The Faith of the Apostles’ Creed - The Elementary Principles of CHRIST

The biblical events surrounding Cornelius provide the answer to the question of whether or not it is by keeping the Law that one receives the Holy Spirit. They show us that those who received the Holy Spirit from God did not receive Him by keeping the law, but by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Verse 7 from the above passage says, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.” This tells us that Satan spread the authority of the Devil by working with his own power (not the works of the Holy Spirit), something that God does not want.
Those who are seized by the lawless one are, to put it plainly, those who have “the faith of witches,” not of Christians. These are those who devote themselves only to the gift of exorcism, other tongues, prophecies, healings, and other such works. They place more importance on what they claim to have seen, or what spiritual powers they claim to have received. But God said that He would end such works that block the truth.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

To be filled with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 5:16-18 tells us, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.”
For people to be filled with the Holy Spirit, they must first of all believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and live for this gospel. It is because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in the hearts of those who have sin nor He fills such hearts. In other words, the first priority for us is to become sinless in our hearts by wholeheartedly believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

To reemphasize once again, it is those who believe in the Word of God in their hearts who can be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we hold onto the Word of God, when we believe in it and rely on it, the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts gives us faith and strength, approves our faith as right, and helps us at our side so that we can live our lives by believing in this Word. This is why He is called the Holy Spirit, the Helper or the Counselor (John 14:16).

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

The Apostles’ Creed’s confession of faith “in the Holy Spirit” is followed by its confession of faith in “the holy catholic Church.” Here, the word ‘catholic’ refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostles, who believed in the baptism and blood of Jesus, witnessed Jesus Christ to many people on the Day of Pentecost. Then, they came to repent, and also believed in the baptism of Jesus, and become saints, and thereby the Church was established for the first time. Like this, those who believe in the works of the Holy Spirit also believe in the Church, which has been established by these works of the Spirit.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

Those who received the salvation from all their sins by believing in the truth that Jesus is God Himself, and in the baptism that He received and the blood of the Cross, are the ones who have joined the family of God. As Ephesians 2:19 states, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” The righteous have fellowship with each other.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

We believe that only the Lord can wash away our sins with the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. So Isaiah 1:18 also states, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.’” In 1 John 1:9, it is also said, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Here, we must realize that the phrase “if we confess our sins” does not mean that God forgives our sins whenever we give prayers of repentance. Rather, 1 John 1:9 exactly means that we receive the remission of all our sins when we admit our sinfulness before the Lord and believe that the Lord has already blotted them out with all the sins of the world through the baptism that He received and the blood of the Cross. Anyone who admits his/her sins before God and believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit is clothed in the grace of the remission of sin by God.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

No matter who, everyone dislikes hardships, is averse to illnesses, laments aging, and are scared of death that would approach them at their end. This is because sufferings, illnesses, and death, which were not supposed to have come to mankind, nevertheless sprung up as the wages of sin.
Fundamentally speaking, because of the sin of the father of mankind, human beings have been driven away from everlasting happiness. This is why people endlessly seek after their lost eternal life and yet are unable to reach it because of their sheer incapacity, looking at it as if it were an unattainable picture and ultimately succumbing to their death in the end. This is why all human beings come to seek after their salvation from someone other than themselves, confessing, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) The answer to this cry is the last part of the Apostles’ Creed—that is, it is the confession of faith in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35 

This declaration, which we believe “in the everlasting life,” is the last confession of faith in the Apostles’ Creed, and at the same it is our highest and greatest hope.
There are some people who say that the world is such a miserable place that they would be better off the sooner they die. But such is merely a complaint what is quite far from their real mind. Most people do not want to die, and even though this world is indeed full of troubles, they would still like to live a long life. Why is this so? Because as Ecclesiastics 3:11 says, God “has put eternity in their hearts.”

https://www.bjnewlife.org/ 
https://youtube.com/@TheNewLifeMission 
https://www.facebook.com/shin.john.35