My Declaration of Faith

1.    My name is James M. Atkinson, and I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, and I have been a Christian for over 50 years.

2.    While my faith is that of a Christian, my denomination is best classified be a “Protestant Evangelical” and a “Pentecostal Christian”, under the “World Assemblies of God Fellowship”, which is the world largest Pentecostal body in the World.

Historical Points of Reference

3.    My faith and denomination can be further defined as “Apostolic Pentecostal Church” under the “Apostolic Christian Fellowship” which has a history in the Amish church movements prior to 1862, and the Amish Mennonite divisions of 1880.

4.    These all trace back to the Lutheran Reformation of Christianity in 1517, and thence through Calvinism of 1563 to 1564, and the Congregationalist movement which developed in the United States in the Colonial Era until the post World War I spiritual revivals of late 1918 and early 1919.

5.    Prior to the Lutheran Reformation of 1517, my faith traces to Roman and Western Catholic interpretation of Christianity, and prior to the founding of the Catholic faith by the Emperor Constantine, to the Messianic Jews and Gentiles in the time of Christ, and the Jewish faith prior to the arrival of Jesus Christ on Earth.

6.    Within my faith and denomination there have been what are called four great religious “Awakenings” (not including the Lutheran Reformation), the first in 1735, lead by Jonathon Edwards of Northampton, Massachusetts and English Anglican cleric George Whitefield in 1738 until his death in 1770 and then by others through 1784, as the Puritan, Congregationalist, Church of England and Calvinist followers evolved to a new understanding of the gospels and emerged as Methodists (of note is that the roots of this “First Great Awakening” shaping what would become the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and creating a great impact on the Originalists who actually authored the Constitution as they endeavored to split church and government).

7.    This led to the “Second Awakening” which began in 1790, at the end of the American Revolution, with notable growth in the Methodist, Presbyterians and Baptist Churches, continuing in the Northern states from 1800 until 1840 and emerging as the driving force behind the abolition movement up to around 1858.

8.    The Third Great Awakening occurred in the years after the Civil War (1858), up to 1908 and the early days of World War One (with evangelist William Sunday, for example), with a slight carry over into the 1930’s through the use of radio (evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, et al).

9.    The Fourth Great Awakening started in the days after the Korean War, and spread until the late mid 1970’s through ministers such as Billy Graham, and other modern evangelists who used the media of television for their crusades and revivals.

10. It is through the Methodist Movement of the 1780’s that the modern movement of Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians has taken place, to include the modern Assemblies of God. It is with the fusion of the Methodist/Pentecostal/Evangelical movements through which my grand parents, parents, majority of my relatives, and myself were all raised, educated and trained.

Core Structure of My Faith and Religious Exercises

11. I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

12. I believe that there is only one God, eternally existent in three persons or entities at the same time: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

13. I believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His bodily ascension to the right hand of the Father/God, and in His personal return in power and glory.

14. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and through this God became man.

15. I worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance.

16. I believe that there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the glory equal, and the majesty co-eternal.

17. I believe that such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.

18. I believe Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one Eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one Uncreated, and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord, not three lords, but one Lord. For as I am compelled by the Christian faith to acknowledge each Person by Himself to be both God and Lord, so I am also forbidden by my faith to say that there are three gods or three lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.

19. I believe that in the Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another, but all three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

20. I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world; perfect God and perfect man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching His godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching His manhood; who, although He is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the godhead into flesh but by taking of the manhood into God; one altogether; not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

21. I believe that for our sake Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate; that he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day that he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; that he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

22. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son); who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified; who has spoken through the disciples and prophets, and this same Holy Spirit with which modern day Christians are baptized with, and which is indwelling within them.

23. I believe that there is only one universal Christian Church, although it is known by many names, creeds, divisions, denominations, variations, interpretations, rituals, expressions and understandings, that it is still only one Church, created by Christ himself by his dispatching 84 disciples described in Luke 10:1.

24. I believe that there is one baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

25. I believe that that God, the Father entered into a new covenant of forgiveness with mankind upon the sacrifice and death of his Son Jesus Christ, as a means of grace and everlasting life, and the resurrection.

26. I believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful people, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.

27. I believe in the Salvation of the lost and sinful through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ by faith apart from works.

28. I believe in Salvation by faith and grace alone, through the shedding of the blood and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and not in deeds of men.

29. I believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

30. I believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of eternal life, but they that are lost unto the resurrection of eternal damnation.

31. I believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church, and the Body of Christ, to share in Christ’s baptism, and to eat at his table, and to join him in his passion and victory.

32. I believe in Baptism in Water, as a Holy Sacrament, and in Communion with Christ through this baptism.

33. I believe that Christ has instructed his followers to eat bread and to drink wine in remembrance of him and that this is one of the many Holy Sacraments of being a Christian.

34. I believe that Jesus Christ promises to all who trust in him, full forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, his presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in his kingdom which has no end.

35. I believe the Bible and Holy Scriptures to be the inspired by God, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God, divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy; and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

36. I believe that the Holy Bible referred to the “King James Version” is merely a sub-set of the writings our faith and doctrine, and that the King James Version is incomplete, and that to fully grasp the true tenants of our faith, we must reach down through history and study the various version of the Holy Bible they predate the King James version of 1611, to include the Mathews Bible, the Wycliffe Bibles, the various Geneva Bibles (actually carried by the early American Colonists), and the versions that reach back through time to the historical documents at the juncture of the founding of the Church, and thence to continue back through time to the period of time where Christ still walked the Earth, and his disciples and Apostles described what they experienced in their own writings and recollections, and then to pass before the time of Christ to examine the documents of the Babylonian Exile of the Kingdom of Judah, and the documents that predate the Exile, all the way backwards in time to the point the scriptures (Holy Writings) were being written down for the first time, well before the time of Christ.

37. I believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, and that in the writings that compromise the New Testament are the words and direct commands of Christ are recorded.

38. Further, that the words of Christ found in the New Testament provide specific commands to the disciples and Apostles of Christ and followers of Christ. Additionally, that Christ commanded his followers to do very specific things to communicate to others and to teach as they are able, and to directly contribute their abilities to this pursuit with such talent or abilities they may possess.

39. I believe that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

40. I believe in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to his followers as directly articulated and described in Matthew 28:16–20, Mark 16:14–18, Luke 24:44–49, and John 20:19–23.

41. I believe that Christians are compassionate, because they have been shown compassion by God, and in line with the instructions of Christ, this compassion towards one another is a basic tenant of my faith, and compassion is one of my essential skills as a Christian.

42. I believe that our Country was founded by Christians, and that they integrated their faith into the Constitution of the United States and into the original intent of the Constitution of the United States, to include the First Amendment to the Constitution to the United States which guarantees all Americans the unqualified and free exercise of their religion and the faith of their choosing, and to permit the belief or faith, rituals, and actions taken in this pursuit to be incorporated against the states and local governments by operation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

43. I believe that due to the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States that neither the Federal Government nor any state or local government, or anyone acting under the color of law may in any way make or enforce any law, rule, regulation, custom, ruling, or practice that may in any way infringe upon my faith as a Christian, or upon any other faith or any other U.S. Citizen.

44. I am a Christian, I am a Proud American and that I only bend my knee when it is time to pray, and it is upon our collective knees, in prayer that this county was founded.

45. Our leaders, back in the days of our founding knew the value of a bent knee, and a whispered prayer, and the heavens thundered as they petitioned, on those bent knees.

46. In short, I am a Christian, and I will not be denied the Free Exercise of my faith.