What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of John Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church - Southfield based on the foundational truths taught in the bible and affirmed through the A.M.E. Zion Denomination.

God: There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, visible, and invisible.

Jesus: The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.

Holy Spirit: The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

And in the unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scriptures, we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there never was any doubt in the Church.

Sacraments, ordained of Christ, are not only badges or tokens of Christian men’s profession, but rather they are certain signs of grace and God’s good will toward us, by which He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm, our faith in Him. There are two Sacraments ordained of Jesus Christ our Lord in the Gospel; that is to say Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say confirmation, penance, orders, matrimony, and extreme unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel; being such as have partly grown out of the corrupt following of the Apostles and partly are states of life allowed in Scriptures, but yet have not the like nature of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, because they have not any visible sign of ceremony ordained of God. The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about; but that we should duly use them, and in such only as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation; but they that receive them, unworthily purchase to themselves condemnation as Saint Paul saith, I Cor. 11:29.

The Offering of Christ, once made, is a perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifice of masses, in which it is commonly said that the priest doth offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, is a blasphemous fable and dangerous deceit.

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things of necessity required of the same.