What we believe

1. The Bible
We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are God’s revelation to us and the final authority for faith and life – His revealed and absolute truth. We believe the Word is God- breathed, infallible as originally given, and has ultimate authority in all matters of faith, conduct and experience.

We believe scripture is sufficient for knowing God. It is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it teaches; obeyed as God’s command, in all that it requires; and trusted, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises. As God’s people hear, believe, and do the Word, they are equipped as disciples of Christ and witnesses to the gospel.

We believe God’s revealed truth defines right and wrong, good and bad, worthwhile and worthless for us and allow it to guide, correct, inspire, convict, shape and teach us.

2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:20-21, Matthew 5:18, John 16:12-13

2. The Godhead
We believe in one Triune God, eternally existing in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – co-eternal in being, co-eternal in nature, co-eternal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections, and modelling perfect and ultimate community. Each person of the Godhead is equally deserving of worship and obedience.

Deuteronomy 6:4, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Cor 10:31

3. God the Father
He is the first person of the Trinity and is the Father of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God is sovereign in all things: creation, revelation, redemption, judgment and the establishing of His Kingdom. As sovereign, loving creator and redeemer, he is worthy of all glory and honour and praise and our lives should be directed towards giving glory to Him alone.

4. God the Son
We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin making a way back to God the Father. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present lord. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission; a work which he has begun through His Bride, The Church. He is the Head of the His Body, the Church and should be adored, loved, served and obeyed by all.

Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:6-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13- 22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.

5. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God. He possesses all the divine attributes. He was active in creation, the incarnation, regeneration, and written revelation. He has a unique role in this age since Pentecost. He is in the process of building the body of Christ.

He specifically convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. He brings glory to Jesus Christ and transforms believers into the image of Christ. He is the sovereign agent in regeneration and baptises believers into the body of Christ. He seals the believer unto the day of redemption. He also sanctifies the believer and empowers them for service. Finally, He is the giver of spiritual gifts to believers.

John 16:7-9; Acts 1:5, 2:4; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Romans 8:9-11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Ephesians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

6. Humanity
We believe that God created humanity, man and family in his own image and likeness. We take this to mean that he has a self-conscious, rational personality, and nature that is capable of distinguishing right and wrong. Male and female were the crowning work of God’s creation and gender was a gift from God. We were free from sin and had a moral responsibility to God. God’s intention in creating us was to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. We chose to sin against God, lost our innocence, and brought sin into the human race thus leaving us totally incapable of choosing that which is acceptable to God apart from God’s grace. Our salvation is wholly of God’s grace through the redeeming work of Jesus. It is God’s plan for restoring us to Himself and His original vision of humanity.

Genesis 2:7, 15-25; James 3:9, Romans 3:9-18, 5:10-12; Genesis 3; John 3:36; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 2:13-14, Isaiah 43:7; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11 

7. Salvation
Salvation is the redeeming work of God and His grace of the whole person. The Holy Spirit gives and brings about regeneration or the new birth. The repentant sinner responds in faith to the provision of salvation by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. The believer is justified by God, being declared righteous by faith in Christ. The righteousness given is apart from the work of man and involves the placing of a person’s sin on Christ and the imputing of His righteousness to the sinner. Every believer is sanctified, or set apart, and declared holy. This position is instantaneous. Every believer is also a part of being progressively sanctified; being brought closer to the likeness of Jesus through obedience to the scriptures and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. God does not provide a way of salvation apart from Christ.

John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5, Romans 2:4, 8:30, Romans 3:20, Colossians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, John 17:17,19; Romans 6:1; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

8. The Church
Those who place their faith in Christ are immediately united into one spiritual body called the church and the bride of Christ of which Jesus is the head. This universal body includes all believers through history. The establishment of local autonomous congregations is taught in scripture in which members are directed to associate themselves together in a local body. These members observe the two ordinances (Baptism & lord’s Supper) given by Christ. Church leadership, gifts, order, discipline, and worship are appointed by Christ as found in the scriptures. Church officers are elders and deacons. The Bible outlines qualifications we should seek in appointing people to these leadership roles. The congregation is called to regard their leadership, the leaders are called to pastor the community as a shepherd cares for his sheep.

The purpose of the church is to glorify God by building itself up in the faith through the instruction of the word, fellowship, keeping the ordinances, and by sharing and living out the gospel to the world.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13, Ephesians 5:23-32, Ephesians 1:22, Acts 14:23, 27, 20:17, 28; Galatians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; Titus 1:5, 1 Corinthians 11:18-20; Hebrews 10:25, Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:5-9, and 1 Peter 5:1-5, Hebrews 13:7, 17, Ephesians 3:21, Ephesians 4:13-16, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Acts 2:47, Acts 2:38-42

9. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
Jesus commanded and committed these two ordinances to the church. Baptism by immersion in water is the testimony that a believer identifies with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. The believer is considered dead to sin and buries the old life while walking in the newness and power of the resurrection. It is a sign of fellowship and identification with the body of Christ. A believer’s salvation is not dependent on baptism. The lord’s Supper is a memorial of His death. It was commanded by the lord. It should be preceded by self examination. We believe the bread and the wine are not the literal body and blood of Christ.

Luke 3:21-22, Matthew 3:13-17, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 8:36- 39, Acts 2:41-42, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

10. The Future
We believe in the personal, glorious, and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ with His holy angels, when he will exercise his role as final Judge, and his kingdom will be consummated. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust—the unjust to judgment and eternal conscious punishment in hell, as our lord himself taught, and the just to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the lamb, in the new heaven and the new earth, the home of righteousness. On that day the church will be presented faultless before God by the obedience, suffering and triumph of Christ, all sin purged and its wretched effects forever banished. God will be all in all and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his ineffable holiness, and everything will be to the praise of his glorious grace.