The Gospel & Salvation
The Gospel is:
The Good News of the Life, Death, and Resurrection
of Jesus Christ,
Saving Sinners who Repent and Trust in Him.
 
The gospel is offered to all.
 
Salvation is entirely a work of God's grace
and can’t be earned or deserved.
It has been accomplished by the perfect work
of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God in his love forgives sinners whom he calls,
granting them repentance and faith.

All who repent and believe in Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Saviour
have their sin paid for by Jesus Christ’s blood shed
on the cross as he took the wrath of God on their behalf,
they receive his righteousness credited to them
and are justified by faith alone,
they’re adopted into the family of God,
and receive eternal life.

God
Hopefully it should come as no surprise
that we at The Trinity Church believe in the Trinity.
God is 3 persons in 1 being.
3 distinct, co-equal, co-eternal persons
sharing 1 divine essence (Consubstantial).
The Father, The Son (Jesus Christ), & The Holy Spirit.
 
God revealed Himself to Moses by the name YHWH
(Sometimes expressed as Yahweh or Jehovah).
 
He is The one true Most High God.
He is omnipotent, omnipresent, & omniscient.
He is perfect in all of his attributes:
Holiness, Love, Grace, Mercy, Wrath, Sovereignty, etc.
He is the creator, sustainer,
saviour, and judge of the universe.
His unchangeable plan for the universe
works all things for the good of those who love Him
and for His glory.
 
The Father
The sovereign orchestrator of all things,
yet without nullifying the moral responsibility
and accountability of his created beings.
 
Revealed to us by The Son and The Spirit,
which were both sent to us by Him.
Revealed to us by His creation and His Word.
 
His fatherhood involves his position and role
within The Trinity
and also His relationship with the human race.
 
He’s a father to all in the sense that
He created them.
He’s a father to some in the sense that He has
a deeply loving, personal,
intimate relationship with them:
Firstly, with His Eternal Son Jesus Christ,
but also by extension, all those who He adopts
into his family through Jesus Christ.
 
He hears and answers prayer.
He saves all those who come to Him,
through Jesus Christ, from sin and death.
 
The Son (Jesus Christ)
Jesus is The Christ (Messiah)
prophesied in the Old Testament.
He is the one and only saviour of the world.
 
He is the radiance of the glory of God
and the exact imprint of His nature,
and He upholds the universe
by the word of His power.
 
He’s always existed since eternity past
but at a point in history roughly 2000 years ago,
He was conceived by The Holy Spirit
and born of a virgin.
 
At this point He took on a fully human nature,
whilst still retaining his fully divine nature.
 
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
 
On earth, Jesus was tempted in every way
and yet lived a perfect sinless life
in exact obedience to The Father.
 
He fulfilled the law & prophets
on behalf of those who have turned from sin
and put their trust in Him.
 
He performed many signs and miracles.
 
He taught with authority and all His words are true.
 
He chose to submit Himself to suffer
and die on the cross in the place of sinners,
bearing God’s wrath as punishment for their sin,
redeeming them by His blood.
 
He was buried.
 
He rose from the dead
and interacted with many witnesses.
 
In His resurrection body He ascended into heaven
where He is exalted as Lord of all.
 
He intercedes for His people
in the presence of the Father
and is the only mediator between man and God.
 
One day He will return in power and glory
to judge the living and the dead,
send His enemies to eternal punishment,
and rescue His chosen people
to be with Him in eternal glory. 

The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit was involved
in the creation of the world
and has continued to be involved
with the world ever since.
 
He perfectly guided the Prophets and Apostles
in writing the Bible.
 
After the ascension of Jesus Christ,
The Holy Spirit was sent from heaven
by the Father and the Son
to work in the world in new ways,
to glorify Jesus Christ
and to apply His work of salvation.
 
He convicts the world of
sin, righteousness and judgement.
 
He imparts spiritual life to the Elect.
 
He indwells all believers,
helping, teaching, and guiding them,
bringing them assurance of salvation,
sanctifying them,
producing in them an increasing likeness to Christ
through the bearing of good fruit,
and strengthening them to understand God’s love
& to persevere to the end.
 
