Jehovah's Witness Splinter Groups

The Son is the first and highest created being, brought into existence by the Father before all else, and therefore had a beginning.

The Son is eternally begotten of the Father: a timeless, necessary relation, not an event in time.

A personal God who is the creator and sustainer of all things truly exists, independent of human belief.

God is an immaterial spirit, without a physical body of any kind.

The Father is an exalted being who once lived a mortal life and progressed to godhood, and humans can likewise progress toward divinity.

The Son is of the very same essence (consubstantial) as the Father, not merely of a similar essence.

There is exactly one God, numerically a single divine being.

Father, Son, and Spirit are genuinely distinct persons, not merely three modes, masks, or roles of a single person.

There exist or may exist other true gods, even if humans worship and are accountable to one God (a plurality/henotheism).

The Holy Spirit is God's active power or influence, not a distinct divine person.

God's self-revealed covenant name (YHWH/"I AM") expresses his self-existence and unchanging faithfulness and is central to rightly knowing him.

The three persons are fully equal in deity, power, and glory, with no person greater or lesser than another in being.

God is one being who eternally exists as three co-equal, co-eternal persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) sharing one undivided essence.

The one God exists eternally as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God is a single divine person (the Father), and the Son and Spirit are not coequal divine persons of the one God.

God genuinely hears and responds to petitionary prayer, sometimes acting differently than he otherwise would have.

God is omnipotent: able to do anything that is logically possible and consistent with his nature.

God is fully present everywhere in his being, not merely in knowledge or power.

God knows all true propositions, including all of the actual past and present, exhaustively.

God infallibly and exhaustively knows the entire future, including all future free choices, as settled certainties.

Using the correct Hebrew form of the divine name (and of the Son's name) is important or required for proper worship and right relationship with God.

The Godhead consists of two divine persons (Father and Son), with the Holy Spirit not being a distinct third person.

Love is essential to who God is in himself, grounded in the eternal love among the persons of the Trinity, not merely something God does toward creatures.

"Only-begotten" (monogenēs) means the Son was brought into existence/created.

Jesus rose bodily in the same (transformed) body that was crucified.

Christ "pre-existed" only in God's plan/idea, not as an actual personal being before his birth.

Jesus committed no sin during his life.

The Son is eternally "begotten" of the Father: eternally generated, without beginning.

Right relationship with God comes specifically through Jesus Christ and not through any other name/mediator.

When Scripture says "the Father is greater than I," this refers only to Christ's incarnate/economic state, not his divine nature.

Father, Son, and Spirit are one single person manifesting in three modes or roles.

Jesus had a complete, real human body of flesh.

Deity and humanity are united in one single person (hypostasis) in Christ.

The New Testament directly identifies Jesus as "God" (e.g. John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13).

Jesus Christ is identified with the LORD (YHWH) of Israel.

Mary may rightly be called "Theotokos" (God-bearer / Mother of God) because the one she bore is God.

Christ's resurrection was spiritual (a spirit being / changed essence) rather than a raising of his physical body.

The Son was created/originated by God and is therefore a creature, however exalted.

The Son is "of the same essence" (homoousios) as the Father, not merely of a similar essence.

Jesus Christ is fully and truly God, sharing the one divine essence with the Father.

The Son existed as a divine person before his human birth, prior to and apart from creation.

Jesus is rightly given the worship due to God.

The Son is essentially/ontologically subordinate to the Father (lesser in being, not merely in role).

There was a state or "time" in which the Son did not exist.

After the incarnation Christ exists "in two natures," divine and human, each retaining its own properties.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, without a human father.

The Son remains permanently incarnate: he retains a glorified human nature forever.

Jesus was a man who became/was adopted as God's Son (e.g. at baptism, resurrection, or exaltation) rather than being the Son by eternal nature.

Jesus was not actually crucified and killed; another was substituted or he was taken up beforehand.

All things were created through the Son (he is the agent of creation).

The Son is a distinct divine person from the Father (not merely a mode or role of one person).

