What We Believe:
1. The Nature and Unity of the Godhead
We believe in one true, eternal and living God, Triune in essential being, personal, relational, and revealed to us in three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This Triune God is the Creator and Lord of all things. He sustains and sovereignly rules all things, and providentially brings about his good purposes, including bestowing common grace to all people, righteous or unrighteous, and special grace to redeem a people for himself, and to restore and renew the fallen creation.
2. The Deity and Humanity of Jesus Christ
We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, the incarnate Son of God, truly God and truly man united in one Person, whose humanity is conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
3. The Holy Spirit
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, eternally one with the Father and the Son, sent by them to this world and descended at the Pentecost, whose ministry is to achieve the divine purposes in this world and in the church, including the outpouring of common grace, the rebirth, regeneration and conviction of the believing sinners, the indwelling, guidance, instruction and empowerment of the believers for victorious and godly living, and the union of believers in Christ to become one body, the church.
4. Divine Revelation
God has graciously disclosed his existence and power in the created order, and has supremely revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. By the Holy Spirit, God also revealed himself to various people and such revelation is now preserved in human words in the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, and as such they constitute the verbally inspired Word of God, and serve as both record and means of His saving work in the world, the revelation of His will for the salvation of men, and sufficient and authoritative in all matters of faith and conduct in life.
5. The Sinfulness of Human Beings
We believe that human beings were created in the image of God for the holy and devoted fellowship with and glorification of God, but such image was corrupted and distorted (though not completely lost) and fellowship broken because of their lack of faith towards, or disobedience to, God; ever since our first parents sinned, all people are spiritually dead, under Satan’s dominion and control, and subject to God’s wrath and condemnation, so that if not for the undeserved love and grace of God, no one can be saved from such wrath and condemnation.
6. Christ’s Work
God determined in love and grace to save a great multitude of unrighteous sinners from every tribe and language, people and nation, and to this end foreknew them and chose them. In order to redeem human beings from the guilt, penalty and power of sin, Jesus Christ became human and died sacrificially on the cross as our representative and substitute for our sins. On the cross Christ cancelled sin, propitiated God, and, by bearing the full penalty of our sins, reconciled to God all those who believe. On the third day Christ rose bodily from the dead. By his resurrection, God’s acceptance of His atoning death, the breaking of the power of death and the once-and-for-all defeat of Satan were demonstrated. This atonement is effective in those who receive it by believing in Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. By his ascension into heaven, he is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, exalted as Lord, exercising in heaven and on earth all of God’s sovereignty, preparing a place for the chosen righteous ones to be with him, and is also our High Priest and righteous Advocate, making intercession for His saints, and who is the Head of His church and will one day return in person to establish His Kingdom and to judge the living and the dead. The sinner is justified and reconciled to God solely on the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ received through faith.
7. The Work of the Holy Spirit
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary to make the atoning death of Christ effective and God’s provision of salvation accepted in individual sinner. Convincing sinners of their sinfulness, leading them to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, bringing them to spiritual birth as God’s children and to fellowship in Christ, sanctifying the believers for holy living, bestowing gifts for effective service and ministries, and empowering them in their witnessing to the world are all but parts of the multi-fold work of the Holy Spirit.
8. The Gospel
The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ — God’s very wisdom but utter folly to the world. It is the power of God to those who are being saved. The gospel is christological, biblical, theological, soteriological, historical, apostolic, personal, and relational.
9. The Justification of Sinners
Christ, by his obedience and death, fully discharged the debt of all those who are justified; by his sacrifice, he bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, making a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice on our behalf; and by his perfect obedience he satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, since by faith alone that perfect obedience is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God. Inasmuch as Christ was given by the Father for us, and his obedience and punishment were accepted in place of our own, freely and not for anything in us, this justification is solely of free grace, in order that both the exact justice and the rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. We believe that a zeal for personal and public obedience flows from this free justification.
10. The Universal Church
All regenerate persons are members of the universal Church of God which takes local form whatever groups of believers unite for worship, fellowship and service in accordance with scriptural teachings. All believers are called to a priestly, sacrificial and caring ministry, and sent into the world as witnesses to God’s grace and salvation through the person and work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit.
11. Return of the Lord Jesus Christ
Our Lord Jesus Christ will return personally, bodily, gloriously and visibly to this world with his holy angels, whereupon the Kingdom of God will be fully consummated.
12. The Resurrection of the Dead, Final Judgment and the Future State
There is to be a final judgment for the world. Jesus Christ will judge every person according to their deeds. There is to be a resurrection of the dead, both of the righteous and the unrighteous. Those who are judged righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will dwell forever in the new heavens and new earth with the Lord. Those who are judged unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of final punishment.