There are certain things that are foundational to our faith. We regard these as crucial, and they have been agreed by the entire Church membership. They can be found in our Church Mission Statement and they are summarised as follows, with a brief explanation and Bible references where appropriate:
- There is only one true God (Deut 6:4) who is revealed in three persons – God the Father; Jesus Christ, His only Son; and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19) – and that God created the entire universe from nothing (Gen 1:1-31; Eph 3:9) by the power and authority of His word alone.
We also believe that He is in control of everything and that He is the sovereign ruler of His universe (Psalm 103: 19; Rom 11:36) - The Bible is our primary source of instruction for everything that matters in life (2 Tim 3:16). Jesus Himself commanded that no one should add or take away from it – and that to do so will bring severe judgement from God (Rev 22:18-19; Matt 5:17-18). We believe that the Bible is God’s written revelation to humanity, that He inspired each of the writers as they put pen to paper (2 Pet 1:20-21), and that we can therefore trust it completely.
Because of its vital importance we believe that we must take every opportunity to read, hear and consider its relevance to ourselves and the world around us. - That every human who has ever lived or will live is born with a nature characterised by self-centredness, unbelief and spiritual separation from God (Rom 3:23). Because of this ‘sinfulness’ everyone is subject to the judgement of God (Heb 9:27) - the penalty of which is both physical and, more importantly, spiritual death (Rom 6:23).
The effect of this is that everyone, everywhere, is by nature condemned to eternal separation from our God, Whose nature is love and holiness. The Bible refers to that separation as ‘Hell’ (Matthew 25:46 and 2 Thess 1:9). - The good news is that despite the fact that all humankind is condemned, there IS an answer! No one has to face this hopeless eternal destiny, because God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ to live a sinless life and to take upon Himself the full penalty of sin on behalf of everybody, everywhere. The Bible teaches us that He died for us (Rom 5:8; John 3:16), but that after three days He was resurrected from the dead, witnessing to all the world that our penalty had been fully dealt with – once and for all!
In order to know the reality of God’s forgiveness and love here and now we need to turn towards our Maker (instead of away from Him) open our hearts and minds to Him and simply trust Him for forgiveness for our previous ignorance, unbelief and sinfulness. When we receive Him into our lives in that way we will want to start to live in obedience to His word (1 John 2:3-6). The Bible calls this change of direction ‘repentance’ and Baptists believe it involves baptism by immersion in water, as an outward sign that we are ‘new people’ through our newborn faith in Christ (Matthew 28:19-20). - The other ordinance that the Christian Church is committed to keep is The Lord’s Supper, or Communion – which is to be celebrated regularly (Acts 2:42).
To be a Christian therefore involves not only receiving salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and being baptised – and ‘That’s it!’... It also involves living in obedience to Him, as He teaches us in His word. - Through the person of the Holy Spirit, God actually comes to live within the hearts, minds and bodies of everyone who has turned from their previous unbelieving way of life and has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour (I Cor 3:16). It is only through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we are in fact able to live as Christ commands – but, living that way, our lives will be renewed and become more meaningful as we grow spiritually.
- Christ alone is head of His universal Church (Eph 1:22), and all who accept Him as Lord and Saviour are under obligation to share the good news of salvation (the Gospel) and help it spread throughout the world (Matt 28:19, 20). Believers are also under obligation to live in a way that honours Him and focuses on His lifestyle of goodness and care for others.
- One day Christ will return, as He promised (Matt 24:30. Acts 1:11), to establish a new eternal kingdom where He will rule in righteousness (Eph 5:5). His kingdom is the destiny and expectation of all who have placed their trust in Him as their Saviour, whether we are physically alive or dead when He returns.