FEC's  Statement of Faith

This Statement of Faith express the doctrines (teachings) of the Bible which the members of Flint Evangelical Church, wholeheartedly subscribe to and consider unite all truly evangelical Christian believers.

The Scriptures
We believe in the Word of God being the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as originally given, inspired by God and infallible and a full, sufficient and perfect revelation of the mind and will of God, concerning all things necessary to be known for our salvation, and is alone authoritative in all matters of faith, obedience and practice. We receive them in their full inspiration, inerrancy and authority on divine not human authority.

God the Holy Trinity
We believe that there is one true and living God, sovereign in creation, providence and redemption. In the unity of the Godhead there are three distinct Divine Persons, of the same substance and individual in nature and being, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, each of whom is co-eternal, co-existent and co-equal.

We believe in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is holy, almighty, righteous, gracious, merciful, compassionate, and loving, showing these by the sending forth of His only-begotten Son, that the world through Him might be saved.

We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who from before the foundation of the world undertook to be the Saviour of God’s elect people. In His incarnation He took a real human nature and lived a perfect and sinless life. His full deity and true humanity were inseparably joined together in one person without confusion of one nature with the other, true God and true man, yet one Christ, one mediator between God and man. By His perfect obedience and substitutionary atoning death, He freely offered Himself a full and sufficient propitiation and satisfaction for the sins of all whom the Father had given to Him.

Thus having finished the work of redemption and made reconciliation for the sins of His people, He triumphed over Satan, sin and death, rising from the dead bodily and ascended into heaven where He now sits in glory at the right hand of God the Father, head over all things to the Church which He has purchased with His own precious blood.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who has been sent forth by the Father and the Son to apply to the elect Church the redemption procured by Christ. The Holy Spirit is indispensable to regenerate the sinner, whose subsequent repentance and faith are not works of his own free will and power, but are produced by the effectual operation of the Spirit, who works where and when and how and in whom He pleases. By the Spirit’s illumination and power the believer is sanctified and kept in this present life until the final day of salvation, and is fitted for everlasting fellowship with God.

God’s Eternal Decree
We believe that by His own holy, wise and sovereign will, and according to His own eternal purpose God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, without in any sense becoming the author of sin or violating man’s responsibility.

Man
We believe that mankind was immediately and specially made by God’s direct act of creation and after His own image in righteousness, being upright, innocent and free, able to serve God and commune with Him in perfect fellowship. By succumbing to Satan’s temptation, mankind, in Adam, experienced an historic fall from original righteousness into sin and guilt. As head and representative of the human race, both the penalty and power of Adam’s sin were passed on to his posterity so that all mankind are born into a state of corruption and have guilt imputed to them.

Consequently possessing a sinful nature corrupted in every part and separated from God by wickedness, all men lie under just condemnation and deserve the wrath of God through which they are subject to eternal death and everlasting damnation, unless and until God is reconciled to them.

God’s Grace in Salvation
We believe that God in His gracious electing mercy planned and purposed from all eternity to save out of a fallen and lost humanity an innumerable multitude of souls by predestinating them to eternal life, not on account of faith or works foreseen, but entirely of His sovereign pleasure. God has also fore-ordained the means to salvation, requiring of man repentance and faith, though man is incapable of himself to give these. God effectually calls His elect through the gospel, and by His Spirit gives them repentance and faith in Christ through which they are saved.


Justification and Adoption
We believe that through repentance and faith in Christ the sinner is accounted righteous before God, justified and adopted, solely on the ground of the merits of Christ, imputed to him through faith alone. Justification is an act of God’s free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accounts us righteous in His sight, reckoning our sin to Christ and His righteousness to us. For Christ’s sake God has been pleased to receive all justified persons as His own children, sharing in the liberties and privileges of sons, being heirs of everlasting salvation and receiving the Spirit of adoption whereby they cry ‘Abba Father’.

Sanctification and Perseverance
We believe that those whom God justifies, He also sanctifies by His Spirit in a gracious and continuous operation, by which they are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, enabling them more and more to die unto sin and live in increasing conformity to the will of God, growing in holiness and fruitful in good works to which they are foreordained.

Although believers are given a new nature at regeneration, nevertheless they are not entirely delivered from their old sinful nature and this occasions warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. Sanctification therefore is a progressive work and never reaches perfection in this life. While it is a work of God’s Spirit within us, believers can and should co-operate in it by diligent use of the means which God has provided, including obedience to the moral law of God and the commandments of Christ.

All who truly belong to Christ shall be preserved and enabled to persevere. Though they may fall into sin, yet they shall not totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, for the Spirit who has begun the work within them shall complete it, restoring them to repentance, faith, love and obedience until their final glorification is accomplished.

However, those who continue to live undisturbed and hardened in a state of sin, are deluding themselves that they are in a state of grace, for perseverance in grace implies and includes continuance not only in privileges but also in duties and in the diligent use of the means of grace. Nothing is more opposed to sin than grace and he that endures to the end shall be saved.

The Last Things
We believe in the personal, visible, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ to this earth, to raise the bodies of all the dead, righteous and unrighteous.

Though no man knows when that return of Christ will come, nevertheless it is as certain as the judgement that will follow it. As the righteous judge, Christ shall divide the world into but two categories, the saved and the lost. The souls of the righteous shall be reunited with their glorified bodies at the resurrection and will then enter into their reward of everlasting bliss with Christ in heaven, whereas the souls of the unrighteous shall be consigned to hell to suffer the just and everlasting punishment for their sin.

The Church
We believe that the true church consists of the whole number of the elect people of God in heaven and on earth and comprises only, but all those who are regenerate by the Spirit and united to Christ by faith. The one Church of God finds a visible expression in the local church, which is a company of faithful saints meeting for the worship of God, the ministry of the Word and the sharing in the gifts and graces bestowed by God among them.

A true church is recognised chiefly by the faithful preaching and practice of the Word of God, the proper administration of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the exercise of scriptural discipline.

Sacraments of the Church
We believe Christ has instituted two Sacraments as signs and seals of the Covenant of Grace, namely Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Although it is a sin wilfully to neglect them, yet neither convey regenerative grace or are essential to salvation.

With regard to the Lord’s Supper, it is not a sacrifice for sin, nor is there ever any change in the substance of the elements of bread and wine.

The Government of the Church
We believe there are only two permanent officers in the Church prescribed by Scripture: (1) that of Elder, to whom is entrusted the oversight and pastoral care of the congregation and ministry of the Word of God; (2) that of Deacon, to whom is committed the administrative and benevolent work of the Church.