UNIQUENESS AND UNIVERSALITY OF CHRIST

Golgotha is referred to in early writings as being a hill looking like the skull-pan of a head very near a gate into the city of Jerusalem. Calvary, or Golgotha, was the site outside of ancient Jerusalem's early first century walls, at which the crucifixion of Jesus is said to have occurred. Golgotha was probably a small hill. According to Christian tradition, it was within the area now occupied by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The name "Golgotha" is derived from the Aramaic word gulgulta. Matthew 27:33 and Mark 15:22 give its meaning as "place of the skull". The Latin translation of that word is Calvary. It was on this hill hat our Savior laid down his life. It was on this hill He spilled his last drop of blood for our sin. It is this hill, through the Scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior!

We affirm that there is only one Savior and only one gospel. We recognize that everyone has some knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this can save, for people suppress the truth by the unrighteousness. We also reject as derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and dialogue which implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus Christ, being himself the only God-man, who gave himself as the only ransom for sinners, is the only mediator between God and his people. There is no other name by which we must be saved. All men and women are perishing because of sin, but God loves everyone, not wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to enteral separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as the Savior of the world is not affirming that all people are either automatically or ultimately saved, still less to affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim God's love for a world of sinners and to invite everyone to respond to Him as Savior and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue confess him Lord

(Gal 1:6-9; Rom 1:18-32; 1 Tim 2:5-6; Acts 4:21; John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Thess 1:7-9; John 4:42; Matt 11:28; Eph 1:20; Phil 2:9-11)

THE PURPOSE OF GOD

Mt. Zion is the mountain on which Jerusalem is built, where Solomon's Temple rested. Frequently described symbolically as where God dwells. "Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King." (Psa. 48:2). As the home of the eternal God, Mt. Zion is itself eternal. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mt. Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever (Psalms 125:1). In the Psalms we hear not about the historical past when David captured the city of Jerusalem, but, rather, we see the eternal God who reigns forever from Mt. Zion (Psalms 76:2-3). Mt. Zion is God's fortress, His eternal military defense post. "Within her citadels God has shown himself a sure defense" (Psalms 48:4). Because God is our defender, Mt. Zion is a refuge for the redeemed and the most permanent of the mountains.

The spiritual meaning of "Zion" is continued in the New Testament, where it is given the Christian meaning of God's spiritual Kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1) Peter refers to Christ as the Cornerstone of Zion: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame." (1 Peter 2:6) It is this hill, through the Scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of the true nature of our God and His intent for us!

We affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of His will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his Kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name.

We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when born by earthen vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.

(Isa 40:28; Matt 28:19; Eph 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor 5:10; Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 4:7)

THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE BIBLE

Mt. Sinai is a mountain peak in the southern Sinai Penisula (7,500 feet high); it is the peak on which Moses received the Ten Commandments. Having encamped before Mount Sinai, the Israelites were told that from this mountain they would receive the commandments of God, and that they would hear His very voice. They were commanded to give three days to preparation, for on the third day God would come down on the mountain in sight of all the people. Moses set a boundary to which they might go, and they were prohibited under penalty of death from even touching the mountain. On the third day, the mountain was enveloped in a cloud; it quaked and was filled with smoke as God descended upon it, while lightening flashes shot forth, and the roar of thunder mingled with the peals of trumpets. On the seventh day Moses was commanded by God to ascend the mountain to receive the tablets of the Law; he remained there forty days and nights (Ex.xxiv 9-10, 16-18). When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he has been talking with God. To scale this mountain is to understand God's Holy Word to us. It is this hill, through the scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of the authority and power of God's Word.

We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all men and women. For God's revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through it the Holy Spirit speaks today.

(2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:21' John 10:35; Isa 55:11; 1 Cor 1:21; Rom 1:16; Matt 5:17,18; Jude 3; Eph 1:17,18; 3:10,18)

