Sabtu, 28 Maret 2009

gbkp's confession

GBKP'S CONFESSION


Chapter I: God

God is the creator and caretaker of the universe and everything in it.

Only with the help of the Holy Spirit, can humans arrive at a full-knowledge of God’s Son as revealed through God’s creation and the Bible centered on the witness of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

Chapter II: Creation

  1. The universe and everything in it whether it is visible or invisible, is God’s creation and under God’s power. Thus it cannot be worshipped.
  2. All created things are in interdependent relationships. They are meant to stay in those relationships and that is considered very good. Human beings are allowed by God to maintain this interdependent relationship. However as humans are mandated by God, they must not make themselves Mandators.

Chapter III: The Bible

  1. The Bible is one of the scriptures of the contextual witness of God that is written with the help of the Holy Spirit in the books known as the Old and New Testaments.

b. The Bible’s witness is centered on God’s everlasting love that began with the time of creation, through to the birth, death, resurrection and the coming of Jesus. Thus, with the Holy Spirit’s help, the Bible must function as the foundation of the church’s life, theology and the people who call themselves Christian.

Chapter IV: Human beings

  1. Human beings are created in the image of God as men and women who have the same dignity and ability to maintain the harmonious relationship among creation that was very good in the beginning.
  2. However the dominion of sin in humans makes them not able to live in the real truth, so this condition has an impact in society and the integration of creation. That is the reason that the Holy Spirit, given to Christians in the Baptism, empowers humans to survive the process of becoming a completed human being. Thus this condition will transform the society and the integration of creation. Hence, salvation is only by God’s grace and God’s right, therefore the Baptized should show the way of life as a new born persons who live in the spirit.

Chapter V: Church

  1. The church is a fellowship of the new born people who need to renew themselves continuously by the Holy Spirit to be able to stand as salt and light in the context in which they are. Thus the church must testify to Jesus’ model of life to reveal the reign of God in the world. This is the meaning of the church as Christ’s body where Christ is the head.
  2. The church does not adopt the world’s values, instead proclaiming God’s values, that were revealed through the life of Jesus in the form of love, alongside the poor, the powerless, and the eliminated, to erect righteousness and justice. This is church’s calling to transform the world
  3. The church must be able to have dialogue with the government in its location
  4. Each member of the fellowship who is the new born people has a role and takes a part in the witness (martyria), fellowship (koinonia) and service (diaconia) of the church as a realization of the missioner congregation under coordination and guidance from the presbyter: the reverends, elders and deaconesses.

Chapter VI: Worship

  1. As People who have been saved by God, the Christian life should be lived in gratitude, expressed by their thought, words and deeds. This is genuine Christian worship
  2. Christians should surrender themselves, their works and families totally to God.
  3. Each Christian should live in the world but never be the same as the world
  4. Each Christian should have courage to give in the material forms though in the shortage and not in the surplus condition to prevent from the anxiety matters and to be able to exalt God in every situation.
  5. Each Christian should have hope in their life since God has a plan for every chosen people, so that Christians may always be able to rejoice
  6. Christian marriage is the marriage between man and woman that is based on the covenant relationship that is modeled by God to humans from the time of Noah till the birth of Jesus, God’s son: that is a covenant that is based on the faithfulness everlasting love. Thus a divorce is unknown in Christian marriage, since God never ever cuts off God’s relationship with human being
  7. To be able to be materialized in their worship any time and everywhere, Christians should have fellowship together in the communal worship celebration such as the Sunday worship to be together to praise God, to listen to the testimony about God and a command for a new born life, and together to be renewed and strengthen each other. Thus in the Sunday worship service, the words of God in the form of sermon and sacraments: Children and adult baptism and holy communion are declared
  8. Every Christian child and member of the Christian family that is not under the church’s discipline, should be baptized and take a part in the Holy Communion.
  9. Sunday worship service should be done in the atmosphere of giving a gratitude to the glorification of God almighty that is evident in the attitude of the worship leaders and participants.
  10. The worship leaders and participants should bring the best of themselves, their offerings and services for God

k. People who assist at worship should master the theological basics of the liturgy and hymns that are used in the service, to manifest one holistic theology from the beginning till the end of worship.

l. The theological basics, the form of the liturgy and hymns that are used in the worship service should be a result of dialectical relations between the Bible with our tradition and the context of the worshiper.