The titles given to Jesus ("Lord," "Son of God," "Word") connote true deity, not merely a high human office.

Jesus is best understood as the supreme prophet/teacher and moral exemplar, not as God incarnate.

The Son is of a similar but not identical essence to the Father.

The union of divine and human in Christ occurred at the moment of conception, not at a later point such as baptism.

Physical death entered the human race as a consequence of Adam's sin; humans were not originally subject to death.

There was a real, primeval historical event ("the Fall") in which the first humans disobeyed God and lost an original state of integrity.

The Genesis Fall narrative is best read as a symbolic or mythic depiction of the universal human condition, not a report of a singular past event.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals from whom humanity descends.

All humans descend biologically from a single original couple (monogenism), not from a population.

Satan is a real, personal spiritual being who tempts and opposes God, not merely a symbol or personification of evil.

Adam's first sin has real, inherited consequences for all his descendants (an "original sin"), not merely a bad example.

Sin is fundamentally the transgression of God's law/command (an offense against a divine standard).

Moral evil arises necessarily from the gift of genuine creaturely free will, which God could not give without the possibility of its misuse.

After the Fall sin is so deep that it has become the very substance/essence of fallen human nature.

The root of all sin is pride / inordinate self-love (turning from God to self).

No one in this life (apart from special exception) is wholly free from sin; the regenerate continue to sin.

Sin is most fundamentally a rupture of relationship/covenant with God and neighbor, more than law-breaking or substance-corruption.

Properly speaking, something counts as sin only if it is voluntary (chosen knowingly and willingly).

The finally lost are ultimately destroyed/cease to exist rather than suffering everlasting conscious torment (annihilationism / conditional immortality).

The finally unsaved suffer conscious punishment in hell that never ends.

The dead are unconscious ("sleep") until the resurrection rather than immediately experiencing reward or punishment.

A person who is genuinely saved can never lose their salvation ("once saved, always saved").

Good works/holiness are necessary not merely as evidence but as a real condition of final salvation.

Repentance (a real turning from sin) is required for salvation.

A genuine believer can fall away and forfeit salvation (apostasy / conditional security).

Salvation is accomplished by God alone working in the person (monergism); the human will does not cooperate in the new birth.

In the end God will reconcile and save all people (and possibly all creatures), so that none are finally lost.

Baptism is a symbol/ordinance that publicly signifies a salvation already received by faith and does not itself convey saving grace.

Both faith and good works (cooperating with grace) are jointly necessary as the means by which one is finally justified before God.

A person is justified by faith alone (sola fide), apart from any contribution of their works to the ground of justification.

On the cross Christ bore the penalty/punishment that sinners deserved, satisfying God's justice in their place (penal substitution).

The righteousness by which a believer is justified is Christ's own righteousness credited/imputed to them, external to and not produced by the believer.

Salvation is fundamentally a lifelong process of being saved rather than a single completed event.

A believer can have a settled present assurance that they are saved.

Justification is a forensic, declarative act in which God legally pronounces the sinner righteous, distinct from the inner process of being made holy.

Saving faith necessarily includes submission to Christ as Lord and a commitment to repent/obey, not mere intellectual assent.

The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father AND the Son (filioque).

God is one indivisible person who manifests successively or simultaneously as Father, Son, and Spirit, rather than three eternally distinct persons.

The Spirit is of the same essence (homoousios) as the Father and the Son.

What Scripture calls "the Holy Spirit" is best understood as God's impersonal power or presence-in-action rather than a third "who."

The Holy Spirit is the divine author who inspired the writers of Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is fully and truly God, equal in divine essence to the Father and the Son.

The Holy Spirit is a distinct personal agent (who can be grieved, speaks, wills, and intercedes), not merely an impersonal force or energy.

The Holy Spirit is rightly worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son.

The Spirit is a distinct hypostasis/person, genuinely other than the Father and the Son, not merely a mode or aspect of the one God.

The Holy Spirit is eternal, without beginning, and shares the one uncreated divine nature.

