Ballynahinch Congregational Church

Beliefs

We Believe in:

The full inspiration of the Holy Scriptures: their authority and sufficiency as not only containing but being in themselves, the Word of God;

The reliability of the New Testament in its testimony to the character and authorship of the Old Testament; and the need of the teaching of the Holy Spirit to a true and spiritual understanding of the whole.

The unity of the Godhead and the Divine co-equality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit;

The sovereignty of God in creation, providence and redemption.

The total depravity of man in consequence of the Fall, and the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit’s agency for mans’ regeneration and sanctification.

The true and proper deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His perfect manhood; the authority of His teaching and the infallibility of all His utterances; His work of atonement for the sins of all those who believe by His death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension into heaven and His intercessory ministry for His people.

The justification of the sinner by grace through faith in the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The personal visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory.

The immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgement of the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked.

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 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, it has direct access to God and enjoys fellowship with other assemblies of His people in a unity which transcends all barriers.

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church universal, which is His body, and of each local Church.

We believe that each local Church is in itself a complete Church, therefore autonomous, possessing all the rights and responsibilities of the Church by the Holy Spirit as set forth in the Scriptures.

We believe that Jesus Christ exercises His authority in each local Church by the Holy Spirit and through the Scriptures.

We believe that each Church, through the Communicant Members Meeting, is answerable only to Jesus Christ, and not to any association, conference, council, synod or any other ecclesiastical body.

Given that marriage is ordained of God and the vows taken are in His presence, we view divorce as a very serious matter and do not accept its being entered into apart from the grounds of adultery, desertion and abuse. Scripture allows for remarriage in three instances.

Firstly, when one’s spouse is guilty of sexual immorality and is unwilling to repent and live faithfully with the marriage partner, divorce and remarriage are permissible.
Secondly, when an unbelieving spouse deserts a believer, divorce and remarriage are again permitted.
Thirdly, as an extension of the allowance for divorce and remarriage when deserted by an unbeliever, remarriage is permissible for those who have been married and divorced before coming to Christ.
We also accept that where the grounds for divorce include desertion or abuse, as named in paragraph one, remarriage is acceptable. The Minister and Deacons will exercise judgement and discretion and each case will be decided on its own merits.

This Church practices the following: (a) Infant Dedication (b) Adult Believers Baptism by immersion. Parents seeking Dedication should, by example, be regular attendees at church services and give their children access to Sunday School, Church and the youth organizations. The Minister and Deacons will exercise judgement and discretion in all cases.

We believe that our Church is a Society of Trinitarian Protestants, Congregational Dissenters holding and maintaining Calvinistic doctrines as represented in the Savoy Declaration of Faith and Order of 1658, in accordance with our Trust Deed, with the reservation that we do not assent to Infant Baptism.

We reject all association with Roman Catholicism, the ecumenical movement, theological liberalism, worldly Christianity, charismatic tendencies, the New Age Movement or other mystical views and world religions.

We believe that the revelatory and sign gifts ceased with the apostles.