What We Believe
We believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God, verbally inspired and our only infallible and authoritative rule of faith and practice. We believe in one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, His sinless life, His atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, His i
mminent return for His Church and His coming again with His saints to reign on the earth. We believe man was created in the image of God became a sinful creature after Adam's disobedience to God's command, and is under the judgment and wrath of God, and has within himself no possible means of salvation. We believe in Salvation by Grace through Faith in the Lord Jesus: that salvation is neither merited nor secured by virtue or work of man, but all who believe in Him are declared righteous on the grounds of His shed blood. and apart from Christ there is no possible salvation. We believe in the regenerating work and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy and victorious life. We believe that the Ordinances given to the local Church are: Baptism and the Lord's Supper, that baptism by immersion portrays the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and the Lord's Supper is the partaking of the Bread and the Cup as a memorial of the broken body and shed blood of Christ. We believe in the Priesthood of all Believers: that Christ is our Great High Priest and through Him every saint has direct access into God's presence without the need of a human priest. We believe that it is the responsibility of all born again believers to evangelize the world in carrying out the Great Commission. GOOD TIDINGS GOSPEL HALL)
"A work of Grace"
Good Tidings Christian Brethren Assembly located at 345 Malcolm X Boulevard, Brooklyn, New York, traces its 92-year history to a small cottage meeting held on December 22, 1918 at 136 Third Avenue in Brooklyn, then the home of the late Thomas and Elizabeth Ellis. There a few believers originally from the Caribbean, met for prayer and bible study. At that time they worshipped with an assembly on 13th Street comprised largely of Caucasian believers. But they had seen fellow blacks in their own neighborhood as a whitened field ready for harvest. They yearned to reach them with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ yet felt an overwhelming sense of inadequacy for the task. So with burdened hearts they sought God's face for His enabling. Little did they know the great work that God would begin to do in and through them. John Byron Hunte one of the originators of the effort, later described it as "the beginning of a work of grace in Brooklyn." As they continued to meet in Bible study and prayer, God began to move mightily in their midst. Backsliders came under conviction and were restored, and souls were being saved. Among the earliest fruits of this Spirit-empowered work were Albertha Herbert and Alexander Weeks who later got married, and became stalwarts of the faith. At first the group met monthly on first Sundays while they continued to fellowship with the 13th Street Assembly. Later leaving that assembly they began meeting weekly from house to house. In April 1919 they rented a small "store-front" at 160 Third Avenue. There a Sunday School was started on April 20, with six children. Three weeks later on Sunday May 11, the group celebrated the Lord's Supper for the first time with ten believers breaking bread - total in attendance 14. The young assembly was given the right hand of fellowship by the brethren of Grace Gospel Chapel in Harlem. The Grace Brethren were of substantial help to them, not only in financial assistance but in the ministry of the word as well. Thus was the work in Brooklyn greatly strengthened. Some of the early elders were: John B.Hunte, Thomas Ellis, Joseph Griffith, George Jilkes, James E. Herbert and George Phillips.
