What we Believe

See also:

• Evangelical Alliance Basis of Faith.
• Our Constitution

At the Dove Church, we believe in...

(Draft Statement)

• One true God who lives eternally in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is ever sovereign in creation.
  
• The incarnation of God's eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary; fully God and fully human, yet without sin; His atonement for sinners by His suffering and death; His bodily resurrection, the forerunner of our own resurrection; his ascension to the Father, and his reign and mediation as the only Saviour of the world.
  
• The Holy Spirit, equal with the Father and the Son, as God, who leads us to repentance and unites us with Christ, who also sanctifies us, empowers our discipleship and enables our witness.
  
• The divine inspiration and supreme authority of the Old and New Testament Scriptures, which are the written Word of God – fully trustworthy for faith and conduct.
  
• The dignity of all people made male and female in God's image, to be holy, to tend and to keep the created world , yet corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement.
  
• The atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross: dying in our place, paying the price of sin and defeating evil, so reconciling us with God.
  
• The justification of sinners solely by the grace of God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
• Public baptism as a believer's personal testimony of faith, which symbolises the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
  
• Holy Communion as an instruction given to believers by our Lord Jesus Christ to remember his sacrifice, to symbolise the new covenant and to proclaim His coming.
  
• The church, the body of Christ both local and universal, the priesthood of all believers — given life by the Holy Spirit and equipped by Him to worship God, proclaim the gospel of salvation and to do good works.
  
• The personal and visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ to fulfil the purposes of God, who will raise all people to judgement, bring eternal life to the redeemed and eternal condemnation to the lost, and establish a new heaven and new earth.