Statement of Faith
Clifton Bible Chapel is the meeting place of an assembly of Christians who gather regularly to study the Scriptures, to fellowship together, to break bread in remembrance of the Lord and to pray. They seek to maintain the New Testament pattern of simplicity in meeting where believers can enjoy all their spiritual privileges and assume their responsibilities (Acts 2:42; Eph. 4:16).
The Lord’s Supper is a memorial feast in remembrance of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, which is observed weekly in accordance with the New Testament example: it is open to those who have been truly born again and are not living in sin and deliberate disobedience to God’s Word (1 Cor. 11:25-32; 5:9-13; Acts 20:7).
The foundational message of the Bible is that man’s sinful nature has separated him from fellowship with God and is leading him to an endless eternity of conscious judgment in the Lake of Fire, as the righteous sentence of God against those who reject the truth (John 3:36; Gen. 6:5; Rom. 1:21, 28, 32; Rev. 14:10, 11).
The good news of Christianity, however, is that because of God’s love for His people, He has provided for us in the person of Jesus Christ, who is fully God manifested in a body of flesh, a sinless substitute who willingly met the righteous demands of God, having fully and eternally paid for the penalty of sin by His sacrificial death and to which God has attested by raising Him from the dead (John 1:1, 14; 10:17, 18; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:17).
Salvation then is not by works, but is by personally accepting by faith this substitutionary death of Christ on our behalf, believing in Christ as our only way of salvation and receiving Him as our Lord and Savior (Acts 4:12; John 1:12; Eph. 2:8, 9).
Those who receive this gift of God by faith are said to be saved or born again; all their sins being forgiven through Christ’s blood which was shed on the cross. They have no fear of punishment but have passed from death to life, being immediately in possession of eternal life and are forever secure (Acts 10:43; Col. 2:13, 14; John 5:24).
Those so saved are said to be members of Christ’s body which is the Church and they acknowledge Him as head over them in all things. In obedience to Christ they are baptized, symbolizing their identification with Him in death, burial and resurrection (Eph. 1:22, 23; Mt. 28:19; Rom. 6:3-5).
Having believed, they are sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise and are indwelt by Him. The Holy Spirit empowers each believer to live a godly life in departing from iniquity and leads the saints in appreciation and worship of the Son, testifying to them of the glories of the risen Christ (Eph. 1:13; 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:19; John 16:13, 14).
The Spirit, likewise, equips the saints for the work of service through the giving of gifts for the common good, for the growth of the body in the building up of itself in love. The Spirit also raises up from the saints godly men to serve as elders in taking the oversight of The Church, to shepherd and feed the flock of God in true Biblical fashion as shepherds to the Chief Shepherd, who is Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:11-16; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).
Finally, each believer can look forward with joy and anticipation to the blessed hope; to that time when Christ shall come again and receive each one unto Himself and so forever be with the Lord (1 Thes. 4:13-18; Titus 2:13).