OUR  BELIEFS  AND  WORSHIP

 

      We adhere to the classic doctrines of the sixteenth-century Reformation as set forth in the Reformed confessions, including the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession of Faith, and the Canons of Dordt.

      We embrace the five “solas” of the Reformation: sola scriptura (Scripture alone), sola gratia (grace alone), sola fide (faith alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). 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 also embrace what are known as the five points of Calvinism: Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the Saints.

“I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname CALVINISM, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.”

So wrote C.H. Spurgeon, a popular preacher who was greatly used of God in late nineteenth-century England. For helpful reading on this biblical teaching of salvation, we recommend The Five Points of Calvinism: Defined, Defended, and Documented, by Steele, Thomas, and Quinn, from which this quotation of Spurgeon has been taken.

      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 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. It also shows how those who have heard the good news of Jesus Christ 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” (Luke 12:48).

      We practise what has been referred to in recent literature as “traditional worship” but what we prefer to think of as “biblical worship.” This is worship according to the regulative principle, that we not worship God in any other way than He has commanded, than He has specifically prescribed in His Word (Ex. 20:4-6; Deut. 12:31-32; John 4:24). It is also worship that is reverent, that is offered in godly fear (Eccles. 5:1-2; Heb. 12:28-29). And it is worship that seeks in all things to be Christ-centred (John 5:22-23; 1 Cor. 2:2; 2 Cor. 4:5-6; Col. 1:13-18).

       None of this is new, or an innovation on our part, but we feel that we have to mention this because so much of what calls itself the Church today has abandoned this type of worship for entertainment which appeals to the natural man, and has turned to every kind of gimmickry in order to draw worldly unbelievers into their number. We are saddened by this present trend. For further reading, we recommend With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship, by Hart and Muether.