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Mount Tabor is a steep round hill on the north-east side of the Jezreel valley. It played an important role in Biblical history, and it is linked to the Transfiguration of Jesus. The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event reported in scripture which Jesus was transfigured upon a mountain (Matthew 17:1-6; Mark 9:1-8; Luke 9:28-36). The original Greek term in the Gospels is metamorphothe, describing Jesus as having undergone metamorphosis. The Gospels state that Jesus led three of his disciples Peter, John the Apostle, and James the Great- to pray at the top of a mountain. Once at the top, Jesus became transfigured, his face shining like the sun, and his clothes a brilliant white. Elijah and Moses suddenly appeared with Jesus and talked with him; Once they had spoken with each other, the Gospels state that a bright cloud overshadowed them (Luke also says they entered into the cloud) and a voice from the cloud proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," paralleling a similar event during the Baptism of Jesus. However, this time the voice adds "Hear him." Jesus' human nature was transfigured or went through a metamorphosis by the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, whose voice witnessed to the Son's divine nature. The Transfiguration is a window into the Spirit realm, through which we see Jesus as everything, from the beginning to the end in God's plan of redemption. John 1:1-5 and Revelation 1:1 and 1:8. Mt. Tabor, the 'mountain' where the Transfiguration occurred is for us a figure of repentance. It is the place where the Spirit of God revealed the true nature of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is still revealing Jesus today. Christians go through metamorphosis through the work of the Holy Spirit. People's eyes and hearts are open to see Jesus for who He truly is through the Spirit. To scale this mountain is to understand the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is this hill, through the scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of the power, nature, and revelation of the Spirit.

We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father send his Spirit to bear witness to his Son; without his witness ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are all his work. Further, the Holy Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become a realistic possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom, faith, holiness, love, and power.

We therefore call upon all christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the church become a fit instrument in His hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice.

(1 cor 2:4; John 15:26;27;16:8-11;1 Cor 12:3; John 3"6-8; 2 Cor 3:18; John 7:37-39; 1 Thess 5:19; Acts 1:8; Psa 85:4-7; Gal 5:22-23;1 Cor 12:4-31; Rom 12:3-8)

SPIRITUAL CONFLICT

Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The Carmel range is approximately 4 to 5 miles wide, sloping gradually towards the southwest, but forming a steep ridge on the northeastern face 1,810 ft. high. In the book of 1 Kings, Elijah challenges 450 prophets of Baal( a title given to local false gods) to a contest at the altar on Mount Carmel to determine whose deity was genuinely in control of the Kingdom of Israel. The Bible in 1 Kings 18 says, the challenge was to see which deity could light a sacrifice by fire. After the prophets of Baal had failed to achieve this, Elijah has water poured on his sacrifice several times to saturate the altar, prostrated himself in prayer to God, fire fell from the sky, and immediately consumed the sacrifice and the water, prompting the Israelite witnesses to proclaim, "The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!" In the account, clouds gather, the sky turns black, and it rains heavily, ending a long drought. The spiritual battle on Mt. Carmel between the true God of the Bible and the false gods of the world should rattle our spiritual cages and remind us that God along with His people are at war with a formidable enemy. John 10:10 describes our enemy as a thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy us. Ephesians 6:12 tells us... "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." At this point in the story of God we are at war. However, our hope is in the victory of the cross. We do not fight for a victory but we fight from a victory. It is through the victory and authority of Jesus Christ we can stand in armor against the wiles of the enemy. He is already a defeated foe. Nevertheless, the battle rages and even today Mount Carmel is a place of spiritual battle against the authority of God and His Word.

Between 1930 and 1932, there were four caves excavated on Mount Carmel. Archaeologists discovered a Neanderthal female, named Tabun I, which is regarded as one of the most important human fossils ever found. Scientist say this discovery represents roughly a million years of human evolution. This finding along with others emphasize the paramount back bone of a battle that has ravaged the biblical authority of the Genesis of the Bible. This battle that rages on between God and man's attempt to make Him go away is not one we can ignore. To scale this mountain is to understand the spiritual warfare that rages around us. It is this hill, through the Scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of what it means to submit unto God, and resist the enemy's allure.

We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the principalities and powers of evil, who are seeking to overthrow the Church and frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves with God's armor and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth and prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false ideologies outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels which twist Scripture and put people in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We acknowledge that we ourselves are not immune to worldliness of thoughts and action, that is, to a surrender to secularism. For example, although careful studies of church growth, both numerical and spiritual, are right and valuable, we have sometimes neglected them. At other times, desirous to ensure a response to the gospel, we have compromised our message, manipulated our hearers through pressure techniques, and become unduly preoccupied with statistics or even dishonest in our use of them. All this is worldly. The Church must be in the world; the world must not be in the Church.