The Spirit's saving, regenerating grace is ultimately irresistible in those God has chosen.

The Spirit is genuinely subordinate to the Father and the Son in rank or authority, not merely distinct in role.

The Spirit works savingly in people who are outside the visible institutional church, including beyond explicit Christian profession.

There is a specific sin against the Holy Spirit that is unforgivable.

The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.) is the truest evidence of the Spirit's presence, more than the spectacular gifts.

By the Spirit, a believer may reach a state of entire freedom from conscious/willful sin in this life.

Baptism in/with the Holy Spirit happens at conversion and is identical with becoming a Christian: not a separate later event.

Spirit-baptism is primarily for power/empowerment for witness and service, distinct from the saving work that makes one a believer.

The Spirit distributes gifts sovereignly as He wills, so believers cannot simply claim or work up a particular gift.

The Spirit so guides the Church's official teaching that it can be preserved from error (infallibility) on matters of faith.

The Holy Spirit is a created being or the highest creature, not eternal and uncreated.

The Spirit "seals" the believer as a permanent guarantee of final salvation that cannot be undone.

Being "filled with the Spirit" is a repeatable, commanded experience distinct from the one-time indwelling.

The bishop of Rome (the pope) holds a divinely instituted primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church.

The church is the mystical Body of Christ, organically united to him as its head.

The true church is essentially ONE (a single body) despite outward divisions.

Local churches are properly bound together under a wider connectional structure (conference, synod, communion) with real authority over them.

Denominations are a legitimate and acceptable expression of Christian diversity, not a scandal to be overcome.

God works and dispenses truth/salvation today through ONE specific visible organization, and being rightly related to it is essential.

The true church largely apostatized after the apostolic age and had to be RESTORED in modern times through a new movement/prophet.

Belonging to the visible, organized church is normally necessary for the Christian life, not an optional add-on to private faith.

The church's central mission is to proclaim the gospel and make disciples (the Great Commission as its defining task).

Christian bodies outside our own communion possess real (if imperfect) grace, valid baptism, and genuine churchly reality.

Our own communion IS the one true church Christ founded; others are separated or deficient bodies, not equal branches.

The pope, under defined conditions (ex cathedra, on faith and morals), teaches infallibly.

Christ's true church has existed continuously and visibly in every age since Pentecost, never wholly apostatizing.

The church's God-willed unity must be a VISIBLE, institutional, communion-and-sacramental unity, not merely a spiritual bond among believers.

The church should formally practice corrective discipline, up to exclusion, against unrepentant serious sin among members.

The church is a divine institution founded by Christ, not merely a voluntary human association of like-minded believers.

The church is essentially a single concrete, visible communion; "invisible church" is a misleading abstraction.

There is no salvation outside the (visible) church (extra ecclesiam nulla salus), strictly understood.

Every believer is a priest with direct access to God, with no need for a mediating human priest.

Members must socially shun/avoid those placed under the ban, including in ordinary daily relations.

A living teaching office (magisterium) authoritatively and bindingly interprets Scripture and Tradition for the whole church.

The church is holy (set apart and sanctified by Christ) even though its members remain sinners.

In this age the visible church is a mixed body containing both genuine believers and the unregenerate (wheat and tares, sheep and goats together until the end).

The institutional church is a provisional, this-age reality that will give way to the consummated Kingdom, rather than itself being the final goal.

Scripture is the sole final authority for the church's faith and practice (sola scriptura); all other authorities are subordinate and fallible.

Apostolicity consists primarily in fidelity to apostolic DOCTRINE, not in an unbroken chain of ordinations from the apostles.

The church is apostolic: it must stand in genuine continuity with the apostles' teaching and mission.

The church is catholic (universal): the whole company of Christ's people across all times and places, not confined to one nation, culture, or congregation.

A living prophet/president holds the keys of authority and can give the church binding direction today.

Valid baptism requires full immersion of the body in water.

The mode of baptism (immersion, pouring, or sprinkling) is a matter of indifference and does not affect validity.

