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Beliefs
and Doctrine |
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We believe in:
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The full inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures: their authority and sufficiency as not only containing but
being in themselves, the Word of God; the reliability of the New
Testament in its testimony to the character and authorship of the Old
Testament; and the need of the teaching of the Holy Spirit to a true
and spiritual understanding of the whole.
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The unity of the Godhead and the
Divine co-equality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the
sovereignty of God in creation, providence and redemption.
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The total depravity of man in
consequence of the Fall, and the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit’s
agency for mans’ regeneration and sanctification.
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The true and proper deity of our
Lord Jesus Christ; His perfect manhood; the authority of His teaching
and the infallibility of all His utterances; His work of atonement for
the sins of all those who believe by His death, His bodily
resurrection, His ascension into heaven and His intercessory ministry
for His people.
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The justification of the sinner
by grace through faith in the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The personal visible return of
the Lord Jesus Christ in glory.
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The immortality of the soul, the
resurrection of the body, the judgement of the world by the Lord Jesus
Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal
punishment of the wicked.
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All who have been redeemed with
the precious Blood of Christ, and upon whom God has bestowed His
righteousness as a free gift, belong to Christ. They alone may rightly
be called Christians. They alone are members of the one universal and
eternal Church of Christ.
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The local Church is a fellowship
of believers gathered by Christ and has no need of, nor should
acknowledge any other authority than His. Through Him, it has direct
access to God and enjoys fellowship with other assemblies of His
people in a unity which transcends all barriers.
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We believe that Jesus Christ is
the Head of the Church universal, which is His body, and of each local
Church. We believe that each local Church is in itself a complete
Church, therefore autonomous, possessing all the rights and
responsibilities of the Church by the Holy Spirit as set forth in the
Scriptures.
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We believe that Jesus Christ
exercises His authority in each local Church by the Holy Spirit and
through the Scriptures.
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We believe that each Church,
through the Communicant Members Meeting, is answerable only to Jesus
Christ, and not to any association, conference, council, synod or any
other ecclesiastical body.
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Given that marriage is ordained
of God and the vows taken are in His presence, we view divorce as a
very serious matter and do not accept its being entered into apart
from the grounds of adultery, desertion and abuse. Scripture allows
for remarriage in three instances.
- Firstly, when one’s spouse is guilty of sexual
immorality and is unwilling to repent and live faithfully with
the marriage partner, divorce and remarriage are permissible.
- Secondly,
when an unbelieving spouse deserts a believer, divorce and remarriage
are again permitted.
- Thirdly,
as an extension of the allowance for divorce and remarriage when
deserted by an unbeliever, remarriage is permissible for those who
have been married and divorced before coming to Christ.
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also accept that where the grounds for divorce include desertion or
abuse, as named in paragraph one, remarriage is acceptable.
- The Minister and Deacons will exercise judgement and
discretion and each case will be decided on its own merits.
This Church practices the
following: (a) Infant Dedication (b) Adult Believers Baptism by
immersion. Parents seeking Dedication should, by example, be regular
attenders at church services and give their children access to Sunday
School, Church and the youth organizations. The Minister and Deacons
will exercise judgement and discretion in all cases.
We believe that our Church is a
Society of Trinitarian Protestants, Congregational Dissenters holding
and maintaining Calvinistic doctrines as represented in the Savoy
Declaration of Faith and Order of 1658, in accordance with our Trust
Deed, with the reservation that we do not assent to Infant Baptism.
We reject all association with
Roman Catholicism, the ecumenical movement, theological liberalism,
worldly Christianity, charismatic tendencies, the New Age Movement or
other mystical views and world religions.
We believe that the revelatory
and sign gifts ceased with the apostles.
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