Statement of Faith
1. There is one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2. God is unchangeable in his holiness, justice, wisdom and love. He is the almighty Creator; Saviour and Judge who sustains and governs all things according to his sovereign will for his own glory.
3. God has revealed himself in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments alone. Every word was inspired by God through human authors, so that the Bible as originally given is in its entirety the Word of God, without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine. The Bible alone speaks with final authority and is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
4. God created humanity as male and female, giving each man and each woman their physical gender from before birth. In God’s good design for His world, men and women have equal dignity and status yet different and complementary roles in marriage, family life and in Christian leadership and teaching.
5. Their greatest purpose is to obey, worship and love God. As a result of the fall of our first parents, every aspect of human nature has been corrupted and all men and women are without spiritual life, guilty sinners and hostile to God. Every person is therefore under the just condemnation of God and needs to be born again, forgiven and reconciled to God in order to know and please him
6. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life in obedience to the Father. He taught with authority and all his words are true.
7. Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God. He rose from the dead and in his resurrection body ascended into heaven where he is exalted as Lord of all. He intercedes for his people in the presence of the Father.
8. Salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and is offered to all in the gospel. God in his love forgives sinners whom he calls, granting them repentance and faith. All who believe in Christ are justified by faith alone, adopted into the family of God and receive eternal life.
9. The Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation by convicting sinners, imparting spiritual life and giving a true understanding of the Scriptures.
10. The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated, uniting them to Christ. He makes them increasingly Christlike in character and behaviour and gives them power for their witness in the world. By the Spirit, the Christian life involves a growing knowledge of God, trust in Christ, conformity to Christ and actions pleasing to God in every area of life as directed by Scripture.
11. God designed marriage to be a public union between one man and one woman for life and that sexual relations should be within the one-flesh union of marriage. Marriage ultimately serves as a type of the union between Christ and his church.
12. The universal Church is the body of which Christ is the head and to which all who are saved belong. It is made visible in local churches, which are congregations of believers who are committed to each other for the worship of God, the preaching of the Word, the administering of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper; for pastoral care and discipline, and for evangelism. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement. True fellowship between churches exists only where they are faithful to the gospel as expressed in the full cannon of Scripture.
13. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God. God will make all things new and will be glorified forever.