There are exactly two ordinances/sacraments instituted by Christ: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

The Supper is purely a memorial; the bread and wine remain only symbols that prompt remembrance, with no presence or reception of Christ.

There are seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation/chrismation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony.

Christ is truly and really present in the bread and wine of the Supper, not merely symbolized.

Baptism and the Supper are primarily acts of human obedience and public testimony rather than channels of divine grace.

Valid baptism must use the Trinitarian formula "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Sacraments function chiefly to confirm, seal, and strengthen a faith already given, rather than to originate grace.

Icons of Christ and the saints should be venerated (honored with bows, kisses, candles, incense) in worship.

Reciting the historic creeds (Nicene, Apostles') corporately is a proper element of worship.

The Lord's Supper should be celebrated every Lord's Day.

The collection of tithes and offerings is itself an act of worship within the service.

Contemporary worship music (CCM, praise-and-worship bands, modern choruses) is fitting and desirable for the gathered church.

A primary purpose of the worship service is evangelism and calling outsiders to conversion.

The outward form and style of worship is largely a matter of indifference (adiaphora) to be decided by culture, pastoral wisdom, or preference.

Worship should be deliberately shaped to feel familiar and accessible to outsiders and the unchurched.

At death the believer's soul consciously enters the presence of Christ and remains aware while awaiting the bodily resurrection.

The eternal destiny of the redeemed is embodied life on a renewed earth, not a disembodied existence in a non-material heaven.

The finally unrepentant suffer conscious punishment in hell that continues without end.

Immortality is not innate but is given by God only to the saved; the lost do not possess unending existence.

Between death and the resurrection the person exists as a disembodied soul, separated from the body that awaits raising.

The finally lost are ultimately destroyed and cease to exist rather than suffering unending conscious torment (annihilationism/conditional immortality).

The thousand-year reign of Christ (Revelation 20) denotes a literal, future, earthly period of roughly a thousand years.

The human soul is inherently immortal by nature and cannot cease to exist.

The dead are unconscious ("asleep") and have no awareness or experience until they are raised at the resurrection.

We are currently living in the biblically described "last days."

In the end all rational creatures will be reconciled to God and none will be finally lost (universal reconciliation/apokatastasis).

The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation should be read primarily as literal predictions of still-future events.

There will be a future, literal resurrection of the body: the dead raised with transformed physical bodies.

There is no distinct "rapture" doctrine at all; the New Testament describes one return of Christ at which the living and the dead are gathered together.

Identifiable signs (wars, earthquakes, gospel preached to all nations, rise of deception) will mark the approach of the end and can be discerned.

Jesus Christ will return personally, visibly, and bodily to the earth at a future point in history.

It is possible, by study of prophecy, to calculate or closely estimate the time of the end.

Satan and the fallen angels are consigned to eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

The ultimate home of the saved is a heavenly, spiritual realm rather than a physical renewed earth.

Christ's return could occur at any moment, with no remaining prophecy that must be fulfilled first.

Christ returns bodily before the millennial kingdom and personally inaugurates it on earth.

Christ's return will be accompanied by literal cosmic upheaval: darkened sun, falling stars, and visible glory seen by all.

A specific future seven-year period of unprecedented tribulation (often tied to Daniel's seventieth week) remains to be fulfilled.

Scripture is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the Church.

Scripture includes additional latter-day revealed books beyond the Bible (e.g., the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price).

The canon of Scripture consists of exactly the 66 books of the Protestant Bible.

The historical narratives of Scripture (e.g., the exodus, the conquest, the bodily resurrection) record events that actually happened in space and time.

Inspiration extends to the actual words of the original text, not only to the general ideas or concepts.

The Holy Spirit is properly called the divine author of Scripture.

All parts of Scripture are equally inspired, not merely the doctrinally central or "religious" portions.

The Christian Scriptures originated through a genuine act of God, not merely human religious reflection.

The canon of Scripture is open in principle: God may add new authoritative written revelation in the present or future.

