WE ARE A REFORMED BAPTIST CHURCH
Going about doing good
We are a Reformed Baptist church in The Gambia. We seek to advance Christ’s kingdom through the preaching of the word for the building up of His people and the salvation of lost sinners. We also affirm the Baptist distinctive of believer's baptism by immersion.
We are Reformed
We affirm the five “sola” statements as associated with the Protestant Reformation.
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Sola Gratia (Grace Alone): We affirm that salvation is all of grace, whereby the Holy Spirit regenerates and frees our sin-bound hearts, drawing and enabling us to cast ourselves in faith upon Christ the savior.
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Sola Fide (Faith Alone): We affirm that the only way to be reconciled to God and saved from our lost condition is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through faith, the righteousness of Christ is imputed (credited) to us and we are justified (declared righteous) by God. Only the perfect righteousness of Christ can satisfy God’s perfect justice and requirement for eternal life.
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Solus Christus (Christ Alone): We affirm that our salvation is solely upon the merit of Christ as our representative. Christ took upon himself a human nature so that he might accomplish salvation for us humans. Christ earned eternal life with God by his life of in perfect obedience to the law of God. He also paid in full the debt that we owed to God, through his substitutionary curse-bearing death on the cross.
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Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone): We affirm the Scriptures, as contained in the 66 books of the Bible, to be the sole source of divine revelation for the church today and authority for the Christian life. “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture.” (1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, Ch1.6.)
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Soli Deo Gloria (For God’s Glory Alone): We affirm that the purpose of our salvation is ultimately for the glory of God alone. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. Our duty is to “make a name” for the Lord throughout the earth through our God-honoring lives of obedience to his commands, and declaring his holiness, sovereignty, goodness, and grace to the world.
We are Baptist
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We are Credobaptist: We only baptize those that give a credible profession faith and evidence that accompanies their sincerity. We also only baptize by the method of immersion to accurately capture the symbolism of putting the old man to death and rising again in Christ. We do not practice infant baptism. Our stance on credobaptism by immersion is confirmed by a correct reading of Scripture, a correct application of the Regulative Principle of Worship, a complete application of Reformed hermeneutics, and by correct Covenant Theology. Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are fenced (restricted) by the same principle— to be given to professing believers only.
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We are Congregational: We affirm congregational governance, where the local congregation is self-governing under the headship of Christ. There is no authoritative structure above the local church. Each local church is governed by a plurality of elders and deacons. However, it is the gathered assembly that elects its own elders and deacons and voices its decision on matters of worship, doctrine, and discipline. This means we are not part of any denomination.
THE FIVE SOLAS
Statement of Faith
Our statement of faith is best contained in the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. Click the button below to access it.
This concise statement of faith is not our starting point when it comes to our beliefs, but rather is the end point, the systematic and orderly summation of the truths taught in the Scriptures.