Priorities

• We believe that the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Sovereign, Creator, Redeemer, and Judge is of primary importance.
• Creation is the foundational (though not the central) doctrine of Holy Scripture. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is ultimately founded on the historical events of Genesis 1-11.

Basics

We believe the fundamental truths of Christianity, as revealed in Holy Scripture. We therefore affirm:

• There is one God in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity were active in creation.
• God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption, and final judgement.
• Holy Scripture, as originally given, is divinely inspired, inerrant, and infallible and is the Christian’s supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
• The final guide to the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.
• The universal sinfulness and guilt of mankind since the fall, inherently from Adam and individually by choice, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
• The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully Man; he was born of a virgin; he lived a sinless life; he died on the cross; was raised bodily from the dead and is now reigning over heaven and earth.
• Freedom from the guilt, penalty, and power of sin is available to mankind only through the sacrificial death and shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as our Representative and Substitute.
• The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting him repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ.
• The indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in each believer to produce the fruits of righteousness.
• The one holy universal church, which is the body of Christ, and to which all true believers belong.
• The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ as Judge of the living and the dead. Those who do not believe in Christ are subject to everlasting conscious punishment, but believers enjoy eternal life with God.

Creation, Fall, and Flood – and implications for scientific and historical study

• Our belief in Creation is grounded in the Bible, the written Word of God. The assertions of Holy Scripture are factually true in the original autographs and free from error, not only in spiritual matters but also in references to, or accounts of, nature and history.
• The Bible presents a simple but historical account of actual events and therefore provides a reliable framework for scientific research into the origin and history of life, mankind, the earth, and the universe.
• We reject the ‘two books’ concept which suggests that God’s revelation in nature can be approached independently from God’s revelation in Holy Scripture. We reject the idea that knowledge may be divided into ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ truth.
• All basic types of living things, including human beings, were made by direct creative acts of God. The biological changes that have occurred since Creation have taken place only within the original created basic types.
• The special creation of Adam (as one man) and Eve (as one woman), and their subsequent fall into sin, is the basis for the necessity of salvation for mankind.
• Death, both physical and spiritual, entered the world subsequent to – and as a direct consequence of – man’s sin.
• The biblical Flood was an actual historical event, worldwide (global) in its extent and effects.

We believe that the following are either consistent with Scripture or implied by Scripture:

• The Creation was accomplished in six consecutive natural days, each consisting of an evening and a morning. The days of Creation do not correspond to long geological ages.
• The biblical genealogies trace the human race back to Adam, who was created on the sixth day. Even allowing for some gaps in the genealogies, the creation of Adam cannot have been more than a few thousand years ago.
• The Flood of Noah has significant implications for the study of earth history. Geology must always therefore be studied with reference to the Flood.
• The Gap Theory, which seeks to explain the fossil record by inserting geological ages between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, has no basis in Holy Scripture.
• No apparent, perceived, or claimed evidence in any historical or scientific field of study can be valid if it contradicts the record of Holy Scripture. Evidence is always subject to interpretation by people who are fallen, fallible, and limited in knowledge.