What We Believe

The following are core beliefs of Tabernacle Baptist Church based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.
We are a Protestant Church believing in the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation.
We are a Baptist Church, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
Our complete doctrinal statement is available in our Statement of Faith and other governing documents.

God is one God, who exists eternally in three equal, yet distinct, persons: Father, Son and Spirit. He is the creator of all that exists, both visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise.  God is perfect in love, power, holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom,  justice, and mercy. He is unchangeable in holiness, justice, wisdom and love. God is the creator, saviour and judge of the world, who sustains all things according to His sovereign will for His own glory.

God has revealed Himself through the Bible, which contains the Old and New Testaments only. All words have been inspired by the Spirit through human authors, so that the original texts are, in their entirety, the Word of God. It must, therefore, be without error or contradiction and thus be fully reliable in both fact and doctrine. The Scriptures alone speak with final authority and are fully sufficient for matters of belief and life.

All men and women, being created in the image of God, have inherent and equal dignity and worth. Their greatest purpose is to obey, worship and love God.

Jesus is both fully God and fully man. he was conceived by the Holy Spirit to the virgin Mary, and lived a life without sin and in full obedience to the Father. All of His words and teachings are true. He died on the cross in place of sinners, bearing God's wrath for their sin, thereby securing the redemption of His people. He was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven where He sits at the Father's right hand interceding for His people until He returns to the earth to establish His kingdom visibly.

As a result of the Fall, every aspect of human nature has been corrupted and all men and women are without spiritual life, guilty sinners and hostile to God. Every person is therefore under the just condemnation of God and needs to be born again, forgiven and reconciled to God in order to know and please him. All sin can be forgiven through genuine repentance and faith in the work of Christ

Salvation is solely the work of God, and cannot be deserved or earned. It was orchestrated by the Father's will, accomplished by the work of Jesus on the cross and through His resurrection, and is offered to all through the Gospel. Those who believe the Gospel have the work of Christ applied to their lives by the Spirit. God, in His love, forgives sinners whom He calls, granting them repentance and faith. Therefore, all who believe in Christ are justified by faith alone, are adopted into the family of God and receive eternal life.

The Spirit was sent by Father and Son to glorify Christ and to apply His work of salvation. His ministry involves the conviction of sinners, giving spiritual life, imparting knowledge of the Scriptures and working in and through us to bring about sanctification. The Spirit indwells all believers, brings assurance of salvation and works in the church by empowering its members for worship, mission and service.

The universal Church is the body of which Christ is the head and to which all who are saved belong. It is made visible in local churches, which are congregations of believers who are committed to each other for the worship of God, the preaching of the Word, the administering of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; as well as for pastoral care, accountability and discipline, and for evangelism. The unity of the body of Christ is expressed within and between churches by mutual love, care and encouragement. True fellowship between churches exists only where they are faithful to the gospel.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper have been given to the churches by Christ as visible signs of the gospel.
Baptism is a symbol of union with Christ and entry into his Church but it does not give or bring about spiritual life. It is ordained by Jesus Christ to be a sign to the person baptised of several things: of fellowship with Christ in his death and resurrection, and of belonging to him, and of forgiveness of sins, and of commitment to God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life. Only those who profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the proper subjects of baptism. The person is to be baptized in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We believe that immersion in water is necessary for the right administration of baptism.
The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of Christ's sacrifice offered once for all and involves no change in the bread and wine. All its blessings are received by faith

The Lord Jesus will return in power, might and victorious glory, and will judge the earth. The wicked will be sent to eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into a life of eternal joy in fellowship with God. God will make all things new and will be glorified forever. We are in the church age, and will remain in this age until the Lord returns. 

Jesus will raise the dead and judge the world in perfect righteousness, where the wicked will be sent to a real, eternal punishment and the righteous will be welcomed into the presence of God. Hell is a literal place of eternal punishment for those who died in their rebellion against God, while heaven is a literal place in the presence of God, and will be made manifest here on earth in the New Creation and the New Jerusalem, after the second coming of Christ.

The gift of marriage is first and foremost a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. It is a gift that existed before the Fall, and therefore was considered 'good' as part of the sinless creation. God has declared that marriage is between a biological man and a woman only, and that it is the only correct context for sexual intimacy. It must, therefore, be an exclusive relationship, and one in which sacrificial love, confession, repentance and forgiveness are clearly lived out. A married couple are to have left their own family to establish a new, distinct family unit together, which may include, by the Lord's blessing, children of their own, either by birth or adoption.