WE BELIEVE IN GOD, who has eternally existed as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory and authority. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, and love.
WE BELIEVE God is an Eternal King and the Only Supreme Ruler over all Creation. His Kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, the Eternal Word, God created, upholds, and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing, and mankind. All of God’s original creation was good.
WE BELIEVE that before the foundation of the world, God chose to create mankind, and to adopt mankind as God’s sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of God’s will. (Eph 1:4-5) God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness, and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, mankind transferred lordship from God to Satan and his demonic hosts. In that moment the kingdom of darkness gained access to God’s good creation. In transferring lordship, mankind also lost his God given authority to rule over the earth and their original position of sonship.
Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death, and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness – which exists to steal, kill and destroy.
God, before the foundation of the world, knew mankind would sin and be separated from Him. Therefore God chose Jesus to become the perfect sacrificial lamb of God who would become the ransom payment for the penalty of the sins of mankind. Before the foundation of the world, Jesus agreed to become the sacrificial lamb of God to rescue mankind back from Satan’s mastery, bringing them back into God’s family once again. (Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 1:20)
WE BELIEVE that Satan, originally created by God as a great, good angel, rebelled against God. He was cast out of God’s presence, taking a host of angels with him. Satan now works to oppose and usurp God’s rule; in so doing he has established a counter kingdom of darkness and evil on earth.
WE BELIEVE that God did not abandon His rule over the earth which He continues to uphold by His providence. Instead, God set into motion the most extraordinary rescue plan of all time. God began to teach His people that the consequence of sin is death; That God would provide the sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind; That God would cover over the sins of His people by the blood of the lamb; That it was impossible to earn forgiveness and reconciliation with God through man’s own merit, but could only be done by the grace of God. In order to bring redemption, God established successive covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. God’s Covenants reveal God’s plan of grace and redemption step by step throughout history:
Abrahamic Covenant: In the covenant with Abraham, God bound himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them.
Mosaic Covenant: As King, God later redeemed His people from bondage in Egypt by mighty acts and established His Law and a new covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfil His Law. The law’s purpose is to bring order to our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation.
Davidic Covenant: When Israel rejected God’s rule as King, God established a monarchy in Israel. He made an unconditional covenant with King David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom reign over His people as Messiah forever.
New Covenant: God established a new covenant of grace, ratified through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. This covenant is available to all people, not just the chosen race of the Jews. This covenant is activated through faith in Jesus Christ and His death, burial and resurrection. Disciples of Jesus follow and obey Him through the power of the Spirit and the knowledge of His laws and ways that He puts in their minds and writes upon their hearts.
WE BELIEVE IN JESUS who is the Messiah and Christ. In the fullness of time, God honoured His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation for all mankind by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the world. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one person. Jesus is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus, anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurated God’s Kingdom reign on earth. He overpowered the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.
WE BELIEVE that Jesus was crucified on a cross and rose from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham.
In His sinless, perfect life, Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He received God’s judgment for sin, which we deserve as lawbreakers, thus fulfilling the Mosaic covenant. He disarmed the demonic powers and reclaimed the authority of God’s people over the earth through His death for all sin. His death on the cross also opened up healing as part of the gospel to be preached.
The Davidic covenant was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus through King David’s lineage, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven, and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.
The New Covenant was ushered in through Jesus’ death on the cross. In that very moment the temple veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy place was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. God was communicating that a New Covenant of grace had begun and that any who would call on the name of the Lord would be reconciled to God and would live a new life in God’s Kingdom, through the sacrificial blood of the lamb.
WE BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. God’s Spirit was imparted to the church on the evening of the resurrection, when Jesus breathed upon his disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. This experience of receiving the indwelling Spirit brought “zoe,” life to them.
Holy Spirit Baptism: These disciples and others would later receive the “Promise of the Father”: a mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit when He would come upon (“epi”) them. This was a further baptism experience for the disciples on the Day of Pentecost (who had earlier received the Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Spirit“). Whereas the receiving of the Spirit on the evening of the resurrection was for life, at Pentecost the Spirit came upon them for power and released the gifts of the Spirit to them.
The Holy Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit in taking back the King’s domain by the evangelization the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
WE BELIEVE that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe Jesus is the one who baptizes us in the Holy Spirit for ministry today.
WE BELIEVE in the present day ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, for impartations of gifts of the Holy Spirit, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the church. We also recognize that the Bible gives evidence that God also empowers people through individual or corporate prayer and waiting upon God, without the laying on of hands. We value all of God’s ways of impartation and empowerment.
WE BELIEVE that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. Therefore, all people are under God’s just judgment and must account for their sins. God regenerates, justifies, adopts and sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. This regeneration process is accomplished through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the Holy Spirit upon the sinner. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.
WE BELIEVE in the Holy Bible. We accept the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of the Holy Scripture so that the Bible is “God-breathed.”
WE BELIEVE in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and trust Jesus as Lord and Saviour are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are adopted into the family of God. These believers form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and all believers are members. The Church was established during the ministry of our Lord, received the Spirit, with its regenerating life, on the night of the Resurrection, and received the Baptism or Infilling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Church is the Bride of Christ and He will one day come again to be with His glorious bride for eternity. The role of the Church today is to prepare the Body of Christ for His return by equipping the saints for the work of ministry; to preach the news of Jesus to all creation; to make disciples of all nations; to worship God and obey His commands by loving God with all our heart, soul and mind; and to be lights in this dark world, illuminating the dark and drawing people into the light and life with Jesus.
WE BELIEVE that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers. We recognize that grace is also conveyed through the preaching and study of the Word of God, the Bible. In this sense, the ordinances of Water Baptism and the Lord’s Supper can be conveyers of God’s grace and have a sacramental nature when appropriated by the person receiving them in faith. We believe that the preached, taught or read Word of God, Water Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper are all be means by which we can experience the Triune God. Although we have not listed preaching/teaching of the word of God as an ordinance, we are clearly commanded to preach and teach, and as we obey, something of a sacramental nature is conveyed through the spoken word of God.
Baptism of Repentance: The water baptism of repentance was commanded by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 and is the one baptism referred to in 1 Corinthians 12:13, baptizing believers into the body of Christ. It is a symbolic action representing to the world that the believer of Christ has been buried in Christ and raised to live a new life in God’s kingdom for eternity.
WE BELIEVE that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible, and triumphant appearing of Christ as He returns to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan, his demons and his works. All humankind will experience the resurrection of the dead, the final judgments and the eternal blessing of the righteous or the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all in His new heavens and new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshiped