Context: evangelical Christainity, Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, doctrine, systematic theology
The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students Doctrinal Basis is the doctrinal basis used throughout Christian groups within Australian universities. It has also been widely been adapted by many Australian Christian organisations.
Etymologically, it has great similarities to the doctrinal bases of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (although the AFES existed before the IFES) and the Scripture Union Family Mission (SUFM) in Australia.
While less exhaustive then the more historical doctrinal statements, such as the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England or the Westminster Confession, it still remains its evangelical flavour.
An exposition of this Doctrinal Basis has been produced:
Jensen, Philip D. and Tony Payne. 1995. The Blueprint, 2nd ed. Kingsford, NSW: Matthias Media.
AFES Doctrinal Basis
The AFES upholds the fundamental truths of the Christian faith, including:
- The divine inspiration and infallibility of Holy Scripture as originally given and its supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
- The unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead.
- The universal sinfulness and guilt of humanity since the fall, rendering men and women subject to God's wrath and condemnation.
- The conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and his birth by the Virgin Mary.
- Redemption from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only though the sacrificial death, as our representative and substitute, of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God.
- The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
- The necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit to make the death of Christ effective in the individual sinner, granting him or her repentance towards God, and faith in Jesus Christ.
- The indwelling and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
- The expectation of the personal return of the Lord Jesus
Christ.