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But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
we shall be saved, even as they. (Acts |
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W h a
t W e B e l i e v e I. The Scriptures The Holy Bible was written by men
divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect
treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its
end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all
Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which
God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the
true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a
testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation. II. God There is one and only one living
and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the
Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in
holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and
His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future,
including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the
highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals
Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal
attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. A. God the Father God as Father reigns with
providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the
stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all
powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to
those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is
fatherly in His attitude toward all men. B. God the Son 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. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God,
taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and
identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the
divine law by His personal obedience, and 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 and appeared to His disciples as the
person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and
is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully
God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God
and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to
consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the
living and ever present Lord. C. God the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables
men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects
regeneration. At the moment regeneration He baptizes every believer into the
Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and
bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He
seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the
Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness
of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the
church in worship, evangelism, and service. III. Man Man is the special creation of
God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning
work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of
God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by
his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God
and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man
transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby
his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.
Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become
transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man
into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of
God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man
in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of
every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian
love. IV. Salvation Salvation involves the redemption
of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as
Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the
believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration,
justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart
from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. A. Regeneration, or the new
birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in
Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through
conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable
experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning
from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment
of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour. B. Justification is God's gracious
and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who
repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a
relationship of peace and favor with God. C. Sanctification is the
experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to
God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual
maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life. D. Glorification is the
culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the
redeemed. V. God's Purpose of Grace Election is the gracious purpose
of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and
glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and
comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious
display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and
unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility. All true believers endure to the
end. 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.
Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they
grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on
the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. VI. The Church 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; observing
the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts,
rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend
the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the
Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each
member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural
officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for
service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by
Scripture. The New Testament speaks also of
the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all
the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper Christian baptism is the
immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a
crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial
of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ
Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.
Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church
membership and to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic
act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the
bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and
anticipate His second coming. VIII. The Lord's Day The first day of the week is the
Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It
commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include
exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.
Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's
conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. IX. The Kingdom The Kingdom of God includes both
His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over
men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the
realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to
Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come
and God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits
the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age. X. Last Things 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. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of
everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified
bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the
Lord. XI. Evangelism and Missions It is the duty and privilege of
every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to
endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by
God's Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on
the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life,
and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. 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. XII. Education Christianity is the faith of
enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our
Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a
thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of
Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence,
and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An
adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual
program for Christ's people. In
Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom
and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human
life is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a
Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of
Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the
distinct purpose for which the school exists. XIII. Stewardship God is the source of all
blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to
Him. Christians have a spiritual
debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a
binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation
to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should
recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for
helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of
their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and
liberally for the advancement of the Redeemer's cause on earth. XIV. Cooperation Christ's people should, as
occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best
secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such
organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They
are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the
energies of our people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament
churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the
missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of
Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual
harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of
Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable
between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is
itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of
conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the
New Testament. XV. The Christian and the Social Order All Christians are under
obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in
human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the
establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful
only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving
grace of God in Jesus Christ. 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. Every
Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole
under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love.
In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all
men of good will in any good cause, always being careful to act in the spirit
of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth. XVI. Peace and War It is the duty of Christians to
seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with
the spirit and teachings of Christ they should do all in their power to put
an end to war. The true remedy for the war
spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the
acceptance of His teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the
practical application of His law of love. Christian people throughout the
world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace. XVII. Religious Liberty God alone is Lord of the
conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of
men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state
should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full
freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom
no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more
than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of
Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to
the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to
carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone
for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for
religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the
support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the
Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to
God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in
the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power. XVIII. The Family 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. It is God's unique
gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the
man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the
channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means
for procreation of the human race. The husband and wife are of equal
worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage
relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love
his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to
provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself
graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church
willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God
as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to
respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and
nurturing the next generation. Children, from the moment of
conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to
demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to
teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through
consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children
are to honor and obey their parents. See the full Baptist Faith and Message here… Back to the top |