Our church is affiliated with Fellowship Pacific, and The Fellowship, and we are in agreement with each of their Affirmation of Faith documents. Nonetheless, as a local congregation of believers, we have chosen to lay out own essential beliefs, and expresses these truths in a way that is relevant to our community. These represent our understanding on fundamental truth’s that are essential to our shared faith
Our Essential Beliefs
- God is our highest priority. He has eternally existed, as one being, in three unique, individual, and personal, but equal persons, who we call The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit can all, rightly, be called God, and are all fully God, but are unique in personhood. We call this understanding “Trinity”. Each member has a distinct role within the being of God, and play a different role within Salvation.
- The Father is the uncreated creator of the universe. He is the God who sends, and the God who decrees. He is in perfect, eternal relationship with The Son, and The Holy Spirit, and together they are in perfect, harmonious unity. The Father has a position of headship within the Trinity, and, though absolutely equal in divinity and power, the Son and Holy Spirit choose to submit to The Father. The Father so loves the world, that he sends The Son to save it.
- The Son is the God who saves. He is eternal, and equal with The Father and The Spirit, and was present at creation. The Father sends The Son to save his people, and The Son joyfully, voluntarily, and willingly and at a certain point in history, The Son adds to his divinity, humanity becoming the man, Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life we cannot live, and willingly died in the place of sinful men, taking the punishment upon himself. Because of his sinless perfection, death had no hold on him, and He rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the father, interceding for his people.
- The Holy Spirit is the God who dwells with us. He is not a disembodied force, but a personal and intimate member of the Trinity. He is fully, God, and He hovered over the water at creation, and acts upon the earth. He is ever-present, and yet, also chooses to live in every believer. He convicts men and women of sin, showing them the need for their saviour. He transforms hearts and minds as he indwells us, and He equips us for service, giving gifts to all believers, according to God’s plan’s and purposes.
- The Bible is the written and revealed word of God. It is the 66 books of the Old Testament and New Testament. Throughout history God has given his words to faithful men, inspiring their thoughts to give them specific and particular words to write. Throughout history, God has divinely and miraculously preserved these words. It is truthful, trustworthy, and reliable in all that it affirms, and contains all that is our highest standard for all aspects of faith and practice. While it does not contain all that is knowable, it does contain all that is necessary for Christian life and salvation, and all that God considers essential for his people to know has been recorded in its pages. Though originally written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, when properly and accurately translated, it can rightly be called “The Word of God”.
- All of creation is created by God, and for Him. Scripture tells us that God created all things, and all things that exist are created by him. God calls his creation good. However, through disobedience, God’s good and perfect creation is corrupted. Death, pain, suffering, toil, and all that is negative comes in as a consequence of this disobedience, The Bible calls this disobedience Sin. Though sin has corrupted every part of his creation, nonetheless, God’s creation is still his, and He is still king over it all. It still bares the hallmarks of his goodness, and is still a wonderful gift.
- Humans are the the pinnacle of God’s creation. He creates male and female, in his own imageand calls them very good. He says that men and women are equal in worth and value but not identical in role or responsibility. He creates men and women with unique and individual differences, strengths and weaknesses, to complement one another perfectly. He calls humans to care for his creation, and to love and support one another, and to “be fruitful and multiply”. He designs men and women to complement and support one another in this calling, and establishes marriage as the proper context for this. He defines marriage as being between a man and woman, and defines this as the only proper context for human sexual activity.
- Sin separates humanity from God. At it’s heart, all sin is a kind of idolatry — believing were know better than the God who created us, and have the right to ignore his good plans and purposes. God intends for humans to thrive and flourish, and establishes boundaries for our safety and protection. But we stray outside of those lines. From the moment Adam and Eve chose disobedience, each of us are born with an inclination towards sin. A good and just God must punish sin, and the only right punishment is death, and eternal separation from God.
- Salvation is a free gift from God. Because of his great love for us, God makes a way for humans to be saved from the punishment of sin. He himself pays the penalty for the sins of his people, by dying on the cross. The full wrath of God is satisfied in that moment, and the punishment is no longer due to those who are saved. Salvation is entirely an act of God’s grace — it is absolutely unearned, and undeserved — and comes through faith — believing in God, who he is and what he has done, and placing our hope and trust in this truth. Even the faith we have to believe is a gift of God, and demonstrates his love and kindness.
- The Christian Life is a marked by growth towards Christlikeness. Though we are not saved by good works, and obedience, scripture tells us we are saved for these things. Once we are saved, God’s word shows us the best way to live, and establishes what fruitful, flourishing life looks like. As we grow in faith, and with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us, we learn to walk away from sin, and follow him more closely. As we learn to hear his voice, and know his word, we will become increasingly aware of those things that please God, give Him glory, and help us to thrive as humans.
- The Churchis not a place, building, or a location, but is the people of God, all who have trusted him for salvation, and choose to live for him. All who believe and are saved are part of his church. However, he also calls local groups of believers to gather together, to worship, learn and serve together. This is his local church, and all believers, part of The Church are called to be part of a local congregation. Together, we meet regularly to give God glory and honour in worship, to grow in our faith, to equip the church for faithful service, to encourage and uplift one another, and to work together as a body, using our unique gifts and talents to proclaim the good news to the world.
- Eternity awaits for us as believers. The promise of scripture is that, one day, Jesus will one day return to judge the living, and the dead. All that have been received his grace, and put their faith in him will be saved. He will redeem and restore his creation, and we will spend all eternity with Him, where there will be no more sin, pain, suffering, death, loss, or any of the consequences of sin. For those that have not received his grace, or placed their faith in him for forgiveness, they will be judged for their sinful deeds. They will face the punishment for sin themselves, and the consequences of this are eternal death and separation from God’s grace, mercy, love, and kindness.