Wild Olive Shoot Foundation - Statement of Faith

The Scriptures - We believe the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments to be the full record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. Different men, while writing according to their own styles and personalities, were supernaturally moved along by the Holy Spirit to record God’s very words, inerrant in the original writings. Therefore, those applying themselves to study its literal, historical-grammatical context can accurately understand God’s Word. Scripture is fully trustworthy as our final and sufficient authority for all of life (2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21).

The Triune God - We believe in the one living and true God, eternally (John 17:3) existing in perfect unity as three equally and fully divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19–20). Each member of the Godhead, while executing distinct but complementary roles in redemptive history, has precisely the same nature, attributes, and being, and is equally worthy of the same glory and honor and obedience (John 1:1–4; Acts 5:3–4).

God the Father - We believe God the Father created all things in six literal days for His glory according to His own will (Revelation 4:11), through His Son, Jesus Christ. He upholds all things by the Word of His power and grace, exercising sovereign headship over all creation, providence, and redemption (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).

God the Son - We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, moved by love in accordance with the will of the Father, took on human flesh (John 1:1, 14, 18). Conceived through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary. He, being fully God and fully man (John 14:8–9), lived a sinless life and sacrificially shed His blood and died on the cross in our place accomplishing redemption for all who place their faith in Him. He arose visibly and bodily from the dead three days later and ascended into heaven, where, at the Father’s right hand, He is now Head of His Body the Church, the only Savior and Mediator between God and man, and will return to earth in power and glory to consummate His redemptive mission (1 Timothy 3:16).

God the Spirit - We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ during this age. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He draws the unredeemed to faith, and at salvation imparts new spiritual life to the believer, bringing that person into union with Christ and the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit sanctifies, seals, fills, guides, instructs, comforts, equips, empowers, permanently indwells at salvation, and bestows spiritual gifts to the believer for Christ-like living and service (John 16:8, 13:15; Ephesians 1:22, 4:11–12; Romans 8:9–17, 12:4–8; 1 Corinthians 3:16, 12:4–5, 11–13, 19; Galatians 5:25; Hebrews 2:1–4; 2 Corinthians 12:12).

Mankind - We believe that God created mankind—male and female—in His own image and likeness, free of sin, to glorify Himself and enjoy His fellowship. Tempted by Satan, but in the sovereign plan of God, man freely chose to disobey God, bringing sin, death, and condemnation to all mankind. All human beings, therefore, are totally depraved by nature and by choice. Alienated from God without defense or excuse, and subject to God’s righteous wrath, all of mankind is in desperate need of the Savior (Genesis 3:1–6; Romans 3:10–19; Romans 1:18, 32).

Salvation - We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, as the substitutionary atonement in our place, and that salvation is found in none other than Jesus Christ (Romans 5:8, John 14:6). No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he or she is born again. A new nature and a new life implanted by the Holy Spirit through the Word, is absolutely essential to salvation (John 3:5, Titus 3:5). Our redemption has been accomplished solely by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made to be sin, and made a curse for us, dying as a substitute for us. Nothing can add to the value of the precious blood, or to the merit of that finished work, given to us by Him who united in His person true and proper divinity with perfect and sinless humanity (Galatians 3:13, Matthew 26:28, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 2:13). The moment we trust in Him as our Savior by faith alone, we pass out of death into everlasting life. We are made a new creation by the Holy Spirit, declared righteous before God, and secured as an adopted child of God forever (Galatians 3:14, Galatians 2:20-21, Romans 5:1, Ephesians 2:4-6, 1 John 5:11-12).

The Church - We believe that upon placing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, the believer is made part of the Body of Christ, the one universal Church, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. The Scriptures command believers to gather locally in order to devote themselves to worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, fellowship, the ordinances of baptism and communion, service to the church body through the development and use of talents and spiritual gifts, and outreach to the world to make disciples (Ephesians 1:22–23; Acts 2:42–46; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Matthew 28:18–20). Wherever God’s people meet in obedience to this command, there is the local expression of the Church under the watchful care of a plurality of elders. A church’s members are to work together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ (Ephesians 4:16).

Baptism and Communion - We believe that Christian baptism is a public declaration of the believer’s salvation in Christ, picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ symbolized by immersion in water. The Lord’s Supper is the united commemoration by believers of Christ’s death until He comes and should be preceded by a careful self-examination (Acts 2:41; Romans 6:3–6; 1 Corinthians 11:20–29).

Missions - We believe it is the aim, duty, and privilege of every believer to glorify God by responding as active participants in the Great Commission call of Jesus Christ to go and make disciples of all nations. We believe the primary focus and priority of this call is centered on efforts that establish, strengthen, and reproduce biblically-based churches, which will then plant churches that plant churches for future generations and God’s glory. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8)

Hospitality - We believe our Christian motivation for extending hospitality to the stranger is our experience of receiving hospitality from God. We were estranged from God with no claims on God. But God, in his great love for us, offered us hospitality while we were yet sinners. He invited us into his household, not just as Guests but as adopted joint-heirs with Christ. And God’s hospitality came at a cost. His only Son had to suffer and die (and rise again in vindication) so that we might have a place once again at God’s table. (Mathew 25:40-45, Romans 12:9-13, Titus 1:8, 1 Peter 4:11)

Lifestyle - We believe it is God’s will for believers to live a holy life in cooperation with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit while putting to death the deeds of the flesh. God, the Father, does discipline His children. (1 Thessalonians 4:3, Romans 8:13, Hebrews 12:4-11)

Gender - We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female, and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Marriage - We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman, and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that union. (Genesis 1:18-25, 1 Corinthians 6:18, 7:2-5, Hebrews 13:4)

Sanctity of Life - We believe that all human life is sacred and created by God in His image. Human life is of inestimable worth in all its dimensions, including pre-born babies, the aged, the physically or mentally challenged, and every other stage or condition from conception through natural death. We are therefore called to defend, protect, and value all human life. (Psalm 139)

Things to Come - We believe in and expectantly await the glorious, visible, personal, imminent premillennial return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed hope of His return has vital bearing on the personal life, service, and mission of the believer (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. The lost will be raised to judgment and experience eternal wrath in hell. The saved will be raised to eternal joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God (Acts 1:3, 9; Hebrews 7:25–26).

This belief statement of faith does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs. The Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible Word of God that speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of mankind, is the sole and final source of all that we believe. For purposes of Wild Olive Shoot’s faith, doctrine, practice, policy, and discipline, the Board of Wild Olive Shoot Foundation is the final interpretive authority on the Bible’s meaning and application.

Ministry Verse

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Romans 11:17–21