Our church is affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) with the Grace Baptist Trust Corporation (GBTC) being our trustees. More details concerning them can be found via our links page. The Basis of Faith of the FIEC and GBTC can be found below.
The Basis of Faith of The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches
The churches of the FIEC are commited to these truths of historic, biblical Christianity.
1. GOD
There is one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is unchangeable in his holiness, justice, wisdom and love. He is the almighty Creator; Saviour and Judge who sustains and governs all things according to his sovereign will for his own glory.
2. THE BIBLE
God has revealed himself in the Bible, which consists of the Old and New Testaments alone. Every word was inspired by God through human authors, so that the Bible as originally given is in its entirety the Word of God, without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine. The Bible alone speaks with final authority and is always sufficient for all matters of belief and practice.
3. THE HUMAN RACE
All men and women, being created in the image of God, have inherent and equal dignity and worth. Their greatest purpose is to obey, worship and love God. As a result of the fall of our first parents, every aspect of human nature has been corrupted and all men and women are without spiritual life, guilty sinners and hostile to God. Every person is therefore under the just condemnation of God and needs to be born again, forgiven and reconciled to God in order to know and please him.
4. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life in obedience to the Father. He taught with authority and all his words are true. On the cross he died in the place of sinners, bearing God's punishment for their sin, redeeming them by his blood. He rose from the dead and in his resurrection body ascended into heaven where he is exalted as Lord of all. He intercedes for his people in the presence of the Father.
5. SALVATION
Salvation is entirely a work of God's grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and is offered to all in the gospel. God in his love forgives sinners whom he calls, granting them repentance and faith. All who believe in Christ are justified by faith alone, adopted into the family of God and receive eternal life.
6. THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit has been sent from heaven to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation. He convicts sinners, imparts spiritual life and gives a true understanding of the Scriptures. He indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation and produces increasing likeness to Christ. He builds up the Church and empowers its members for worship, service and mission.
7. THE CHURCH
The universal Church is the body of which Christ is the head and to which all who are saved belong. It is made visible in local churches, which are congregations of believers who are committed to each other for the worship of God, the preaching of the Word, the administering of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; for pastoral care and discipline, and for evangelism. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement. True fellowship between churches exists only where they are faithful to the gospel.
8. BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
Baptism and the Lord's Supper have been given to the churches by Christ as visible signs of the gospel. Baptism is a symbol of union with Christ and entry into his Church but does not impart spiritual life. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of Christ's sacrifice offered once for all and involves no change in the bread and wine. All its blessings are received by faith.
9. THE FUTURE
The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory. He will raise the dead and judge the world in righteousness. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God. God will make all things new and will be glorified forever.
Our trustees are the Grace Baptist Trust Corporation.
Their Basis of Faith is reproduced below:
1. The verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and that they are the sole, supreme and all-sufficient authority in every matter of Christian faith and practice.
2. One living and only true God, subsisting in the Trinity of Three co-equal and co-eternal Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; all infinite without beginning; the Father neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.
3. The deity, eternal Sonship and spotless humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ; His virgin birth, crucifixion, death and burial; His physical resurrection and ascension into heaven.
4. The personal, eternal and unconditional election of the Church in Christ unto everlasting salvation.
5. The Fall of mankind in Adam their federal head whose transgression is imputed to them, and from whom they derive a corrupt nature, thereby rendering them both unable and unwilling to meet the claims of God’s righteous and holy law.
6. That though all men are rendered spiritually impotent by the Fall, they are none the less accountable to God for their sins, and they shall answer for the same in the day of judgement except they be granted repentance unto eternal life.
7. The special, particular and eternal redemption from all sin, and the penal consequence thereof, of all God’s elect through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. The eternal and everlasting justification through faith of the elect and redeemed Church, by the blood and imputed righteousness of Christ, irrespective of any moral or spiritual works done by them either before or after regeneration.
9. The effectual calling of all the redeemed by the invincible power and grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the counsel of God’s will, involving their regeneration and sanctification by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit through which the saints grow in grace perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.
10. The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the gift of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, who convinces them of sin, works in them repentance unto life, and enables them to look to, receive and rest upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
11. The final perseverance in the ways of God of all those who have been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, so that they shall never perish, but have eternal life.
12. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust, when the wicked will go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal.
13. The duty and privilege of all true believers to profess their repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by being baptized, that is, immersed in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, prior to becoming members of a Christian Church or partaking of the Lord’s Supper.
14. The preaching of the Gospel to every creature as a divine command and solemn duty.
15. The necessity of a believer’s life being consistent with the profession that he makes.
16. The congregational order of the Churches.
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