Our Statement of Faith

THE SCRIPTURES :

We accept the Bible, including the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament, as the written Word of God. The Bible is an essential and infallible record of God’s self-disclosure to mankind. It leads us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Being given by God the Scriptures are both fully and verbally inspired by God. Therefore, as originally given, the Bible is free of error in all it teaches. Each book is to be interpreted according to its context and purpose and in reverent obedience to the Lord who speaks through it in living power. All believers are exhorted to study the Scriptures and diligently apply them to their lives. The Scriptures are the authoritative and normative rule and guide of all Christian life, practice, and doctrine. They are totally sufficient and must not to be added to, superseded, or changed by later tradition, extra-biblical revelation, or worldly wisdom. Every doctrinal formulation, whether of creed, confession, or theology must be put to the test of the full counsel of God in Holy Scripture.

GOD IS TRIUNE :

There is one God: infinite, eternal, almighty, and perfect
in holiness, truth, and love. In the unity of the godhead there are three
persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-existent,
co-equal, co-eternal. The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy
Spirit, yet each is truly Deity. One God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - is
the foundation of Christian faith and life.

GOD THE FATHER :

God the Father is the Creator of heaven and earth. By His
word and for His glory, He freely and supernaturally created the world of
nothing. Through the same Word He daily sustains all His creatures. He rules
over all and is the only Sovereign. His plans and purposes cannot be
thwarted. He is faithful to every promise, works all things together for
good to those who love Him, and in His unfathomable grace gave His Son Jesus
Christ for mankind’s redemption. He made man for fellowship with Himself,
and intended that all creation should live to the praise of His glory.

JESUS CHRIST :

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was the eternal
Word made flesh, supernaturally conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the
Virgin Mary. He was perfect in nature, teaching and obedience. He is fully
God and fully man. He was always with God and is God. Through Him all things
came into being and were created. He was before all things and in Him all
things hold together by the word of His power. He is the image of the
invisible God, the first-born of all creation and in Him dwells the fullness
of the godhead bodily. He is the only Saviour for the sins of the world
having shed His blood and died a vicarious death on Calvary’s cross. By His
death in our place, He revealed the divine love and upheld divine justice,
removing our guilt and reconciling us to God. Having redeemed us from sin,
the third day He rose bodily from the grave, victorious over death and the
powers of darkness and for a period of forty days appeared to over five
hundred witnesses performing many convincing proofs of His resurrection. He
ascended into heaven where, at God’s right hand, He intercedes for His
people and rules as Lord over all. He is the Head of His body the Church and
should be adored, loved, served, and obeyed by all.

THE HOLY SPIRIT :

The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, convicts the
world of sin, righteousness and judgment. Through the proclamation of the
gospel He persuades men to repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord.
By the same Spirit a person is led to trust in divine mercy. The Holy Spirit
unites believers to Jesus Christ in faith, brings about the new birth, and
dwells within the regenerate. The Holy Spirit has come to glorify the Son
who in turn came to glorify the Father. He will lead the Church into a right
understanding and rich application of the truth of God’s Word. He is to be
respected, honored, and worshipped as God the Third Person of the Trinity.

MAN : God made man - male and female - in His own image, as the crown of
creation, that man might have fellowship with Him. Tempted by Satan, man
rebelled against God. Being estranged from his Maker, yet responsible to
Him, he became subject to divine wrath, inwardly depraved and apart from a
special work of grace, utterly incapable of returning to God. This depravity
is radical and pervasive. It extends to his mind, will and affections.
Unregenerate man lives under the dominion of sin and Satan. He is at enmity
with God, hostile toward God, and hateful of God. Fallen, sinful people,
whatever their character or attainments, are lost and without hope apart
from salvation in Christ.

THE GOSPEL : Jesus Christ is the gospel. The good news is revealed in His
birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. Christ’s crucifixion is the
heart of the gospel, His resurrection is the power of the gospel and His
ascension is the glory of the gospel. Christ’s death is a substitutionary
and propitiatory sacrifice to God for our sins. It satisfies the demands of
God’s holy justice and appeases His holy wrath. It also demonstrates His
mysterious love and reveals His amazing grace. Jesus Christ is the only
mediator between God and man. There is no other name by which men must be
saved. At the heart of all sound doctrine is the Cross of Jesus Christ and
the infinite privilege that redeemed sinners have of glorifying God because
of what He has accomplished. Therefore, we want all that takes place in our
hearts, churches and ministries to proceed from and be related to the Cross.
 

MAN’S RESPONSE TO THE GOSPEL : Man’s response to the gospel is rooted and
grounded in the free and unconditional election of God for His own pleasure
and glory. It is also true that the message of the gospel is only effectual
to those who genuinely repent of their sins and by God’s grace put saving
faith in Christ. This gospel of grace is to be sincerely preached to all men
in all nations. Biblical repentance is characterized by a changed life, and
saving faith is evidenced by kingdom service or works. While neither
repentance nor works save, unless a person is willing to deny himself, pick
up his cross, and follow Christ, he cannot become His disciple.

