The Word of God

We believe the Holy Bible was written by men who were divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to us. It has truth without any mixture of error for its matter and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the age, the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man. It is the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.

The Triune God

We believe there is one and only one living and true God. His is an initelligent, spiritual, and personal Being who is the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is present everywhere, 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. We owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience to Him. 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.

God the Father

We believe God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerfull, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God the Son

We belive that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner; born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever or can ever be born of woman; and that He is the Son of God, and the eternal God the Son.  Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, freely taking upon Himself human nature with all its demands and necessities, and identified Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.  Jesus Christ honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins. His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was the voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust, Christ, the Lord, bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.   He was raised from the dead with a glorfied body, appeared to His disciples as the person he was before His crucifixion, ascended into heaven, and is now exalted at the right had of God.  He is the One Mediator, fully God and fully man, who in His person effects the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consumate His redemptive mssion.  He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

God the Holy Spirt

We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature.  He was active in the creation.  In His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled.  He convicts of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness, and bears witness to the Truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony.  He is the agent effecting the New Birth for those who believe.  He seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, and helps the believer.  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.

Mankind

We believe 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 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.

Salvation

We believe salvation involves the redemption of the whole person, 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.  Salvation includes regeneration (the new birth), justification (full acquital of the just charges against us by His righteousness), sanctification (ongoing process of being set apart for God's purpose and being enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity), and glorification (the final blessed state of the redeemed).  

The Church

We believe 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 ordinance 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.  The New Testament also speaks of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages - believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

Baptism & the Lord's Supper

We believe 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 the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old live, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.  It is also a testimony to faith in the final resurrection of the dead.  Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership.

We believe 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.

The Lord's Day

We believe the first day of the week is the Lord's Day.  It is a Christian institution for regular observance.  It commemorates the resurrection fo Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.

The Kingdom of God

The Future

We believe 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.

Evangelism and Missions

We believe it is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make deciples of all nations.  The new birth of man's spirit by the Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others.  Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerated life, and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ.  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. 

Education

We believe 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.  An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people. 

Stewardship

We believe God is the source of all blessing, physical 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 therfore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and  should recognize all these are 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.

Relationship to the World

We believe 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 rooted in the regenration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ.  We should oppose evil and work to provide for those in physical, emotional, and spiritual need.  We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.  In order to promote these ends Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good caause, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.

We believe it is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men based on principles of righteousness.  We should do all in our power to put an end to war.  The remedy for the spirit of war is the gospel of our Lord.  The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teaching 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.

Religious Liberty

We believe God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctines 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 of denominaton should be favored by the state more than others.  Civil government has been ordained by God, therefore it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed Word of God.  The state has no right to imposes 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 powers.

The Family

We believe 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 because both were made 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 willing submits to the leadership of Christ.  She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsiblity 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 conistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth.  Children are to honor and obey their parents.

Much of the material above can be found in "The Baptist Faith & Message" 
(a statement adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention June 14, 2000)