What We Believe

Statement of Faith

1. The full inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; their authority and sufficiency as not only containing but as being in themselves the Word of God. The reliability of the Scripture’s witness to itself as the only, the complete, infallible and inerrant Word of God, the New Testament witnessing to the reliability and divine character of the Old Testament; the necessity also for a faith in the Word, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, for a true understanding of the whole.

2. The unity of the Godhead and the divine co-equality of the Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit eternally; the sovereignty of God in creation, providence and redemption.

3. The true and proper deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His real and perfect manhood; the authority of His teaching and the infallibility of all His utterances; His penal substitutionary death on the cross as being the full and sufficient and only atonement for sins; His bodily resurrection and His ascension into Heaven; His present priestly intercession for His people; His personal return in glory.

4. The justification of the sinner solely by faith, through the propitiatory and atoning merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

5. The total depravity of human nature in consequence of the Fall of man from the original state of perfection in which he was created, by which Fall all mankind is in a state of condemnation and separation from a holy God and can only be delivered by the divine work of regeneration and redemption.

6. The sovereign grace of God, by which we mean His free and unmerited favour; and that by His sole choice the elect have been predestined to salvation.

7. The work of regeneration, conversion, sanctification and faith as not being an act of man’s free will and power, but of the mighty efficacious, invincible and ultimately the irresistible grace of God, through the Holy Spirit.

8. All those who are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Spirit, shall certainly and finally persevere, so that not one of them shall ever perish but shall have everlasting life.

9. The resurrection of the body; the judgement of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and the eternal punishment of those who finally reject Christ as Saviour.

10. The observance of the divine institution of believers’ baptism by immersion, in loving obedience and as an act of witness, but not as conveying any regenerating grace. The observance of the Lord’s Supper as a commemoration of our Lord’s death, but not as being a sacrifice for sin nor involving any change in the substance of the bread and wine.

11. The sole authority and prerogative of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, speaking in His Word, for the government of the church.

For a fuller understanding of those things that we believe, and the things to which we adhere - see the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.