OUR BELIEFS
People have many questions about what Christians believe…
In short, we believe in the saving message of Jesus. We believe that through one man’s death for us on a cross, we have the opportunity of forgiveness from sin, a renewed relationship with God, and the promise of eternity with him. It’s the message we want to share with the world!
If you’d like to find out more about what it means to be a Christian, attending a Christianity Explored course is a great place to start. Please get in touch with us if you’d like to know when the next course will be held.
For more information about the course, visit www.christianityexplored.org
If you’d like some more information on what we believe as a church though, please read on for our statement of faith…
The Living God
God is almighty, eternal and unchanging. He is just and holy, gracious and merciful. He is the maker and ruler of all things and deserving of all praise and glory forever.
The Written Word
God’s greatness and holiness are such that, without His aid, people can neither understand God nor find the way to a right relationship with Him. In His mercy, however, God has made Himself known. He has done this partially through creation but explicitly through the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
We therefore accept all that was written in the Bible as not merely containing but being the inspired and infallible Word of God and the final, sufficient authority in all matters of Christian faith and life.
The Trinity
God is one, existing through all eternity in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The Sovereign God
God exercises sovereign power in creation, providence and redemption.
All Have Sinned
God created mankind perfect, but after being tempted by the devil, they, by their own free choice, disobeyed God and became sinners. The whole nature of mankind is now perverted by sin, and their fellowship with God is broken.
Jesus the Saviour
God alone can deal with peoples’ sin and bring about reconciliation to Himself. To achieve this, God became man in Jesus Christ.
Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless, human life and taught entirely without error. He suffered and died in the place of sinners, bearing their sin and its guilt and punishment.
He thus sets all believers free from the domination of the devil and the corruption of their own sinful nature, removing from them forever sin’s lasting consequences.
The Grace of God
God, in His grace, forgives and reconciles to Himself all who turn to Him in true repentance and who trust in Christ’s atoning death. God imputes to them the righteousness of Christ Himself and adopts them as His own children.
The Risen Lord
The Lord Jesus Christ was shown to be the Son of God by His miracles and by His bodily resurrection from the dead. He has ascended in power and glory to the presence of God where He now pleads on behalf of those who call upon Him in truth.
The Holy Spirit
God the Holy Spirit must work in a person before they can enter into salvation. He leads the sinner into an awareness of their sinfulness and brings them to repentance and trust in Christ. He brings to birth in them a new and eternal life and, by His continuing work, develops in this new life the fruits of love and holiness.
The Second Coming
God is bringing all human history to a climax which will be marked by the visible return to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus the Judge
God has appointed Jesus as Judge and there will be a final judgement. Those who are saved will be raised in a glorified body and enjoy eternally the full presence of their Lord. Those who have rejected Christ will be banished from God forever.
The One Church
All who have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ and upon whom God has bestowed His righteousness as a free gift belong to Christ. They alone may rightly be called Christians. They alone are members of the one universal and eternal Church of Christ.
The Gathered Church
Each local church is a fellowship of believers gathered by Christ and has no need of, nor should acknowledge, any other authority than His. Through Him, the gathered church has direct access to God and enjoys fellowship with other assemblies of His people in a unity, which transcends all barriers.
Alderholt Chapel is also a member of the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches – www.efcc.org.uk
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