There will be no normal services at ANY of our locations on Sunday 24th March 2024, instead all sites will be gathered at Cornerstone Converge. Please join us at Newington College Stanmore.

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What We Believe

Cornerstone believes and maintains the following biblical convictions:

The Scripture

The Bible is God’s inspired word; the words preserved in the sixty six books of the Old and New Testament are God breathed and without error. It is the supreme standard by which all our doctrines and opinions should be tested. What is contained in the Scripture is sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.


God

We believe in One God, who exists eternally and in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are equal in every divine perfection, one in purpose and yet distinct in their offices. He is the Creator who sustains and sovereignly rules over all things. He providentially works out his eternal good purposes to redeem a people for himself and restore all creation under Christ, to the praise of his glory.


The Redemptive Work of Christ

In obedience and in love for his Father, the eternal Son took on flesh, fully God and fully man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, lived in perfect obedience to his Father. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Through his death on the cross, he bore the full penalty for the sins of those who believe, reconciling them to God.

On the third day, he rose from the dead and broke the power of death, bringing everlasting life to those who believe. He then ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God as our High Priest and Advocate, as he rules heaven and earth by the authority given to him by God.


The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit regenerates spiritually dead sinners, enabling them to repent and believe. He indwells every believer as a seal of their salvation and as a down payment of the promised inheritance. Through his agency, believers are renewed, sanctified and adopted into God’s family. He empowers and distributes spiritual gifts to every believer for witness and service, so that the church, the body of Christ might be built up.


The Justification of Sinners

Christ, by his obedience and sacrifice, not only bore in our stead the punishment due us for our sins, fully satisfying God’s holy justice on our behalf, but also credits to our account his own righteousness. This justification of sinner is solely of free grace through faith. Christ-like living and obedience flows out of this justification.


The Gospel

The Gospel is the good news of the person and work of Jesus the Messiah —centring on the cross and resurrection: the Gospel is not proclaimed if Christ is not proclaimed, and the authentic Christ has not been proclaimed if his death and resurrection are not central. This good news is:

  • biblical (his death and resurrection are according to the Scriptures)
  • theological and salvific (Christ died for our sins, to reconcile us to God)
  • historical (if the saving events did not happen, our faith is worthless, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all others)
  • apostolic (the message was entrusted to and transmitted by the apostles, who were witnesses of these saving events), and
  • intensely personal (where it is received, believed, and held firmly, individual persons are saved).


The Church

The gospel has personal and corporate dimensions.

All believers are members of Christ’s universal and invisible church, consisting of people of every tribe and nation. The universal church is manifest in local churches, the gathering of believers as God’s household with Christ as the head. United by the bond of peace and love for one another and for the world, they testify to the reality of Christ to a watching world. The other distinguishing marks of the church are her gospel message, the sacraments of baptism and Lord’s Supper, the exercise of church discipline and her mission.


Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

We believe that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. The former is the rite of entrance into the new covenant community, the latter an ongoing covenant renewal. Together they are simultaneously God’s pledge to us, divinely ordained means of grace, our public vows of submission to Christ, and anticipations of his return and of the consummation of all things.


The Return of Jesus

We believe that Jesus will return one day in glory just as he promised. He will return as Judge and King, to usher in the perfect and consummated kingdom of God. He will gather the elects to himself and consign the rest to eternal damnation. On that day, all the redeemed will be glorified and made faultless and clothed with imperishable bodies; they will live forever in God’s holy presence. Sin and its curse will be no more. Instead there will be eternal blessedness and joy forever more in God’s love for his church, to the praise of his glorious grace.