What We Believe

At Christ Church, the truths we believe are those revealed to us by God in the Bible. 

You don't need to be a convinced Christian to come along on a Sunday - we love to welcome those exploring the Christian faith and we regularly run courses designed for those wanting to find out more about the Christian faith.

Three characteristics describe us:

  1. We are a Christian Church We believe in one God who has revealed himself supremely through his Son, Jesus Christ. To know God, then, means receiving Jesus as Lord and trusting his death on the cross for our forgiveness. The great work of God the Holy Spirit is to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ.

  2. We are an Evangelical Church We believe that the Bible is God's authoritative word and the definitive guide for us in all matters of faith and conduct. We believe that as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to our hearts, God will transform the lives of individuals and the church community as a whole. We seek to apply the Word of God to every aspect of our lives, both private and public, individual and community, in order to live out and demonstrate the truth of the Gospel.

  3. We are an Anglican Church We stand in the tradition of the Anglican Reformers of the 16th century and, with them, we hold to the great truths rediscovered at the time of the Reformation: the sovereignty of God in salvation, justification by faith alone and salvation in Christ alone. We do have church members from many different denominational backgrounds and we unite under Christ, not under one particular denominational banner.

 

The following commonly used doctrinal statement is a useful summary of what we believe.

  1. The unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead

  2. The sovereignty of God in creation, revelation, redemption, and final judgement

  3. The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture as originally given and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct

  4. God’s creation of human beings, each made in his image and precious in his sight; his creation of them as male and female, and marriage as a faithful union only between a man and a woman, reflecting the relationship between Christ and the Church, and the only proper place for sexual intimacy.

  5. The universal sinfulness and guilt of human nature since the Fall, rendering people subject to God's wrath and condemnation

  6. The full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God; his virgin birth, and his real and sinless humanity; his death on the cross, his bodily resurrection and his present reign in heaven and earth

  7. Redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of our representative and substitute Jesus Christ, the only mediator between us and God

  8. Justification as God's act of undeserved mercy in which the sinner is pardoned all their sins and accepted as righteous in God's sight only because of the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, this justification being received by faith alone

  9. The need for the Holy Spirit to make the work of Christ effective to the individual sinner, granting them repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ

  10. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all those thus regenerated, producing in them an increasing likeness to Christ in character and behaviour, and empowering them for their witness in the world

  11. The only holy universal Church which is the Body of Christ to which all true believers belong

  12. The future personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge all people, executing God's just condemnation on the impenitent and receiving the redeemed to eternal glory