Statement of Faith

GOD

God is Almighty, Eternal and Unchanging. He is just and holy, gracious and merciful. He is the Creator and Ruler of all things, exercising sovereign power in Creation, Providence and Redemption, and is deserving of all glory and praise forever.

TRINITY

God is One, existing through all eternity in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

WORD

God’s greatness and holiness are such, that without His aid, humankind can neither understand God nor find the way to a right relationship with Him. In His mercy, however, God has made Himself known. He has done this partially through Creation but more fully and clearly to the people of Israel and explicitly and finally in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and the Word of God incarnate. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as originally given and divinely preserved, record, interpret and complete God’s special revelation to us. We therefore accept the Bible as not merely containing but being the divinely inspired and infallible Word of God written and the final and sufficient authority in all matters of Christian faith and life.

SATAN

Satan is a person, a malignant Spirit, the enemy of Jesus Christ and of the saints, deceiving humankind; and he has been condemned to eternal damnation.

SIN

God created humankind perfect, but after being tempted by Satan, by our own free choice, we disobeyed God and became sinful. Humankind’s whole nature is now corrupted by sin and our fellowship with God is broken.

SAVIOUR

God alone can deal with humankind’s sin and bring about a reconciliation with Himself. In God’s great plan of Redemption, God the Son became man through the Incarnation. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless human life and taught with divine authority. He suffered and died in the place of sinners, bearing their sin and its guilt and punishment. He thus sets free all believers from the domination of Satan and the corruption of their own sinful nature, and removes from them forever sin’s lasting consequences.

FORGIVEN

God, by His Grace, forgives and reconciles to Himself all who turn to Him in true repentance, turning from sin and trusting in Christ’s atoning death. God imputes to them the righteousness of Christ Himself and adopts them as His children.

RISEN

The Lord Jesus Christ was shown to be the Son of God by His teaching, by His miracles and by His bodily resurrection from the dead. He has ascended in power and glory to the presence of God where He now pleads on behalf of those who call upon Him in truth.

SPIRIT

God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, must work in a person before he can enter Salvation. He leads the sinner into an awareness of his sinfulness and brings him to repentance and trust in Christ. He brings to birth in him a new and eternal life and, by His continuing work, develops in this new life the fruits of love and holiness.

LIVING

God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, must work in a person before they can enter Salvation. He leads the sinner into an awareness of their sinfulness and brings them to repentance and trust in Christ. He brings to birth a new and eternal life within the person and, by His continuing work, develops in this new life the fruits of love and holiness.

JUSTIFIED

The Scriptures affirm that the sinner is justified by faith alone in the finished work of Christ, that is, by His substitutionary death upon the Cross and His resurrection from the dead. The works of humankind and the traditions of the visible Church are of no avail in Salvation and Justification.

RETURN

God is bringing all human history to a climax which will be marked by the personal bodily return to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory.

JUDGE

God has appointed Jesus as Judge and there will be a final judgement. Those who are saved will be raised in a glorified body and enjoy eternally and to the full the presence of their Lord in heaven. Those who have rejected Christ will also be raised and banished from God forever in hell.

ONE

All who have been personally redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ and upon whom God has bestowed His righteousness as a free gift, belong to Christ. They alone may rightly be called Christians. They alone are members of the one universal and eternal Church which is the Body of Christ.

GATHERED

Each local church is a fellowship of believers gathered by Christ and under His sole, sufficient and supreme authority. Through Him, as Head of the Church, it has direct access to God and enjoys fellowship with other Congregations of His people in a unity which transcends all barriers.

GIFTS

The Holy Spirit gives many different gifts to equip all God’s people for ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, and He determines what is given to each believer. A gift is to be valued in the Church according to its contribution to the common good.

LIFE

Every Christian is called to love the Lord his God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love their neighbour as themselves. Therefore, all are to live godly lives, doing all things to the glory of God. The indwelling Holy Spirit makes this new life a reality as they yield themselves to Him.

SACRAMENT

Baptism is a sacrament ordained by Jesus Christ as a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace. Where one who confesses faith in Christ is baptised, the sacrament is seen as an outward and visible sign of newness of life through faith in Christ on the part of the candidate.

Or

Where an infant of confessing parents is baptised, the sacrament is seen as an outward and visible sign of the Grace of God that works in the life prior to the response of faith, calling the one baptised to grow up into Christ and put on Christ.

The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament ordained by Jesus Christ and is to be observed in the churches for a perpetual remembrance and showing forth of the sacrifice of Christ, the spiritual nourishment of believers and a sign of their communion with one another.

COMMISSIONED

We affirm the obligation to fulfil the Commission given to the Church by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.