What We Believe

Statement of Faith

The spirit behind our Statement of Faith lies in an attempt to encourage healthy adherence to the whole counsel of the word of God contained in the Scriptures. We believe that unity in the church is best promoted when the Church does not attempt to find a lowest common denominator for doctrinal faithfulness, but rather comes from evaluating, assessing, and embracing clear doctrinal parameters based on the word of God. Such doctrinal fidelity serves to strengthen the Church in her mission and to assist in preserving the unity of the body, while maintaining a posture of love (Acts 20:27; Eph. 4:13-14; 1 Tim. 1:5, 4:1, 6:3-5; Titus 1:1); This church also affirms the “The Baptist Faith and Message, 2000” and The Abstract of Principles, as affirmations of basic Christian beliefs and as a general statement of our faith, and is a cooperating member of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Scripture

The Holy Bible, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament, is alone and entirely the word of God. The Scriptures are the God-breathed revelation of God Himself and are, therefore, wholly true in all that they affirm to the degree of precision intended by the author and are thus without error in their original manuscripts. They were written by human authors (in the common language of their eras) under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, serve as the unique, final, and full authority on all matters of faith and practice, and serve as the supreme guide for testing what is right and true in all cases (Ex. 24:4; Deut. 4:1-2, 17-19; Josh 8:34; Ps. 19:7-10, 119:11, 89, 105, 140; Is. 34:16; 40:8; Jer. 15:16; 36:1-32; Matt 5:17-18, 22:29; Lk. 21:33; 24:44-46; Jn. 5:39; 16:13-15; 17:17; Acts 2:16; 17:11; Rom. 15:4; 16:25-26; 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Heb. 1:1-2; 4:12; 1 Pet. 1:25; 2 Pet. 1:19-21)

God

The one true and living God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of all things. This sovereign and all-glorious God, having in and of Himself all perfections and being infinite in them all, exists eternally in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All people owe supreme worship manifested in love, respect, trust, and obedience to Him as the rightful ruler of life (Deut. 6:4; Ps. 115:3, 138:5, 145:3; Jer. 10:10; Dan. 4:25; Matt. 16:16, 28:18-19; Mk. 12:29; Jn. 1:3, 1:14; Acts 5:3-4; Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; 10:31; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:16-17, 2:9; 1 Tim. 1:17).

Trinity

Each member of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are one God and exist without any division in nature, essence, or being and are equal in all measures of the divine perfections. These three execute distinct but harmonious offices in the work of creation and redemption, and are worthy of the same confidence, obedience, and worship (Gen. 1:1, 26; Matt. 3:16-17, 28:19; Jn. 1:1-3, 4:24; Rom. 1:19, 20; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:5-6).

God the Father

God the Father exists as a personal, loving being who graciously and mercifully concerns Himself with the affairs of humans. For His glory and by His word, He created the world out of nothing and continues to uphold, sustain, and govern all things in order to magnify His glory and to bring about His good, pleasing, and perfect will. He is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-wise and is perfect in each of the divine perfections. He hears and answers prayer and saves from sin and death all those who come to Him through Christ Jesus. (Gen. 45:5-7;Is. 40:26, 41:21-23; Ps. 33:10-11; Prov. 16:9, 33, 19:21; Lam. 3:37-38; Am. 3:6; Matt. 23:9; Lk. 10:21-22; Jn. 3:16; 6:27; Rom. 1:7, 11:36-12:2; 1 Tim. 1:1-2, 2:5-6; 1 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:6).

Jesus

Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten son, born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life in His existence as fully God and fully man incarnate. During His life, He taught and worked many wonders and signs of God’s kingdom on this earth, as recorded in the four Gospels. He was crucified and buried as a substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for the sins of humankind and was raised from the dead bodily on the third day. Following His resurrection, He ascended to the Father’s right hand where He is the head of the Church and intercedes on behalf of the saints. He eternally exists as the divinely appointed mediator between God and man, and perfectly fulfills and upholds the office of Prophet, Priest, and King of the Church. At the end of the age, he will return to this earth personally, bodily, and visibly to judge the world. (Is.53:10-12; Matt. 1:18-25, 16:16-27, 20:28, 28:6; Lk. 1:26-38; Jn. 1:1, 14, 18; 10:30, 17:3, 20:28, 30-31; Acts 1:9-11, 20:28; Rom. 5:6-8, 6:9-10, 8:34, 9:5; 1 Cor. 8:6, 15:3-8; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:4; Phil. 2:5-11; Col. 1:15-20; 1 Tim. 2:5, 3:16; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:1-3, 4:15, 7:25, 9:28; 1 Pet. 2:21-23; Rev. 12:10).

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is God, possesses all the divine attributes, and proceeds from the Father and the Son in order to bring glory to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit’s role is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He indwells all believers, baptizes and seals them at the moment of salvation, and regenerates, sanctifies, and empowers all who believe in Jesus. In empowering those to live a Christ-like life, He uniquely endows each believer with gifts for the building up of the body, guides believers in truly understanding and applying the Scriptures, and is an abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide (Jn. 14:16-17, 26, 15:26-27, 16:9-14; Rom. 8:9, 14-17; 1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19; Gal. 5:22-26; Eph. 1:13-14).

