We Believe...

The following statements expresses the evangelical commitment of MAP INTERNATIONAL, INC. All Board Members, Committee Members, and Missionaries shall subscribe to it in writing at the time of selection. The Board of MAP INTERNATIONAL shall corporately read it at each bi-annual meeting. MAP is committed to the fundamental truths of historic, biblical Christianity, and we believe:

• There is one, eternal God, Creator and Lord of the universe who, in the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, both governs all things according to God's will and is accomplishing God's purpose in the world and in the church
• The Holy Scripture in its entirety is inspired by God's Spirit through human authors and constitutes the revelation of God's truth to humanity. It is wholly true and trustworthy in all that it affirms. Whatever the Bible, rightly interpreted, is found to teach, we are bound to believe and obey. It is our supreme authority in every matter of belief and conduct
• All human beings are created in God's own likeness and therefore have inherent value and equality before God. Human sin and guilt since the fall have rendered us subject to God's wrath and condemnation and have resulted in our alienation from God's life, suppression of God's truth and hostility to God's law. God's love desires all to come to repentance and to be reconciled rather than condemned
• Salvation from the guilt, penalty and all other consequences of sin has been achieved solely through the work of Jesus Christ-his perfect obedience, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection and exaltation as Lord. Jesus alone is truly God and truly human, the only mediator between God and humanity. There is salvation through no other person, creed, process or power. Each sinner is justified before God and reconciled to God only by divine grace appropriated by faith alone
• The work of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the individual's new birth and growth to maturity. The Holy Spirit empowers and indwells the church, enabling its constant renewal in truth, wisdom, faith, holiness, love, ministry, power and mission
• There is one, holy, universal and apostolic church, which is the Body of Christ, and to which all true believers belong. The church's calling is to worship God forever and to serve God in the world
• The true church is composed of all such persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been generated by the Holy Spirit and are united together in the Body of Christ of which He is the Head
• Water Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances to be observed by the Church during the present age
• As the Father sent the Son into the world, so the Lord Jesus Christ sends his church to participate in God's mission by words and works. In this mission the church is called: to make Christ known; to proclaim God's truth and the gospel of God's grace; to make disciples among all nations; to exhibit God's character through compassionate care for the needy; to demonstrate the reality of God's kingdom through creative and sacrificial living, the community of love, the quest for righteousness, justice and peace, and the care of God's creation
• As the Lord Jesus ascended to his Father, so he will return personally, visibly and in glory. He will raise the dead and bring salvation and judgment to final completion. God will then fully establish his Kingdom and finish the new creation-a new heaven and a new earth from which all evil and evildoers, all suffering and death, will be excluded and in which God will be glorified forever