We affirm
the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
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 of
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.
