What we believe

With the Church of Jesus Christ of all times and places we are united in the one true Christian faith. This faith is firmly based on the Word of God, the Bible. Throughout the church’s history, however, it has been found necessary to defend and promote the truth of God’s Word through creeds and confessions. Along with nearly all Christian churches we willingly receive the creeds that have come to us from the first centuries of the early Church, the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed.

Further, as a Reformed Church, we also express the unity of faith as it is confessed in the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort. The creeds and confessions of the church are not the Word of God themselves, but we hold them to be faithful summaries of God’s Word and as such they assist us in our faith and life.

The most used and loved confession is the Heidelberg Catechism, which is taught to the youth of the church and is normally used in the Sunday afternoon church services. The catechism begins by asking and answering:

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 1).