Statement of Faith

1. We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in their original writing, as fully inspired of God and accept them as the supreme and final authority for faith and life.
2. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary and is true God and true man.
4. We believe that God created man in His own image; that man sinned and thereby incurred the penalty of sin which is death physically and spiritually; that all human beings inherit a sinful nature which issues (in the case of those who reach moral responsibility) in actual transgression involving personal guilt.
5. With regards to sexual behaviour, we believe in heterosexual relationships between a natural man and a natural woman within the confines of lawful matrimony, as expressed in the Colorado Statement on Biblical Sexual Morality of 2003. Adherence to these stated principles of sexual behaviour is an inherent requirement of membership of Shofar Christian Church International.
6. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins a substitutionary sacrifice according to the Scriptures and that all who believe in Him are justified on the grounds of His shed blood.
7. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus, His ascension into Heaven, and His present life as our High Priest and Advocate.
8. We believe in the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
9. We believe that all that repent of their sin and receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God.
10. We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit, empowering and equipping believers for service, with the accompanying supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit; and in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. We believe in the divinely ordained ministries of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher.
11. With regards to submission to authority, we believe in the principle of being in authority because you are under authority. As such, it is understood that membership shall be subject to submission to authority in matters pertaining to church governance, doctrine and personal behaviour.
12. We believe in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust, the eternal blessedness of the redeemed, and the eternal banishment of those who have rejected the offer of salvation.
13. We believe that the one true Church is the whole company of those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit; that the local church on earth should take its character from this concept of the Church spiritual and therefore, that the new birth and personal confession of Christ are essentials of church membership.
14. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ appointed two ordinances – Baptism in water and the Lord’s Supper to be observed as acts of obedience and as perpetual witnesses to the cardinal facts of the Christian faith, that Baptism is the immersion of the believer in water as a confession of identification with Christ in burial and resurrection and that the Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the emblems symbolic of the Saviour’s broken body and shed blood, in remembrance of His sacrificial death, until He comes.
15. We believe that divine healing was provided for in the Old and New Testament and is an integral part of the Gospel.
16. We believe that the Bible teaches that without holiness no man can see the Lord. We believe in the doctrine of sanctification as a definite, yet progressive work of grace, commencing at the time of the new birth and continuing until the consummation of salvation.
17. We believe the leadership of the local church has the authority from the scriptures to withdraw the membership of any member for serious, unrepentant misconduct or similar cause.
18. The Church is open to any further truth, which the Holy Spirit may illuminate from the Scriptures.