What We Believe
What We Believe
"THE MAIN THING"
Sometimes those new to TFC are surprised to find out that for the
first 25 years of its existence the church had no formal doctrinal
statement. It was not because we believed matters of doctrine to be
unimportant. Orthodox Christian belief is essential to the church. But
sometimes over-detailed doctrinal statements would be too complex and
needlessly divisive instead of uniting. Trinity Fellowship is an
independent church that is not formally connected to a particular
denomination within Christianity, but is fully committed to what is
sometimes called today "Classical Christianity," that is, the core
teachings of the Church that Christians have confessed throughout the
ages.
With the saints of old we believe that we enter
into relationship with God by His initiative, and that by his grace we
find eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus. We believe that each
believer is to live in community in the Church, and that we are to
share the good news of the gospel in word and action. We believe that
God's Word, the Bible, remains the final authority for all issues of
faith, doctrine, and life. Our desire as a community is to focus on
these core doctrines of the faith while allowing diversity of
interpretation on the secondary doctrinal issues which have been
debated for centuries. For example, Christians since the time of the
Apostles have believed in Christ's promise of his return; yet many have
disagreed on how his return is related to the events at the end of
time. Thus we do confess and teach the personal return of Christ but do
not dogmatize on the order of end time events. Often one will hear at
Trinity the refrain, "The main thing is that the main thing remains the
main thing". The main thing is that we maintain our focus on the
central issues of our faith, i.e., our relationship with the Triune God
through his Son Jesus, and not allow ourselves to be sidetracked by
doctrinal squabbling over secondary issues which so easily distract us
from our primary focus. We do believe what God has revealed to his
people is true and accurate. Yet we realize that what He has revealed
is only a small part of what He is. Because we do "see through a glass
darkly" we need to show humility in our attempts to understand God and
His sovereign ways.
In response to both a growing congregation and a
cultural need to be clear about our Christian confession the elders
have adopted a statement of faith which defines the perspective from
which we operate and unites the confession of our members.
