New Apostolic Church
Southern Africa
Appendix
Vision
A church in which people feel at home and, inspired by the Holy Spirit and their love for God, align their lives to the gospel of Jesus Christ and thus prepare themselves for His return and eternal life
Mission
Reaching out to all people in order to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ and to baptise them with water and the Holy Spirit
Providing soul care and cultivating a warm fellowship in which everyone shall expe- rience the love of God and the joy of serving Him and others
The First Article of Faith:
I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.
The Second Article of Faith:
I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, entered the realm of the dead, rose again from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from where He will return.
The Third Article of Faith:
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the one, holy, universal, and apostolic church, the community of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and life everlasting.
The Fourth Article of Faith:
I believe that the Lord Jesus rules His church and thereto sent His Apostles, and until His return still sends them with the commission to teach, to forgive sins in His name, and to baptise with water and Holy Spirit.
The Fifth Article of Faith:
I believe that those designated by God for a ministry are ordained only by Apostles, and that authority, blessing, and sanctification for their ministration come forth out of the Apostle ministry.
The Sixth Article of Faith:
I believe that the Holy Baptism with water is the first step to a renewal of a human being in the Holy Spirit, and that the person baptised is adopted into the fellowship of those who believe in Jesus Christ and profess Him as their Lord.
The Seventh Article of Faith:
I believe that Holy Communion was instituted by the Lord Himself in memory of the once brought, fully valid sacrifice, and bitter suffering and death of Christ. The worthy partaking of Holy Communion establishes our fellowship with Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is celebrated with unleavened bread and wine; both must be consecrated and dispensed by a minister authorised by an Apostle.
The Eighth Article of Faith:
I believe that those baptised with water must, through an Apostle, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to attain the childhood in God and thereby the prerequisite for becoming a firstling.
The Ninth Article of Faith:
I believe that the Lord Jesus will return as surely as He ascended into heaven and that He will take to Himself the firstfruits of the dead and living who have hoped for and were prepared for His coming; that after the marriage in heaven He will return to earth with them to establish His kingdom of peace, and that they will reign with Him as a royal priesthood. After the conclusion of the kingdom of peace, He will hold the Last Judgement. Then God will create a new heaven and a new earth and dwell with His people.
The Tenth Article of Faith:
I believe that I am obliged to obey the worldly authorities provided no godly laws are thereby transgressed.
The First Commandment
I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods before Me.
The Second Commandment
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
The Third Commandment
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The Fourth Commandment
Honour your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
The Fifth Commandment
You shall not murder.
The Sixth Commandment
You shall not commit adultery.
The Seventh Commandment
You shall not steal.
The Eighth Commandment
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
The Ninth and Tenth Commandments
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.
(cf. Exodus 20: 2-17; Deuteronomy 5: 6-21)
“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.”
(According to Matthew 6: 9-13)
Repeated statements reflecting both masculine and feminine pronouns were generally avoided. Neutral forms of expression were employed wherever possible, but otherwise the masculine pronoun was used. This linguistic inequality is not intended to discriminate but was chosen in the interests of smoother reading.
To allow for greater reader friendliness, certain philological and/or scientific citation methods were avoided. Omissions in citations were generally designated using ellipsis points (...), while insertions and explanations within citations were identified by way of square brackets ([...]).
© Alaska-Tom / fotolia.com (p. 181); © asab974 / fotolia.com (p. 97); © Banana Republic / fotolia.com (pp 58-59); Hermann Bethke/New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia (pp 114, 156, 212, 233 below right); Armin Brinkmann/New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia (p. 144 below); © Brocreative / fotolia.com (p. 92); © by-studio / fotolia.com (p. 64); © charlietuna1 / fotolia.com (p. 240); © Dmitry Naumov / fotolia.com (p. 22); © Dušan Zidar / fotolia.com (pp 194-195); © f11photo / fotolia.com (p. 70); Marcel Felde/ New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland (pp 45, 167, 223 right, 226 below right, 229 right); © foto_abstract / iStock.com (p. 105 left); © foto-aldente / fotolia.com (pp 148-149); © Georgios Kollidas / fotolia.com (p. 202); © gmnicholas / iStock.com (p. 83); © Iakov Kalinin / fotolia.com (pp 236-237); © ILYA AKINSHIN / fotolia.com (p. 34); © janaka Dharmasena / fotolia.com (p. 31); © Jenny Sturm / fotolia.com (p. 234); © Jeka84 / fotolia.com (pp 48-49); © jorisvo / fotolia.com (p. 200 centre and right); © juannovakosky / fotolia.com (p. 87); © justinkendra / fotolia.com (p. 19); Horst-Dieter Kämpfer/New Apostolic Church Berlin-Brandenburg (p. 232); © kentauros / fotolia.com (p. 53); © kmiragaya / fotolia.com (p. 37); Jessica Krämer/New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland (pp 140 centre, 151, 163 left, 169, 214, 215, 222, 231 right, 243); © Kzenon / fotolia.com (p. 115); © lau- mao / fotolia.com (p. 155); © LVDESIGN / fotolia.com (p. 16); © mma23 / fotolia.com (p. 106); © muro / fotolia.com (p. 105 right); © MyWorld / fotolia.com (pp 78-79); NAC Central Ar- chive North Rhine-Westphalia (pp 204, 205, 207 (Chief Apostle Krebs, Niehaus, and Bischoff)); NAK-karitativ e.V. (pp 248, 249); New Apostolic Church Brazil (p. 89); New Apostolic Church Canada (p. 230); New Apostolic Church Northern Germany (p. 226 below left); Andreas Otto/ New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia (pp 165, 211); © Patryk Kosmider / fotolia.com (pp 12-13); © Phase4Photography / fotolia.com (p. 118); © Rafael Ben-Ari / fotolia.com (p. 120); Susanne Raible (p. 140 above and bottom left); Björn Renz/New Apostolic Church Northern Germany (pp 128-129, 226 above right, 231 left); © Robert Kneschke / fotolia.com (p. 116); Frank Rößler/New Apostolic Church Saxony-Anhalt (p. 163 right); Daniel Rudolph/ New Apostolic Church Berlin-Brandenburg (pp 144 above, 170); Daniel Rudolph/New Apostolic Church Sweden (p. 174); Oliver Rütten/New Apostolic Church International (p. 229 left); Oliver Rütten/New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia (pp 132, 139, 226 above left); Joachim Schäfer - Ökumenisches Heiligenlexikon (www.heiligenlexikon.de) (p. 200 left); Frank Schuldt/New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia (pp 26-27, 113, 183, 223 left, 225, 228, 233 above left, above right, and below left, 245); Karlheinz Schumacher (p. 67); © Sergey Nivens / fotolia.com (p. 63); © Sunitha Pilli / iStock.com (p. 61); © Sunny studio / fotolia.com (p. 40); © Tom-Hanisch /fotolia.com (p. 178); © Verlag Friedrich Bischoff GmbH, Frankfurt am Main (pp 7, 207 (Chief Apostle Schmidt, Streckeisen, Urwyler, Fehr, Leber, and Schneider)); © zhu difeng / fotolia.com (pp 186-187)