Baptist Faith and 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.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God.
…The eternal 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. …God
is Father in truth to those who become children of God
through faith in Jesus Christ.
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. …He honored the divine law by His
personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made
provision for the redemption of men from sin.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. …He
exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of
judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the
church in worship, evangelism, and service.
III. Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in
His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation.
…By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin
into the human race. … 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 man possesses
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, sanctification, and
glorification.
V. God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God,
according to which He regenerates, sanctifies, and
glorifies sinners. …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.
VI. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ
is a local body of baptized believers who are associated
by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel…and
seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
…This church is an autonomous body. …The New Testament
speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which
includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
VII. Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a
believer in water. …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
life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in
Christ Jesus.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience
whereby members … 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 commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead
and should be employed in exercises of worship and
spiritual devotion.
X. Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will
bring the world to its appropriate end. …Jesus Christ will
return personally and visibly…the dead will be raised; and
Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The
unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. …The righteous…
will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven
with the Lord.
XI. Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower
of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to
endeavor to make disciples of all nations … to seek
constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort.
XII. Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ
is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general
benevolence … there should be a proper balance between
academic freedom and academic responsibility. …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.
XIV. Cooperation
Christ's people should … 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. …Cooperation is desirable between the
various Christian denominations.
XV. The Christian & the Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to
make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and in
human society. ... The Christian should oppose in the
spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and
vice.
XVII. Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state
owes to every church protection and full freedom in the
pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free
state is the Christian ideal.
XVIII. Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational
institution of human society. …Marriage is the unity 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. The marriage
relationship models the way God relates to His people.
…Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing
and heritage from the Lord.
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