What We Believe: For a full Declaration of Faith statement as compiled by our founder Aimee Semple McPherson and more information about The Foursquare Church visit the corporate website at www.foursquare.org and click on the link under Who We Are.

I. THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

We believe that the Holy Bible is the infallible Word of the living God; true, immutable, steadfast, unchangeable as its author, the Lord Jehovah; that it was written by holy men of old as they were moved upon and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

II. THE ETERNAL GODHEAD

We believe that there is but one true and living God; maker of heaven and earth and all that is in them; and that in the unity of the Godhead there are three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; equal in every divine perfection yet executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

III. THE FALL OF MAN

We believe that man was created in the image of God, before whom he walked in holiness and purity, but that by voluntary disobedience and transgression, he fell from the Eden of purity and innocence to the depths of sin and iniquity, and that in consequence of this, all mankind are sinners sold unto Satan, sinners not by constraint but by choice, shapen in iniquity and utterly void by nature of that holiness required by the law of God, positively inclined to evil, guilty and without excuse, justly deserving the condemnation of a just and holy God.

IV. THE PLAN OF REDEMPTION

We believe that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, the Just for the unjust; freely, and by divine appointment of the Father, taking the sinner’s place, bearing his sins, receiving his condemnation, dying his death, fully paying his penalty, and signing with His life’s blood, the pardon of every one who should believe upon Him; that upon simple faith and acceptance of the atonement purchased on Mount Calvary, the vilest sinner may be cleansed of his iniquities and made whiter than driven snow.

V. SALVATION THROUGH GRACE

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly through grace; that we have no righteousness or goodness of our own wherewith to seek divine favor, and must come, therefore, throwing ourselves upon the unfailing mercy and love of Him who bought us and washed us in His own blood, pleading the merits and the righteousness of Christ the Savior, standing upon His word and accepting the free gift of love and pardon.

VI. WATER BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER

We believe that water baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, according to the command of our Lord, is a blessed outward sign of an inward work; a beautiful and solemn emblem reminding us that even as our Lord died upon the cross of Calvary so we reckon ourselves now dead indeed unto sin, and the old nature nailed to the tree with Him; and that even as He was taken down from the tree and buried, so we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.

We believe in the commemoration and observing of the Lord’s supper by the sacred use of the broken bread, a precious type of the Bread of Life, even Jesus Christ, whose body was broken for us; and by the juice of the vine, a blessed type which should ever remind the participant of the shed blood of the Savior who is the true vine of which His children are the branches; that this ordinance is a glorious rainbow that spans the gulf of years between Calvary and the coming of the Lord, when in the Father’s kingdom, He will partake anew with His children.

VII. THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the incoming of the promised Comforter in mighty and glorious fullness to endue the believer with power from on high; to glorify and exalt the Lord Jesus; to give inspired utterance in witnessing of Him; to foster the spirit of prayer, holiness, sobriety; to equip the individual and the Church for practical, efficient, joyous, Spirit-filled soul-winning in the fields of life; and that this being still the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the believer may have every reason to expect His incoming to be after the same manner as that in which He came upon Jew and Gentile alike in Bible days, and as recorded in the Word, that it may be truly said of us as of the house of Cornelius: the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning.

VIII. THE GIFTS AND FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit has the following gifts to bestow upon the believing church of the Lord Jesus Christ: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation; that according to the degree of grace and faith possessed by the recipient, these gifts are divided to every man severally, as He, the Holy Spirit, wills; that they are to be most earnestly desired and coveted, in the order and proportion wherein they prove most edifying and beneficial to the church; and that the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, should be put forth, cultivated, and diligently guarded as the resultant adornment, the constant, eloquent, and irrefutable evidence of a Spirit-filled life.

IX. DIVINE HEALING

We believe that divine healing is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to heal the sick and the afflicted in answer to believing prayer; that He who is the same yesterday, today and forever has never changed but is still an all-sufficient help in the time of trouble, able to meet the needs of, and quicken the body into newness of life, as well as the soul and spirit in answer to the faith of them who ever pray with submission to His divine and sovereign will.

X. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

We believe that the second coming of Christ is personal and imminent; that He will descend from Heaven in the clouds of glory with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and that at this hour, which no man knows beforehand, the dead in Christ shall rise, then the redeemed that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and that so shall they ever be with the Lord; that also seeing that a thousand years is as a day with the Lord, and that no man knows the hour of His appearance, which we believe to be near at hand, each day should be lived as though He were expected to appear at any moment, yet that in obedience to His explicit command, "Occupy till I come," the work of spreading the gospel, the sending forth of missionaries, and the general duties for the up building of the church should be carried on as diligently, and thoroughly, as though neither ours nor the next generation should live in the flesh to see the glorious day.

XI. CHURCH RELATIONSHIP

We believe that having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior and King, and having thus been born into the family and invisible body or church of the Lord, it is the sacred duty of the believer, whenever this lies within his power, to identify himself with, and labor most earnestly for the up building of God’s kingdom with the visible church of Christ upon the earth; and that such visible church is a congregation of believers, who have associated themselves together in Christian fellowship and in the unity of the Spirit, observing the ordinances of Christ, worshipping Him in the beauty of holiness, speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, reading and proclaiming His Word, laboring for the salvation of souls, giving their temporal means to carry on His work, edifying, encouraging, establishing one another in the most holy faith, and working harmoniously together as dear children who are many members but one body of which Christ is head.