Hay Baptist is an evangelical church that believes it is only through the gospel of Jesus, and by repentance and faith in Him, that we can be made right with God and have the hope of eternal life.
We believe that we grow in our knowledge of God and His ways as we read and understand the Bible, allowing it to shape and change us to be more and more like Christ.
Doctrinal Statement
The following is the doctrinal statement of Hay Baptist Church
1. Who is God?
There is one God in three persons. God the Father, The Son of God (The Lord Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit.
2. What is God like?
God is spirit and eternal
- There is one eternal infinitely immense; self-existent God who is eternal personal Spirit.
God is personal within himself.
- God is the source of personhood for God is three persons in essential being - God the Father, Son of God (the Lord Jesus Christ) and the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit).
God is creator.
- God created all things from nothing, and sustains all things. He always has been, and ever will be infinite in power, wisdom, knowledge, holiness, righteousness, justice, goodness, truth and love.
2. What is unique about God the Father?
God the Father is the source and authority in eternity and in creation. God the Father Almighty is the Maker of heaven and earth, from whom are made all things, visible and invisible.
3. What’s so special about Jesus?
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, through whom and by whom are made all things, visible and invisible. He is very God from very God. He is eternally one with God the Father of whose person and glory Jesus is the accurate expression.
To become human, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, the nature of God and human nature, were united in one Person; truly God and truly human. (Yes, it is hard for us finite humans to fully understand that.)
4. What’s so special about the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is eternally with God the Father and the Son of God, and together with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.
5. How does God work in the world?
The Holy Spirit brings about the divine purpose in the world. He is sent by the Father through the Son to achieve the divine purpose in the world and in the Church.
6. How does God speak today?
The Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is the infallible Word of God. They were written by holy people of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and have supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
7. What’s wrong with you, me, and the world?
People were made in the image of God and for fellowship with God. By transgression of God’s command humankind fell from fellowship with God into sin and their nature was corrupted. As a consequence, all people are spiritually dead under Satan’s dominion and control and subject to God’s wrath and condemnation. Therefore, apart from God’s grace, people are helpless and hopeless.
8. What is the cross all about?
To save people from their sin, Jesus Christ became human and died a sacrificial death as our representative substitute - He died for us, in our place. His death redeems us from the guilt, penalty and power of sin.
By His resurrection, God’s acceptance of the atoning death of Jesus was demonstrated. This atonement is sufficient for the whole world, but effective only in those who received it.
The sinner is justified and reconciled to God, not through any personal merit, but solely on the basis of God’s gracious gift of salvation in Jesus Christ received through faith.
9. How can I know God properly?
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is necessary for the acceptance of God’s provision of salvation. The Holy Spirit convinces sinners of their sinfulness, leads them to personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and so brings them to spiritual birth as God’s children and to fellowship in Christ. Working within the life of believers the Holy Spirit makes real the presence of Christ, witnesses to their relationship with God, leads into all truth, bestows gifts for effective service and produces graces for holy living.
10. It’s more than personal
The Church is the body of people whom God has separated from the world through faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. All regenerate persons are members of the universal Church of God which takes local form wherever groups of believers unite for worship, fellowship and service in accordance with scriptural principles. All believers are called to a priestly ministry in the offering of spiritual sacrifices and sent into the world to be witnesses. God calls individuals to positions of oversight and leadership or to special ministries. The Church recognises such by appointing men as Pastors, and Elders and Deacons, following New Testament instruction and practice.
11. Joining God’s people
Christian’s are united to Christ and so are fellow members of Christ’s church, His body. Christians will desire to meet with other Christians weekly on the Lord’s day for fellowship, receiving teaching, and praying together. The New Testament and the Christian faith knows no such entity as a solitary Christian.
Baptism is a public declaration of a person’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In accordance with New Testament Scripture, it should ordinarily be administered only by total immersion which symbolises the believer’s identification with Christ in death, burial and resurrection, the remission of sins and the believer’s dedication to God to live and walk in newness of life.
12. Persevering in the Christian life
The Lord’s Supper was instituted by Christ as part of the fellowship of eating together. The elements of the meal, the bread and wine, remind and declare the Lord’s substitutionary death. The thanks for them as symbols of Christ’s death and shed blood, replaces the ordinary thanksgivings for the meal. This celebration as part of a fellowship meal, expresses our fellowship with and in the Lord Jesus Christ as members of the Body of which He is the Head.
13. The end of this evil age.
At the end of this evil age, according to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in His glory to the earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom of God will occur upon His return.
14. The beginning of all things new
At the end of the age, there is to be a resurrection both of the righteous and the unrighteous. After death the people’s bodies return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God – the righteous to be with Him and the unrighteous to be reserved for the judgment.
15. Making this life count for eternity
God has appointed a day of final judgment for the world. At that time Jesus Christ will judge every person and each will receive reward or punishment according to their deeds and according to their prior relationship to Jesus. Those judged righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment.
16. Marriage
God created marriage in the beginning, as a blessing for both man and woman, before any sin or rebellion entered the world. He created marriage to be a lifelong faithful union between one man and one woman, who enter into a covenant relationship, complement one another, serve one another, and sanctify one another for as long as they both shall live. Sexual intimacy outside such a marriage relationship is incompatible with God’s intention for us as his people. We thus reject any attempt to redefine marriage as a union between people of the same sex or as between more than one man and one woman.
