What do we believe?

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

2 Cor. 4:5

Above all, we are followers of Jesus Christ. More specifically we consider ourselves as apostolic, catholic, protestant, reformed, and baptist.

What does this mean?

Followers of Jesus Christ...

… because we believe that we belong to the same church that Jesus himself founded (Matt. 16:16-19).

… because we consider Jesus as our Lord, our King, and the Christ, i.e. the Messiah, the saviour promised by the Old Testament (Rom. 14:8-9).

… for we have no other Lord or Master than Jesus Christ, and we want to be obedient to Him in everything (Matt. 23:10, Joh. 10:27).

Apostolic..

… because we believe that the Apostles (who were appointed by Jesus) and their teaching together with the rest of Scripture are the foundation on which the church is built (Matt. 10, Acts 1:15-26, Eph. 2:20, 4:11-16).

… but we believe that there are no Apostles anymore today, also the ministry of an apostle does not exist anymore (1 Cor. 4:1, Acts 1:15-26, 1 Cor. 15:5-10).

… for we reject all teaching that deviates from the apostolic (New Testament) teaching (Gal. 1:8-9, 2 John 9, 2 Tim. 3:14).

Catholic (not Roman-)..

… because the word catholic means ‘all-encompassing’ and we believe that we belong to one worldwide church, which consists of true Christians at all times, in all places.

… for we believe in a universal church that transcends denominational boundaries, even though we disagree with other denominations on various issues. However, we should strive for unity of faith (doctrine). (Eph. 4:13).

… for we believe that the universal church is the one body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-28).

… and we believe in the independence of the local church led by elders (1 Pet. 5:1-3).

Protestant..

... for we recognize the same separation from the Roman Catholic Church, that was initiated by Martin Luther and started the Reformation.

… because we believe in Luther's most important insight, which was “justification by faith alone” compared to the false conviction that justification is by faith and works. (e.g. Romans 3:28)

… for we respect all the Reformers as important teachers of Christian doctrine, although we acknowledge that they too do sometimes err, unlike the infallible Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16), which they sought to interpret as best as they could.

Reformed..

… because we also study other Reformers who came after Luther and continued the Reformation. Among them are John Calvin and the Puritans.

… for we consider the so-called doctrines of grace to be derived from the Bible. We believe that salvation is by grace alone. (E.g. Eph. 1:4-12, 2:1-10, Rom. 9 etc.) Read more about it in our Full Confession of Faith (Coming Soon).

… because we believe that the church is always in need of reformation, i.e. re-examination through God's infallible Word. (1 Thess. 5:21)

Baptists..

… for we believe that baptism is an ordinance, confession, declaration and gift established by Jesus. Baptism follows the confessed faith / conversion to Christ (E.g. Matt. 28:19, Acts 2:38-41, 8:12, 34-38).

… for we do not believe that baptism regenerates a person. But this is done by the Holy Spirit in a moment which is unknown by the person him- or herself, but after which a person believes (Ezek. 36:24-27, John 3:7-8, Eph. 2:8).

… because we believe that the correct way of administering baptism is by immersion, as the actual meaning of the Greek word baptizoo ‘to immerse’ and the New Testament examples (Matthew 3:16, Acts 8:38) indicate. Baptism symbolizes the spiritual and real death and resurrection in Christ, and the "putting on" of Christ (1 Pet. 3:21-22, Col. 2:12, Rom. 6:4).

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