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What We Believe
HISTORY
Deal Christian Fellowship began in 1992 as a small
non-denominational church of 12 members meeting in homes. Now in
2009, DCF at Sutherland Road, Deal, consists of some
70+ souls. The DCF web-site
reaches out to Christians and churches across the world and
there are connections with other churches both locally and in
other countries. Bible study
notes and recordings already
complement this work on the web, with more to follow, and are readily available to all
who want to read and listen.
Many Christians have asked exactly what DCF believes, what are
its distinctives, what sets it apart from other Christian
groups. At DCF, we have always been hesitant to try and answer
those questions, not because we are unsure of our beliefs, but
because we are cautious to avoid division within the Body of
Christ. After all, what really matters is what we have in common
as Christians: the "essential" doctrines of the infallibility of
God's Word, the virgin birth of Christ, His sinless life, death
for our sins, bodily resurrection, ascension to glory, and
personal return to rule the earth. These are the essence of
Christianity, and agreed upon by virtually all born again
believers.
When we move away from the essential doctrines to those that are
less essential we risk setting barriers up in the church,
something we at Deal Christian Fellowship have no desire to do.
Still, DCF is distinct from denominational churches and other
Protestant groups and people want to know what those
distinctions are. That is the purpose of this publication.
It
is not our purpose to cause division or discord in the Body of
Christ, conversely, we long for unity among God's people of all
persuasions, and we allow for a great deal of flexibility within
our own ranks. There are however some distinctives that make
DCF fairly unique and which define our mission.
THE BALANCE
In
a broad general sense, DCF is the middle ground between
fundamentalism and Pentecostalism in modern Protestant theology.
In fact, we believe that this is at least part of the reason why
God has raised up this ministry.
Fundamentalism is that portion of Protestantism that holds to
the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, believing that
they are divinely inspired and inerrant. Hence, the
"fundamentals" of the faith are emphasized. Although the modern
news media and the liberal church scorn fundamentalists as
backwards and stupid, the truth is that fundamentalism has
preserved the integrity of God's Word and held on to the
essential doctrines of the orthodox faith.
Pentecostalism as a modern movement grew out of the Azusa Street
revival in Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, and
produced denominations that emphasize the fullness of the Holy
Spirit and the exercise of spiritual and Scriptural gifts of the
Spirit that had fallen dormant in the main line churches. Also
criticized by the liberal church and news media as being
emotionally driven, Pentecostalism restored to the church the
importance of gifts of the Spirit and the power of God for the
believer today.
Over the years, however, fundamentalism, while it clung to the
integrity of God's Word, tended to become rigid, legalistic, and
unaccepting of spiritual gifts. Similarly, Pentecostalism became
enthusiastic and emotional often at the expense of the teaching
of God's Word.
DCF sits in the balance between the two. At DCF we believe in
the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Bible, and we
encourage their exercise, but always decently and in order, and
with the primary emphasis on the Word of God, which we look to
as our primary rule of faith.
We
believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the
Scriptures, and that they are valid for today if they are
exercised within the Scriptural guidelines. We as believers are
to covet the best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love that
the whole Body of Christ might be edified. We believe that love
is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without
this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless.
Because of this balance, DCF services are designed to be
centered around the verse by verse teaching of God's Word, We
appreciate that many Pentecostals may think DCF is not emotional
enough, and many fundamentalists may think DCF is too emotional.
That balance, could well be an indication that we are right
where God wants us to be.
DCF also differs from most mainline churches in its style of
church government. Most denominational churches maintain either
a congregational form of church government, a Presbyterian form,
or an Episcopal form of running their churches. These three
terms should not be confused with the denominations that bear
the same names because other churches of different names share
the same styles of government.
The congregational form of church government is an invention
that appeals to our sense of democracy. Basically, the
congregation as a whole makes all decisions in these churches by
voting on matters of importance and appointing committees from
its ranks to run the daily operation of the church. Most
Congregational, Baptist, Pentecostal, Brethren, and
non-denominational churches are organized in this fashion. The
congregation votes on hiring a pastor, votes on how to spend the
money, and on anything else of importance. Although democratic
people like the idea, congregational forms of church government
often wind up at best causing the pastor to be directed by the
sheep he is supposed to lead, and at worst reducing the pastor
to a hireling.