The same inspiration that produced Scripture continues to operate in the Church, potentially producing new authoritative texts today.

The first human was specially and directly created by God from the dust, not biologically descended from earlier hominins.

Angels and other spiritual beings are part of God's created order, made by God.

God created the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo), not from pre-existing matter.

The present physical creation will be redeemed and renewed (a "new heavens and new earth"), not annihilated and replaced.

God created the world and established its laws but does not intervene with miracles or verbal revelation; he is known through reason and nature alone.

Biological evolution is an entirely unguided, purposeless process requiring no divine involvement of any kind.

The Genesis flood was a real, worldwide deluge that covered the entire globe and destroyed all land life outside the ark.

The flood narrative is primarily a theological or mythic story (akin to other ancient flood traditions) rather than a report of an actual catastrophe.

God genuinely reveals something of himself through the natural world and the created order, apart from Scripture.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals, the literal first human beings.

The fall of humanity into sin was a real historical event by the first humans, not merely a symbol of the universal human condition.

All human beings descend from a single original couple (monogenism).

God can and does act in the world in ways that supersede or suspend ordinary natural causes (genuine miracles are possible).

Whatever knowledge of God nature provides is insufficient for salvation; saving knowledge requires special revelation in Christ and Scripture.

Human physical death is a consequence of sin; humans were created to be immortal in body and would not have died apart from the fall.

A clear and reliable knowledge of God and his saving purposes requires God's special, verbal self-revelation, not merely general revelation.

God created living things, including humans, by means of the evolutionary process, including common descent.

The "days" of Genesis 1 represent long ages or epochs, allowing for an old earth while keeping the sequence broadly historical.

Genesis 1-3 is intended as an account of actual historical events, not primarily as theological symbol, poetry, or myth.

The one triune God is the sole creator of everything that exists, including all spiritual and material reality.

When the plain teaching of Scripture conflicts with a scientific consensus, Scripture must be followed and the science rejected or reinterpreted.

The universe (or some physical reality) is eternal and had no absolute beginning.

The resurrection of Jesus was a real, bodily, historical event, not merely a symbol of hope or the disciples' inner experience.

God still performs miracles today (healings, signs, answered prayer beyond natural explanation) as he did in biblical times.

Deliberately ending a pregnancy by killing the unborn is in itself a grave moral wrong.

Human life possesses a special, inviolable dignity because human beings are made in the image of God.

The direct, intentional killing of an innocent human being is always gravely wrong, with no exceptions.

Human life is a gift over which we are stewards, not owners; we may not dispose of it (our own or another's) at will.

In some cases (e.g., severe anomaly), ending the life of a newborn could be ethically comparable to late abortion.

Deliberately ending a patient's life to relieve suffering (active euthanasia) is always morally wrong.

Non-abortifacient contraception (barrier/hormonal methods that prevent fertilization) is morally acceptable for married couples.

A distinct human person, bearing full moral status, exists from the moment of conception/fertilization.

A physician may permissibly help a competent, terminally ill patient end their own life at the patient's request.

Suicide (taking one's own life) is morally wrong.

Abortion is morally permissible when continuing the pregnancy would directly threaten the mother's life.

Abortion is impermissible in all circumstances, including rape, incest, fetal anomaly, and threat to the mother's life.

A competent adult's autonomy over their own body is the decisive moral consideration in life-and-death medical choices.

When a life involves sufficient suffering or loss of function, considerations of "quality of life" can outweigh the duty to preserve it.

Using lethal force to defend oneself or others from a deadly attacker is morally permissible.

Donating one's organs after death is a morally good and praiseworthy act of charity.

The state may, in principle, justly impose the death penalty for the gravest crimes.

The church should liturgically bless and solemnize same-sex unions.

Marriage is by nature a lifelong, exclusively monogamous union.

By definition and divine design, marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

Polygamy (one man, multiple wives) is morally wrong for Christians.

Premarital sex (fornication) is always sinful, even between an engaged or committed couple.

