As Christians we believe that the universe and everything in it was ultimately created by God. We are not an accident or a mistake but part of his great plan. However, instead of choosing to live in relationship with him, as he intended, we chose to reject God’s love and try to live our lives independently of him: the Bible calls this, “sin”.
It didn’t go so well. We messed up big time and, as a consequence, the whole of creation fell into disease, decay and death. But, in his great love, God did not abandon or reject us. Instead he sent his son Jesus to rescue us from the mess we had got ourselves into, to deal with the problem of guilt and shame that we feel as a consequence of our sin and to restore our relationship with our loving creator. This is the “good news” of the gospel of Jesus Christ revealed in the pages of the Bible. It isn’t about us trying to be better or to work out our salvation by doing good works. It is by believing the good news and trusting in God.
You can find out more about this here
Our beliefs are more fully explained in our “Statement of Faith” which appears below.
Our Statement of Faith
We believe in –
- The one true God who lives eternally in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- The love, grace and sovereignty of God in creating, sustaining, ruling, redeeming and judging the world.
- The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God – fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
- The dignity of all people, made male and female in God’s image to love, be holy and care for creation, yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
- The incarnation of God’s eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – born of the virgin Mary; truly divine and truly human, yet without sin.
- The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
- The bodily resurrection of Christ, the first fruits of our resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
- The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.
- The ministry of God the Holy Spirit, who leads us to repentance, unites us with Christ through new birth, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
- The Church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers – given life by the Spirit and endowed with the Spirit’s gifts to worship God and proclaim the gospel, promoting justice and love.
- The personal and visible return of Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.