STATEMENT OF FAITH
1991
The Statement of Faith of this church is summarily represented below. This section both explains and complements the statement of faith of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in British Columbia and Yukon, which is hereby adopted as supplementary to this section.
1. THE BIBLE
We believe the Bible to be the complete word of God: that the sixty-six books comprising the Old and New Testaments, as originally written, were God-breathed or verbally inspired by the Spirit of God and therefore are entirely free from error, and that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice and is therefore the only true basis of Christian unity.
2. GOD
We believe in one God, creator of all, who is holy, eternal, and the sovereign of the universe. He is worthy of all possible honour, faith, love, and obedience. We also believe that he exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
(a) GOD THE FATHER
We believe in the absolute and essential deity of God the Father, an infinite and personal Spirit who is omnipotent and who is a righteous judge who cannot tolerate sin and who must therefore punish unrepentant sinners. We believe that he is also merciful, and that he offers salvation from sin through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.
(b) GOD THE SON
We believe in the absolute and essential deity of Jesus Christ, in his eternal existence with the Father in preincarnate glory, in his virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return--an event which we must continually expect and prepare for.
(c) GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgement. We believe that at salvation he regenerates, baptizes into the body of Christ, indwells, and then fills those who believe in Jesus Christ in order to illuminate, comfort, and sanctify them.
3. SATAN
We believe that Satan is a fallen angel, and an evil personality, who is the originator of sin and the arch-enemy of God and man. We believe that Christ defeated Satan by dying on the cross, that the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit enables the believer to overcome Satan in this life, and that Satan's doom is eternal punishment.
4. THE HUMAN RACE
We believe that human beings were created by God in his image and that the first couple sinned, becoming guilty before God, resulting in total depravity, and therefore in physical and spiritual death.
5. SALVATION
We believe that salvation is by the sovereign electing grace of God, and that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory death. We believe that justification is solely by faith in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and that all those whom God has effectually called are regenerated (born again) and have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and therefore shall be divinely preserved and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.
6. SANCTIFICATION
We believe that sanctification is primarily the believer's position in Christ in which that person is set apart to God as the recipient of every heavenly blessing. Sanctification is also a process wherein the believer undertakes to be set apart to God in the gradual attaining of spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit and in obedience to the word of God. Sanctification will be perfected only at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. FUTURE THINGS
We believe in the approaching personal, bodily, and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the bodily resurrection of both the just and the unjust and in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed and in the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.
8. THE LOCAL CHURCH
We believe that the New Testament defines the local church to be a company of baptized (immersed) believers called out from the world and separated to the Lord Jesus. The people of the church voluntarily associate themselves for the ministry of the word, their mutual edification, the propagation of the faith, and the observance of the ordinances. We believe that each local church is a sovereign and autonomous body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the lordship of Christ, the great head of the church. We believe that its offices are pastors (also called elders or overseers) and deacons.
9. ORDINANCES
We believe that there are only two ordinances for the church which were regularly observed in the New Testament--and normally in the following order:
1. Baptism, which is the immersion of the believer in water, wherein there is obedience to Christ's command and a setting forth of an identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism symbolizes that the believer's sins were washed away at the time of conversion.
2. The Lord's Supper, which is the memorial wherein believers partake of the loaf and the cup, which symbolize the Lord's body and shed blood, and thus proclaim his death until he comes.
10. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
We believe in religious liberty, that is, that every person has the right to practise and propagate personal beliefs, provided that in so doing the life and safety of themselves and others is not endangered, and that the religious liberties of others are not impaired.
11. THE LORD'S DAY
We believe that each day is given to us for glorifying God, but that since the first day of the week is the Lord's Day it is an appropriate day for corporate worship and spiritual exercise.
12. CIVIL GOVERNMENT--CHURCHES AND THE STATE
We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that government officials are to be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in his word, for he is the only Lord of our conscience and is prince of the kings of the earth.
We believe that the people of God need to live, act, and speak so as to influence both society and their governments to promote the interests and well being of their local church, but that churches and the state should each avoid official entanglements in each others' affairs.