Salvation and justification
Because of man’s lost and sinful state, we believe that salvation is totally of God, not of man, through the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross. We believe that we are saved because God, by His free and sovereign grace alone, has chosen from eternity past to regenerate us by His Spirit and to grant us faith and repentance by which we freely embrace Christ. We believe that by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from any human merit or works, the believing sinner is justified and declared righteous as an act of God through an astonishing transfer, in which our sins are imputed to Christ and His righteousness is imputed to us. Thus, we are given eternal life and adopted into God’s family to be conformed to the image of Christ, to the praise of His glorious grace. (Eph. 1:3-14; 2:8,9; John 1:12; 3:5, 6, 16; 6:37-40, 44; Acts 13:48; Rom. 3:21-26; 5:1; 8:28-29; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; Jn. 3:3-7; Tit. 3:4-7)
Sanctification and perseverance
We believe that we are positionally sanctified (“set apart”) and viewed by God as “saints” from the day of conversion. We also believe that Christians, by God’s grace and His indwelling Spirit, will progressively live out their new identity in Christ through God’s appointed means of grace, especially the local church, Scripture, prayer, and daily obedience. We believe we are saved by faith alone, yet the faith that saves is never alone but is always accompanied by fruit which evidences the true child of God. “So believers grow in grace, moving towards mature holiness in the fear of God, pressing on towards the heavenly life in gospel obedience to all the commands which Christ as Head and King has prescribed for them in His Word. …repentance is to continue throughout the whole course of our lives.” Thus, we believe that every Christian ought to separate from the worldliness and apostasy of our day and live a transformed life to the glory of God as we faithfully fulfill our God-given callings in society and live as salt and light in a dark and decaying world. (Acts 20:32; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; Matt. 7:21-23; Jam. 2:17-26; Gal. 5:6, 16-25; Eph. 4:22-24; Phil. 3:12; Col. 3:9-10; Mark 13:13; 1 Jn. 2:19; 2 Pet. 3:18; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; 1 Jn. 1:9; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 1 Jn. 2:15-17).
We also believe that all the redeemed will “certainly persevere in grace to the end and be eternally saved”; that the child of God is kept secure by His power until safely home in Heaven because nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We believe this assurance is not a cause for “loose living” but for making one’s calling and election sure and for gladly risking our lives in the cause of Christ. (Jn. 10:28; 1 Pet. 1:5; Rom. 8; 1 Jn. 3;1 Jn. 5:13; 2 Pet. 1:5-11; 1 Cor. 15:58; Heb. 10:32-39)
The Church
We believe in the universal church, a living spiritual body of which Christ is the head and all regenerated persons are members. We believe members of this one spiritual body are directed to associate themselves together in local assemblies. We believe the local church consists of a gathering of believers in Jesus Christ, baptized on a credible profession of faith and associated for the purpose of exalting God through evangelizing the lost and edifying and equipping the saints for service. We believe that the church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God and by her members’ love for one another and for the world. We believe that the church should display to the world a spiritual, Christ-centered unity that transcends ethnicity, age, or any other barrier, a unity that can only be produced through the gospel. (Acts 2:41-47; 1 Cor. 12; Jn. 13:34-35; Eph. 2:11-22; Eph. 4:1-16; Eph. 5:19-21; Heb. 10:23-25).
We believe that the reading and expounding of Scripture must be central to the life of the church, as the fountain from which all other ministry flows. We believe the local church is responsible to seek the restoration of sinning members and the purity of the church through corrective discipline as taught by our Lord in Matthew 18. We believe that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, in which we gather for corporate worship in the name of our Saviour who rose on the first day of the week. (Ps 1; 19; 119; 1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:1-5; Matt. 18:15-22; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Thess. 3:6-15; Rev. 1:10; Acts 20:7).
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has committed two ordinances to the local church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of the believer in water in the name of the triune God and as a confession of identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a time of communing with Christ and remembering Him through the bread and the cup that depict His broken body and shed blood on our behalf. (Matt. 26:26-29; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:42; Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 10:16-22; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
We believe in the autonomy of the local church, free from any external authority or control, with the right to appoint its own leaders. We believe the only scriptural offices in the local church, under Christ’s headship and according to the biblical qualifications, are: elders/pastors who give teaching and oversight in shepherding the flock, along with deacons who coordinate ministries of mercy and care for practical needs in the church. We believe it is good for like-minded local churches to fellowship and cooperate with one another in the cause of the gospel; and that we ought to “pray continually for the good and prosperity of Christ’s churches everywhere.” (1 Tim. 3; Tit. 1:5-9; Heb. 13:7,17; Acts 6:1-6; Matt. 6:9-10; Mark 9:40; Acts 15; Phil. 1:12-18)
Missions
We believe that God’s glory and fame must be spread to the ends of the earth for the joy of all peoples. We believe that apart from conscious faith in Christ, there is no hope of salvation for the nations. We believe God has laid upon the members of the local church the primary task of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world; and that God, in His sovereignty, has placed us in this city, among these people, at this time, for the advance of His kingdom. We believe that missions is the process of evangelizing the lost and planting churches; and we believe that it is our great privilege and responsibility to participate in this cause both locally and internationally. (Ps. 47, 67; Matt. 16:18; 28:18- 20; Acts 1:8; Acts 17:26-27)
Marriage and the family
We believe that, according to God’s good and wise design, He created men and women equal in value and dignity but distinct and complementary in their function and roles in the home, church, and society. We believe that God has ordained marriage as a heterosexual relationship between a natural man and a natural woman. We believe that marriage and children are gifts from God and that the sexual relationship is only to be enjoyed within the bounds of marriage. We believe God has designed the family and the home to be the primary building block for all of society. (Gen 1-3; 1 Cor. 11:7-9; 1 Tim. 2:11-15; Eph 5:22-33: Rom 1:26-27; Heb. 13:4)
The future
We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth and the establishment of His kingdom and the hope of the new heaven and the new earth when the curse of sin will be removed forever and God will be all in all to His people. We believe in the resurrection of the bodies of the just and unjust, in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed and in the judgment and conscious, eternal punishment of the wicked. “As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity, so will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come, and may ever be prepared to say, ‘Come Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.’” (Acts 1:11; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thess. 4:15-16; 2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 2:13; 1 Cor. 15; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; Matt. 25:46; Jn. 5:28-29; 14:3; Luke 12:35-40; Rev. 20-22)
This Declaration of Faith is a summary of two larger, more detailed doctrinal statements by which the Elders at Antioch are guided in much of their beliefs and teaching: (a) The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith (b) The “What We Teach” statement of Grace Community Church