Church of God Beliefs
Please visit our global site for beliefs we share with all other churches of God ( “fellowship shared beliefs”), or to save yourself an extra click just read on here for the highlights…

The Christian claim is that life has always been about loving God and loving others but to begin a relationship with God, and to receive his help to love others, we need to deal with a problem. None of us is perfect. We all commit wrongs (sins) which form a barrier between us and God. We need God’s forgiveness.

Christianity is unique in believing that God himself came to earth to provide forgiveness for us. As Jesus, he died to take the punishment for all humanity’s sin. All God asks is that we acknowledge our sin, repent of it, and put our faith in Jesus, his Son, then forgiveness will be ours for ever.

In summary, we believe in…

• the Inspiration and Authority of the Bible as God’s Word
• the Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
• the death of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, as the only sacrifice for our forgiveness…this forgiveness being personally received by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as personal Saviour
• the Person of the Holy Spirit living in every believer to teach and guide in the way of serving God
• the command for believers to be baptized by immersion in water as declaring their allegiance to the Lord Jesus
• the Bible expectation that baptized believers should be added to local church of God fellowship
• the necessity to continue steadfastly in ‘the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers’

For a practical outline of how to live out Bible truth today, check out “Useful to the Master”.

In more detail, we believe…

• In one holy, almighty God, eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, co eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, without division of nature, essence or being.
  Deut 6:4; Ps 90:2; Heb 1:8-12; Heb 9:14; Mat 28:19.
• In the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Old and New Testaments; that they are infallible, inerrant in the original writings, and the final authority for faith and life.
  2 Tim 3:16; Jn 10:35; Rom 3:1-2; 2 Pet 3:15-16.
• That the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, became man by the Holy Spirit and virgin birth; that He lived a sinless life on earth; that He died at Calvary as a substitute and sacrifice for sinners; that He was buried in and arose from the tomb; that He ascended to heaven and was glorified as a man at God’s right hand; that He is coming again for His own and then to set up His kingdom.
  Phil 2:5-11; 1 Pet 2:21-22; Mat 1:20-25; Luke 1:30-35; see also 1 Cor 15:1-58.
• That the Holy Spirit is a divine person who convicts the world of sin; that He is that supernatural agent in our spiritual rebirth in whom all believers are baptized into the Church which is Christ’s Body; that He lives in and seals them until the time of Christ’s return.
  John 16:8; 1 Cor 12:13; Eph 1:22-23; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 4:30.
• He is the divine teacher and helper who guides believers into all truth; while it is the responsibility of all believers to be filled with the Spirit.
  John 16:13; Eph 5:18.
• That God created man in His own image and in the state of innocence. Through Adam’s transgression ‘sin entered into the world, and death through sin’ and, consequently, humanity inherited a corrupt nature, being born in sin and under condemnation. As soon as men and women are capable of moral action they become actual transgressors in thought, word and deed.
  Gen 1:27; Rom 5:12; Rom 3:23; Ps 51:5.
• That salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace and received only through personal repentance for sin and faith in the person, finished work and atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
  Eph 2:8; Acts 20:21; Acts 16:31.
• In the bodily resurrection of all people, the saved to eternal life and the unsaved to everlasting punishment.
  Jn 5:28-29; Mat 25:46; Rev 20:11-15.
• That the souls of believers on the Lord Jesus are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord where, in conscious bliss, they await resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.
  Phil 1:23; 2 Cor 5:8; 1 Cor 15:50-57; 1 Thes 4:14-18.
• That ‘Christ’s Church’, known as the body of Christ, is a spiritual organism composed of believers on Christ who are all baptized into that body; by the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit at the time of the new birth.
  Mat 16:18; Eph 1:22; 1 Cor 12:12-13.
• That local churches, patterned after the New Testament example, are called ‘churches of God’ composed of baptized believers observing all the Lord’s teaching, and they – as visibly manifesting his body – have responsibility to provide for the fellowship and edification of believers and to propagate the gospel in all the world.
  1 Cor 1:1-2; Gal 1:2; Rom 15:14; 1 Thes 1:1,8.
• That a major concern of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the Bible is the promotion of unity among Christian disciples.
  Phil 1:27-2:2; Eph 4:1-6; 2 Cor 13:14.
• That it was to this end God established the original mould of Christianity. It constituted a body of teaching (the Faith) which when consistently held results in a practical, observable unity.
  Rom 6:17; Jude 1:3.
• That God still desires such a visible unity among Christians today; that this was the expressed longing of the Lord Jesus on the eve of Calvary. Indeed, it was a primary reason for His death. The psalms declare how pleasant it is when God’s people ‘dwell together’.
  John 17:11; John 17:21-23; Ps 133:1-3.
• That this ‘dwelling together’ should be in the place of God’s choosing; where He Himself dwells on earth. Note this principle found in: Deut 12:5; Ps 132:13-14; Eph 2:19-22.
• That, accordingly, in succession to the tabernacle and temple of the Old Covenant, God’s design now is for a spiritual house – ‘a dwelling of God in the Spirit’ – composed of believers obedient to God’s prescription for collective worship and service.
  Eph 2:22.
• That there’s a plurality to be seen in this unity, as witness ‘the churches of God’ in various New Testament geographical localities; and that there’s a unity in this plurality, as witness overall descriptions like ‘the little flock’, ‘a holy nation’, ‘the kingdom of God’, a ‘holy’ and ‘royal’ ‘priesthood’.
  Luke 12:32; 1 Pet 2:4-9.
• That the Holy Spirit appoints elders or overseers in every place where a church of God is planted, and that their close fellowship with similar elders everywhere in churches of God upholds the human responsibility for preserving the unity God desires.
  Titus 1:5; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1-4; Acts 15.
• That it is relative to all this that the Bible teaches the privilege and united responsibility of disciples in ‘the fellowship’ to come together ‘in church’ to ‘break bread’ weekly in remembrance of the Lord Jesus – accessing heaven in a spiritual sense in their worship as they do.
  Acts 2:42; Mat 26:26; 1 Cor 11:17,18,26; Heb 10:19.
• That such an awesome privilege necessitates by its very nature, a separation from all that’s contrary to the revealed will of God. The Bible itself demonstrates that it’s possible sadly for an erring disciple to forfeit his/her place within this unity where God dwells and is collectively worshipped – but that even this serious loss does not bring into jeopardy his/her eternal security; as someone forever incorporated within the indestructible unity of the Church the Body of Christ itself.
  2 Tim 2:19; 2 Cor 6:14; Jn 10:28; Mat 16:18; 1 Cor 5:1-13.