The Episcopal form of church government, used by Episcopalian,
Anglican, Catholic, Orthodox, and Methodist churches (to name a
few) is controlled by a church hierarchy which may have
differing names. Basically, there is a bishop, or someone of
similar stature if called by a different name, who oversees the
churches, appoints pastors to pulpits, sets policy, and guides
the vision of the local congregations. Unfortunately, this style
of government, which grew out of European monarchies, leaves
little freedom for the local pastor or congregation to follow
the leading of the Spirit.
The Presbyterian form of church government, which is typical in
Presbyterian and Reformed churches, puts the decisions of church
policy in the hands of a select group of elders (the
"presbytery") who are appointed in various different ways,
depending on the church. These elders are over the pastor, who
in turn is over the congregation. The problem here too is that
this system puts the God-appointed leader, the pastor, under
some of those he is supposed to lead.
Deal Christian Fellowship is organized differently. Church
government at DCF is very simple, not a complex bureaucracy,
committees and sub-committees are essentially non-existent.
Basically, at DCF we believe that the pastor is responsible for
the church, responsible to hear from God, and responsible to
feed and love His people faithfully.
Elders are appointed to help the pastor care for the spiritual
needs of the congregation, as are trustees to help the pastor
care for the material needs of the church.
At
DCF, church organization is de-emphasized, and only the
organization that is needed to run the church is instituted. The
pastor guides the church as he is led by the Holy Spirit, and we
trust God to put the pastor where He wants him to be.
DOCTRINE
At
DCF we believe in all the fundamental doctrines of the
evangelical Protestant church. For example, we believe in the
inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and New Testaments,
is the inspired, infallible Word of God.
We
believe that God is eternally existent in three separate
persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe that God is
the personal, transcendent, and sovereign creator of all things.
We
believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that He
was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided for the
atonement of our sins by His vicarious death on the Cross, was
bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, ascended
back to the right hand of God the Father, and ever lives to make
intercession for us.
After He ascended to Heaven, Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on
the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command
to preach the Gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared
by all believers today.
We
believe that all people are by nature separated from God and
responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption,
and forgiveness of sin are freely offered to all by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin and accepts
Jesus Christ as personal Saviour and Lord, trusting Him to save,
that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy
Spirit, all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a
child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
As
we previously mentioned, we believe in the proper Scriptural
exercise of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Bible, the
greatest gift of all being God's love.
At
DCF, we await the pre-tribulation rapture of the church. DCF is
strongly committed to a belief that the church will be raptured
before the seven year tribulation period described in Revelation
chapters 6 through 18. We recognize that other believers hold a
different view, but this is the way we see the Scripture's
teaching on this subject.
We
believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ with His saints
to rule on the earth will be personal, pre-millennial, and
visible. This motivates us to heartfelt worship, committed
service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship with
other Christians, and participation in both adult baptism by
immersion and in Holy Communion.
Deal Christian Fellowship rejects the teaching of "amillenialism"
which spiritualizes Scripture and denies the literal 1,000 year
reign of Christ on the earth as described in Revelation chapter
20.
WHAT WE DO NOT BELIEVE
At
DCF we reject some popular doctrines of some Christian groups
because we believe them to be in error Scripturally. This does
not mean that we will not fellowship with those holding these
views, it simply means that such views are outside the
boundaries of what constitutes Deal Christian Fellowship as a
church.
For example, we reject, as we have already mentioned, "amillennialism",
post-millennialism, as well as a mid or post-tribulation rapture
view. At DCF, we are strongly pre-millennialists and
pre-tribulation rapturists.
We
also reject the belief, held by some Pentecostals and
charismatics, that Christians can be demon possessed. The
Scripture says "greater is He that is in you than he who is in
the world" which makes no sense if a believer can be
simultaneously indwelt by both the Holy Spirit and evil spirits.
Born again Christians can be attacked by demons, but they cannot
be possessed or controlled by them.
In
addition, we reject "5-point Calvinism". For a deeper
understanding of what Calvinism is, we recommend the book
“Calvinism versus Arminianism” by Chuck Smith, and “What Love Is
This” by Dave Hunt, but for our purposes here, suffice it to
say that DCF rejects two of the five points of five point
Calvinism. First, Calvinism teaches that Jesus' atonement on the
Cross was limited, that is, that He died only for a chosen
group, His "elect", not for the sins of the entire world. At DCF,
we believe that Jesus died on the Cross for all the sins of all
people, and that anyone who wants to can accept Him as their
Lord and Saviour and be born again.
