Our Beliefs
Our Beliefs

Declaration

We as a group of believers who gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, hereby declare the following to be our Statement of Faith based on the Word of God, the Bible:

God

There is one God, Creator of all things, infinitely perfect, holy, eternally existent in three equal Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is gracious, merciful, compassionate, abounding in steadfast love and is the righteous judge of all mankind.

(Is. 45:5-6, Gen. 1:1, Matt. 5:48, 1 Pet. 1:15-16, Is. 43:10, Is. 44:6, Rom. 11:36, Is. 40:28, Ps. 90:2, John 10:30, Is. 30:18, 2 Cor. 1:3, Luke 1:77-78, 2 Cor. 1:3, 1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16, Ex. 34:6, Ps. 7:11, James 4:12)

Son

The Lord Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man, from eternity past to eternity future He is the Son of God, begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, perfect, sinless. He died sacrificially as our substitute for our salvation and justification. He rose bodily from the dead and ascended to His Father’s right hand where He now ministers as our Great High Priest.

(John 1:14, John 10:30, Col. 2:9, John 3:16, John 8:58, Matt. 1:23, 1 John 4:9, 1 Pet. 2:22, 1 John 3:5, Rom. 5:6, Mark 10:45, 1 Tim. 2:6, 1 Pet. 2:24, Mark 16:6, 1 Thess. 4:14, 1 Cor. 15:3-4, Acts 1:9-12, Luke 22:69, Rom. 8:34, Col. 3:1)

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a Person and is fully God, possessing all the distinctively divine attributes. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. At conversion, He baptizes each believer into the Body of Christ and comes to indwell them permanently and sets them apart to a holy life.

(John 14:26, John 14:17, 1 Cor. 2:10-12, John 16:8, 1 Cor. 12:13, Acts 1:5, 1 Cor. 3:16, 2 Cor. 6:16, Eph. 1:13)

Bible

The Bible is verbally inspired by God, inerrant in the original documents and sole authority in matters of faith and practice.

(2 Tim. 3:16-17, Rom. 15:4. Rom. 10:17, Heb. 4:12-14, Is. 40:8, John 17:17, Ps. 119:114, Ps. 119:105)

Mankind

Mankind was made in the image of God yet every member of the human race is sinful due to our fallen state. As a result, mankind incurs both physical death as well as spiritual death which is separation from God. God created all human beings in His image, creating them as male and female. All people are valued members of the human family and should be treated with respect, grace, understanding, and love. The fall into sin affects all areas of human life, including sexuality and relationships. We recognize that sin’s distorting effect on creation causes some to experience conflict between their biological and genetic sex, and their perceived gender. To experience such a conflict is not, in itself, to commit a sin; yet we affirm that gender is determined at conception and not by one’s own identification, and that sex and gender are inextricably linked.

(Gen. 1:27, Rom. 5:18-21, 1 Cor. 15:22, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 5:12, Rom. 6:23, John 3:36, Is. 59:2, Gal. 5:19-21, Ps. 139:13-14, Rom. 1:24-27, 1 Cor. 2:14, 1 John 4:11, Eph. 4:2)

Salvation

God has provided a remedy for man’s sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, bearing the punishment for our sin that was our own responsibility to pay. All who accept His sacrifice are referred to as believers. This is the only way for salvation. This acceptance includes: repentance from sin, being born again through regeneration by the Holy Spirit and salvation by grace through faith.  The redeemed are kept eternally secure by the power of God, the intercession of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When we repent, we can receive abundant forgiveness and grace through our Saviour, Jesus Christ. We hold that all believers still succumb to temptation and sin, but that God has made full provision whereby His children may be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit who indwells each one.

