article 6: The Finished Work of Christ

We believe and declare that the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is complete, final, and wholly sufficient for the forgiveness of sin and the justification of every believer (John 19:30; Hebrews 9:11–14; 10:10–14). Christ offered Himself once for all as the perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice simultaneously; His work of atonement needed no continuation, augmentation, or future phase in any heavenly sanctuary. We therefore reject the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment and the 1844 pre-advent judgment as taught by Seventh-day Adventism, as having no biblical foundation, as a distortion of the biblical Day of Atonement typology, and as a practical undermining of the assurance of salvation that belongs to every believer in Christ. Every true believer can and should have present, personal assurance of salvation not because of moral performance, but because of the completed and sufficient work of Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior (Romans 8:1; 1 John 5:11–13).

Article 7: The Law, the Gospel, and the New Covenant

We believe that Jesus Christ came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them completely in His own person and work (Matthew 5:17). We affirm, consistent with New Covenant Theology, that the Mosaic Covenant including its ceremonial, civil, and moral components as a unified covenant administration has been fulfilled and superseded in Christ, who is the goal and terminus of the Mosaic Law (Romans 10:4; 2 Corinthians 3:7–11; Hebrews 8:13). Believers are not under the Mosaic Law as a covenant governing document but are now under the Law of Christ the full moral teaching of the New Covenant as the rule of life (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2). The weekly Sabbath, ceremonially codified in the Mosaic system, finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ Himself, who is our Sabbath rest (Matthew 11:28–30; Hebrews 4:9–11; Colossians 2:16–17). No day of worship, dietary law, or Mosaic ordinance is to be imposed on New Covenant believers as necessary for salvation or spiritual standing before God.

Article 8: The Church

We believe the Church is the covenant community of God the body and bride of Christ composed of all who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22–23; 1 Corinthians 12:13). The Church is both universal encompassing all true believers across all ages, cultures, and nations and local, manifested in gathered congregations of believers who worship, teach, fellowship, disciple, and bear witness together. We reject any claim by any denomination, movement, or organization including the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be the exclusive remnant or true end-time church, as such exclusivist claims contradict the biblical picture of the one body of Christ, obscure the Gospel, and lead to spiritual pride and sectarian bondage (Ephesians 4:4–6). The marks of the true Church are the faithful proclamation of the Gospel, the proper administration of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and the exercise of loving biblical discipline.

Article 9: The Ordinances

We believe Christ instituted two ordinances for the Church: Believer's Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is the public declaration of a believer's union with Christ in His death and resurrection, administered by water to professing believers as a sign of regeneration and incorporation into the body of Christ (Romans 6:3–4; Matthew 28:19). The Lord's Supper is the commemorative meal instituted by Christ on the night of His betrayal, wherein believers proclaim His death until He comes, examine themselves, and feed by faith on the spiritual reality of Christ's body and blood given for them (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Neither ordinance confers saving grace by its administration, but both are means of grace and public witness when received in true faith.

Article 10: Christian Living and Sanctification

We believe that those who are justified by faith are also progressively sanctified by the Holy Spirit conformed increasingly to the image of Christ in thought, word, and deed (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). Sanctification is the work of God in the believer, energized by grace and expressed through Spirit-enabled cooperation with God's will (Philippians 2:12–13). We reject both the perfectionist doctrine of Last Generation Theology which teaches that a final generation of believers must achieve complete character perfection before Christ can return and all other systems of merit-based spiritual performance. The Christian life is one of joyful obedience flowing from regeneration and gratitude, not legal compliance driven by fear of divine rejection. Believers are called to love God supremely and to love their neighbors as themselves this is the sum of the Law of Christ under the New Covenant (Matthew 22:37–40; John 13:34–35).

Article 11: Last Things and the Kingdom of God

We believe that the Kingdom of God was inaugurated in the person, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that the Church is called to advance this Kingdom through Gospel proclamation, discipleship, and the transformation of lives and communities (Matthew 28:18–20; Isaiah 9:7). We affirm, consistent with Partial Preterism, that a significant portion of the eschatological language in the New Testament including the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24), the Book of Revelation in large part, and other prophetic passages was fulfilled in the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70, constituting God's judgment upon the old covenant order and the vindication of Jesus Christ and His Church. We further affirm, consistent with Postmillennialism, that the Gospel will continue to prevail throughout the earth, that the nations will progressively be discipled, and that Christ will return after a long era of Gospel triumph and Kingdom expansion. We believe in the personal, visible, and glorious return of Jesus Christ at the end of the age, the general resurrection of the dead, the final judgment of all persons, and the renewal of all things.

Article 12: Eternal Hope

We believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. At the return of Christ, all the dead shall rise the righteous to eternal life in the presence of God, and the unrighteous to eternal separation and conscious judgment (John 5:28–29; Daniel 12:2; Revelation 20:11–15). We affirm the eternal blessedness of the redeemed not as disembodied souls, but as glorified persons inhabiting a renewed creation in the full and unmediated presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever (Revelation 21–22; Romans 8:21–23). We hold that the final state of the unrepentant is one of conscious eternal separation from God not annihilation in keeping with the plain and consistent testimony of Scripture (Matthew 25:46; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 14:11). This hope is the anchor of our souls and the fuel of our mission, for we long for the day when every tongue shall confess and every knee shall bow before Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sola Scriptura. Sola Gratia. Sola Fide. Solus Christus. Soli Deo Gloria.

"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood... to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." — Revelation 1:5–6

Former Adventists Philippines (FAP) | Est. 2019