Concerning SoundWords
Contrary to the belief that SoundWords has something to do with music or sound, SoundWords has taken its name from the English translation of the Bible verse 2. Timothy 1:13:
“Hold fast the form of sound words.”
The purpose of SoundWords is primarily to point to the picture (or orderly form) of sound words found in the Bible, the inspired Word of God. Knowing and holding on to this image is through faith and love found in Christ, and is only possible in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SoundWords sees itself as a help for growth and edification of those who have gained new life through regeneration and forgiveness of sins. To this end, SoundWords seeks to impart sound biblical teaching. In doing so, the gifts that the Lord has given to His Church, even in past centuries, are to be acknowledged and made use of – often in the form of translated articles. In addition, however, SoundWords also takes a position to doctrinal questions and to topics of the practical life of a Christian.
SoundWords is not a registered association and is currently run and maintained exclusively by the editors and staff who are in secular employment.
Used Bible Translations
In general, we use the King James or the John Nelson Darby translation. If we use a different translation, this is usually indicated in the text.
Spelling
In originally English articles we have mainly left the spelling as it was used by the authors.
Translations from German to English
German articles have been translated into English by not native English speaking persons. So they are not perfect. If you find errors, we are glad about a note.
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Our Principles of Belief
In response to the frequent and justified request of our readers to know who the providers of this website are, we would like to list here some of our principles of faith.
We would like to state that we would never subscribe to any creed, even if written by ourselves, because all human determinations of truth fall far short of the Holy Scriptures, even if everything were taken directly from the written Word.
We write the following in awareness of our imperfection. In doing so, we admit that one should actually list much more. Nevertheless, we can say of what we write here: We believe this. This is what we have learned from the Scriptures!
Content
God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit
Ressurection of Christ
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
Redemption / Atonement
New Birth
Sins
Forgiveness
The Love and Rightousness of God
Eternal Security
Election
Calling
The Holy Scriptures
The soul
Baptism and Supper
Church
Expectation
The Coming of the Lord for his Own
Judgement/Damnation
God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit
We believe that there is a living God (1Tim 2:5; 4:10), who has been fully revealed to us in Christ (John 1:18) and made known to us through Him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mt 3:16,17; 28:19; Eph 2:18), in the unity of the Godhead (John 5:19; 1Cor 12:6); three persons in one God. God is the Creator of all things; the act of creation is personally attributed to the Word and the Son and to the working of the Spirit of God (Gen 1:1.2; Job 26:13; Jn 1:1–3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2).
We believe that the Word who was with God and who was God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1,2,14), in that the Father sent the Son as Saviour of the world (1. John 4:14). He was born as the Christ from a woman (Gal 4:4), by the power of the Holy Spirit who came upon the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35). He was a true man (Phil 2:7; Heb 2:14. 17; 1. John 4:2; 2. John 7), without sin (Luke 1:35; 1. John 3:5); in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in the flesh (Col 2:9); He is the promised offspring of David in the flesh (Rom 1:3; Acts 2:30; 13:23; 2Tim 2:8), the Son of Man (Mt 16:13) and the Son of God, who was with the Father from all eternity (John 1:18,34). He is true God and true man in one person (Phil 2,6–10; 2Cor 5,19–21; Heb 1–2; 1. John 2,23–33; 5,20; Rev 22,12.13; Jn 1,1.14; 8,58).
We believe that the Holy Spirit is God and is a person (Acts 5:3,4; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13,14).
Resurrection of Christ
We believe that Christ personally and bodily rose from the dead (1Cor 15:20; Mt 28:6), raised by God, through the glory of the Father (Acts 3.15; John 2.19; Rome 6:4; Eph 1.20), that He also rose again in the power of His person and ascended into the highest place (Mk 16.19; Lk 24.51; Eph 4.8–10), after having cleansed our sins by Himself, and that He sits there at the right hand of God (Heb 1:3; 10:2; Eph 1:20.21).
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
We believe that after Ascension, the Holy Spirit was sent down to earth to dwell in His people individually and collectively, so that they may be the temple of God in both respects (John 16:7; 7:39; Romans 8:9; the Father sends: John 14,26; Christ sends from the Father: John 14:16.17.26; Rom 8:11; 1Cor 6:19; 3:16; Eph 2:22; 1Cor 12:13; Eph 1:23). We are sealed (Eph 1:13; 2Cor 1:22) and anointed with the Holy Spirit (2Cor 1:21; 1. John 2:20.27), with the love of God poured out into our hearts (Rom 5:5); we are guided by Him (Rom 8:14); and He is the pledge of our heritage (Eph 1:14; 2Cor 1:22; 5:5).
Redemption/Atonement
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for all, that He gave Himself for a ransom for all, of which the testimony was proclaimed in His time, that He atoned for our sins, not only for ours, but for the whole world (2. Corinthians 5:14; 1Tim 2:6; 1. John 2:2).
We believe that in this way He obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:12), that through His sacrifice the sins of all those who believe in Him are washed away once and for all (Heb 1:3; 9:22; 10:2), and that by believing in Him their consciences are also cleansed (Heb 9:14; 10:2). God will never again remember their sins and lawlessness (Heb 10:17). Furthermore, as those called by God, they receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15), being made perfect forever, so that they may be free to enter the sanctuary through His blood (Heb 10:14; 19:20).
New Birth
We believe that to enter the Kingdom of God, we must be born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:3,5), since we are by nature dead in sins and children of wrath (Eph 2:1–3; 2Cor 5:14).
