What We Believe at Teleios Institute

The following belief statements provide an introductory overview of how we interpret scripture as the foundation of our theology.

God the Father

We believe God the Father is the one true God, the eternal King, Creator and Redeemer of all that is. He is perfectly holy, just, loving and truthful. He has revealed Himself as one being in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. (1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 96:5; Isaiah 6:3; Jeremiah 10:7; John 1:1; Colossians 2:9; 1 John 5:7) Loving, truthful, righteous, forgiving, wise, and every other characteristic of a good Father all at the same time. He created humankind to know His love and to love Him in return. The purpose of life is to flow from Him and through Him and back to Him.

Jesus Christ

We believe Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. He is God’s Anointed One, empowered by the Holy Spirit to inaugurate God’s Kingdom on earth. He was crucified for our sins, died, was buried, resurrected and ascended into heaven, and is now alive today, in the presence of God the Father and in His people. He is “true God” and “true man.” We are saved by God’s grace, through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Christ is the only One who could come to earth and in total holiness live righteously in our place to redeem us from our separation from God. It was necessary the Christ be sent as God’s Son to demonstrate a yielded life and to overcome death so we might live. …as their Savior and Lord.  Through Christ those who believe are reconciled to their original position of oneness with Him, fully restored to their inheritance as a child of God.

Anyone can be restored to fellowship with God through repenting, believing and receiving Jesus as their Savior and Lord. (Matthew 1:18; Matthew 3:2; Matthew 16:16; Matthew 28:6; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:36; Ephesians 2:8; Hebrews 7:25; Revelation 13:8)

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, Who convicts, regenerates, justifies and adopts us as we enter the Kingdom of God as sons and daughters. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is available to all believers that they might receive power to be witnesses. Through the indwelling and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to live holy lives and minister supernaturally as Jesus did in His earthly ministry. (John 16:8; Acts 2:39; Acts 1:8; Romans 8:14-16; Titus 3:5)

Salvation

We believe salvation is the complete, victorious redemptive work of Christ on the cross that provides freedom from all the power of the enemy: sin, sickness, lies and torment. Humankind was created in the image of God to know Him and enjoy Him, but we willfully rejected His Lordship and fell short of His glory, for which we were intended. Because of this, sickness, death and judgment entered the world and now all of creation experiences the effects and consequences of sin. Jesus died to free His entire world from the effects of the curse. (Gen 1:26-31, 3:1-7; Ps 51:5; Ecc 7:29; John 6:44; Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 2:14)

The Bible

The Bible is the Word of God and is the full expression of God’s nature and ways. It is to have full authority in our lives. It is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword and able to bring light into our soul and spirit. We believe the Bible is inspired, infallible, authoritative and complete. (Heb 4:12; Ps 19; 2 Tim 3:1)

Christ’s Return

We believe Jesus Christ will return to earth personally, bodily, and visibly to establish his glorious reign in a kingdom that will never end. As the sovereign Lord, He will resurrect and judge all humanity. Those who have received His offer of life through the Gospel will go to eternal blessings in heaven; those who have rejected it, to eternal conscious torment in hell. We look forward to the blessed hope, Christ’s Second Coming in glory. (Matt 25:33; Matt 25:46; Heb 12:23; Rev 1:7)

The Church

We believe the Church is made up of all who put their trust in Jesus Christ. The Church, expressing itself through local congregations, exists to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ and to further advance His kingdom by undoing the works of the enemy, preaching a vibrant and eternal gospel with signs and wonders, living the good news of God’s love, discipling the nations, baptizing believers and teaching them to love and obey God. (Matt 28:18; John 20:21; Eph 3:10)

Baptism and Lord’s Supper

We believe baptism and the Lord’s Supper are commanded by Jesus himself and conducted through the Church, which is His body. Jesus commanded us to baptize believers in His name by thoroughly immersing them in water. Believer’s water baptism is a very real, transforming experience by which our old nature is permanently crucified and buried and our new nature rises from the waters as Christ Jesus rose from the grave. (Matt 28:18; Rom 6:4; Colossians 2:12) Jesus also commanded us to observe the Lord’s Supper, which we do regularly with the elements of bread and unfermented wine (grape juice). (1 Cor 11:23-25)

Apostolic Governance

We believe in the Word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:19-22 which tells us that the Church is built on apostles and prophets, followed by chapter 4:11-16 stating that at Christ’s Ascension He “gave some as apostles, some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of he Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (NASB) God gave us these gifts to establish and build the whole body into their functions for the growth and maturity of His kingdom. God established an order in these gifts, not for ranking, but for building–first, the apostle, who establishes foundations for God’s work to be built; secondly, prophets, who hear and see the “now” word of God to bring understanding of God’s movements in His ways for the “now” season. These are not added words to the Bible but revelatory understanding built from and upon the foundation of God’s inerrant and unchangeable Scripture. God is still speaking as it says in John 10:27–” My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me….”

God’s government rests on His shoulders (Is. 9:6) and is eternal and He is the head (Ephesians 4:15-16) but He chose to give rulership of the earth to man (Gen. 1:26-28). As we yield to His order and calling we can carry out the 5-fold government of God as He chose to give gifts to mankind. It is no different than someone fulfilling their call to the mission field or to lead a church or to work in the marketplace. When believers yield their lives to God, He can then fulfill His government through the different functions as talked about in 1 Cor. 12:4-7.

The Prophetic

Prophets are prominent in both the Old and New Testament. Amos 3:7 says, “surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets” and in Acts 13:1-2 says, “Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Prophets were there helping the church and they heard the voice of the Lord to know how to move forward! 2 Chronicles 20:20 says “Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established; believe His prophets and you shall prosper.”

Dominionism

This is not a term we prefer to use, but because it has been associated with us, we want to define it according to Biblical terminology of ruling and subduing.

In Genesis 1:26-28 God told Adam and Eve to rule over the earth including every living thing that moves on the earth. He told them to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.” Man sinned and turned over the rulership of earth to Satan for a time until mankind was redeemed in and through Christ so that we could come back into God’s original design of ruling the earth from the disposition of dependence on God (which is the way God established it in the beginning).

Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Heaven is full of truth and life, peace and love, hope and grace, healing and justice, no strife, no poverty, no fear, and on and on. Earth is full of the opposite…until the life in Christ begins to establish His rule again until the whole earth is filled with His glory. Christ in us, the hope of that glory will accomplish this! (Ephesians 3:10; Colossians 1)

Hebrews 2 makes it clear that the earth is not yet subjected to Christ (vs.8). That is because God is bringing about its redemption through the redemption of His people. In verses 9-18 it is said that Christ came to earth to help the descendants of Abraham, not Angels, to be restored to freedom from the power of the devil. Why? So they could return to God’s original mandate–to rule over and subdue the earth under God’s glory.