Doctrinal Statement

As a university owned and organized for the purposes of The Wesleyan Church, Southern Wesleyan University shares a common understanding of doctrine and God’s revealed will as described in the Church’s “Articles of Religion,” “Membership Commitments,” and “Elementary Principles.” The following is a summary of the doctrine set forth in the Articles of Religion, but the statement is not intended to replace or in any way supersede the more explicit affirmations found in the most current version of The Discipline of the Wesleyan Church.

We believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son, suffered in our place on the cross, that He died but rose again, that He now sits at the Father’s right hand until He returns to judge all humanity at the last day.

We believe in the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and inerrant Word of God.

We believe that by the grace of God every person has the ability and responsibility to choose between right and wrong, and that those who repent of their sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are justified by faith.

We believe that God not only counts the believer as righteous, but that He makes believers righteous, freeing them of sin’s dominion at conversion, purifying their heart by faith and perfecting them in love at entire sanctification, and providing for their growth in grace in every stage of his spiritual life, enabling them through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to live victorious lives.

We believe that every individual has a God-given purpose, brought to fruition by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Through the challenge of scholarship and participation in a consecrated community of learners we are both individually and corporately continuously transformed into the image of Christ.