Our Beliefs
As an Evangelical Uniting Church, The Billabong holds to a reformed, evangelical and historically orthodox view of the Christian faith. The confessional substance of our beliefs can be found in the Basis of Union (click here). Most importantly, we believe that:
- God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit – one God, known in three persons, and is defined by the dynamic and loving interaction between those three persons. God is Love. (1 John 4:8)
- The Bible, including both the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired Word of God.
- On the Cross Jesus made an all-sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world, and that when we confess him as Lord and believe God raised him from the dead, we are saved from eternal judgement and receive the promise of eternal life (new life) in him. (Romans 10:9)
- The church is the Priesthood of all believers, where every member of the church has gifts given by the Holy Spirit and for which there is a corresponding service.
- The church, empowered by the Holy Spirit, has an Acts 1:8 mandate and a Matthew 28 commission to witness to Jesus and go and make disciples of all the world.
The Billabong is a member of Pneuma (Pastoral Network of Evangelicals Uniting in Mission Action).
Members of PNEUMA are Christians who stand with orthodox believers in all eras who have held the historic creeds. In particular, however, we differ from Christians in some traditions in the emphasis we place on the following commitments, together associated historically with the tradition called ‘Evangelical’.
The focus of our thought and lifestyle is Jesus Christ, crucified and raised; whom we acknowledge not only as a good man, but as Saviour, Lord and true member of the Trinity.
Believing the scriptures to be God-inspired and fully reliable, we take them as our primary authority for what we believe and how to live, and by them we judge other potentially helpful sources of knowledge of God, such as human reason, church tradition, and personal experience; the final touchstone of all interpretation being the recorded words and works of Jesus.
Thus we understand from scripture that all individuals need to get right with God, not through good works or social reform which cannot save them, but through a “new birth” by the Holy Spirit and holy living in the Spirit thereafter.
We respond to Jesus example and command to be on mission, notably through personal evangelism; but also through social activism on behalf of all creation, with special concern for people suffering pain, injustice or oppression.