Core Beliefs at Swords Baptist Church
In teaching the Scriptures we as a church hold the following doctrines as our basis of faith: (Summarised from our Constitution)
God
He is the Creator of all, existing in three co-equal and eternal persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who is gracious in His love towards all, especially to those who believe. In His holiness, God hates sin and cannot leave the guilty unpunished.
Man
Created in God's image, by exercising his free will, has disobeyed the Creator and thus his fellowship with God is broken. As a result all people are born spiritually dead and incapable of saving themselves.
Jesus Christ.
He is fully God, who became man to save us from the consequences of our sin. He was born of a virgin birth, lived a sinless life and died sacrificially on the cross as our substitute. He was buried, but rose again bodily, and subsequently ascended into Heaven. He will return in time to complete His Kingdom.
The Holy Spirit.
He is the one who convicts us of our sin, baptizes us into the Church when we become Christians and indwells us thereafter permanently. Through His power sin can be overcome. He is the one who teaches us truth, equips us with gifts, so that the Lord Jesus might be glorified
The Bible
It is through His word that God reveals Himself to us. He is its author and it is without error in any part, or on any subject, in the original manuscripts. It is our final authority in terms of our doctrine and daily living.
How we become Christians
We believe that salvation is by grace alone and that eternal life is freely given when we admit we are sinners and accept Jesus death on the Cross as the way to see our sin forgiven and to become a child of God.
Judgement
There is a literal Hell: Jesus spoke of such a place. All who die not knowing Jesus as their Saviour will go there after the final Judgement.
The Devil
The Devil does exist. He is God’s enemy, seeking to deceive us and draw us to worshiping Him. He was defeated at the Cross and will be cast into “the Lake of Fire” after the final judgement.
The Church
The church is the company of all born again believers everywhere, Jesus Christ is its head. Locally the church meets as groups of Christians for corporate worship, fellowship, prayer, instruction, and witness.
Christian Marriage & Sexuality
We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as either male or female, and that these two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:26-27).
We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman, and that intimate sexual activity is to occur exclusively within that marriage union (Gen. 2:18-25; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 7:2-5; Hebrews 13:4).