WE BELIEVE IN THE TRUTH OF THE BIBLE
The Bible teaches us the whole counsel of God, and this teaching is sufficient for faith and life. The Bible contains on a basic level only two words: Law and Gospel. The law has a double function, it reveals God’s holiness and good will, and it condemns human sinfulness and rebellion against God. The law cannot save
man; it gives us insight into our own depravity and thus drives us to the end of ourselves and to the end of all our attempts to save ourselves.
While the law points to what we should do for God, the Gospel points to what God in Christ has done for us. The Gospel is the good news of God’s amazing grace, in which God declares ungodly sinners justified by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. On the cross all of our sin and guilt was imputed to Christ, and by faith in Christ, his perfect righteousness is imputed to us. In the gospel we receive the good news that we are reconciled with God and have peace with him.
WE BELIEVE IN THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE
We believe that the Bible has both a divine and a human dimension. It is “the word of God given in the words of men in history” (George Eldon Ladd). That the Bible is “the words of men in history” means that we must read the biblical texts as just that, text. This means that we must take into full account the biblical texts literary genres – historical narrative, law, prophecy, poetry, gospels, epistles and apocalypse – and not lapse into a simplified reading where we do not take the character of the texts seriously. This means that we must apply a responsible historical-grammatical method in which we interpret the biblical texts in light of the historical, cultural, social and political context in which they were written. That the Bible is the “Word of God” means that we approach the texts in faith and in a humble expectation to hear God address us personally today through the stories and teachings of the Bible.
