Articles of Faith and Practice
ADOPTED BY THAT PART OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST MEETING FOR THE WORSHIP OF GOD AT TAMWORTH ROAD BAPTIST CHAPEL, CROYDON
Article 1
We believe in the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and receive them as the gracious revelation of the mind and will of God; and we believe that therein are revealed all the doctrines and truths which we here state.
Article 2
We believe that there is but One living and true God, and that there are Three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that these Three Persons are equal in Nature, Power and Glory; and we believe that the Son and the Holy Ghost are as truly and as properly God as the Father.
Article 3
We believe in the everlasting and unchangeable love of God; and that before the foundation of the world the Father did elect a certain number of particular persons of the human race, unto everlasting salvation, whom He did predestinate unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will; and we believe that in fulfilling this gracious design, He did make a covenant of grace and peace with the Son and with the Holy Ghost, on behalf of those persons thus chosen, wherein a Saviour was appointed, and all spiritual blessings provided for them; and also that their persons with all the grace and glory designed for them, were put into the hands of the Son, as their covenant Head and made His care and charge.
Article 4
We believe in the Fall of Adam, our First Parent, and that by it the whole of the human race became involved in, and guilty of Original Sin; and that as they are born into the world, the whole of the posterity are transgressors against God. And we believe that by the Fall, all men were rendered both unable and unwilling spiritually to deliver themselves.
Article 5
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, being set up from everlasting as the Mediator of the New Covenant, and having engaged to be the surety of His people, did in the fullness of time, really and truly assume human nature, and not before, either in whole or in part. And we believe that though He existed from all eternity as the Eternal Son of God, the human soul of the Lord Jesus did not exist from eternity, nor before it was created and formed in His body, by Him who forms the soul of man within him, when that body was conceived, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary. And we believe that Christ's human nature consists of a true body and reasonable soul, both of which together and at once the Son of God assumed into union with His divine Person, when made of a woman, and not before; in which spotless human nature He really suffered, bled, and died, as a Substitute and Surety of His church and people, in their room and stead; whereby He made all that satisfaction for their sins which the law and justice of God could require, as well as made a way for all those blessings which are needful for them, both for time and eternity. We also believe in the resurrection, ascension, intercession, and second coming of the Lord Jesus, according to the Scriptures.
Article 6
We believe that that eternal redemption which Christ has obtained by the shedding of His blood is special and particular; that is to say, that it was intentionally designed only for the Elect of God and the Sheep of Christ, who alone share in all the special peculiar blessings of it.
Article 7
We believe that the justification of God's elect is only by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to them, without consideration of any works of righteousness, before or after calling, done by them; and that the full and free pardon of all their sins, past, present, and to come, is only through the blood of Christ, according to the riches of His grace.
Article 8
We believe that the work of regeneration and sanctification is not an act of man's free will and natural power, but that it springs from the operation of the mighty, efficacious and invincible grace of God.
Article 9
We believe that all those who are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Spirit, shall certainly and finally persevere so that not one of them shall ever eternally perish.
Article 10
We believe that all men are by nature so completely dead in trespasses and sins that they cannot, while in that state, know or feel anything of God in Christ spiritually, graciously, and savingly. And we believe that when quickened into everlasting life in Christ, (as the Elect alone are) the vessel of mercy then first feels spiritually the guilt of sin, and is taught to know, in his own experience, the fall and ruin of man. Thus every quickened child of God is brought, in God's own time and way, through the Spirit's teaching, from necessity to depend for salvation on Christ's blood and righteousness alone. And we believe that this teaching will not lead him to licentiousness, but makes him willing to walk in good works, to which he is ordained, and which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Article 11
We believe that a man can never do a good work, properly so called, until the grace of God is implanted in his heart; and that nothing is spiritually good but what God himself is pleased to communicate to, and work in the soul to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Article 12
We believe in the effectual calling of all the elect vessels of mercy out of the ruins of the Fall in God's appointed time; the application of the Law to the conscience by the Spirit of God; and the manifestation of mercy and pardon through Christ alone made known to the soul by God the Holy Ghost.
Article 13
We believe in the resurrection of the body, both of the just and the unjust; that the just shall be raised up in glory and honour, and be openly acknowledged and fully acquitted in the judgment day, before angels, devils, and sinners, and made fully and eternally blest, both in body and soul; and that the wicked shall be raised up to be condemned body and soul, to the unspeakable torments of hell for ever and ever.
Article 14
We believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of Christ, to be continued till His second coming; and that the former is requisite to the latter; that is to say, that those only can scripturally sit down to the Lord's Supper, who upon profession of faith have been baptised by immersion, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.