26/05/2020
Spen Valley Christian Fellowship Statement of Belief:
1. The Bible
All and only the 66 books of the bible are inspired by God's Holy Spirit. It is the revelation of God's truth to mankind and so is without error. It is the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
2. The Holy Trinity
One everlasting sovereign God who exists outside time in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all co-equal.
3. Jesus Christ
He is divine, fully God and fully man. He is the creator, sustain-er of the universe and yet entered Earth through the body of a virgin. He lived a perfect life for 33 years, died on a cross for the sins of the world and rose physically in an eternal body. He ascended to God's right hand side where he prays for Christians. He will return in the future to provide eternal physical bodies for Christians and establish His millennium kingdom centered upon Jerusalem.
4. Salvation
Faith in the the divine person of Jesus and His finished atoning sacrifice on the cross is essential to be forgiven. There is no other saviour. Salvation is a gift and cannot be earned by my best efforts. I must be born again, born anew to enter God's Kingdom and leave the kingdom of Satan.
5. Ordinances
The Lord's supper and believers full immersion water Baptism are the two ordinances of the church to be observed until Jesus returns to Earth.
6. Spiritual Gifts
The 9 spiritual gifts exist today as they did in the book of Acts. They are open for all believers who have experienced the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
7. Life after Death
All mankind go to Hades upon death, disembodied they go to one of two sections. All will appear following the two resurrections of the just and of the damned, before the great white throne judgement of Jesus where their eternal destiny will be pronounced. Those redeemed in Christ will live forever with God in the New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem. Redemption is only the shed blood of Jesus. Those who ignored or rejected Christ and were not born again at death are consigned to Hell. A lake of fire in outer darkness. Hell is a place of conscious torment and punishment forever, the fate of the majority of mankind who ignored a God who is love, full of mercy and grace, yet is holy and righteous.
8. Israel
God's chosen people are the Jews who were given the land of Israel by the eternal Abrahamic covenant, the church has not and never will replace Israel.
