What we Believe

Beliefs

When we begin to describe what we believe about God, we discover that He’s been writing a story of hope and redemption for all the world…and we have a role to play in this story.

Radiant Life Fellowship is devoted to joining the God of the oppressed in the restoration of all creation. At the center of everything, we are always inviting all people everywhere to trust their lives to Jesus Christ as the one and only Messiah and Savior of all. We believe this is the way God designed all people to live.

THE BIBLE

We believe the Bible to be the voices of many who have come before us, inspired by God to pass along their poems, stories, accounts, and letters of response and relationship with each other and the living God that continues to speak to us today. These words have been used to describe God and his character for thousands of years, and we call this theology. We believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak equally to all generations of believers, including us, today. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative individually and communally to faithfully interpret and live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit of God.

(2 Timothy 3:16-17 // Psalm 119:9-11 // 2 Peter 1:20-21 // Hebrews 4:12 // John 17:17)

THE CREATOR

In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers and with a missional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation. We recognize that through human sin, darkness and evil entered the story and are a part of the world, fracturing our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation.

(Genesis 1-3 // Romans 3:23; 6:23 // Deuteronomy 6:4 // Matthew 28:19)

LIVING IN COMMUNITY

We believe we were made to live in community with God and with each other without the pains of sin and death. But because of our sin, we have wrecked God’s good creation and brought death, chaos and havoc into all of life. And though we are self-destructive, God in his loving-kindness has chosen to save us from ourselves. Our God, Jesus, came to live without sin as our example, die for our sin as our substitute, and rise from death as our Lord who liberates us from Satan, sin, and death. Only through Jesus can we be brought back into friendship (fellowship) with God and with each other, because He takes away the sin that separates us. And only through Jesus can we be brought back into His original intentions for us: worshiping God instead of ourselves, serving the common good, influencing today’s culture as we put Christ on display, and through his grace, helping to right what has been made wrong through sin.

(Ephesians 2 // Ephesians 6 // Genesis 2:18 // Hebrews 10:24-25 // Acts 2:41-47 //1 Corinthians 12-14 // Matthew 28-18-20 // 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

RESTORING ALL THINGS

We believe that God did not abandon His creation, rather He promised to restore this broken world. God chose a people to represent Him in the world. This people started with Abraham and his descendants. God promised to make them into a mighty nation. In time they became enslaved in Egypt. They cried out to God because of their oppression and God heard their cry. He brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity as his treasured possession, a Kingdom of priests, a holy people. The story continues, revealing God’s refusal to give up on his people despite their (and our) frequent acts of unfaithfulness to him.

(Colossians 1:19-23 // Revelation 21 // Matthew 24:36 // I Thessalonians 4:15-17 //John 14:1-3 // Matthew 24-25)

TRUSTING JESUS

For all who trust Jesus, the Spirit of God affirms as children of God. God resides in and though the lives of all His children. At the center of everything, we invite everyone (everywhere) always to trust Jesus with their whole life. God empowers with us with gifts, convicts us, guides us, comforts us, counsels us, and leads us into truth through a communal life of worship and the missional expression of our faith. The church is a global and local expression of living out the way of Jesus through love, sacrifice, and healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a broken and hurting world.

(II Corinthians 5:17 // Philippians 4:6-7 // Ephesians 4:22-24 // 1 Peter 1:3 // John 14:6 // Titus 3:4-7 // Acts 4:12 // John 1:12 // Romans 3:21-26 // Ephesians 1:7, 2:8-9 // Hebrews 10:10-12 // I John 5:11-13 // Galatians 3:26 // John 3:16)

JESUS RETURN AND RESTORED CREATION

We believe the day is coming when Jesus will return and judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God’s original intent. He will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth’s groaning will cease, and God will dwell with us (His people) here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death, and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation will be whole and filled with the Shalom (peace) of God our Creator. All will flourish as God intends. This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. And we will give our lives to living out that future reality now.

(Ephesians 2 // Revelation 21 // Genesis 1-3 // Romans 1:18-32 // Romans 3 & 5)

THE CHURCH

The church is a local community of baptized believers unified through faith in Christ. The church is people committed to the teachings of Christ, to obeying all of His commands, and it seeks to bring the gospel to the world. The Church works together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ. God’s plan for redemption is the Life, death, burial, resurrection and reigning of His Son Jesus extended through the local church. This is so important to us that we celebrate Communion on a weekly basis.

(Matthew 16:18-19; 18:15-20 // Acts 2:41-47; 5:11-14; 13:1-3; 14:23; 16:5; 20:28 //1 Corinthians 7:17; 9:13-14; 12 //Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:10-12; 5:22-32 // Colossians 1:18; 3:15 // 1 Timothy 4:14 // 1 Peter 5:1-4 // Revelation 21:2-3)

ETERNITY

Man was created to exist forever. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin, or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is eternal life. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence. The death rate, for people, still stands at 100% and for all of us Heaven or Hell begins in this life.

(John 3:16, 36; Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:25; 5:11-13;Revelation 20:15)