What God uses for our new birth is His Word (James 1:18; 1Pet 1:23). We therefore become His children by faith (John 1:12). We may know that we are children of God (1Jn 3:1.2).
Sins
We believe that Jesus Christ, the Savior, died for our sins (1Cor 15:3; Heb 9:28; 1Pet 3:18), after He was once revealed at the end of the ages to abolish sin through His sacrifice (Heb 9:26).
We believe that He bore our sins in His body on the cross, suffering for the unjust, so that He might lead us to God (1Pet 2:24; 3:18), and that He is our righteousness before God (1Cor 1:30; Heb 9:24).
Forgiveness
We believe that our sins are forgiven because of the name of Jesus (Acts 10:43; 1. John 2:12), because of His blood shed for us (Heb 9:22; 10:18), if we confess them. God forgives us because of our confession and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9).
The love and righteousness of God
We believe that God thus loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn 3:16), but that for this purpose, God being a just and holy God, the Son of man had to be lifted up upon the cross (Jn 3:14, 15). There He Himself bore our sin in His body (1Pet 2:24); there He, who knew not sin, was made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him (2Cor 5:21).
Eternal security
We have the promise that we will never perish and that no one will rob us out of the hand of Christ (Jn 10:28), but that God will secure us to the end, that we may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor 1:8).
Election
We believe that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love (Eph 1:4).
Calling
We believe that if believers are in Christ, Christ is in them and that they are called to manifest the life of Jesus in their mortal flesh (Jn 14:20; Rom 8:10; 2Cor 4:10) and to walk as He walked (1Jn 2:6).
The Scriptures
We learn from the example and authority of the Lord and His apostles that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God and are to be received as the Word of God. (See Mt 4:4, 7, 10; 5:17, 18; Lk 24:25–27, 44 – 46; Jn 5:39; 10:35; 20:9; Mt 1:23 and a number of other passages; Mt 26:54; 2Pet 1:20. 21; Gal 3:8; 2Tim 3:14 –17; 1Thess 2:13; 1Cor 15:2, 3; 2:13; 14:36, 37; Rom 16:26. Here it is not “the writings of the prophets,” ie, they are scriptures, to be sure, but New Testament scriptures; 2Pet 3:16).
We believe that the testimony of the Lord is reliable, making the simple wise and judging the thoughts and minds of the heart, and that the scriptures are understood not by human wisdom but by divine instruction because they are spiritually discerned and revealed, communicated, and discerned by the Spirit (Ps 19:7; Heb 4:12, 13; Lk 24:45; 1Cor 2:10; 2:12–14; 1Jn 2:20, 27; Jn 6:45).
The soul
We believe that while God alone has immortality in and by Himself (1Tim 6:16), angels are not subject to death (Luke 20:36), and that the death of a man, whether ungodly or born again, does not affect the life of his soul, but that all, though dead, live unto God (Mt 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5; 16:23; 20:38), and that the wicked are raised up as well as the righteous (John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15).
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
We believe that the Lord left two solemn customs or ordinances, both of which have reference to his death, one introductory, the other continuing in the Church of God: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Mt 26:26–28; 28:19; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 8:12. 16.36; 9:18; Eph 4:5; 1Cor 1:17; 10:14 –17; 11:23–26; 1Pet 3:21; Rom 6:3; Col 2:12).
Church
We believe that Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it glorified to Himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (Eph 5:24 –29).
We believe that when Christ ascended on high, He received gifts for men, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and that through Christ the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love. (Eph 4:6–13; Acts 2:33; 1Cor 12:28; Rom 12:6; 1Pet 4:10, 11).
We believe that according to Scripture there is only one church (or assembly), consisting of all born-again Christians, regardless of what denomination, church, group, or circle they may belong to (Acts 20:28; Mt 16:18; Eph 1:22, 23).
We believe that in the eyes of God there can be only one church in a place at a time, consisting of all born-again Christians who dwell in that place, and that this church is a representation of the one worldwide church of God (Mt 18:15–20; 1Cor 1:2; 12:27; Eph 4:4). The representation of this is found where one goes forward in the unity of the body of Christ (Eph 4:4) and where godly church discipline is exercised: in the area of doctrine, morals, and connections (1Cor 5; 10:14 –22; 2Tim 2:18–22; Gal 5:9).
We believe that all local churches are connected to one another by the union of all individual believers with the common Head and by the operation of the one Spirit (Eph 4:3, 4, 15, 16; 5:23, 30).
Expectation
We believe that we are converted to await God’s Son from the heavens (1Thess 1:9, 10; Tit 2:12, 13; Lk 12:35–37).
Christ’s coming again for His own
We believe that Christ will come again to take us to Himself (Jn 14:3); in so doing, He will raise His own who have already fallen asleep and transform those who are still alive, fashioning their bodies into conformity with His glorified body, according to the power by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself (1Thess 4:16, 17; 1Cor 15:23, 51, 52; Phil 3:20, 21).
Judgment/Damnation
We believe that God has set a day when He will judge this world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and has given proof of it to all by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31), and that in the end He will sit on the great white throne and judge the dead, both great and small (Rev 20:11, 12).
We believe that each one of us will give an account for himself to God (Rom 14:12) and that he will receive what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (2Cor 5:10). And as the righteous man inherits eternal life (Rom 6:22, 23; Mt 25:46), so the wicked man will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord; he will go to eternal damnation and will be cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Yes, everyone who is not found written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire (2Thess 1:7–9; Mt 25:46; Rev 20:15).