MAN’S INHERITANCE THROUGH THE GOSPEL : Salvation, the free gift of God, is
provided by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, for
the glory of God alone. Anyone turning from sin in repentance and looking to
Christ and His substitutionary death receives the gift of eternal life and
is declared righteous by God as a free gift. The righteousness of Christ is
imputed to him. He is justified and fully accepted by God. Through Christ’s
atonement for sin an individual is reconciled to God as Father and becomes
His child. The believer is forgiven the debt of his sin and via the miracle
of regeneration liberated from the law of sin and death into the freedom of
God’s Spirit.

SANCTIFICATION : The Holy Spirit is the active agent in our sanctification
and seeks to produce His fruit in us as our minds are renewed and we are
conformed to the image of Christ. Though indwelling sin remains a reality,
as we are led by the Spirit, we grow in the knowledge of the Lord, freely
keeping His commandments and endeavouring to so live in the world that all
people may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. All
believers are exhorted to persevere in the faith knowing they will have to
give an account to God for their every thought, word and deed. The spiritual
disciplines, especially Bible study, prayer, worship and confession, are a
vital means of grace in this regard. Nevertheless, the believer’s ultimate
confidence to persevere is based in the sure promise of God to preserve His
people until the end which is most certain.

EMPOWERED BY THE SPIRIT :

In addition to effecting regeneration and
sanctification, the Holy Spirit also empowers believers for Christian witness and service. While all genuine believers are indwelt by the Holy 
Spirit at conversion, the New Testament indicates the importance of an
ongoing, empowering work of the Spirit subsequent to conversion as well.
Being indwelt by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are
theologically distinct experiences. The Holy Spirit desires to fill each
believer continually with increased power for Christian life and witness,
and imparts his supernatural gifts for the edification of the Body and for
various works of ministry in the world. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit at
work in the church of the first-century are available today, are vital for
the mission of the church, and are to be earnestly desired and practiced.

THE CHURCH : God by His Word and Spirit creates the Church, calling sinful
men out of the whole human race into the fellowship of Christ’s Body. By the
same Word and Spirit, He guides and preserves that new redeemed humanity.
The Church is not a religious institution or denomination. Rather, the
Church universal is made up of those who have become genuine followers of
Jesus Christ and have personally appropriated the gospel. The Church exists
to worship and glorify God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It also exists to
serve Him by faithfully doing His will in the earth. This involves a
commitment to see the gospel preached and churches planted in all the world
for a testimony. The ultimate mission of the Church is the making of
disciples through the preaching of the gospel. When God transforms human
nature, this then becomes the chief means of society’s transformation. Upon
conversion, newly redeemed men and women are added to a local church in
which they devote themselves to teaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper and
prayer.

All members of the Church universal are to be a vital and committed part of
a local church. In this context they are called to walk out the New Covenant
as the people of God and demonstrate the reality of the kingdom of God. The
ascended Christ has given gift ministries to the church (including apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) for the equipping of Christ’s
body that it might mature and grow. Through the gift ministries all members
of the Church are to be nurtured and equipped for the work of ministry.
Women play a vital role in the life of the church but in keeping with God’s
created design, they are not permitted "to teach or to have authority over a
man" (1 Tim. 2:11). Leadership in the church is male. In the context of the
local church, God’s people receive pastoral care and leadership and the
opportunity to employ their God-given gifts in His service in relation to
one another and to the world.

SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH : Water baptism is only intended for the individual
who has received the saving benefits of Christ’s atoning work and become His
disciple. Therefore, in obedience to Christ’s command and as a testimony to
God, the Church, oneself and the world; a believer should be immersed in
water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Water baptism is a
visual demonstration of a person’s union with Christ in the likeness of His
death and resurrection. It signifies that his former way of life has been
put to death and vividly depicts a person’s release from the mastery of sin.

As with water baptism, the Lord’s Supper is to be observed only by those who
have become genuine followers of Christ. This ordinance symbolizes the
breaking of Christ’s body and the shedding of his blood on our behalf, and
is to be observed repeatedly throughout the Christian life as a sign of
continued participation in the atoning benefits of Christ’s death. As we
partake of the Lord’s Supper with an attitude of faith and self-examination,
we remember and proclaim the death of Christ, receive spiritual nourishment
for our souls, and signify our unity with other members of Christ’s body.
 

THE CONSUMMATION : The Consummation of all things includes the visible,
personal and glorious return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead
and the translation of those alive in Christ, the judgment of the just and
the unjust, and the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom in the new heavens and
the new earth. In the Consummation, Satan with his hosts and all those
outside Christ are finally separated from the benevolent presence of God,
enduring eternal punishment, but the righteous, in glorious bodies, shall
live and reign with Him forever. Married to Christ as His Bride, the Church
will be in the presence of God forever, serving Him and giving Him unending
praise and glory. Then shall the eager expectation of creation be fulfilled
and the whole earth shall proclaim the glory of God who makes all things
new.

Last Updated Friday, November 19 2010 @ 02:44 AM EAT|497 Hits