What We Believe
OVERVIEW
Deni Baptist is an evangelical church that believes it is only through the gospel of Jesus, and by repentance and faith in Him, can we be made right with God and have the hope of eternal life.
We believe that we grow in our knowledge of God and His ways as we read and understand the Bible, allowing it to shape and change us to be more and more like Christ.
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
The following is the doctrinal statement of Dniliquin Baptist Church
1. What is God like?
There is one infinitely immense; self-existent God Who is eternal personal Spirit. He created all things from nothing, and sustains all things. He always has been, and ever will be infinite in power, wisdom, knowledge, holiness, righteousness, justice, goodness, truth and love. God is Triune in essential being and revealed to us as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
2. What’s so special about Jesus?
Jesus Christ is God the Son. As the second Person of the Godhead, He is eternally one with God the Father of whose person and glory Jesus is the accurate expression. To become human, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, the nature of God and human nature, were united in one Person; truly God and truly human. (Yes, it is hard for us finite humans to fully understand that.)
3. How does God work in the world?
The Holy Spirit, Who is God. as the third Person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit is eternally one with the Father and the Son, yet He is sent by Them to achieve the divine purpose in the world and in the Church.
4. How does God speak today?
The Scriptures, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, are the infallible Word of God. They were written by holy people of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and have supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
5. What’s wrong with you, me, and the world?
People were made in the image of God and for fellowship with God. By transgression of God’s command humankind fell from fellowship with God and their nature was corrupted. As a consequence, all people are spiritually dead under Satan’s dominion and control and subject to God’s wrath and condemnation. Therefore, apart from God’s grace, people are helpless and hopeless.
6. What is the cross all about?
To redeem people from the guilt, penalty and power of sin, Jesus Christ became human and died a sacrificial death as our representative substitute. By His resurrection, God’s acceptance of the atoning death of Jesus was demonstrated. This atonement is sufficient for the whole world, but effective only in those who received it. The sinner is justified and reconciled to God, not through any personal merit, but solely on the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ received through faith.
7. How can I know God properly?
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the acceptance of God’s provision of salvation. The Holy Spirit convinces sinners of their sinfulness, leads them to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and so brings them to spiritual birth as God’s children and to fellowship in Christ. Working within the life of believers the Holy Spirit makes real the presence of Christ, witnesses to their relationship with God, leads into all truth, bestows gifts for effective service and produces graces for holy living.
8. It’s more than personal
The Church is the body of people whom God has separated from the world through faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. All regenerate persons are members of the universal Church of God which takes local form wherever groups of believers unite for worship, fellowship and service in accordance with scriptural principles. All believers are called to a priestly ministry in the offering of spiritual sacrifices and sent into the world to be witnesses. God calls individuals to positions of oversight and leadership or to special ministries. The Church recognises such by ordaining pastors, commissioning missionaries, appointing Elders and deacons, and other leaders, following New Testament practice.
9. Joining God’s people
Baptism is a public declaration of a person’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In accordance with New Testament Scripture, it should be administered only by total immersion which symbolises the believer’s identification with Christ in death, burial and resurrection, the remission of sins and the believer’s dedication to God to live and walk in newness of life.
10. Persevering in the Christian life
The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ instituted by Him to be celebrated with the elements of bread and wine by believers in Christ until the end of the age. It commemorates and declares our thanks for the Lord’s substitutionary death. The celebration of the ordinance expresses our fellowship with and in the Lord Jesus Christ as members of the Body of which He is the Head.
11. The end of all things old
At the end of this age, according to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in His glory to the earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom of God awaits His return.
12. The beginning of all things new
At the end of the age, there is to be a resurrection both of the righteous and the unrighteous. After death the people’s bodies return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God – the righteous to be with Him and the unrighteous to be reserved for the judgment.
13. Making this life count for eternity
God has appointed a day of final judgment for the world. At that time Jesus Christ will judge every person and each will receive reward or punishment according to their deeds. Those judged righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.