Statement of Faith
At Duncan Street Baptist Church, we hold to the following.
The Trinity
We believe that there is one living and true God, who eternally exists in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God the Father: We believe in God the Father – an infinite, sovereign, personal spirit; perfect in holiness, wisdom, power and love. We believe that He foreknows all that shall come to pass, that He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayer, and that He saves from sin and death all who come to Him through Jesus Christ.
God the Son: We believe in Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, and teachings. We believe in His substitutionary atoning death on the cross, bodily resurrection, ascension into heaven, present reign, perpetual intercession for His people, and personal visible return to earth.
God the Holy Spirit: We believe in the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and regenerates, sanctifies, and empowers all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He is an abiding helper, teacher and guide.
The Word of God
We believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible and its consequent entire trustworthiness and sole authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
Creation and the Fall
We believe that God created the universe out of nothing. We believe that God created man in His own image, and though man was created sinless, man rebelled against God, and in so doing fell into sin. Consequently, we believe that since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God’s wrath and condemnation.
Salvation
We believe that sinful human beings can only be redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
We believe that salvation is God’s act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in Him and not by man’s own efforts. We believe that those who repent and believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and are accepted in God’s sight because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them.
We believe that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ through faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit lives in all those He has regenerated, enabling them to grow in Christ-likeness and giving them power for their witness in the world.
The Church
We believe in the Church; a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all true believers are members.
The Ordinances
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe that believer’s baptism is the immersion of the believer in water in the name of the Triune God. We believe that the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ for remembering Him and proclaiming His death until He comes again. We believe that these two ordinances should be observed and administered until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ’s Return
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone, to execute God’s just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory.
