Statement of Faith

We believe that there is one living and true God, existing in three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God: co-equal in glory and every divine perfection, co-eternal, and the same in essence. These Persons execute distinct yet harmonious offices in the work of creation, providence, and redemption. They are rightly worshipped as three in one and one in three. God is a pure and personal spirit, eternal, immortal, immutable, incomprehensible, self-existent, omnipotent, omnipresent, immense, omniscient, independent, and altogether perfect. In all of His ways He is holy, truthful, good, righteous, faithful, loving and just. All things exist for His glory, and He has the prerogative to require from every creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He desires.

We believe that the Father is the first Person of the Trinity, the beginning of all activity, and that all things come from Him. He designed the work of redemption, He created the world by His Word and Spirit, appointed the Son to be the Saviour, He sent both the Son and the Spirit for our salvation, and exalted the Son in glory.

We believe that Jesus of Nazareth the second Person of the Trinity was and is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. He is fully God and fully man, one person with two natures. We believe in His incarnation, virgin birth, sinless life, earthly suffering, miracles, vicarious obedience, victorious and substitutionary atoning death at the cross of Calvary under Pontius Pilate, burial, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father,

His perpetual intercession for the church, and His future personal visible return to earth, to judge the living and the dead. We believe that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which man must be saved.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. He was sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement, to regenerate God’s elect, and to sanctify, instruct, equip, revive, and comfort all who believe in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ and guides believers in biblical truth. He empowers believers for mission, and makes overseers to shepherd God’s flock.

We believe that God is knowable because He has acted to reveal Himself. God has made Himself known by displaying His glory in the creation, in the Holy Scriptures, and pre-eminently in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The only inspired authoritative word of God is comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (i.e. Holy Bible). This Word is entirely inerrant in the original manuscripts, complete, infallible, sufficient for all faith and practice, and chiefly authoritative in every domain of knowledge which it speaks to. We believe the Word of God, illumined by the Spirit of God, is understandable and able to be loved and obeyed.

God is the Sovereign Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of all things: visible and invisible. God created the universe out of nothing, and made all things very good. Humanity was the crown of His creation.

We believe that God is Lord over all. All things exist according to the counsel of His will and for His glory. By His infinite wisdom and boundless goodness, He has from eternity past decreed the future and by His power not a single decree will fail to come to pass as He has ordained.

We believe God created mankind in His own image, male and female. As image bearers, we exist to enjoy God, worship God, and reflect Him in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Though men and women are equal in dignity and value, they are created different, and have distinct but complementary roles.

Marriage was created by God as a lifelong union between one man and one woman, as a display of the loving relationship between Christ and His Church. For this reason, men and women are not interchangeable, but rather complement each other in distinct yet mutually enriching roles.

God has so designed that the husband should be the head of his home in a way that displays the caring, sacrificial love of Christ toward His own bride, the Church, and that the wife submits to her husband in a way that models the love and respect the church has for her Lord.

We believe that mankind was created upright, sinless and free to both desire and do either good or evil. However, the first human beings God created, Adam and Eve, sinned against God, and in doing so, forfeited their original righteousness, fellowship with God, and hope of eternal life through obedience. As our first parents, they plunged themselves, their offspring, and the creation into ruin. Consequently, the creation is subject to futility, and all humanity is alienated from God, guilty of sin, corrupt in their being (eg. physically, mentally, volitionally, emotionally, spiritually), and condemned finally and irrevocably to eternal death – apart from God’s gracious intervention. God alone can save mankind from this fallen state.

We believe that all people deserve God’s just punishment, and therefore God is by no means obligated to save anyone. Salvation is a free and gracious act of God. It cannot be merited, nor is it secured by anything foreseen in man. We believe that all who receive salvation are those whom God elected from eternity past.

We believe that those whom God elected, God is pleased, in His appointed time, to effectually call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, and into grace and salvation.

We believe that regeneration by the Holy Spirit is necessary for salvation. This is a sovereign and supernatural working of God, whereby the Spirit empowers the elect, through receiving the gospel to exercise saving faith in Christ, and sincerely repent of sin. This transformation cannot be revoked or reversed.

We believe that God declares sinners as just through their exercising faith in Christ alone, by God’s grace alone, and never on account of their works. All who are justified are adopted into the family of God, and receive entitlement to the liberties and privileges that come with this status.

We believe that all true converts will be enabled by God to persevere in the faith, and enjoy progressive sanctification into the image of Jesus Christ. We believe that God’s elect will experience the fullness of salvation at the return of Jesus Christ. The bodies of the redeemed will be raised to honour and be conformed to the glorified body of Jesus Christ.

We believe in the future return of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He will return personally, visibly, bodily, gloriously and triumphantly at the end of this age. At His appearing the dead shall be raised, and all will be judged. The wicked and unbelieving will be consigned to eternal punishment, while the just and believing will have eternal life in the new heavens and new earth. His kingdom will be consummated.

We believe in one universal Church as a communion of God’s people drawn from every tribe, language, people, and nation on earth. This living, invisible and spiritual body, of which Christ Jesus is the head, consists of elected persons. We believe that the local church is an imperfect

visible expression of the invisible church, and it consists of those who believe in Jesus Christ and have been baptised. A local church exists wherever two or more are gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus, the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, the sacraments faithfully administered, and there is biblical church discipline. We believe the mission of the church is to worship God, to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners, and to disciple the saints.

We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus Himself. The former is connected with entrance into the new covenant community and should only be administered to believers in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the latter is connected with ongoing covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, signs of the gospel, divinely ordained means of grace, and our public vows of submission to the once crucified and now resurrected Christ. These ordinances ought to be practised until the return of Jesus Christ.

We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ—God’s very wisdom. This good news is Christological, centering on the cross and resurrection. Consequently, the gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and any authentic gospel proclamation must include a declaration of Christ’s death and resurrection. This good news is biblical (His death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures), theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins to reconcile us to God), historical (if the saving events did not happen in real space and time then our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and are to be pitied more than all others), apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles who were witnesses of these historic events), and personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).

We hold to the historic Christian creeds: the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Creed of Chalcedon, and the Athanasian Creed. Though not an official statement for our church, we generally hold to The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.

We believe that the final commands of Jesus’ first advent are binding on all believers of every age. This means that we must be diligent in spreading the gospel to the world outside of the church for God’s glory and the saving benefit of the lost, and we must be committed to the building-up and edification of God’s Church.

In our evangelistic efforts we must be faithful to the content of unchanging Biblical doctrine and yet sensitive to the continually changing context of the culture(s) in which we minister. We believe that it is our mandate to train people to serve as missionaries and gospel proclaimers.

To proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people so that the elect will be converted to Him and serve Him according to God’s word (the Bible) and empowering of the Holy Spirit.

To make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ by equipping the saints for ministry, and nurturing believers as they grow in faith and obedience to the Word of God.