STATEMENT OF FAITH
The church in Canada desperately needs help more than ever to navigate the myriad of ideological and theological challenges confronting Christians today. AC is uncompromisingly committed to Jesus Christ and the good news found in Him alone. We are committed to the apologetics mandate of 1 Peter 3:15-16 (this idea is also communicated elsewhere in the New Testament such as Colossians 2:2-5, 8 and Colossians 4:5-6) as a biblical and effective tool for discipleship in helping accomplish the Great Commission. AC approaches apologetics with gentleness and respect, while not shying away from the tough questions with a primary Gospel focus. The Gospel is clearly articulated in the creeds of both the Bible and the Early Church.
1 Peter 3:15-16 (NIV) But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
Colossians 2:2-4, 8 (NIV) My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Colossians 4:5-6 (NIV) Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
WHAT WE BELIEVE
AC recognizes the 66 books of the Protestant canon of the Bible as the inspired and inerrant word of God and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
AC believes the Bible itself is the inspired word of God. Therefore, the Bible is the only authoritative source of Christian doctrine. The following is a sample of creedal statements found in the Bible and represent the infallible expressions of Christian orthodoxy:
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
John 1:1-3, 10, 12-14 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 10:9-10 (NIV) If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
1 Corinthians 8:6 (NIV) [Yet] for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NIV) For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Philippians 2:6-11 (NIV) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Colossians 1:12-20 (NIV) [And] giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 2:9-15 (NIV) For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
1 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
CREEDS
AC recognizes these post-biblical creeds and confessions as valuable and faithful, though not infallible, expressions of Christian orthodoxy.
THE APOSTLES' CREED (ca. 125)
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, died, and was buried; descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead; ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from where he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life everlasting.
THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED (381)
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father; through whom all things were made. Who, for us human beings and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was made flesh by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made a human being; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; and suffered, and was buried; and the third day rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom will have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father; who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified; who spoke through the prophets. In one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
THE DEFINITION OF CHALCEDON (451)
We, now, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body; of one substance with the Father with respect to his deity, and of one substance with us with respect to his humanity; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father, with respect to his deity, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the God-bearer, with respect to his humanity; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-Begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only-begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.
