Our Beliefs

The foundations of our Faith!

Thousands of people attend Elim churches around the world each and every week. Elim churches range in size from small groups of people to some of the largest congregations in the UK and Ireland. Across Elim, all our members share a set of beliefs known as our Foundational Truths. The Foundational Truths explain our theology and are a statement of faith - they are powerful, non-negotiable and guide us in all we say and do.

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Foundational Truths

We believe the Bible, as originally given, to be without error, the fully inspired and infallible Word of God and the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

We believe that the Godhead exists co-equally and co-eternally in three persons Father, Son and Holy Spirit and that these three are one God, sovereign in creation, providence and redemption.

We believe in the true and proper deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His real and complete humanity, in His sinless life, in His authoritative teaching, in His substitutionary and atoning sacrifice through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, in His heavenly intercession and in His second advent to receive His Church.

We believe that The Holy Spirit makes us aware when we are failing to follow God's teaching. He then prompts us to ask God to forgive us for these sins and our guilt is taken away. We believe that in order to live the holy and fruitful lives that God intends for us, we need to be filled with spiritual power through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to use spiritual gifts including speaking in tongues. He has individually equipped us so that we can successfully achieve His purpose for our lives which is to worship God, fulfil our role in the Church and serve the community in which we live.

We believe in the universal sinfulness of all people since the Fall, rendering man subject to God's wrath and condemnation.

We believe in the necessity for salvation of the repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by which the sinner is pardoned and accepted as righteous in God's sight. This justification is imputed by the grace of God because of the atoning work of Christ, is received by faith alone and is evidenced by the Fruit of the Spirit and a holy life.

We believe in the spiritual unity and the priesthood of all believers in Christ and these comprise the universal Church, the Body of Christ.

We believe in the ministries that Christ has set in His Church, namely, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and in the present operation of the manifold Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to the New Testament.

We believe in the baptism of believers by immersion in water in obedience to the command of Christ and in the commemoration of Christ's death by the observance of the Lord's Supper until His return.

We believe that the gospel embraces the needs of the whole man and that the Church is therefore commissioned to preach the gospel to the world and to fulfil a ministry of healing and deliverance to the spiritual and physical needs of mankind.

We believe in the personal, physical and visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign in power and glory.

We believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the final judgement of the world, the eternal conscious bliss of the righteous and the eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.

The purpose and mission of Estuary Elim

By proclaiming Jesus Christ, making disciples, and developing people's ministries, we seek to establish the Kingdom of God in the areas where God has placed us. As Pentecostal Churches we desire to be Spirit-filled people, experiencing God's presence, exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit and expecting signs and wonders. We seek to establish congregations in strategic positions where they will be beacons of light piercing the darkness and revealing Jesus.

What is Christianity?

Christianity traces its beginning back to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Central to all of this is Jesus' resurrection. It has been said that if the resurrection could be disproved, then Christianity would be just another system among many moral and ethical systems in the world. The towering figure behind Christianity is Jesus Christ, who, though sacrificed on a cross, rose bodily from the dead, and lives today.

The term Christianity does not appear in the Bible. The word Christian only makes brief appearances in Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16. It was used as an insult. The original idea was to tease followers of Jesus because they were acting like "little Christs." In fact, authentic Christians have always been those who claimed they had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, based on faith. This relationship does not depend on Christians living a certain way (it's not a reward), it is a relationship that results in a lifestyle that pleases God.

Christianity stands on God's revelation through the Old Testament and the New Testament. In its development around the world over 2000 years, Christianity has taken on many forms and expressions. This has been going on for so long that to those in one tradition, the worship styles and structure of other traditions often seem foreign, strange, and even wrong. But the issue of right and wrong form always takes us back to Jesus Christ and the New Testament church. Our practices must not be evaluated by whether we are comfortable with them, but rather by how closely they reflect the teaching of Jesus and the general patterns of worship established by those who knew him best.

Very different streams of Christianity trace their origins back to Jesus. The heart of Christianity is about a personal relationship with Jesus, lived out in a variety of ways. This variety of approaches does not make them different religions. Different denominations (Anglican, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Pentecostals, etc.) are not different religions. They are varying expressions of the teachings laid out in the Bible, combined with history, tradition, culture, and different emphases.

People who have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ live beyond the limitations of backgrounds and traditions. Christianity proves its message for all people by the way authentic believers get along with other authentic believers whose practices may differ widely but whose faith rests on Jesus. "For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Christianity is the ongoing, living expression of Christ's work in the world. It represents God's successful purposes in rescuing mankind from sin and providing His children with eternal life.