Sexual acts between two people of the same sex are always morally wrong.

A covenanted union between two people of the same sex can be a true marriage in God's sight.

Scripture provides binding, authoritative norms for sexual conduct that the church is not free to revise.

A person's sex is a fixed, binary, God-given reality determined at conception, not something that can be changed.

Sexual intercourse is morally reserved exclusively for marriage.

The consistent, unbroken teaching of the historic church on sex and marriage is itself a decisive authority that cannot be overturned.

Women may be ordained as pastors/priests and hold the church's highest teaching/governing office.

Christians who experience exclusive same-sex attraction are called to lifelong celibacy or to a mixed-orientation marriage with the opposite sex.

It is acceptable for a Christian to marry a non-Christian (or to marry across major faith lines).

One's stance and conduct on sexual ethics bears on salvation/standing before God, not merely on discipleship maturity.

Same-sex sexual attraction is an objective disorder of desire even when not acted upon.

Sexual sins are not categorically graver than other sins and should not be singled out for special emphasis or discipline.

It is fitting for Christians to seek and hold civil office in order to govern justly.

Active civic participation (voting, advocacy, holding office) is a positive Christian duty in a free society.

Patriotism and Christian devotion properly reinforce one another, and love of country is part of Christian duty.

The faithful church should largely withdraw from seeking or wielding state power, bearing witness as a distinct community rather than governing.

Serving in the armed forces is an honorable Christian vocation.

The Christian's energy belongs primarily in personal holiness, evangelism, and the life to come rather than in political reform.

Christians may, and sometimes must, disobey civil laws that command sin or are gravely unjust.

Christians are generally obligated to submit to and pray for even unjust or persecuting governments rather than to resist them.

It can be morally legitimate for Christians to use lethal force under some circumstances (e.g. defense of the innocent, just war).

Nonviolence is the normative Christian way, binding on all believers, not merely a special vocation.

Racism (partiality and contempt on the basis of race or ethnicity) is a sin contrary to the gospel.

Christ's lordship extends over every sphere of life (politics, economics, art, science) and Christians are called to bring all of them under his rule.

The gospel is essentially a message of individual reconciliation with God, and social transformation is at most a secondary by-product, not part of its core content.

Taking a solemn oath before lawful authority, calling God to witness the truth, is a permitted and even reverent act.

Scripture's command to welcome the foreigner and care for the sojourner imposes a real Christian duty toward immigrants and refugees today. (This question does not consider any political orientation's specific definition of what constitutes a legitimate "immigrant" or "refugee.")

Civil government is divinely instituted, and obedience to lawful authority is a Christian duty (Romans 13).

Opposing abortion and protecting unborn life should be among the highest priorities of Christian political engagement.

Scripture provides binding, authoritative norms not only for personal conduct but for the ordering of society, economics, and the state.

Angels are created beings, made by God, and are not eternal or self-existent.

Biblical "angels" are best understood as symbols, personifications, or mythological language for God's action and human experience, not as actually existing spirit-persons.

Angels are real, personal, created beings who actually exist, not merely literary symbols or pre-scientific imagery.

Seeking contact with spirits/the dead through mediums, séances, channeling, or divination is forbidden and dangerous (opens to the demonic).

Demons are real, personal evil spirits (fallen angels or their kind), not merely symbols of disease, vice, or social evil.

The devil and his angels will suffer eternal, conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

The final fate of the devil and demons is destruction/annihilation (ceasing to exist), not unending conscious torment.

Evil is grounded in an eternal, uncreated power or principle opposed to God (cosmic dualism), not merely a corrupted creature.

Michael is a created archangel, a distinct being who is not the pre-incarnate Christ.

Satan is a fallen angel (a created good being who rebelled) not an independent evil principle or co-eternal power.

Satan/the devil is a real, personal spirit-being, not merely a symbol or personification of evil.

"Satan" is best understood as a personification of evil, temptation, or the human sinful inclination, not a literal spirit-person.

A portion of the angels rebelled against God and fell from their original state.