Strict five point Calvinists believe that only the elect can be
saved and that God has elected others to spend eternity in hell.
Secondly, we reject the Calvinistic teaching called
"irresistible grace", which is the belief that man cannot, even
if he wants to, resist the wooing and calling of God to
salvation. Instead, at DCF we believe that man has a free will,
and he can resist the call of God if he chooses to do so.
Therefore, those who hold to five point Calvinism are outside of
the borders of what defines Deal Christian Fellowship.
At
DCF, we also reject the teaching of "positive confession" which
is the doctrine put forth by the faith movement teachers that
says that we as human beings can have unlimited health and
wealth because we, like God, have the ability to create our own
reality by the confession of our lips. These people teach that
if a person will confess health and wealth consistently, then
that is what they will have, and, conversely, the Christian
living in sickness or poverty is settling for less than his full
inheritance in Christ. At DCF, we believe that many believers
both in the Bible and in daily life are often afflicted not
because their confession is wrong, but simply because we live in
a foreign world. We believe that the health and prosperity
doctrine is a perversion of Scripture and is often used to
fleece the flock of God. We do not believe that God can be
commanded by man to heal or provide, but that we must always
submit to His perfect will even in affliction.
Additionally, we reject the teaching that uses human prophecy to
supercede the Word of God. There are some Christian groups
around which claim to have prophets and apostles of equal
validity with those who wrote the Bible. Moreover, they claim
that the prophetic utterances from these people take precedence
over the Word of God. At DCF, we believe that the Bible is the
final authority and the complete Word of God for His church
today, and that no prophecy or teaching can ever supercede it.
Some churches have incorporated human secular psychology and
philosophy into their teaching programmes, creating sermons that
are more based on secular humanistic theory than on the Word of
God. For more on this subject see the book “The Seduction Of
Christianity” by Dave Hunt. While we respect our fellow
believers who work in mental health related fields, we at DCF
believe that the central mission of the church is to proclaim
God's Word to a lost and hurting world. Moreover, it has been
our experience that humanistic psychology and philosophy often
do more harm than good, and people respond best when God's Word
is proclaimed in the power and love of the Holy Spirit. It is
God's Word that changes lives for the better. At Deal Christian
Fellowship our services remain centered on the teaching of the
Bible.
This is not to imply that we object to the work of the many
dedicated Christian mental health professionals; on the
contrary, we thank God for them. Our point is simply that in our
church services, we emphasize the teaching of God's Word.
And finally, as we have mentioned before, Deal Christian
Fellowship rejects the over-emphasis of spiritual gifts and
experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion of Biblical
teaching. Again, we are a Bible based ministry that avoids
programmes and gimmicks in favour of the simple teaching of the
Word of God in love to His people. In our services, we focus on
a personal relationship with God through worship, prayer, and
the teaching of the Word of God. We offer chapter by chapter,
verse by verse expository studies; we do not allow speaking in
tongues loudly during services because we do not believe that
the Holy Spirit would interrupt Himself.
WORSHIP
Many people are under the impression that a particular style of
worship is always insisted upon at DCF, that style being the
modern contemporary sound using modern stringed instruments and
drums. Although most of our services do utilize this form of
contemporary worship, there is actually a great variety of
styles of music found in our church. Some services have been
very traditional and conservative, while others have used
electric guitars, wind instruments and drums. There is no set
style of worship that makes DCF unique; instead there is wide
latitude in expression. All of us desire, of course, that
whatever the style of worship, it come from our hearts.
Similarly, some of our congregation are elderly people in suits
and ties, some are young people in jeans and tee shirts, in
short we are a combination of different ages, styles, and
backgrounds
of people who come together with one common focus: love for Jesus
Christ and the desire to know Him more intimately. We recognise
indeed that “man looks at the outward appearance but God looks
at the heart”.
STATEMENT OF FAITH
Deal Christian Fellowship has been formed as a fellowship of
believers in the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our supreme desire is
to know Christ and be conformed to His image by the power of the
Holy Spirit. We are not a denominational church, nor are we
opposed to denominations as such, only to their over-emphasis of
the doctrinal differences that have led to the division of the
Body of Christ.
