Beliefs

What we believe

• God is bigger and better and closer than we can imagine.
• The bible is God’s perfect guidebook for living.
• Jesus is God showing himself to us.
• Through His Holy Spirit, God lives in and through us now.
• Nothing in creation just happened. God made it all.
• Grace is the only way to have a relationship with God.
• Faith is the only way to grow in our relationship with God.
• God has allowed evil to provide us with a choice, God can bring good even out of evil events and God promises victory over evil to those who choose him.
• Heaven and hell are real places. Death is a beginning, not the end.
• The church is to serve people like Jesus served people.
• Jesus is coming again

The Scriptures Inspired
The Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are verbally inspired of God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct.
(2 Tim. 3:15-17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21)

The One True God
The One True God has revealed Himself as the eternally self-existent “I AM”, the Creator of heaven and earth and the Redeemer of mankind. He has further revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
(Deut. 6:4, Isa. 43:10, 11; Matt. 28:29; Luke 3:22)

The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.

The Scriptures declare:

• His virgin birth (Matt. 1:23 ; Luke 1:31 , 35)
• His sinless life (Heb. 7:26 ; 1 Peter 2:22 )
• His miracles (Acts 2:22 ; 10:38 )
• His substitutionary work on the cross (1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21 )
• His bodily resurrection from the dead (Matt. 28:6; Luke 24:39; 1 Cor. 15:4)
• His exaltation to the right hand of God (Acts 1:9, 11; 2:33 ; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1-3)

The Fall of Man
Man was crea ted good and upright, for God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. However, man by voluntary transgression fell and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God.
(Gen. 1:26, 27; 2:17 ; 3:6; Rom 5:12-19)

The Salvation of Man
Man’s only hope of redemption is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Conditions of Salvation
Salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, being justified through faith, man becomes an heir of God according to the hope of eternal life.
(Luke 24:47; John 3:3; Rom. 10:13 -15; Eph. 2:8; Titus 2:11; 3:5-7)

The Evidences of Salvation
The inward evidence of Salvation is the direct witness of the Spirit. (Rom. 8:16 )
The outward evidence to all men is a life of righteousness and true holiness.
(Eph. 4:24; Titus 2:12)

The Ordinances of the Church
Baptism in Water
The ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded in the Scriptures. All who repent and believe of Christ as Saviour and Lord are to be baptised. Thus they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of Life.
(Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16, Acts 10:47, 48; Rom. 6:4)

The Holy Communion
The Lord’s Supper consisting of the elements ? bread and the fruit of the vine ? is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4);
a memorial of His Suffering and death (1 Cor. 11:26 ); and is enjoined on all believers “till He come”.

The Baptism in the Holy Ghost
All believers are entitled to and should ardently expect and earnestly seek the promise of the Father, the baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire, according to the command of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the normal experience of all in the early Christian Church. With it comes the enduement of power for life and service, the bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4, 8; 1 Cor. 12:1-31).
With the baptism in the Holy Ghost comes such experiences as an overflowing fullness of the Spirit (John 7:37 -39; Acts 4:8), a deepened reverence of God (Acts 2:43 ; Heb. 12:28 ) an intensified consecration to God and dedication to His Work (Acts 2:42 ), and a more active love for Christ, for His Word and for the lost (Mark 16:20 ).

The baptism of believers in the Holy Ghost can be witnessed by the physical sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit of God gives them utterance (Acts 2:4). The speaking in tongues in this instance is the same in essence as the gift of tongues (1 Cor. 12:4-10, 28) but different in purpose and use.

Sanctification
Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil, and of dedication unto God. ( Rom. 12:1, 2; 1 Thess. 4:23; Heb. 13:12)

The Scriptures teach a life of “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14 ). By the power of the Holy Ghost we are able to obey the command “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15 , 16).

Sanctification is realised in the believer by recognising his identification with Christ in His death and resurrection and by faith reckoning daily upon the fact of that union, and by offering every faculty continually to the dominion of the Holy Spirit
( Rom. 6:1-11, 13; 8:1, 2, 13; Gal. 2:20 Phil. 2:12 , 13; 1 Peter 1:5).

The Church
The Church is the Body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit with divine appointments for the fulfilment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the Spirit, is an integral part of the General Assembly and Church of the First-born, which are written in heaven. (Eph. 1:22 , 23; 2:22 ; Heb. 12:23)

The Ministry
A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord for a two-fold purpose:

• The evangelisation of the world, and
• The edifying of the Body of Christ (Mark 16:15 -2, Eph. 4:11 -13)

Divine Healing
Divine Healing is an integral part of the gospel.
Deliverance from sickness is provided for in the atonement and is the privilege of all believers. (Is. 53:4, 5, Matt 8:16, 17; James 5:14-16)

The Blessed Hope
The second coming of Christ includes the rapture of the saints which is one blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with His Saints to reign on the earth for one thousand years. (Zech. 14:5; Matt. 24:27, 30; Rev. 1:7; 19:11 -14; 20:1-6)

This millennial reign will bring salvation of national Israel (Ezek. 37:21, 22; Zeph. 3:19 -20; Rom. 11:26 , 27) and the establishment of universal peace (Isa. 11:6-9; Psa. 72:3-8; Micah. 4:3, 4)

The Final Judgment
There will be a final judgement in which the wicked dead will be raised and judged according to their works. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, will be consigned to everlasting punishment in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (Matt. 9:43-48; Rev 19:20 ; 20:11 -15; 21:8)

The New Heavens and the New Earth
“We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”. (2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:22)