Creation and Providence

God created the universe out of nothing by the power of His spoken Word for the purpose of displaying His eternal power and glory in order to bring glory to Him. The eternal God decrees or permits all things to come to pass and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and events so as to maximize the glory due His name. His providential control of the world does not in any way make Him the author or approver of sin, nor does it destroy the responsibility of moral beings who were created for the eternal joy of His possession (Gen. 1; Deut. 26:18; Prov. 16:33; Is. 35:10, 43:7, 46:9-11; Matt. 25:23; Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3; James 1:13-15; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 5:9, 7: 9-10).

Man

God created Adam from the dust of the ground and Eve from his side, and they form the foundation for all humankind. Men and women were both created in the image of God as the supreme object of His creation, and were created for a loving relationship with God in order to bring glory to Him. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God in creation. One man and one woman were united in marriage and appointed with different, yet complementary roles as a picture of Christ’s love for the Church (See Appendix I - Foundational Statement on Marriage, Gender, and Sexuality). The reality that all of humanity is created in the image of God means that every person, regardless of race or social status possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love (Gen. 1:26-27, 2:1-7, 3:1-7, 16-19, 19: 6:5, 12: 8-21; Jer. 17:9; Jn. 5:24; Rom. 1:18-23, 3:9-23, 5:12-19, 6:21, 23, 7:13, 8:6-7, 9:22; Eph. 2:1-3; 2 Thes. 1:9; James 1:14-15; 1 Jn. 3:14; Rev. 21:8).

Sin

Both men and women were originally created without sin for relationship with God; however, through the deception of Satan, man chose to believe lies and willfully rebelled against God and His Word by choosing to take what was forbidden and thus declared their independence from, distrust for, and disobedience towards God. Through this willful act of sin, man fell from his sinless state. As a result, the human creation was forever marred by physical, spiritual, and eternal death, and the entire creation was likewise subject to futility, including sickness, decay, calamity, and loss. Adam’s fall became the fall of all his posterity in such a way that the corruption, guilt, death, and condemnation belong rightly to every person in the human race and they now inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin and evil. Man is born corrupt by nature, marred by an attitude and posture of disobedience to God known as sin, enslaved by choice to this sin, and morally unable to worship God rightly, and, therefore, under His just condemnation (Gen. 3:1-7; Ps. 1:1-6; Rom. 3:9-23, 6:12-23; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 2:4-9; Col. 3:5-6; Heb. 12:3-4).

Salvation

In the fullness of time, God, by His sovereign choice and His love for mankind, sent Jesus to bring people back into right fellowship with God and proper worship of Him. Through coming to the earth as a man, living a perfect life, dying in man’s place, and being raised to new life, Christ absorbed our punishment, appeased the wrath of God against us, and removed the condemnation of the law against us. Through His substitutionary, atoning death, Jesus took upon Himself the payment for all those who would trust in Him thereafter, and all those who were saved prior to His death. Through the cross and resurrection, men of every tribe, tongue, and nation can be justified to God through His gracious and full acquittal of sinners, who believe in Christ on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ (Ex. 36:25-26; John 1:13-16, 3:3-16, 5-8; Acts: 10:43, 13:39, Rom. 3:24-26, 4:23-25, 5:1-21, 8:1; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:1-9; Phil. 3:7-9; Col. 2:13-14, 3:13; Titus 3:5-6; 1 Jn. 2:12, 5:1).

Repentance and Faith

This gift of salvation is wholly a work of God’s grace and is not the result of man’s works. Regeneration, the act of coming to life in Christ, is a change of heart, wrought by the Holy Spirit who gives life to those dead in sin, enlightening their minds spiritually and renewing their whole nature, so that they love and practice holiness. However, the receipt of salvation, and the resulting forgiveness of sin, is personally predicated upon and appropriated by repentance and faith. Faith is belief, on God’s authority, in whatever is revealed in His word concerning Christ and accepting and resting upon Him alone for salvation. This faith results in genuine repentance, which is evidenced when a person, being convicted by the Holy Spirit of the manifold evil of his sin, detects and forsakes it, humbling himself, endeavoring to walk with the Lord as a result of Godly sorrow. The result is a righteousness that comes by grace alone through faith alone (Prov. 28:13; Matt.

3:8-10; Mk. 1:15; Jn. 3:16, 36, 5:24, 6:40, 44, 65; Acts 2:37-38, 11:18, 13:38-39, 17:30, 20:21; Rom. 2:4-5, 3:21-28, 4:1-5, 4:17-25, 8:1, 10:3-4, 14, 17; 2 Cor. 5:21, 7:10-11; Phil. 1:29, 3:9; Eph. 2:8-10; Heb. 11:6; James 2:14-26).

