Church Services Online Salem WI
The Church of God in Kenosha WI invites you to come as you are and experience the love and grace of Jesus of Nazareth. The Church has a several fold reason for existing in the world today. These important purposes are divinely originated and are found in the New Testament.
In what appears to be the closing hours of the present order of things in the light of Scripture, there is mounting concern about the Church’s role. The denominational “Babel,” or doctrinal confusion, is clearly at variance with the major scriptural references to the Church. This “church confusion” had its beginning with the Council of Nicea in A. D. 325 when The Church of God of apostolic times plunged into what history has called the “Dark Ages.”
Church Services Online Salem WI
The faith of the gospel has been committed solely into the hands of the Church and thus the responsibility for keeping and guarding the faith rests upon the Church’s shoulders.
It is The Church of God’s duty to keep the faith pure and unadulterated and to defend it against all enemies. One phase of keeping and guarding the faith is the searching out and putting into operation God’s laws for the Church, the full restoration of the New Testament doctrine and governing principles.
These teachings are all based on the Scripture; they were taught and practiced by the early Church; and they have been searched out in these last days by godly men and women not concerned with their own opinions. However, the Church does not make a “hobby horse” of any one teaching or group of teachings, but accepts the whole Bible rightly divided with the New Testament as the only rule for government and discipline. These teachings of the Church do not constitute a creed or statement of beliefs, for The Church of God accepts the whole Bible as the inspired Word of God.
All those who become members of the Church assume the following obligation:
“Will you sincerely promise in the presence of God and these witnesses that you will accept this Bible as the Word of God—believe and practice its teachings rightly divided—the New Testament as your rule of faith and practice, government and discipline, and walk in the light to the best of your knowledge and ability?” This is a “perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.”
Subsequent to Justification…Sanctification is the second definite work of grace, an instantaneous work wrought in the regenerated heart by the Holy Ghost with the blood of Christ. Whereas in regeneration actual transgressions are blotted out, in sanctification the Adamic nature, or inbred sin, is eradicated. “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Hebrews 13:12, 13). Read Romans 5:2; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 John 1:9. Sanctification restores man to the holy estate of Adam before the fall, gives him the grace to live a life of holiness, and makes him eligible for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
When a person is sanctified wholly he is eligible for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. This indwelling is a definite and instantaneous experience described in the Scripture by the word “baptism,” and always accompanied by the evidence of speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. It has no reference to water baptism, regeneration or sanctification. It is the filling of the temple already made clean by sanctification. It is not a work of grace but a gift of God in answer to the prayer of Christ. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is an enduement of power for service. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Read 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17; Luke 24:49; Matthew 3:11.
Feet washing was instituted by Jesus on the night of the Last Supper and is a New Testament ordinance we are enjoined to observe in addition to communion. Its observance was taught by the apostles and practiced by the early Church. Charity and good works do not fulfill this obligation. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Read John 13:4-17; 1 Timothy 5:10.
Tithing is the paying of one tenth of our increase into the treasury of the Church. It began with Abraham, continued under the law and received Christ’s approval. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23). The obligation of tithing is not fulfilled by giving ten percent to the poor or to some good cause but only by paying it into the Church treasurer. Giving differs from and is in addition to tithing. Both are parts of God’s plan to finance His work on earth. Read Genesis 14:19-20; Malachi 3:10; Luke 11:42; 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:6-9; Hebrews 7:1-21.
Our life in this present world determines our eternal reward. The unconverted and the wicked are doomed to eternal punishment, from which there is no escape—no liberation but annihilation. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25:46). Read Mark 3:29, 2 Thessalonians 1:8, 9; Revelation 20:10-15; 21:8.
Divorce and remarriage constitute the sin of adultery. Matthew 5:32, “But I say unto you, That whosever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced comitteth adultery.” The only allowable causes for remarriage are fornication and death. However, fornication is not unfaithfulness or simple adultery, but is a state of being married to another’s wife or husband. 1 Corinthians 7:2, “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife.” Read Matthew 5:32; 19:3-9; Mark 10:12; Romans 7:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, 13; 1 Corinthians 6:16-18; 7:10, 11; Revelation 2:22.