He builds up the Church,
gifting and empowering its members
for worship, service and mission.

The Bible
God has revealed Himself in the Bible,
which consists of the 66 books
of the Old and New Testaments alone.
 
Every word was inspired (breathed out) by God
through human authors
without removing the colouring of their personalities,
so that the Bible as originally given
is in its entirety the Word of God,
without error and fully reliable in fact and doctrine
and yet retains the perspectives of the human writers.
 
The Bible alone speaks with final authority
and is always sufficient
for all matters of belief and practice
whether explicitly or implicitly.
 
The meaning of the words of the Bible
are clear and unchanging.
The words of the Bible must be understood
using a literal grammatical-historical
method of interpretation
but can only be discerned in their fullness
with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

The Human Race
Adam was created from the dust of the ground
and Eve was created from his side.
 
The entire human race descends
from these 2 humans
and like Adam and Eve,
all are created in the image of God.
 
All humans (irrespective of gender,
ethnicity, skin tone, age, etc)
have inherent and equal dignity and worth,
yet men and women were created
to inhabit different roles in relation to one another.
 
The greatest purposes of all humans are to
enjoy, obey, worship, love, and glorify God.
 
As a result of the fall (the first sin) of Adam & Eve,
every aspect of our human nature
has now been corrupted
and all humans* are without spiritual life.
 
All humans* sinned and are guilty and hostile to God.
 
The intimate relationship between God and humans
was severed
and now all humans* are by nature unable
to respond to God the way they should.
 
All humans* are naturally under
the just condemnation of God,
deserving of a punishment
of eternal conscious torment
under the wrath of God.
 
In order to be saved from punishment
and reconciled with God,
a human must be drawn by God
and have their heart transformed by Him,
they must repent (turn away) from their sin
and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
 
*(With the exception of Jesus Christ)
 
The Church
The universal Church is the living spiritual body
of which Christ is the head
and to which all who are born again are members.
 
It’s expressed visibly through local churches,
which are congregations of believers
who are committed to each other
to love, serve, counsel, pastor, encourage,
and discipline one another,
to worship God together, preach & teach the Word,
administer Baptism & The Lord’s Supper,
evangelise the world, and ultimately glorify God.
 
These local churches should be
led by Biblically qualified Elders
and supported by Biblically qualified Deacons.
 
Unity with the church (both locally and universally)
must be actively maintained
through the deliberate, humble pursuit of
loving, mutually upbuilding,
co-labouring relationships.
 
Local churches which aren’t faithful
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
have no true fellowship
with the genuine church of Christ
and no attempts should be made
to co-labour with them.

The Angels
There are various types of angels
but they all fit into these two categories:
 
1. Holy Angels:
Holy angels are beings created by God
to serve and worship him.
They do this both in the heavens and on earth.
They are high in the order of God’s creation
but are not to be worshipped.
 
2. Fallen Angels:
Satan (Lucifer, the devil, etc)
was originally a holy angel
but he chose to turn and rebel against God,
thus authoring sin
and entering into God’s condemnation.
 
Numerous other angels followed Satan
in rebellion against God
and so are likewise condemned.
These fallen angels are often referred to as demons.
 
Satan deceived Eve into disobeying God,
which led to the fall of the human race.
 
Satan and the demons continue in rebellion
against God
and seek to dishonour him
by leading the world into rebellion against him.
 
Ultimately, Satan and the demons were defeated
by the work of Jesus Christ
in his life, death, and resurrection.
 
Eventually they will be thrown into the lake of fire
(Hell, Gehenna, etc)
to face a punishment of eternal conscious torment
under the wrath of God.

The Future
The Lord Jesus Christ will return in glory,
both personally and visibly.

He will raise the dead in physical bodily form
and judge the world in righteousness.

The wicked will be sent to a punishment
of eternal conscious torment under the wrath of God.
The righteous (in Christ) will be welcomed into a life
of eternal joy in fellowship with God.

God will make all things new
and will be glorified forever.