{"id":26,"date":"2012-08-18T11:11:50","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T11:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2020-05-16T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T05:12:11","slug":"what-we-believe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/?page_id=26","title":{"rendered":"What We Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-page pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpages%2F26&print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" ><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print-Friendly Version<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The Bible<\/span> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is our conviction that there is ample evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.<\/li>\n<li>That God inspired a large number of men over a period of\u00a0 many centuries to record for all mankind his plan to restore all who accept the invitation, to the same relationship that God had with the first human beings, Adam and Eve, before they chose to disregard His instructions.<\/li>\n<li>That the events recorded are fact and not mythological in nature.<\/li>\n<li>That the Bible is the complete and final revelation from God and that to add to it or diminish it in any way is contrary to God\u2019s will.<\/li>\n<li>That it not only tells of how mankind can have their relationship with God restored but also that there is an eternal heaven awaiting those who obey God and an eternal hell for those who don\u2019t obey him.<\/li>\n<li>That the Bible is written so that all who read it can know what God expects of those who profess their love for Him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">The Church<\/span> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The church of Christ is made up of God\u2019s people on earth.<\/li>\n<li>We have only one Head, that is Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Neither men nor women should take this position.<\/li>\n<li>Galatians 5:23 explains that the church is the body of Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>That Jesus died to establish His church, one body \u2013 not many variations of his body or religious groups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Salvation<\/span> \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Since the Bible is God\u2019s word the way in which we can be saved from eternal punishment must be contained in it<\/li>\n<li>We must \u00a0believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (see John 3:16).\u00a0 True belief recognizes that Jesus has all authority and therefore must be obeyed.<\/li>\n<li>Peter, with authority from Jesus, declared that people should repent and be baptised if they wanted to have their sins forgiven. (Acts 2:38)<\/li>\n<li>Romans 10:9-10 shows that we should also confess to others, not our sins, but our faith in Jesus as the Son of God just like the Ethiopian did just before he was baptised. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 ( Acts 8:37)<\/li>\n<li>These are the initial, unalterable steps that must be taken to become a part of the Lord\u2019s church (Acts 2:47).\u00a0 From then we must walk in the light of the word, submitting to God\u2019s will, in effect reaching out and accepting the gift of eternal life from a loving, forgiving and generous God, our heavenly Father.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Baptism <\/strong><\/span>\u2013<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The word that has been translated \u201cbaptism\u201d means plunge or immerse.\u00a0 To give \u201cbaptism\u201d any other meaning like \u201csprinkling\u201d or \u201cpouring\u201d adds a meaning to the original word of God that is presumptuous and irreverent towards God.<\/li>\n<li>Immersion is in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20) for (in order to obtain) forgiveness of sins and to be \u201cin Christ\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Since babies are not born sinful as some have suggested, baptism is for those old enough to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Worship<\/span> \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All participate in the worship of God.<\/li>\n<li>Our prayers are offered to God the Father through Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man.<\/li>\n<li>Our singing is not accompanied by musical instruments. (Ephesians 5:19)<\/li>\n<li>Jesus\u2019 death is remembered every first day of the week in the Lord\u2019s Supper.<\/li>\n<li>We share our material wealth with others by contributing to the work of the church every Sunday.<\/li>\n<li>The Word of God is taught.<\/li>\n<li>We emphasise the spiritual aspect of worship rather than a social concept that results in entertainment with pleasing people as the main idea rather than pleasing and\u00a0honouring\u00a0God.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>We do not believe these things and do these things simply to be different.\u00a0 We are convinced from our study of the scriptures, that the only way to honour God and Jesus is to do things God\u2019s way, avoiding the things that are not approved by Him.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> The Bible \u2013 It is our conviction that there is ample evidence that the Bible is the Word of God. That God inspired a large number of men over a period of\u00a0 many centuries to record for all &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/?page_id=26\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/Patnjy-q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchofchristbankstown.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}