STATEMENT OF BELIEF
The Church believes:
1.In the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in their original writing as fully inspired of God, and accepts them as the final authority for faith and life.
2. In one God eternally existing in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. That the Lord Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true Man.
4. That God created man in His image, and that man sinned and thereby incurred the penalty of death, physical and spiritual; and that all human beings inherit a sinful nature, which issues in actual transgression involving personal guilt.
5. With regards to sexual behaviour, we believe in heterosexual relationships between a natural man and a natural woman within the confines of lawful matrimony. Adherence to this stated principle of sexual behaviour is an inherent requirement with Forest Hill Christian Church.
6. That the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, a substitutional sacrifice, according to the Scriptures, and that all who believe and trust in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood.
7. In the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, His ascension into heaven, and His present life as our High Priest and Advocate.
8. In the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
9. In the personality of the Holy Spirit, His regenerating work and abiding presence in the true believer. That the Holy Spirit indwells all true believers and that He has been sent to be the Comforter and Empowerer of the Christian Church, to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit according to the Scriptures.
10. That all who repent of their sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of Cod.
11. That all Christians are called to a life of holiness, devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and service to Him.
12. In the resurrection both of the just and the unjust, the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and the eternal banishment from God of those who have rejected the offer of salvation.
13. That the whole company of those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, who have been redeemed by Him and have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, form the one true Church, and that the local Church on earth should take its character from this concept. Therefore the new birth and personal confession of faith in Christ are essentials of Church membership.
14. In the priesthood of all believers.
15. That the Lord Jesus Christ appointed two ordinances - baptism and the Lord's table - to be observed as acts of obedience and as a perpetual witness to the cardinal facts of the Christian faith; that baptism is the immersion of the believer in water as a confession of identification with Christ in burial and resurrection, and that the Lord's table is partaking of the bread and the cup as symbols of the Saviour's broken body and shed blood, in remembrance of His sacrificial death till His return.
16. That the ascended Christ has given various ministries or ministers to the Church in order to bring all believers to the place of Christian maturity in understanding of truth, and the performance and function of the ministry. (Ephesians 4:11; Romans 12:4-8 and 1 Corinthians 12:10 ff)