The simple answer. At Christ Church North Coast, we’re all about Jesus. The Jesus revealed to us in the pages of God’s written Word, the Bible.
WHAT TYPE OF CHURCH ARE WE?
Christ Church North Coast is part of REACH-SA (Reformed Evangelical Church of S.A.), which supports local churches and safeguards the historic gospel. We’re grateful for this accountability to ensure we stay true to our beliefs and won’t drift away from the truth.
You can find our general statement of faith, the ’39 Articles of Faith,’ online here.
SOME FOUNDATIONAL BELIEFS:
Below is a summary of what we believe:
1. God
We believe that there is one God, who exists eternally in three distinct but equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He is unchangeable in his holiness, justice, wisdom and love. He is the almighty Creator, the Saviour and Judge who sustains and governs all things according to his sovereign will for his own glory.
2. The Bible
We believe that the Bible, as originally given, is the inspired, inerrant, infallible and clear Word of God. Christians must therefore submit to its supreme authority and sufficiency, both individually and corporately, in every matter of belief and practice.
3. Humanity
We believe that all human beings, made by God in his own likeness, have inherent and equal dignity and worth. Their greatest purpose is to obey, worship and love God. However, as a result of the Fall, their sinfulness and guilt has rendered them subject to God’s wrath and condemnation, and has resulted in their alienation from his life, suppression of his truth, and hostility to his law.
4. The Lord Jesus Christ
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary; his humanity is real and sinless; he suffered under Pontius Pilate, died on the cross, was buried, was raised bodily on the third day from death, ascended into heaven and is now reigning over heaven and earth at the right hand of God the Father.
5. Salvation
We believe that salvation from guilt, penalty, God’s wrath and all other consequences of sin, is solely through the work of Jesus Christ — by his perfect life, penal substitutionary death, bodily resurrection and exaltation as Lord. He alone is truly God and truly man, the only mediator between God and man. There is salvation through no other person, creed, process or power. The entirety of a sinner’s justification, from beginning to end, is by his grace alone appropriated through faith alone, in Christ alone.
6. Election
We believe that before the foundation of the world God in his mercy chose a people for himself out of the human race. He did not choose them on the basis of their foreseen faith or works, but solely on the basis of his perfect desire to glorify himself in his Son by their redemption.
7. The Holy Spirit
We believe that the person of the Holy Spirit is fully God, sent by the Father and the Son to glorify Christ and to apply his work of salvation. He convicts sinners, imparts spiritual life and gives a true understanding of the Scriptures. He indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation and produces increasing likeness to Christ. He gives gifts to build up the Church and empowers its members for worship, service and mission.
8. The Church
We believe that the holy universal church is the people of God, the Body of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to which all true believers belong. The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. The Church’s calling is to worship and serve God in the world, to proclaim and defend his truth, to exhibit his character and to demonstrate the reality of his new order.
9. The Future
We believe in the personal and visible return in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to raise the dead bodily and bring salvation and judgment to final completion. God will fully establish his kingdom when he creates a new heaven and a new earth from which evil and evildoers, suffering and death will be excluded, and in which he will be glorified forever.