Delanco Camp is an inter-denominational Christian camp with deep roots in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.
All speakers and teachers at our camps, retreats and programs are asked to sign a statement agreeing to be consistent in their teaching and preaching with the following core beliefs:
The Word of God
The Bible is the fully and uniquely inspired Word of God and is our sufficient and final authority of faith and practice. Through it the Holy Spirit continues to illumine, convict, regenerate, sanctify, instruct, reprove, correct and train in righteousness. Whatever is not revealed in or established by the Scriptures cannot be made an article of faith essential to salvation.
The Triune God
There is one true holy and living God, eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. He is infinite and unchangeable in power, wisdom, holiness and love. In the divine unity of His Godhead there eternally exist three Persons of one essence, perfection, and power: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the eternally begotten Son, the second person of the Triune Godhead. He was and is eternally one with the Father and by the conception of the Holy Spirit was born of the virgin Mary. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only begotten Son of the Father, and the Son of Man. He is the Godman, truly and fully God and truly and fully man. He was sinless in life. He and He alone was qualified to be our substitute, our Savior. He lived, suffered and died on a cross. He was buried, physically rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven to be with the Father. He will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune Godhead. He is of one substance with the Father and the Son, from Whom He has proceeded and is co-equal with Them in eternity, grace, and power. It is His ministry to glorify Jesus Christ, and He is ever present and active in the Church of Christ. He convicts the world of sin, regenerates those who repent and believe, and sanctifies and empowers the believers for godly living and service.
Man, Free Will & Sin
Man was created in the image of God. By his free choice Adam rebelled against God, fell from his original innocence and purity, and received a fallen and sinful nature. Each human being today is born with this same sinful nature, a bent toward sinning. Also by his own sinful deeds he has become guilty before God. Apart from the regenerating work of God, man today is lost in sin, is dead in his trespasses and sin, and is without God and without hope.
The prevenient grace of God through Jesus Christ is freely bestowed upon all men. It enables all who will turn from sin to righteousness and through believing on Christ to receive pardon and cleansing from sin. We therefore have a gospel for all the world so that whoever comes and believes will have everlasting life. The believer is securely kept by the power of God as he abides by faith in vital fellowship with Christ. However, since he continues to be morally responsible to God after his conversion and continues to have free will, it is possible for a Christian to stop trusting in Christ, to fall away and rebel against God. If he does not return or seek restoration through repentance, and faith, but persists in his sin and dies in this rebellious state he will be eternally lost.
Atonement
Jesus Christ made a full atonement for the sins of the whole world by shedding His own blood upon the cross as a perfect and sufficient sacrifice. His vicarious, substitutionary death is the only ground for our salvation. It is a sufficient atonement for the whole world.
The New Birth
Repentance is that godly sorrow for sin which results from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. It involves a sensing of personal guilt before God, a voluntary turning away from sin, and the confessing of sin. It is the essential preparation for saving faith, the simple trust in Christ for salvation.
Justification is the grace of God fully forgiving the repenting and believing sinner. God grants full pardon and release from the penalty of sins committed, and acceptance as righteous, not on the basis of the merits or efforts of the sinner, but upon the basis of the atonement by Jesus Christ and the faith of the sinner.
Regeneration or the new birth is the renewal of man in righteousness through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve Him with the will and affections.
Adoption or reconciliation is the gracious act of God by which the justified and regenerated believer is constituted a child of God with the privilege of access to the Father, membership in the family of God, and inheritance with Christ.
Justification, regeneration, and adoption are simultaneous in the heart of the repentant believer. The Holy Spirit is the witness to salvation by the inner assurance He imparts to the child of God, and by the fruit of His life according to the standard of Scripture: peace with God, love for the children of God, joy in Christ, the guidance of the Spirit, and righteous conduct. Good works are the visible fruit of a life lived in Christ; they are not the condition of salvation, but the result of salvation.
Sanctification
Sanctification is one of several terms used in the Bible to describe that work of grace in the heart of the believer subsequent to the new birth by which he is cleansed from sin and empowered for Holy life and service. It has been termed entire sanctification because: a) there is an initial cleansing of the defilement of committed sins in the new birth, b) the wholeness of the commitment necessary for one who would be Spirit-filled, c) of the wholeness of the cleansing from the defilement of the inner nature which results. The Spirit-filled person is enabled by the in-dwelling Holy Spirit to love God with his whole being and his neighbor as himself.
The crisis experience of the infilling of the Spirit, entire sanctification or this second work of grace, is the instantaneous experience based upon heart thirst, self-humbling, and consecration wherein the Holy Spirit fills the believer, baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and bestows His power. It is entered into by faith.The progressive aspect of sanctification is that process of growth in Christian maturity, Christlikeness, and practical godliness which results from walking obediently in the light, from spiritual nurture and discipline, and from the Holy Spirits continuing ministry in the cleansed and yielded believer. The evidence of the Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered life is manifested in a heart attitude of perfect love and in righteous behavior.
Resurrection, Heaven & Hell
There will be a resurrection of the body for both the saved and unsaved dead. There will be eternal life and blessedness in heaven for the saved where they will be in the immediate presence of God and will share his eternal reign. There will be eternal death and punishment for the unsaved in hell, the lake of fire where they shall consciously share the company of the damned in eternal separation from God.
The Church
The Church is the community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. All who are born again are baptized into this one Church by the Holy Spirit. It is the redemptive fellowship in which the Word of God is preached by those divinely called, and the sacraments are duly administered according to Christs own appointment. Under the discipline of the Holy Spirit the Church exists for the maintenance of worship, the edification of believers and the redemption of the world. Therefore it is the responsibility of the Church and of each of its members to obey Christ’s great commission and reach the whole world with the gospel of Christ.