Denominations and Religious Institutions

The churches that belong to the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (South East) hold to:

An orthodox view of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and affirm the two natures of Christ (being fully God and fully man).

A Calvinistic view about how people are saved - The Doctrines of Grace.

A Baptist view of the church - the churches recognise a pattern in the Bible whereby believers are baptised by immersion, added to the membership of the local church and then enjoy the privileges of the church including the Lord’s Supper.

A congregational order of church government. Each local church is governed by its own members and not by an outside body.

A Conservative Evangelical view of the Bible – that it is verbally God given and without error or fault in all of its teaching.

A Conservative Evangelical view of Judgment - the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the eternal happiness of the righteous and eternal punishment of the wicked.

Pastors and messengers of Particular Baptist Churches in and around London, holding Strict Communion principles, met in Soho chapel, Oxford Street, on 10th March 1871 and adopted a doctrinal basis for the purpose of forming this Association. As amended and agreed in the Annual General meeting held at Walthamstow on 5th October 1985, it reads as follows:

The Scriptures reveal that there is but one God; that there are Three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and that these Three Persons are equal in Eternity, Substance, Power and Glory.

In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, ever subsisting in Essential Deity; Who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and was born of the Virgin Mary; so that our Lord Jesus Christ is very God and very man in one Complex Person.

Eternal and personal election unto salvation.

The fall of mankind in Adam - their guilt and condemnation - together with their entire and universal depravity, by which they were utterly alienated from God, and are unable in and of themselves to turn to him.

Particular redemption by the vicarious sacrifice of Christ.

Justification by grace, through faith, by the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Regeneration and sanctification by the direct agency of the Holy Spirit through the instrumentality of Divine Truth; and that saving faith is the sovereign and gracious gift of God.

The absolute necessity for a holy life, as the result of true faith and the evidence of regeneration.

The final perseverance of true believers.

The inerrancy of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Scriptures, as originally given, their full verbal inspiration by God and their supreme authority as the only rule of faith and practice.

The resurrection of the dead, and the universal judgment.

The everlasting punishment of the wicked, and the everlasting happiness of the righteous.

The duty of preaching the Gospel to every creature of the fallen race of Adam.

The necessity of baptism by immersion, on a profession of repentance and faith, in order to receive Church fellowship and admission to the Lord’s Table.

The congregational order of the churches.

The personal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ

A fuller statement of these doctrines with their scriptural support is to be found in the historic 17th century Particular Baptist Confessions, and also in ‘We Believe’ - The Baptist Affirmation of Faith 1966 and A Guide to Church Fellowship. (Published by Grace Publications Trust, ISBN 0946462 00 3.)