DOCTRINAL STATEMENT

Titus 2:1  But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. II Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Christians known as Baptists have been meeting in Ireland since the 1650's, (although our origins did not begin then.) Since the time of Christ, multitudes have trusted in Jesus for eternal salvation by God's grace through faith alone. In obedience to His command they followed him in "Believer's Baptism" by immersion - thus the name Baptist.

THE SCRIPTURES:  We believe in the verbal-plenary inspiration of the Bible.  It is the supreme standard — the rule of faith and practice — by which all-human conduct, creeds, and options are to be tried.  Moreover, we believe that although the process of inspiration ceased with the original manuscripts, the initial miracle of divine inspiration of the original autographs also extends to the divine preservation of a pure text to this day. It is our conviction that God has exercised such singular care and providence through the ages in preserving the written Word in the Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament and the Greek Textus Receptus for the New Testament. The Scriptures as we now have them are in every essential detail as originally given, so that the result is the very word of God. In the English language, the only Bible translated from the aforementioned texts is the Authorized Version more commonly know as the King James Translation. Therefore, we believe that God in His providence preserved His Word in the King James Translation.  We believe that the Scriptures are inerrant and reliable in creation, science, geography, chronology, history, and every other matter it discusses and that they are the supreme, final and absolute authority in all matters of faith, life, conduct, and doctrine. They are the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man and they are to be interpreted in a literal, historical, and grammatical manner.

 
GOD:  We believe that God is one God.  He is the Creator and Supreme Ruler of the universe, and is eternal, all-knowing, everywhere-present, and all-powerful.  God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, and having the same attributes and perfections.

 
JESUS CHRIST:  God the Son, Jesus Christ the Eternal Word with God, the Father as Creator, came to earth in the form of sinful flesh yet without sin.  He was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner; born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man ever was or can be born of woman.  He died in the flesh as a blood atonement for our propitiation and for the sins of all mankind. He was buried, bodily arose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and is seated on the right hand of the Father.  He is both the Son of God and God the Son—He is 100% man while being 100% God.

 
HOLY SPIRIT:  The Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, the third Person of the Trinity and bears witness to the Truth and is the Agent of the New Birth (regeneration).  The Holy Spirit ever lives within all believers and will never leave nor forsake them.  He directs us into the truth, comforts us, and guides us in prayer.  He convicts the world of its sinful condition.

 
SATAN:  We believe in the person of Satan.  He is the unholy god of this world, the author of darkness, the open and declared enemy of God and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the Lake of Fire.  Satan is restrained by the Holy Spirit until God's purpose is fulfilled.

 
MAN:  We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God, but that in Adam's sin the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God.  Man is depraved, and of himself utterly unable to remedy his lost condition apart from the direct intervention of God.  He is justly under God’s condemnation, bound for eternal damnation, without defense or excuse.

 
CREATION:  We believe the Genesis account of creation, that man is the result of the direct creation of God, not evolution. Creation was accomplished in six (6) literal, twenty-four (24) hour days and not through some process or form of evolution. 

 
HEAVEN AND HELL:  We believe in a literal heaven and a literal hell: heaven is the place of eternal conscious joy for all who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, and hell is the place of eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire for all who reject Jesus Christ and those dying in their sin.

 
SALVATION:  1. We believe that salvation is wholly by the grace (unmerited favour) of God, through the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, on the cross.  Jesus Christ, by the appointment of the Father, freely took on human flesh, and was born of a virgin, yet He was totally without sin.  His death on the cross and the shedding of His precious blood (without which salvation would not be possible) provided full atonement for all sins of all men.  His death was completely voluntary and was carried through for the express purpose that Christ might take our sin upon Himself and pay sin’s penalty in full.  He bore our sins in His own body on the tree—the Just dying for the unjust.  He paid for every sin of every man and woman who has ever lived, or who ever shall live, leaving nothing to be paid by us. 

2.  We believe that the Lord’s atonement is not limited in respect to whom salvation is offered (i.e., only to “the elect”), but rather, salvation was purchased for all men and is freely offered to “whosoever will come” to the Father through Christ.  We do not believe that the free will of man to accept or reject God’s gift of salvation in any way conflicts with God’s sovereign purpose in election.  God willed from eternity past to save all who would choose to accept His free gift of salvation.  In His omniscience He foreknew who would respond in faith to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and call upon His name—as well as who would reject the conviction of the Holy Spirit and suffer eternal condemnation.  Believers were not predestined to be saved but were predestined, after salvation, to be “conformed to Christ’s image” (referring to sanctification—both in this life, and in its final perfection on the Resurrection Day).

3.  We believe that those who have truly been saved by the grace of God are “kept by the power of God”—that they are saved forever—can never again be lost and come into the condemnation of hell.  We do not view this as a “marginal” issue, but rather, it is the very heart of salvation.  If salvation can be lost, then salvation is not truly by the grace of God alone, since the keeping of our salvation would depend upon our own good works.  Though believers certainly can fall into sin (in which case God will chastise them—even to the point of physical death), they cannot fall from salvation.  The Father holds the believer in the palm of His hand, and none can pluck him out.  Christ stands before the Father as the believer’s eternal Advocate, ever declaring the saved sinner to be judicially righteous and fully pardoned. The Holy Spirit is the seal of the believer’s redemption until the Resurrection Day.  For God to cast out those whom He has received would be to deny Himself and His Word.

 
THE CHURCH:  We believe that a church is a local, visible assembly of born-again believers who have been scripturally baptised (by complete immersion under water) upon public and credible confession of faith in Jesus Christ, and who have voluntarily united together for the purpose of worship, mutual edification and fellowship, service to God, and observance of the ordinances.  It is the living organism that Christ has instituted for the propagation of the Gospel. 

 
ORDINANCES:  We believe that baptism (by complete immersion under water) and the Lord's Supper are the only two scriptural ordinances committed to the local church.  The biblical ordinances are not “means” or “channels of grace,” and thus are not called “sacraments.”

 
END TIMES:  We believe in that "blessed hope" - the literal, personal, bodily, imminent return of Christ, Who will rapture His saints prior to the Seven Year Tribulation period.  At the end of the Tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return with His saints to establish His Earthly Thousand Year Kingdom reign (from the Throne of David) which was promised to the nation of Israel.  After the 1,000 years a solemn separation will then take place at which time the unconverted will be judged according to their works, will be found lacking merit for salvation, and condemned to endless punishment.  The saved, judged before hand, will be found righteous in Christ and acquitted to endless joy. This judgment will fix forever the final state of men in heaven and hell, on principles of righteousness.