Our beliefs

We believe that the Bible is the means through which God speaks to all of us. In the Bible the Lord God reveals Himself to us, and He makes His will clear to us. In the Bible God makes Himself known as the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father is the great Creator, the Son is the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit works this redemption in the hearts of all God’s children. The Bible is a reliable guide. It provides us with an answer on all our questions even of life and death and it shows us how we should love and serve God.

Message of the Bible
The Apostles’ Creed is a summary of our beliefs, based on the Word of God. This confession originates from the 2^nd century after Christ. It reads:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
one holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

We will now clarify this.

 A good start
The opening of the Bible tells us that God created (i.e. made out of nothing) the heaven and the earth: son, moon and stars, the earth, trees, plants, birds, fish and eventually as crown upon the creation: man. The aim of the creation is that everything should live to the glory of God. In the beginning there was complete harmony; between animals and man, and between man and God. (Genesis 1 – 2).

Disobedience
The first people: Adam and Eve, however listened to the devil and were disobedient to God. This caused a deep cleft between God and men. God became very angry because of sin. Sorrow, trouble, even death entered the world. The Bible says, that man must die, death being the penalty for sin.(Genesis 3). Not just Adam and Eve but all people that were born after them, from themselves are sinful. That is why all of us deserve the same punishment. The Bible is very serious about these things.

Love undeserved
Fortunately the Bible does not end there!
In His endless love God has provided a possibility to berescued (saved). The only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. He descended to the earth in order to restore the relationship between God and sinful people.In the New Testament, the second part of the Bible, we read: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3 : 16)

Salvation by Jesus the Saviour
Now how can Jesus Christ be/become our Saviour? Through grace and through faith in Him. He was willing, voluntarely, to bear the punishment, taking the place of sinners. He suffered, He even died at the cross. His self-sacrifice was big enough that it is sufficient to take away the debts of everyone who believes in Him. Jesus rose from death. He is a King who (from heaven where He is now) reigns over the world and cares for those who believe in Him. Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus, therefore can go free even though he does not deserve it, and will not anymore be punished for his sins. This is called ‘atonement or reconciliation with God’. God does save people to this very day. To achieve this the Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the Gospel. 

New life
Now the trouble is that we are addicted to sin. Would it depend on us, we would prefer living on without God rather than being saved. So it is necessary that we admit this, that we recognize that we need reconciliation with God, and that we do receive atonement through faith in Jesus’ payment. In appreciation of the heavy sacrifice He made, a desire will develop to obey God’s will. With a word from the Bible we call this change: ‘rebirth’. A beautiful word, since it points to the fact that one is as it were, born anew. The old and sinful life makes room to a new life in obedience to God. On the one hand the new life means fighting against all evil, and on the other hand trust in God. This new life will never end. Believers will die but after that they will praise and glorify God in heaven eternally. Without spot or wrinkle. Sin, worries and misery are no longer there. At the end of times, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ will have been proclaimed over all the earth, He will come back to the earth to judge all mankind. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, shall not be lost.

A serious request
This is an important message, do not you think so?
It comes from the bottom of our heart: this is a matter of life and death, of being saved or being lost. Now take to heart this urgent message from the Old Testament (the first part of the Bible): Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55 : 6-7)

You can read more about these things in the Bible. If you do not have a Bible, you can get a Bible for free, using the form under Contact.