(Eph 6:12; 2 Cor 4:3,4; Eph 6:11,13-18; 2 Cor 10:3-5; 1 John 2:18-26; 4:1-3; Gal 1:6-9; 2 Cor 2:17; 4:2; John 17:17)

CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We believe that faith without works is dead. (Jas. 2:14-26) Nowhere in scripture is faith is more clearly demonstrated than on Mt. Moriah. Mount Moriah is the name of the elongated north-south stretch of land lying betweenthe Kidron Valley and "Hagai" Valley, between Mount Zion to the west and the Mount of Olives to the east. (Although there is some debate as to the exact location.)

Moriah is a name given this Mountain in the book of Genesis where Abraham was told by God to take his son Isaac up on the mount and sacrifice him. Genesis 22:2: "And He said: 'Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.'" As well the tradition of "Jacob's Dream" in Genesis 28 is also identified with Mount Moriah: "He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. He had a dream; a stairway was set on the ground and its top reached to the sky, and angels of God were going up and down on it. And the Lord was standing beside him... Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ... "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God and that is the gateway to heaven" (Genesis 28:10-18). This is perhaps the most colorful representation of the essential nature of the site which some would later claim was the "navel of the world". At the summit of Mount Moriah, traditionally, is the "Foundation Stone," the symbolic fundament of the world's creation, and reputedly the site of the Temple's Holy of Holies, the supreme embodiment of the relationship between God and the people of Israel. But it is most significant that on this Mountain the father of faith, Abraham, demonstrated what we all need to know, through his willingness to sacrifice his own son. What we think belongs to us does not. It all belongs to God and He can call for it at a time of His own choosing. And therefore, since it all belongs to Him, we all must reflect on what we have received. He is a generous God and we must reflect that generosity to our world. It is this hill, through the scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of what it means to serve our God and serve others no matter who they are or what they have done.

We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all people. We therefore should share His concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society and for the liberation of men and women from every kind of oppression. Because men and women are made in the image of God, every person, regardless of race, religion, color, culture, class, sex or age, has an intrinsic dignity because of which he or she should be respected and served, not exploited. Although reconciliation with other people is not reconciliation with God, nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation, nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty. The salvation we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.

(Acts 17:26,31; Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa. 45:7; Gen. 1:26,27; Jas. 3:9; Lev. 19:18; Luke 6:27,35; Jas. 2:14-26; Joh. 3:3,5; Matt. 5:20; 6:33; II Cor. 3:18; Jas. 2:20)

THE RETURN OF CHRIST

The Mount of Olives (also Mount Olivet) is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 2,683 ft. It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. The mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves.

The Mount of Olives is first mentioned in connection with David's flight from Absalom (II Samuel 15:30): "And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up." The Mount of Olives is frequently mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 21:1;26:30, etc.) as the route from Jerusalem to Bethany and the place where Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem. Jesus is said to have spent time on the mount, teaching and prophesying to his disciples (Matthew 24–25), including the Olivet discourse, returning after each day to rest (Luke 21:37), and also coming there on the night of his betrayal (Matthew 26:39). At the foot of the Mount of Olives lies the Garden of Gethsemane. The New Testament, tells how Jesus and his friends sang together – "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" Gospel of Matthew 26:30. Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mt of Olives as recorded in Acts 1:9–12.

The Mount of Olives is a mountain highly related to not only the acts of Christ while he was here on earth, but also to his return. (Acts 1:9-11) “After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “men of Galilee” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” To scale this mountain is to understand what lies ahead for the believer in Christ. It is this hill, through the scriptures, we will climb. And on this hill we will finally be able to see a clear picture of what’s to come (The New Jerusalem) and how God will finally close the chapter on this part of the story.

We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly, in power and glory, to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This promise of his coming is a further spur toward evangelism, for we remember his words that the gospel must first be preached to all nations. We believe that the interim period between Christ's ascension and return is to be filled with the mission of the people of God, who have no liberty to stop before the end. We also remember his warning that false Christs and false prophets will arise as precursors of the final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud, self-confident dream the notion that people can ever build a utopia on earth. Our Christian confidence is that God will perfect his kingdom, and we look forward with eager anticipation to that day, and to the new heaven and earth in which righteousness will dwell and God will reign forever. Meanwhile, we rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ and of people in joyful submission to his authority over the whole of our lives.

(Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8-11; Matt. 28:20; Mark 13:21-23; John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; II Pet. 3:13; Matt. 28:18)