We live in a world full of confused religious ideas and beliefs. The following points define the core beliefs and practice of the Christian Fellowship at Crescent Church.
The Bible, as originally given, is inspired by God. Through it God speaks to us and every word is infallible. It is our only authority for what we believe and practice.
There is only one God, revealed in the Bible as three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are One God, co-eternal and co-equal. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is perfect and eternal God, and perfect sinless man. Man created by God in His image and likeness, sinned. Universal sinfulness and guilt renders everyone subject to God's righteous wrath and condemnation.
The death of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross was on behalf of sinners and satisfied the claims of God against sin. Through His sacrifical death there is redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin. He is the only mediator between God and man.
On the third day after His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ was raised in His physical body from the dead. He was seen alive by His disciples during the forty days after His resurrection and in His rising, glorified body He ascended into heaven to the right hand of God the Father.
The Lord Jesus Christ will personally return to raise the dead in Christ and they together with living believers will meet Him.
Salvation is not by works but through repentenance for sins and faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God alone. By an act of God's undeserved mercy, the believing sinner is forgiven all his sins, is justified before God and accepted as righteous in His sight.
There will be final judgment for those who have not been saved and whose names are not found in the book of life.
The Holy Spirit convinces individuals of their sin and leads them to faith in Christ. He indwells every Christian, producing in them increasing likeness to Christ in character and behaviour, empowering them for witness in the world. There is one universal Church, the body of Christ. Into this body of which the Lord Jesus Christ is Head, all Christians have been baptised in the Holy Spirit.
In the New Testament, a local church consisted of all Christians in a given locality, but now there is practically no complete expression of this principle. Nevertheless, in accordance with the teaching of the New Testament, Christians may meet together and function as an independent, self-governing church, recognising the authority of God's Word, the Lordship of Christ and the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. It will give expression to the teaching of the New Testament in its worship, doctrine and service.
