Statement of Beliefs

Camp Refuge believes in the following:

•Man and woman were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).
•God created woman because it was not good for man to be alone. When man is joined to his wife, the two are united into one (Genesis 2:18-24).
•God instituted the first monogamous relationship between one individual He created as male and one individual He created as female, and we believe this remains the only context for marriage today. God intends for sexual activity to exist only within the context of a committed marriage relationship. We believe this relationship is the foundation of the family, and a model to future generations (Mark 10:6-9, Hebrews 13:4, Leviticus 20:13).
•The relationship between Creator and created human beings was broken when the first man and woman ate fruit from a tree God commanded them not to eat (Genesis 3).
•Jesus Christ, God’s only son, was fully God and fully man and born to the virgin Mary. (Matthew 1:18-25). He lived a sinless life and paid the price with his blood to restore man and woman into proper relationship with God. (Isaiah 53:5-6, 1 Peter 2:22-24). No man enters back into relationship with God except through Him (John 14:6).
•After Jesus died, he defeated death by rising from the grave (Matthew 28:6). He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God, and promised to send the Holy Spirit to empower His followers and commissioned them to tell others about Him (Romans 8:34, Acts 1:7-9).
•Human beings continue in broken relationship with God (having inherited the fallen nature) until one believes in the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ and puts Him where He belongs: exalted over all (Romans 5:8-11, Hebrews 7:26-28, 9:22, Philippians 2:5-11).
•The Holy Spirit, whose power raised Jesus from the dead, continues to empower, strengthen, teach, and enliven believers today by living inside them and guiding them in truth (Romans 1:4, 8:11, John 14:26, 16:13)
•God has given his followers the task of reconciling broken relationships between the Creator and His created. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
•Jesus said the two most important commandments are to love God with everything and to love fellow human beings as one loves oneself (Matthew 22:37-40).