What We Believe

 

We subscribe to the doctorial statement of “The Baptist Faith and Message” as adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention presented in part as follows:

 

  •  The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

  •  There is one and only one living and true God who reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

  •  God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving and all wise.

  •  Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. In His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body, ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. 

  •  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ.

  •  Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. 

  •  Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

  •  A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.

  •  God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

  • Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God since both are created in God’s image. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.

  • The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

  •  Every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.

  •  God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.

 

Please go to http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp to read the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message in its entirety.