What we believe

The following statement of faith is a summary of the Lausanne Covenant. These beliefs represent the core of Christianity, and are the things I (Phil) believe. Some of my peripheral beliefs inevitably will also come out from time to time in the DBRP.

We believe that Christian belief can and should be divided into essential beliefs and peripheral beliefs.

Essential beliefs

Essential beliefs are what define a follower of Jesus Christ and can never be compromised or ignored.

• We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, inerrant, sufficient, authoritative Word of God.
• We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.
• We believe in the humanity of Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father.
• We believe that every person is inherently sinful and so is deserving of eternal hell.
• We believe that salvation from sin is a gift of God, provided through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, attained by grace through faith, not by works.
• We believe that true faith is always accompanied by repentance and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
• We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the follower of Jesus Christ is enabled to live a godly life.
• We believe in the spiritual unity of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, from all nations and languages and people groups.
• We believe in the personal and physical return of Jesus Christ.
• We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the unsaved will be resurrected to eternal damnation in hell and the saved will be resurrected to eternal blessing in heaven with God.

Peripheral beliefs

Peripheral beliefs are everything else that is in Scripture but about which sincere followers of Christ may disagree (e.g. Baptism, Lord’s Supper, the Rapture, etc.). We choose to agree to disagree agreeably on these topics and press on together toward a common goal of making disciples of every people group (Matthew 28:18-20) .

 

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