The Holiness Credenda
The Church of the Living God,
The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Inc.
(I Timothy 3:15)
(Revived in 1903 by Mary Lena Lewis Tate)
Credendum I
We believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and that these Three are One in a holy estate of power of the God-Head.
Credendum II
We believe God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost are three powers of the Holy Union of Heaven being expressly called Us!, God coming from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran; and that the Son of God was begotten of the Father.
Credendum III
We preach and do firmly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, and that He was born of the Virgin Mary; that He was spiritually conceived and brought forth of the Virgin Mary thus taking upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in those of us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit by which He was conceived in the Virgin Mary and brought forth in the likeness of every man in order to convince man of the very fact that human flesh can live in this world free from sin and condemnation.
Credendum IV
We believe and do firmly preach that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, was possessed of the full nature and disposition of humanity; but through obedience to the Father, He took on the whole armour of faith as an example to others of the same nature in order to be able and He was thus made able to resist the devil and to overcome the world.
Credendum V
We preach and do firmly believe that Jesus Christ was born in the world through the Virgin Mary for a purpose and that purpose was and is to save His people from their sins; that in Him is no sin and if we abide in Him we will commit no sin; that he that commiteth sin is of the devil; that no sin is or can be of God; and that those who commit sin are plainly made manifest that they are of their father, the devil.
Credendum VII
We believe and do firmly preach that Jesus Christ is the Way and our example giver; that He was baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost and Fire and thereby was made able to resist the temptation of the devil; and that He spoke with unknown Tongues.
Credendum VIII
We believe that all Christian followers must be filled with the same Spirit in order to be able to resist the temptations of the devil and to overcome the world and to live free from sin in this world.
Credendum IX
We believe and do firmly preach that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth it; that the Gospel remits sins; that the Gospel began in and with the Apostles at Jerusalem by the Holy Ghost which was given unto them; and that the Holy Ghost is the power of God and is the Gospel.
Credendum X
We believe and do firmly preach that the Bible evidence of receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire is speaking with Tongues as the Spirit of God giveth utterance as on the day of Pentecost and as mentioned in Acts 2:1 to 4; that the Tongue spoken in through the utterance given by the Spirit may not be understood by man and may be unknown to men, but is understood of God; that the unknown Tongue is a sign of God's victory over sin and the wicked purposes of vain men and their wicked imaginations; and that the unknown and devious Tongues have always served to frustrate and stop the sinful purposes and attempts of wicked men and to establish the purpose and Will of God. Wherefore, Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.
Credendum XI
We believe and firmly preach that people are justified and made clean through faith and by the words of Christ; that we are glorified and made wholly sanctified by receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire with Bible evidence; that there are two stages of sanctification--first, self sanctification; and secondly, complete or whole sanctification which is also glorification of the body through the Spirit of the Living God; and that Christ died to save His people from sin and that His blood cleanseth us from all sin.
Credendum XII
We believe that Jesus is the Foundation of the Church, and that the work of such a Foundation was finished when He said on the cross, "It is finished."
Credendum XIII
We believe that God created man, male and female; man in His own image and likeness and that man being in the image and likeness of God was perfect, pure and holy, and free from all sin so long as he remained and abided in the image and likeness of God; that for the experience of sin and appreciation of righteousness man was permitted to be his own moral agent of decision and acceptation of life through righteousness or death through sin and disobedience; that man disobeyed, transgressed, sinned and died; and that through the fall of Adam from righteousness into sin through disobedience, that death reigned for a time over all men even unto all.
Credendum XIV
We believe that through the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners and that through the obedience of One, even Christ, many shall be made righteous and that in and through Christ we have access again to the Tree of Life to live again in the image and likeness of God, perfect, pure and free from sin without the purposed experience and worry of sin and with the acceptance and high appreciation of salvation from sin through Christ the Lord from heaven and the Tree of Life.
Amen.
Corollaries
(Ordinances)
We believe in baptism of water by immersion, that is, by being carried under the water, conceived and brought forth which is the token of the real baptism of the Holy Spirit of God. We believe water points to salvation, but it is not in itself salvation nor can it wash away sin.
We believe that baptism is a necessary ordinance to be observed with all others, yet we know that it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God that puts us into the name of Jesus and into Jesus Himself. And that it is God's Spirit that saves us from sin and washes away our sins and keeps them washed away continually.
We believe and really know according to the words of Christ that it is necessary to observe and keep the commandments of Christ by washing one another's feet the way He did for an example.
We believe it is right and necessary to observe the Lord's Supper or Passover as He did with His disciples before He was crucified by using unleavened bread as a token of His body and by using pure unadulterated water as a token and agreement of His blood as nothing except water will agree with His blood.
We believe in praying; we believe in keeping the Sabbath with the Covenant which is God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost instead of with types and shadows which things were fulfilled by the coming of Christ. We believe that to cease from our own works is to cease from sin.
--From: The Constitution, Government and General Decree Book of the Church of the Living God, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Inc., Nashville: The New and Living Way Publishing Company, 1924, pp. 63-65.
--Text excluding reference Scriptures: Helen M. Lewis and Meharry H. Lewis, Editors, The Beauty of Holiness: A Small Catechism of the Holiness Faith and Doctrine, Nashville: The New and Living Way Publishing Company, 1988, pp. 43-48.