(John 3:16, Rom. 5:8, John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Titus 3:5-6, Rom. 10:13, Rom. 10:9-10, 2 Pet. 3:9, John 3:5-8, 1 John 1:9, Eph. 2:8-9, 2 John 10:28, 2 Thess. 3:3, Rom. 8:34, Heb. 7:25, Eph. 1:14, Rom. 8:37)

The Church

There is one Church. It is not an organization but a living organism, known as the Body of Christ and is made up of all born again believers. The local church is composed of believers in a locality. Though autonomous, the local church exists in vital union with all believers. They gather in Christ’s name as a corporate testimony to the Lordship of Christ and to the oneness of the body of Christ. They gather specifically to learn God’s Word, for fellowship and edification, to commemorate the Lord’s Supper, to worship and for prayer. In addition, they evangelize unbelievers and make disciples of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

(Eph. 1:22-23, 1 Cor. 12:27, 1 Cor. 12:13, 1 Tim. 3:15, Col. 3:16, 1 Cor. 11:17-34, Heb. 10:24-25, Eph. 5:19, Matt. 18:20, 1 Cor. 14:26, 1 Thess. 5:11, Acts 2:42-47, Matt. 28:18-20, 2 Cor. 5:18-20, Matt. 5:14-16)

The Ordinances

The Lord’s Supper was commemorated by the early churches on the first day of the week and we believe it is the privilege and duty of every believer to heed the Lord’s command: “This do in remembrance of me”.

Baptism by immersion is an expression of as a person’s identification with Christ and signifies that the one being baptized has been crucified with Christ unto sin, has been buried with Him and is risen with Him to walk in newness of life. Baptism is not as a means of, nor an aid to, salvation, nor as a prerequisite to fellowship at the Lord’s Supper. It is, however, expected of all believers in obedience to our Lord and is administered on confession of the person’s faith in the Lord Jesus.

(1 Cor. 11:17-34, Matt. 28:19-20, Rom. 6:3-4, 1 Cor. 12:13, Acts 2:38, Col. 2:12)

Spiritual Gifts

The Holy Spirit has blessed the church with specific abilities that are expressed as “gifts” to and through the believers. In His wisdom and sovereignty, God designed certain gifts primarily for the foundational period of the church, while the majority are available for exercise today.

(Rom. 12:6-8, 1 Cor. 12:8-10, 1 Cor. 12:28-30, Eph. 4:11)

Believers’ Responsibility

It is the responsibility of all believers to love God, other believers and their neighbour, to worship God in spirit and in truth, to study the Scriptures and pray continually in order to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in daily living. We are to be filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit, to be fruitful, share the Good News of salvation through Christ, and encourage one another in the faith as we look expectantly for the coming of our Lord. All Christians are called to live lives embodying the fruit of the Spirit including love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in keeping with the Word of God.

(Matt. 22:37-40, 1 John 5:3, John 13:34, 1 John 4:11, Phil. 2:3-4, Matt. 5:43-48, John 4:24, 2 Tim. 2:15, Rom. 12:12, 1 Thess. 5:16-18, Eph. 5:18, 2 Pet. 1:5-15, John 15:1-16, Gal. 5:22-23, 1 Thess. 5:11, Gal. 6:2, Heb. 10:24, Rom. 8:25-27)

Future Things

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved and everlasting conscious punishment of the lost. We believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus in the air to call to Himself all the believers from this world, commonly known as the rapture of the church.

(1 Cor. 15:35-58, 2 Cor. 5:8, John 14:1-3, Rev. 14:13, Rev. 20:10, Matt. 24:42-44, Matt. 25:13, Luke 12:40, 2 Pet. 3:10, 1 Thess. 4:15-17, 2 Thess. 2:1-10)

Marriage

We believe that marriage was ordained by God as a union only between one man and one woman. Marriage is also symbolic of Christ’s relationship with His bride, the Church and as such is to follow the biblical pattern. Sexuality is a gift from God for enjoyment as well as for procreation. It requires stewardship which includes reserving sexual intimacy for such a marriage relationship.

(Gen. 2:18, Heb. 13:4, Eph. 5:25, Eph. 5:31, Prov. 5:18-19, Gen. 1:27-28, Ps. 127:3)