OUR BELIEFS AND WORSHIP
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We adhere to the classic doctrines of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation as set forth in the Three Forms of Unity, namely, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort. We view these, not as having equal authority with the Bible, but as subordinate standards which summarize the teaching of the Bible.
We invite you to our services of worship and to the programs listed on our Home page. We are committed to promoting the glory of God through sound teaching, experiential preaching, reverent worship, the fellowship of believers, programs designed to meet the needs of the soul, plus an active outreach into the community and around the world with a variety of local and overseas missions which we feel privileged to support.
J.I. Packer writes, “To the Reformers, the crucial question was not simply whether God justifies believers without works of law. It was the broader question, whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin, and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional, invincible grace, not only justifying them for Christ's sake when they come to faith, but also raising them from the death of sin by His quickening Spirit in order to bring them to faith. Here was the crucial issue: whether God is the author, not merely of justification, but also of faith; whether, in the last analysis, Christianity is a religion of utter reliance on God for salvation and all things necessary to it, or of self-reliance and self-effort.” (Historical and Theological Introduction to Luther's The Bondage of the Will)
We believe what is commonly called the free offer of the gospel, the fact that salvation is to be freely offered to sinners everywhere, and that God holds all men responsible to believe in Christ and be saved. This teaching does not imply that man has a free will; it does, however, emphasize the imperative of the great commission for the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. While everyone in all the world is accountable to turn from sin, whether he has heard the gospel or not, those who have heard the good news of Jesus Christ and have thus been summoned to trust in Him, are even more accountable for their sins than those who have not heard it, for everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.
We practise in our services what is known as the regulative principle of worship, that we not worship God in any other way than He has commanded, that we worship God in only those ways which He has specifically prescribed for His people in His Word (Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 12:31, 32). It is worship that is reverent (Ecclesiastes 5:1, 2; Hebrews 12:28, 29), Christ-centred (John 5:22, 23; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:5, 6; Colossians 1:13-18), and it is worship which is simple and sincere (John 4:23,24). Our preaching is expository, discriminatory, and is designed to lead old and young alike in the way everlasting.
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. We adhere to the classic doctrines of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation as set forth in the Three Forms of Unity, namely, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dort. We view these, not as having equal authority with the Bible, but as subordinate standards which summarize the teaching of the Bible.
We invite you to our services of worship and to the programs listed on our Home page. We are committed to promoting the glory of God through sound teaching, experiential preaching, reverent worship, the fellowship of believers, programs designed to meet the needs of the soul, plus an active outreach into the community and around the world with a variety of local and overseas missions which we feel privileged to support.
J.I. Packer writes, “To the Reformers, the crucial question was not simply whether God justifies believers without works of law. It was the broader question, whether sinners are wholly helpless in their sin, and whether God is to be thought of as saving them by free, unconditional, invincible grace, not only justifying them for Christ's sake when they come to faith, but also raising them from the death of sin by His quickening Spirit in order to bring them to faith. Here was the crucial issue: whether God is the author, not merely of justification, but also of faith; whether, in the last analysis, Christianity is a religion of utter reliance on God for salvation and all things necessary to it, or of self-reliance and self-effort.” (Historical and Theological Introduction to Luther's The Bondage of the Will)
We believe what is commonly called the free offer of the gospel, the fact that salvation is to be freely offered to sinners everywhere, and that God holds all men responsible to believe in Christ and be saved. This teaching does not imply that man has a free will; it does, however, emphasize the imperative of the great commission for the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. While everyone in all the world is accountable to turn from sin, whether he has heard the gospel or not, those who have heard the good news of Jesus Christ and have thus been summoned to trust in Him, are even more accountable for their sins than those who have not heard it, for everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required.
We practise in our services what is known as the regulative principle of worship, that we not worship God in any other way than He has commanded, that we worship God in only those ways which He has specifically prescribed for His people in His Word (Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 12:31, 32). It is worship that is reverent (Ecclesiastes 5:1, 2; Hebrews 12:28, 29), Christ-centred (John 5:22, 23; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:5, 6; Colossians 1:13-18), and it is worship which is simple and sincere (John 4:23,24). Our preaching is expository, discriminatory, and is designed to lead old and young alike in the way everlasting.