Worship (latria) of angels is forbidden; worship is due to God alone.

Angels possess intellect and will: they know, choose, and act as persons.

Angels are purely spiritual (incorporeal) beings without material bodies of their own.

Angels can assume visible, bodily appearances to interact with humans.

In the end even Satan and the fallen angels will be reconciled to God (apokatastasis of all rational creatures).

The traditional ninefold scheme of angelic orders (seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, angels) reflects a real heavenly order.

Satan is meaningfully "the god of this age" / "ruler of this world," exercising real dominion over fallen world-systems until Christ's return.

Satan operates only within limits God permits and is wholly subordinate to God's sovereignty (cf. Job).

Angels (and named archangels) may be venerated and honored (dulia) and asked to intercede, distinct from the worship due to God.

Beliefs about angels and demons should be limited to what Scripture plainly teaches, rejecting speculative hierarchies, named extra-biblical angels, and elaborate demonologies.

Angels are without sex/gender and do not marry or reproduce.

Angels, once created, do not die and are by nature immortal.

Every individual human being is assigned a personal guardian angel.

Human beings can have arisen through an evolutionary process while still being specially created bearers of God's image.

Adam and Eve were real, historical individuals who are the biological ancestors of all humanity.

Human beings are created in the image of God.

Between death and resurrection the person exists in a conscious intermediate state apart from the body.

The ultimate hope for human persons is bodily resurrection, not merely the survival of a disembodied soul.

The human soul is by nature immortal and continues to exist consciously after the death of the body.

The dead are unconscious ("asleep") until the resurrection, with no conscious experience in between.

The body is essential to being a complete human person, not an accidental or dispensable container for the soul.

Human souls pass through multiple successive earthly lives (reincarnation).

Human beings inherit a corrupted nature (original sin) from Adam, prior to and apart from any actual sins they commit.

Whatever we call the "soul" emerges from the organized functioning of the body and brain rather than being separately infused or transmitted.

The Old Testament clean/unclean food laws are no longer binding, and all foods are permitted.

The Sabbath commandment is part of the perpetual moral law, requiring a weekly day of rest and worship for all believers.

Followers of Jesus, at least those of Jewish background, should continue to observe the full Torah (dietary law, festivals, Sabbath, circumcision).

The Levitical sacrificial system has been permanently ended and fulfilled by the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.

The 1948 founding of the modern State of Israel has direct biblical-prophetic significance as a fulfillment of restoration promises.

Christians are obligated to give a tithe (a tenth) of their income as a continuing biblical requirement.

The church is the true and continuing Israel, having inherited the covenant promises so that ethnic/national Israel has no distinct remaining covenant role.

The New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah has already been inaugurated by Christ and is in force for the church now.

Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory at the end of her earthly life.

The "brothers and sisters of the Lord" in the Gospels are Mary's biological children, born after Jesus.

Mary was preserved free from the stain of original sin from the very first moment of her own conception.

Adoration/worship (latria) is owed to God alone and may never be offered to any creature, including Mary or the saints.

Mary now reigns as Queen of Heaven, crowned and exalted above all the angels and saints.

Mary remained a virgin throughout her whole life and never had marital relations or other children after Jesus ("ever-virgin").

The dead, including Mary and the saints, are unconscious ("asleep") until the resurrection and so cannot hear or intercede.

Mary may rightly be called "Theotokos" / "Mother of God" (God-bearer) because the one she bore is truly God incarnate.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit while Mary was a virgin, without a human father.

It is good and proper to ask the saints in heaven to pray to God on our behalf.

The "brothers of the Lord" are kinsmen/cousins, not siblings or step-siblings (the Hieronymian view).

There is exactly one mediator between God and humanity (Jesus Christ) and no creature shares in that mediating office.

Mary committed no actual personal sin during her life.

After bearing Jesus, Mary was an ordinary believer with no continuing special status or role.

Mary should be called only "mother of Christ" (Christotokos) / "mother of Jesus," and "Mother of God" is misleading or improper.