Exhortation by Supervisory Pastor (Dr) S H Tow

 

I. HISTORY

In 1999 a group out of Bethel Bible-Presbyterian church, Oakleigh, led of the Holy Spirit, established a second BP Church in Melbourne, another Bible-believing witness “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Our place of worship is the Southern Community Centre, Rupert Drive in Mulgrave.

In the larger context, Ebenezer B-P Church is part of a global Bible-Presbyterian Church Movement started in 1950 as Life Bible-Presbyterian Church, Singapore (Founding Pastor Rev Timothy Tow). From Life came Calvary B-P Church, an offshoot established in 1973. Ebenezer traces its roots to Calvary B-P Church, the Mother Church of Bethel B-P Church in 1986.

 

II. OBJECTIVES

1. The salvation of souls;

2. The edification of Christians through the teaching of God's Word;

3. The promotion of godly worship;

4. The defence of "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints";

5. The establishment and extension of Christian missions and institutions for the furtherance of God's Kingdom on Earth;

6. The promotion of Christian relief for the poor and needy;

7. The strengthening of mutual fellowship, encouragement and unity among individual Bible-Presbyterian Churches and other Bible-believing churches of similar stand "for the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 1 :9).

 

III. DOCTRINE

The doctrine of the Church shall be in accordance with that system commonly called "the Reformed Faith" as expressed in the Confession of Faith as set forth by the historic Westminster Assembly together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.

In abbreviated form the chief tenets of the doctrine of the Church, apart from the Apostles' Creed, shall be as follows:

1. We believe in the divine, verbal and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and, as the Word of God, the Supreme and final authority in faith and life;

2. We believe in one God existing in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit;

3. We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man;

4. We believe that man was created in the image of God, but sinned through the fall of Adam, thereby incurring not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and become sinners in thought, word and deed;

5. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died a propitiatory and expiatory death as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who repent of their sins and believe in Him are justified before God on the grounds of His shed blood;

6. We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His ascension into Heaven, and in His exaltation at the right hand of God, where He intercedes for us as our High Priest and Advocate;

7. We believe in the personal, visible and premillennial return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to judge this world and bring peace to the nations;

8. We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, and that all who repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are born again by the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God;

9. We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to convict and regenerate the sinner, indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service;

10. We believe that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Baptism for believers and their children and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which sacraments shall be observed by His Church till He comes;

11. We believe in the eternal security, bodily resurrection, and eternal blessedness of the saved and in the bodily resurrection and eternal conscious punishment of the lost;

12. We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day being spearheaded by the Ecumenical Movement (2 Cor 6:14-18; Rev 18:4).

 

IV. WE PRACTISE BIBLICAL SEPARATION

1. The doctrine of separation from sin unto God is a fundamental principle of the Bible, one grievously ignored in the church today.

2. This doctrine arises out of the holiness of God. Both the purity and righteousness of God (Luke 1 :75) are involved. "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Pet 1:16; also 3:11; Exod 15:11; Isa 6:3; 2 Cor 7:1).

3. The Bible does speak of cooperation ("be of one mind," "that they may all be one," " labourers together," " keep the unity of the Spirit," " Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," also 1 Cor 12:25). However, biblical cooperation is based upon TRUTH. It involves the united effort of God's people. This is not a cooperation born of a spirit of undiscerning pluralism, or that of seeking "truth" in all religions.

4. We maintain that Scripture teaches a separation that is based on the holiness of God, producing purity in all of life, personal and ecclesiastical.

5. It is the duty of all true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ to make a clear testimony to their faith in Him, especially in these darkening days of apostasy in many professing churches, by which apostasy whole denominations in their official capacity, as well as individual churches, have been swept into a paganising stream of modernism under various names and in varying degrees.

6. There has been a notable growth of autocratic domination on the
part especially of modernistic leaders by whom the rightful powers of true churches are often usurped and are now being usurped.

7. The commands of God to His people to be separate from all unbelief and corruption are clear and positive: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor 6:14; see also Matt 6:24; Rom 16:17; Gal 1; Eph 5:11; 2 Thess 3:6, 14; 2 Tim 3:1-7; Titus 3:10; 2 Pet 2:1-3; 1 John 4:1-3; 2 John 7-11; Jude 3,20-24; and Rev 18:4). We reach out to those who are part of any human system which involves compromise with error, and who thus ought to "come out from among them" (2 Cor 6:17), separate themselves unto the "Father. ..the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor 6:18), thus cleansing them- selves and "perfecting holiness in the fear of God' (2 Cor 7:1 ).

8. In loyalty to the revealed Word we, as an organised portion of the people of God, are obliged to oppose all forms of modernism, cultism, Romanism, and false religions. Dialogue for the purpose of reaching a compromise between all true Bible believers and representatives of such beliefs is impious, unbiblical, treasonous and unfaithful to the holy God, as He has revealed Himself to us in His infallible, inerrant Word.

9. We are opposed to all efforts to obscure or wipe out the clear line of separation between these absolutes: truth and error, light and darkness (see Isa 5:20; 2 Cor 6:14-18). We refer to such efforts by New Evangelicals, Charismatic Christians, promoters of ecumenical cooperative evangelism and of the social gospel, and all churches and other movements and organisations that are aligned with or sympathetic to the Ecumenical Movement.

10. The Church, having been founded on the principle of Biblical Separation may seek fellowship with like minded Bible-Presbyterian and other fundamental, Bible-believing churches of similar stand "for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev 1:9).

 

V. OUR MAIN THRUST

Our main thrust is the building up of Christians in the Word of God, the conversion of sinners to the Christian faith, and contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3).

 

VI. WE WELCOME BELIEVERS TO OUR FELLOWSHIP

We welcome Christians and believers of like precious faith to our fellowship. In these “last of the last days” immediately preceding the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to be urgent in our Christian service, watching and working for God’s kingdom before the King returns. Amen.

 

SH Tow
22 August 2005