We
believe the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ's
(Agape) love, which is greater than any differences we possess,
and without which we have no right to claim ourselves
Christians.
We
believe worship of God should be spiritual. Therefore, we remain
flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct
our worship.
We
believe worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we
give great place to music in our worship.
We
believe worship of God should be intelligent. Therefore, our
services are designed with great emphasis upon the teaching of
the Word of God that He might instruct us how He should be
worshipped.
We
believe worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look
for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we
have been truly worshipping Him.
We
believe in all the fundamental doctrines of orthodox evangelical
Christianity.
We
believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and
New Testaments is the inspired, infallible Word of God.
We
believe that God is eternally existent in three separate
persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We
believe that God is the personal, transcendent, and sovereign
Creator of all things.
We
believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that He
was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, provided for the
atonement of our sins by His vicarious death on the Cross, was
bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit, ascended
back to the right hand of God the Father, and ever lives to make
intercession for us.
After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He poured out His Holy Spirit on
the believers in Jerusalem, enabling them to fulfill His command
to preach the Gospel to the entire world, an obligation shared
by all believers today.
We
believe that all people are by nature separated from God and
responsible for their own sin, but that salvation, redemption,
and forgiveness are freely offered to all by the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When a person repents of sin and accepts
Jesus Christ as personal Saviour and Lord, trusting Him to save,
that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy
Spirit, all his/her sins are forgiven, and that person becomes a
child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
We
believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the
Scriptures, and that they are valid for today if they are
exercised within the Scriptural guidelines. We as believers are
to covet the best gifts, seeking to exercise them in love that
the whole Body of Christ might be edified. We believe that love
is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without
this love all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless.
We
believe that church government should be simplistic rather than
a complex bureaucracy, and we depend on the Holy Spirit to lead,
rather than on fleshly promotion.
We
await the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, and we believe
that the second coming of Christ with His saints to rule on the
earth will be personal, pre-millennial, and visible. This
motivates us to holy living, heartfelt worship, committed
service, diligent study of God's Word, regular fellowship, and
participation in adult baptism by immersion and Holy Communion.
We
seek to teach the Word of God in such a way that its message can
be applied to an individual's life, leading that person to
greater maturity in Christ.
We
reject: (1) The belief that true Christians can be demon
possessed; (2) "5-point Calvinism" (i.e., a fatalistic
Calvinistic view that leaves no room for free will;
specifically, we reject the belief that Jesus' atonement was
limited, instead we believe that He died for all people, and we
reject the assertion that God's wooing grace cannot be resisted
or that He has elected some people to go to hell; instead we
believe that anyone who wills to come to Christ may do so); (3)
"positive confession" (the faith movement belief that God can be
commanded to heal or work miracles according to man's will), (4)
human prophecy that supersedes the Scripture, (5) the
incorporation of humanistic and secular psychology and
philosophy into Biblical teaching, and (6) the over-emphasis of
spiritual gifts, experiential signs and wonders to the exclusion
of Biblical teaching.
In
our services, we focus on a personal relationship with God
through worship, prayer, and the teaching of the Word of God. We
teach both expositorily and topically. We do not allow speaking
in tongues loudly during services, nor prophecy while a Bible
study is in progress because we do not believe that the Holy
Spirit would interrupt Himself.
CONCLUSION
By
clarifying some of what we believe at Deal Christian Fellowship,
our purpose has been simply to help others less familiar with
the church gain insight into who we are. It has not been our
intention to say that we are right and everyone else is wrong,
nor has it been our intention to argue our position with any
Christian believer. We desire to have nothing but love and
fellowship with anyone who calls on the name of our Lord in
truth and sincerity.
While there are many additional areas of policy and doctrine we
could discuss, and while we could write volumes in an effort to
defend all our positions against other positions, this is not
our desire. Our desire is to simply adore Jesus, and we invite
all God's people to join us as we do so.
We
seek the unity of the Spirit in a bond of peace and love and
believe that God has called us to a unique ministry that
fulfills His special purpose in this generation. May God bless
you as you seek to draw near to Him in love.
If you would like any more
information please email us:
info@dcf-online.co.uk
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