What We Believe

High Wycombe Church (HWC) is a Christ-centred, Bible teaching Church.

CORE BELIEFS

• Trinity – One God, Three Persons – Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

“In the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 2, Article III)

• Biblical Authority – inerrant and infallible Word of God
• Sovereignty of God – God is the Creator and Ruler of everything and there is nothing outside His control
• Justice of God – God is perfect, holy and just in every way
• Fallenness of humanity – all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and deserve His condemnation
• Human Responsibility – we are responsible for our own actions and each of us will stand before God one day to give an account of our lives
• Mercy of God – In His immense kindness, God sent Jesus to save sinners
• God has provided the only Way of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
  • is fully God and fully man, One with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Only Begotten Son of the Father, our Lord;
  • was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the virgin Mary;
  • lived a perfectly righteous life;
  • fulfilled God’s Law;
  • died in the place of His people taking God’s anger at our sin in our place on the cross and giving us His righteousness instead;
  • rose powerfully from the dead to real bodily life defeating our ultimate enemies of sin, death and the devil;
  • ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven where He rules His never-ending Kingdom forevermore;
  • will return at the time appointed by God in glory to judge the living and the dead, where those who are in Jesus are raised to eternal life and those who are not are raised to eternal condemnation.
• Where we spend eternity depends on our response to Jesus in the here and now.

We subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith as a subordinate standard that faithfully describes the truths of the Bible and we teach in line with this Confession and our office-bearers vow to abide by it. While the Westminster Presbyterian Church, as a denomination, is relatively young, we are committed to the old truths of the Bible and are Reformed in conviction.

The Presbyterian form of Church government is a Biblical model, where godly men are appointed to be elders to govern and care for the Church.

The Church is important, as it is the place where Christians are built up and new disciples made through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus.

All people in the Church are to serve each other as part of one body with Jesus Christ as the head.

The sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism are important illustrations of the gospel of Jesus and should be performed as Jesus directed.

CHRIST-CENTRED

We’re all about Jesus. Jesus is the King over everything and everyone. Jesus is fully God and fully human. Conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, raised in His hometown Nazareth, Jesus lived His life perfectly in complete obedience to God. Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of all the promises of God. Jesus came to save His people from their sins, bearing God's wrath, in their place, on the cross. And death could not stop Jesus. Jesus rose powerfully from the dead to real flesh and bones life never to die again. Through dying and rising, Jesus defeated our ultimate enemies of sin, death and the devil. God has exalted Jesus to His right hand, where He sits enthroned now and forever. One day, we will all stand before God’s throne and give an account of our lives. Only those who are in Jesus, who belong to Him, who turned and trusted Jesus the Saviour King will go to enjoy eternal life with Jesus. All who reject Jesus, who don’t belong to Him remain under God’s wrath, because they have not been rescued by the blood of Jesus.

BIBLE-TEACHING

God has made it clear through His creation that He exists and is powerful. When we see the starry night sky, or the breathtaking ocean or the beauty of bushland, we rightly know that this world around us isn’t here by accident. No, there’s an all-powerful Creator. While we can see that there’s a Creator from looking at the creation, we can’t work out how to relate to Him by merely looking at creation. We need Him to make Himself known to us in order for us to relate to Him rightly. Amazingly, God has done just that. God makes Himself known to us in the Bible, His spoken Word and supremely in the Lord Jesus, His Word, to whom the Bible bears witness. The Bible is a library of 66 books that speak of God’s love and plan to save His people. God by His Holy Spirit spoke through the human authors to write exactly as He intended, while still preserving their own uniqueness, producing a document that is authoritative. The same Holy Spirit who spoke these Words, now enables us to understand them as we read. It is through reading the Bible that we hear from God and come to an understanding of who Jesus is, who we are, what we’ve done and what He’s done to reconcile us to Himself.