What We Believe
OF THE BIBLE
We believe that the Bible was written by men supernaturally inspired by God. We believe in verbal, plenary inspiration; that the entire Bible was inspired by God and is without error in its writing and in its teachings. We also hold fast to the belief that the Authorized King James Version of the Bible is the Word of God preserved for English-speaking people.
OF THE TRUE GOD
We believe in one triune God, eternally existing in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: equal in power and glory, having the same attributes and perfections.
OF THE SON
We believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, miraculously conceived by the Holy Ghost in the virgin Mary, His deity and sinless life, His vicarious, substitutionary death to accomplish our redemption, His bodily resurrection and ascension to secure our regeneration, His personal, bodily, premillennial, pretribulational return for the saints, and His return with the saints to establish the millennial reign of Christ.
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, equal with God the Father and God the Son, and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness; that He is the witness of and guide into all truth; that He shall not speak of nor exalt Himself, but will glorify the Son of God; that the Holy Spirit is the agent in the New Birth; and that He seals, endues, comforts, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, and helps the believer.
OF SALVATION
We believe that salvation is through grace by faith alone through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God, Who by appointment of the Father, freely took upon Himself the nature of man yet without sin, Who honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and Who by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind, providing redemption through His blood; that without the shedding of blood is no remission of sin, therefore, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, that cleanseth man from all sin, was presented in heaven, was sprinkled on the true mercy seat, and was accepted by God the Father as the atonement for the sins of the whole world, only becoming efficacious through man's individual repentance, confession, and faith; that Christ's atonement consisted not in setting man 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 the sins of man in His own body on the tree; and that after having given Himself for man, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour, and having, in turn, risen from the dead, Christ Jesus is now seated on the right hand of God, becoming in every way a suitable, a compassionate, and an all-sufficient Saviour. We believe that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the gospel; that whosever will may be saved.
OF THE RESURRECTION
We believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead bodily the third day, according to the Scriptures; that the Lord’s resurrection was attested to by many infallible proofs; and that forty days thereafter, He physically ascended back to heaven assuming His place as man’s Advocate with the Father: the faithful High Priest Who ever liveth to make intercession for mankind.
OF THE CHURCH
We believe the New Testament church is a local, visible, autonomous assembly; that Jesus Christ established His Church during His earthly ministry, prior to the events of Acts Chapter Two and the Day of Pentecost; that a Baptist church is a congregation of baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel, said church being the citadel and propagator of the divine and eternal grace; that the church alone is authorized to administer and observe the ordinances of Christ; that all church members, ministries, and polities are to be subject to the Lordship of Christ, exercising the gifts, rights, disciplines, and privileges vested in them by His Word; and that church officers are pastors or elders, and deacons, whose qualifications, claims, and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures.
We believe the true mission of the church is found in the Great Commission: first, to make individual disciples; second, to baptize believers and add them to the church; and third, to teach and instruct as Christ commanded. We do not believe in the reversal of this order.
We believe the church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations; that the one and only superintendent of the church is Jesus Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit; that it is scriptural for churches to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the gospel; that every church is the sole and only judge of the measure and method of its cooperation with others; and that in all matters of membership, of policy, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the church is final.
OF BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S TABLE
We believe baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by and under the authority of a New Testament Baptist church, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem one’s faith in and identification with the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, with its effects: death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that baptism is requisite to the place and privileges of a church membership and to the Lord’s Table in which, after solemn self-examination, and by the use of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, the members only of a given Baptist church are to commemorate together the sacrificial love of Christ.
OF MISSIONS
We believe Missions, the endeavor to reach all the world with the gospel, is a charge to, and the responsibility of the church; that the church is debtor to those who have never heard the gospel; that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the gospel to be preached at home and abroad – to the uttermost part of the earth; and that the magnitude of the Great Commission constrains autonomous New Testament Baptist churches to cooperate together for the accomplishment of the task.