A woman from our church had some free literature from “Service of Friendship Mission.” The gospel presentation seemed solid, but I went online and the meager website offers no doctrinal statement and does not appear to belong to any mission organization.
They are headquartered in Switzerland. Although the gospel presentation is solid, I am suspicious of any church or organization that doesn’t offer a doctrinal statement.
Discussion
NewDoctrinal Statement
Ed,
I think the problem is that their “meager” website just doesn’t have many resources in English, and appears to be just a single page. If you change the language to German, there is much more there (just like a regular website), and in fact, they do have a doctrinal statement posted. I’m by no means a qualified translator (so don’t read too closely for language that sounds a little off to you), but it reads roughly like this:
1. The entire Holy Scriptures are the Word of God delivered by God to man. It is divine truth and infallible. The Bible is our highest authority in all our questions of faith and life.
2. The unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
3. The complete sinfulness of all people since the Fall, and because of that, the eternal damnation of all unsaved people
4. The incarnation of God in Jesus Christ — the pure conception by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary
5. The salvation from all sin and guilt only by grace through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the cleansing through his shed blood. We experience here on earth salvation from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin, and after death salvation from the presence of sin.
6. The bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from death, and his raising to the right hand of God
7. The absolute necessity of new birth in Jesus Christ, accomplished through the Holy Spirit
8. A person born again in Christ is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and is predestined to belief in the promises of God and to complete surrender to the service of God.
9. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the resurrection of those children of God who are asleep, and the removal of his church, to the establishment of his World rule, and to the judgment of all those not born again and not written in the Book of Life.
Any language awkwardness is mine, and since I don’t know them well (and again, I’m not a professional translator), I avoided translating some expressions into what we might call well-known spiritual expression choices (e.g. “kingdom” for “world rule” and so on). However, from what is written here, I would be pretty comfortable getting to know a group like this and at least in some circumstances, spiritual work together.
Dave Barnhart