Statement of Beliefs
Refugee Hope Upstate Inc. is a Christian ministry. We are called and motivated to serve refugees and the least among us as followers of Christ.
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​Matthew 22: 37-38 (ESV) “(Jesus said) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ​
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While we are motivated by the gospel and the hope that some will come to know Christ as Savior and Lord, the availability and provision of services to refugees is irrespective of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Assent to our statement of beliefs is not a precondition for an individual or family to be served by Refugee Hope Upstate.
We accept those areas of doctrinal teaching on which, historically, there has been general agreement among all true Christians. Because of the specialized calling of our ministry to refugees, we desire to allow for freedom of conviction on other doctrinal matters provided that any interpretation is based upon the Bible alone and that no such interpretation shall become an issue that hinders the ministry to which God has called us.
The sole basis of our beliefs is the Bible, God’s infallible written Word, the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. The Bible was written by divinely inspired men and is God’s revelation of Himself and His will to man. The Bible in its entirety is the Word of God, and as such is wholly true in everything it affirms. The Scriptures are the unique, full and final authority on all matters of faith and practice. (Ps. 18:30, 119; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 3:15-16; Rev. 22:18-19).
We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as either male or female and that these two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Gen. 1:26-27). We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman, and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that union (Gen. 2:18-25; 1 Cor. 6:18; 7:2- 5; Heb. 13:4).