What We Believe

As a ministry in the service of God, Candlelighters International faithfully upholds the revealed truths of the Holy Scripture. We commit ourselves to the following vital teachings of Scripture and the Christian faith.

We believe in:

1. The Authority of Scripture: The Bible is God’s inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. The truth of the Bible is absolute and not relative. The central salvation message and essential teachings are clear and accessible to all who follow the standard and self-evident rules of literary interpretation. The truth proper to the Word of God is the final authority of faith and practice for every believer. The Holy Scripture God-breathed, and is the ultimate source for knowledge about God. It is the definitive guide for our daily lives and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.
2. The Triune Nature of God: We affirm the existence of God in three-person, that is to say, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
3. The Creator God: We believe in a God who created the universe from nothing and He rules sovereignly over His creation including both human and angelic beings.
4. The Triune Nature of Man (human beings): We also hold that man is a spiritual being (with a spirit and a soul) and leaves in a physical body. We believe that Man is created in the image of God, but because of man’s sin or transgression man’s nature is distorted, leading to Man’s lose of fellowship with God. Man’s fallen or sinful state is so severe that its effects continue to be seen in man’s life and society – manifesting in different forms of cruelty, suffering, and death.
5. A Savior in Jesus the Christ: By God’s grace, Jesus the Christ – Who is fully God and fully man – was sent to save us from our bondage to sin. We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who took upon Himself human flesh through the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Mary (who was a virgin). We believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, died for the sins of mankind, physically rose from the dead and was seen on the earth for a while, ascended into heaven, and will return to judge the world and deliver His saints. We believe that Jesus’ death on the cross provided a penal substitutionary atonement for the sins of humanity, offering salvation back to God. In salvation, we are rescued from God’s wrath. We believe that Jesus the Christ who is true God became true man, uniting two natures in one person forever, lived a perfect, sinless life. Faith in Jesus the Christ is the only means by which mankind can escape eternal damnation and judgment.
6. The Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is the eternal Third Person of the Triune God, the Regenerator and Sanctifier of the redeemed, the Revealer and Bestower of all truth, spiritual fruits and gifts, and the abiding Advocate who empowers believers for godly living and service.
7. The Church as the Body of Christ: We believe in one holy, universal (not eclectic), and apostolic Church. Its calling is to worship God and witness Jesus the Christ to all nations, through demonstrating the love and righteousness of Jesus Christ with compassionate service to the needs of all. Within the true church, the Bride of Christ, corporately and individually, the members strive to worship, serve, and glorify God through prayer and praise, diligent study and application of the Scriptures, sanctified living, good works.
8. The Rapture: At His second coming, Christ will snatch up from the earthly lives and also raise from the dead those who have received the free gift of salvation, to live forever in fellowship in the Kingdom of God in heaven. The ultimate destiny of unredeemed humanity is eternal punishment in hell with Satan and his cohorts.