Sanctification

Those regenerated and justified by the death and resurrection of Jesus and indwelt by the presence of the Holy Spirit are also sanctified by God’s word. Sanctification is the process of transformation into the image and likeness of Jesus through joyful obedience to all of Christ’s commands, which results in the regular and repeated production of the fruits of the Spirit. This process of sanctification, which all saints seek to obtain, is progressive in one’s life through the supply of divine strength. While this process remains imperfect and incomplete in this life, it is evidence of the reality of conversion and will result in a continual war with sin in order to realize the full stature of maturity in Christ to the glory of God (Ps. 1:1-3, 119:11; Matt. 6:11-12, 7:19-27; Mk. 13:22; Jn. 10:27-30, 14:13, 17:17-19; Rom. 12:1-2, 15:16; 1 Cor. 1:30, 6:11; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 5:22-23, 6:7-10; Eph. 1: 4, 1:18-19, 5:3-6; Phil: 1:9-11, 2:12-13, 3:12-16; Col. 1:9-10, 3:17; 1 Thes. 4:3, 5:23; 2 Thes. 1:11, 2:13; 1 Tim. 6:6-10; Heb. 2:11, 6:1, 7:1, 10:10, 12:1-2, 10, 13:5; 1 Pet. 2:12; 2 Pet. 1:3-11; 1 Jn. 2:3-6, 2:29, 3:16-18; Rev. 21:8).

Security

Those truly redeemed by Jesus are eternally secure, and thus cannot lose their salvation. Though they may fall, through neglect or temptation, into sin, and in so doing, impair their graces and comforts, interrupt the joy of their fellowship with God, bring reproach on the

Church, and incur temporal judgment and discipline from God the Father, they shall be renewed again unto repentance and can never finally fall away from the state of grace by the power of God (Jer. 32:40; Matt. 13:20-21; Jn. 6:66-69, 8:31; Rom. 8:28-39; Phil. 1:6; Heb. 13:5; 1 Jn. 2:27-28, 3:9, 5:12, 18).

Church

The Church is one universal body comprised of all those who place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The universal Church finds its expression in autonomous, local congregations who covenant together for the purpose of worship, prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, promotion of love and unity, service to the body, and outreach to the world. Whenever God’s people meet regularly in obedience to these commands, there is the local expression of the church, which serves as a city set on a hill intent on glorifying the Lord by being a pillar of truth in a truth-denying world. The Church serves as the living, spiritual body of which the Lord Jesus is the all-supplying, all-sustaining, all-supreme, and all-authoritative head, and to which he appointed elders to lead, deacons to serve, and all regenerate persons to minister. The Church exists for the glory of God by magnifying Him in the world (Ps. 67; Matt. 5:14-16, 28:19; Lk. 22:19; Jn. 4:7, 10:16; Acts 1:8, 2:42-47, 6:1-6, 20:17-28; Rom. 3:22; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 1:22, 2:19-22, 3:6-10, 4:11-16, 5:19-23; Col. 1:18, 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:1-12; Titus 1:5-9; Heb. 3:13, 10:24-25; 1 Pet. 5:1-3).

Ordinances

The Lord instituted two specific ordinances to the Church: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The act of baptism is obligatory on every believer, and is the initial means by which those who have repented display their union with Christ in His death and resurrection and their forgiveness of sins by being immersed in water in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This symbol of fellowship with Christ and with His Church is a prerequisite for membership in this church. In a similar fashion, the Lord’s Supper is a symbol instituted by the Lord Jesus to commemorate His death and to serve as a pledge and renewal of our communion with Him and with each other. Through remembrance of Christ, one is reminded to wait in hopeful expectation for His return, proclaim His death until he comes, and walk in humble obedience in the meantime. This Supper is to be observed regularly by the Church until Jesus returns (Matt. 26:26-29, 28:18-20; Lk. 22:19-20; Jn. 3:23, 6:53-57; Acts 2:38, 8:36-39; Rom. 2:28-29, 4:16, 6:2-5; 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 11:23-31, 12:13; Gal. 3:7, 3:26-27; Col. 2:11-12; Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 3:21; 1 Jn. 2:15-17).

Last Things

The bodies of men after death return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God – the righteous to rest with Him; the wicked, to be reserved for the final judgment. The bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised. The Lord Jesus will one day return personally and visibly to the earth to establish His kingdom and judge the living and the dead: the wicked shall go into everlasting and conscious punishment; the righteous, into everlasting life. In so doing, those redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus will forever bring glory to Him and enjoy His presence (Ps. 16:11; Dan. 12:2; Matt. 3:12, 25:23, 16:27, 25:31-46; Mk. 9:43-48, 13:26-27, 14:61-62; Lk. 23:23; Jn. 5:28-29, 14:3; Acts 1:9-11,17:31; Rom. 2:6-11; 1 Cor. 4:5, 13:12, 15:12-28, 51-57; 2 Cor. 5:1-10; Phil. 3:20; 1 Thes. 4:15, 5:2-3; 2 Thes. 1:7-10; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13; Jude 24-25; Rev. 5:11-14, 14:11, 20:4-6, 11-15, 21:1-8).