Our beliefs
- Have you ever wondered if God is really there?
- Have you ever wondered if your prayers are heard?
- What about life after death?
- If God is real, why isn't He real to me?
Questions like this have challenged man for centuries. So why might God sometimes seem distant? This was certainly never God's intention.
In the beginning, God created man to have a relationship with Him, to know Him, love Him and enjoy His favour. But God also gave man a free will, and man chose to turn his back upon God, do things his own way, and as a result, sin entered the world.
Sin is all the bad things we think, say and do, and SIN SEPARATES US FROM GOD!
The only way that imperfect man could have an eternal relationship with a holy God, was if the sin was dealt with. Nothing we can do, no amount of good works etc can deal with our sin and restore that relationship. So God Himself sent His own Son, Jesus to be our Saviour. When Jesus died on the cross, He took the punishment once and for all, for all our sin.
By truly saying sorry to God for all the wrong, accepting that Jesus died in our place to take our punishment, and asking Him to come and live in our hearts, we can begin to walk His way.
With the relationship restored, we have assurance of life forever with God, both in this life and the next.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
GOD
1. We believe in one God, the Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of all things, revealed to us in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
JESUS
1. We believe that Jesus, as the second person of the Godhead is fully God and fully man, and that He came to save us from our sin and reconcile us to God.
2. He was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit and lived a completely sinless life. For us He suffered, died on a cross and on the third day rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven until that day when He returns to judge both the living and the dead. He is the only way to a true, proper and living relationship with the Father.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead.
2. The life and ministry of Jesus was accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit. He reveals Himself through the Body of Christ, the church, in order to empower believers continue the ministry of Jesus in all its fullness and power.
3. As the Spirit of Truth, he guides us in all truth, pointing us to and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the agent through whom we are born again and conformed to the image of Christ.
THE CHURCH
1. We believe the church is a living organism, the people of God, whose architect and builder is the Lord Jesus.
2. The church is the Body of Christ in the World and has three main purposes:
a. Mission – to proclaim and demonstrate the Good News of the Kingdom
b. Worship – to minister to God and to minister to the needs of others.
c. Community – to be a place where people share and give both of themselves and their resources.
3. Water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are sacraments of the church commanded by Christ and are signposts that point both to our faith in Christ and God’s gracious ministry towards us.
THE BIBLE
We believe the Bible is God’s revealed word to us, and that both the old and New Testaments are:
a. Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the hands of faithful men.
b. Perfect for instruction in the ways and the Person of God and the life of faith.
c. The ‘user manual’ for life, relevant to every culture and generation, and the means to develop a proper relationship with God.
MANKIND
1. We believe that mankind was created in the image of God, innocent and with the ability to choose between right and wrong, but through the sin of the first man, Adam, that image was marred. As a result, humans, the offspring of Adam are born with a sinful nature.
2. Complete restoration to the image of God is only possible through the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ as both Saviour and Lord.
3. The whole duty of man is summed up in the two great commandments –
to love God and to love your neighbour.
SALVATION
1. All mankind has sinned and is therefore dead in his sin and separated from the love of God.
2. Mankind cannot, by his own work or merit, be restored to a right relationship with God.
3. Forgiveness of sin was only made possible through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.
4. Through Christ’s death and resurrection believers both experience reconciliation with the Father and a new life. Both are dependent upon a persons repentance and a faith response to God’s grace.
LAST THINGS
1. We believe Christ will return a second time in fulfilment of scriptural prophecies concerning His triumph over evil.
2. We believe in a bodily resurrection from the dead. Those who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour will ascend to heaven; those who reject Christ as Lord and Saviour will descend to hell. Our destiny is determined by both God’s grace and our response to that grace.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR DOCTRINAL BELIEFS, CHECK OUT THE FREE METHODIST WEBSITE ON www.freemethodist.org.uk |