Letter to Rick Stafford (2020 01 02)

2 January 2020

Mr. Rick Stafford
Living Church of God
Houston, TX

Greetings:

It was a pleasure meeting you earlier this week. I am writing you this letter to inform you that we
at Alliance Bible Church are unable to rent our facilities to your church. Our
facilities usage policy states that we cannot rent our facilities to groups who “express beliefs contrary to the church’s faith”. Since the LCG does not believe that the Holy Spirit is God, but rather a
separate essence which emanates from the Father and Son, this qualifies as an extremely significant and important difference in doctrinal beliefs from the Christian & Missionary Alliance.

There are very few truly core, foundational Christian issues worth enacting this policy over.
Church polity, speaking in tongues, mode of baptism, and views on the end times are all examples
of what we would consider to be important, but not necessarily beliefs contrary to our own in
terms of renting our facility to other groups. However, there are certain elements – like the Trinitarian view and understanding of God – which must not be forsaken and with which we would
require other groups utilizing our facility to stand in full agreement . When we see the Holy Spirit
in Scripture, He (personal pronoun) is always referred to as a person and is of the same nature
and substance as God. He has a mind to think, a will to act, and emotions to feel. Scripture records that He convicts (John 16:8); He speaks (Acts 8:29); He exercises will (1 Corinthians 12:11);
He grieves (Ephesians 4:30); He is relational (Philippians 2:1). Most significantly, though, is that
the Greek word used by Christ Himself to refer to the Holy Spirit (paraclete) in John 14-16 is the
same word that John uses to refer to Jesus Christ in 1 John 2:1.

This view of the Holy Spirit is necessary to a proper understanding of God, interpretation of
Scripture, and biblical view of oneself in proper relationship with God. Furthermore, it has been
at the very center of all the historic, foundational creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian) of
the Christian church.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

for His glory, 

Pastor Justin DuBose
Alliance Bible Church
​Baytown, TX