STATEMENT OF FAITH

1. The Holy Scriptures

The Bible, which consists of the sixty-six books of the Old Testament and the New Testament, was given by Divine inspiration. Therefore the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, nor become the Word of God but is the Word of God. Moreover, because it is the inspired Word of God, the Bible is infallible and inerrant.

The Holy Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness. They contain all things necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not contained therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man as an article of faith, or be thought necessary to salvation. The Bible alone is our supreme authority in all matters of Christian faith and practice.

2. The Old Testament

The Old Testament is not contrary to the New. In both the Old and New Testaments everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ who, being both God and man, is the only mediator between God and man.

Concerning the law which was given by God to Moses, the ceremonial law was abolished at Calvary but the moral law, which is contained in the Ten Commandments, is still binding on all men and for all time.

3. The Godhead - The Holy Trinity

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, visible and invisible.

In the unity of the Godhead there are three distinct persons, who are of one substance, power and eternity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

4. The Lord Jesus Christ

The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the true and eternal God of one substance with the Father, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thereby two whole and perfect natures, the divine and the human, were joined together in one person, never to be divided. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is truly God and perfectly man. He lived a sinless life, performed miracles, was crucified, died and was buried, according to the redemptive plan and purpose of God.

5. The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead by the power of God, taking again His body, together with all appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature. He ascended into heaven and there intercedes for His people. He is exalted Lord over all and is alive for evermore.

6. The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, being the third person of the Trinity and proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty and glory with the Father and the Son, true and eternal God.

7. The Fall of Man

Man was created in the image of God but the whole human race fell in the fall of the first Adam. Therefore man is totally depraved. He is of his own nature inclined to evil and that continually.

8. Prevenient Grace and Free Will

No man living, unless he has quenched the Spirit, is entirely destitute of what is termed prevenient grace. Allowing that all the souls of men are dead in sin by nature, this excuses no one, seeing that there is no man that is in a mere state of nature. Nevertheless, this grace may be resisted and rendered ineffectual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner.

9. The Finished Work of Christ

By the offering of Christ, once, for ever and for all, divine justice was satisfied. A perfect atonement was made for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual, and there is no other sacrifice for sin but that alone.

Therefore the sacrifice of the Mass, in which it is claimed by the priest that he offers Christ for the living and the dead, is a blasphemous and dangerous deceit.

10. Repentance

Repentance begins with a genuine conviction of sin, which is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. This conviction is a deep sense of sin as offensive to God and defiling and endangering to the soul. The penitent sinner, recognising the mercy of God in Christ, must with grief and hatred of all his known sins turn from them to God as his Saviour and Lord.

Repentance is a prerequisite to justification and regeneration.

11. Justification by Faith

Justification is an act of God's free grace in which those who believe on Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Saviour are pardoned from their sins, released from their penalty and accepted as righteous before Him.

12. Regeneration

Regeneration, or the new birth, is that great change which God works in the soul of the repentant believer when He raises it from the death of sin to new life in Christ Jesus.

13. Adoption

Adoption is an act of God's free grace by which the justified and regenerated believer is made a son of God and received into the family of God.

Justification, regeneration and adoption mutually imply each other and one cannot occur without the others, yet each is distinct from the others.

14. The Witness of the Spirit

The testimony of the Spirit is an inward impression on the soul whereby the Spirit of God witnesses directly to the spirit of the regenerate believer that he is a child of God, that all his sins are blotted out and that he is reconciled to God.

15 Good Works

Good works prior to salvation do not merit or gain divine favour. Such works, subsequent to salvation, are pleasing and acceptable to God and are evidence of saving faith.

16. Perseverance

The Christian is kept by the power of God through faith. That is the same faith by which we are saved. We are saved by the grace of God and kept by the power of God, both through faith. Continuance in the favour of God is therefore dependent upon a continued faith in Christ. The evidence of such faith will be obedience to God.

It is possible for those who have been truly converted to fall from grace and such, unless they repent of their sin, will be eternally lost.

17. Entire Sanctification

Entire sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the child of God is cleansed from all inbred sin, filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered for service.

It is subsequent to regeneration and is wrought instantaneously by faith in Jesus Christ when the believer consecrates himself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. The evidence of this gracious work is love out of a pure heart. Entire sanctification enables the believer to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and his neighbour as himself and prepares him for greater growth in grace.

Total consecration of necessity precedes and prepares the way for that act of faith which brings God's instantaneous sanctifying work to the soul.

18. The Church

The church is composed of all spiritually regenerate people, whose names are written in heaven.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the church and as such, by His Holy Spirit, has authority over the whole church to direct and inspire it in all its activities.

A local church should be composed of such regenerate people as, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, become associated together for fellowship and ministry. There the Word of God should be preached, the sacraments should be duly administered and discipline should be exercised.

19. The Sacraments

There are two sacraments, namely Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are the only sacraments which were ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ.

20. Christian Baptism

Christian baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is to show forth, in a solemn and beautiful emblem, the faith of the believer in a crucified, buried and risen Saviour.

The practice of "infant baptism" has no scriptural authority. There is, however, scriptural warrant and precedent for infant dedication.

The doctrine of baptismal regeneration is contrary to Scripture and to the fundamental truth of justification by faith alone.

21. The Lord's Supper

Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is an ordinance of Jesus Christ which should be administered with the elements of bread and wine and observed with faithfulness and regularity until He comes again. The Lord's Supper is for all His people. It is both a privilege and a duty for Christians to participate in this sacrament.

It is in no sense a sacrifice but is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith and other graces of Christians and to be a bond, pledge and renewal of their communion with Him.

The doctrine of transubstantiation, which is taught by the Church of Rome, is that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Transubstantiation is unscriptural and blasphemous and has given rise to many superstitions.

22. The Christian Sabbath

God has, in His Word, by a positive, moral and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him. In this present dispensation the first day of the week is the Lord's Day or Christian Sabbath. It is commemorative of our Lord's resurrection and is an emblem of that rest which remaineth for the people of God. It is to be kept holy unto God by abstaining from all secular labour and recreation and by the proper observance of all the means of grace, both private and public.

Only works of necessity, mercy or religion are permitted on the Lord's Day.

23. The Second Coming of Christ

The second coming of Christ will be a glorious bodily return in majesty and power. Those who are asleep in Christ and those who are alive and abiding in Christ will rise to meet Him in the air. Then He will descend with them to reign on the earth and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ.

24. The Last Judgement

God has appointed a day in which He will judge all mankind, in righteousness, by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgement is given of the Father.

God will give to the righteous eternal glory and blessedness in Heaven in the presence of Christ but He will send the wicked away to a Hell of everlasting conscious punishment, through suffering and separation from Himself.