Statement of Faith
The Bible
The Bible is the record of God’s intent and action in His relationship with His creation. We believe that it was written by men under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit so that they wrote the exact words that God desired. As God’s revelation to us, it is the final authority regarding the faith and practice of believers. Because it was given by the inspiration of God, it is without error in all that it affirms; absolutely true so that there is not even the possibility of teaching anything false.
We believe that the central figure in the Bible is Jesus. The Old Testament anticipates His arrival, and the New Testament reflects on His first coming and looks forward to His second coming. We believe that the final guide for the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.
Bible references: Matthew 5:18; Mark 12:26; Luke 24:27, 44; John 5:39; 10:35; 17:17; Acts 17:2-3; 18:28; 26:22-23; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21
COMMENTS:
Human reason is a powerful tool, but it is distorted by our finite and often self-centered perspective. Reason alone cannot figure out the meaning to life, and cannot comprehend who God is beyond the simple awareness that He exists. If we are to have a relationship with God, we cannot get through our limitations to reach Him; He will have to break through and get to us. The Bible is the written summary of His attempts to do that.
But the Bible isn't just a record of His words, it itself is the Word of God in written form. It is revelation—truth expressed not by means of humans groping in the dark for the right way to say it, but truth given by God Himself as He "carried people along" in their writing. Their message was and is His message. Because God cannot lie, this written Word is completely reliable, so we must let it judge us instead of us judge it.
Though other books, both modern and ancient, may contain helpful spiritual truth, no other writings are "God-breathed" in the way the Bible is—truth is mixed with error everywhere except in the Bible. That is why we base our beliefs on its teaching and submit all our thoughts and plans to its scrutiny.
Some Practical Applications
We endeavour to regularly read and study the Bible, privately and publicly, to understand its message.
We reject claims that any human or ecclesiastical intermediary is necessary for us to know and relate to God—we have His Word, and we are each individually responsible to learn what it says.
All aspects of our life and conduct must be submitted to what the Bible teaches about that area—we must obey what we discover God has commanded.
Messages given by SBC teachers must provide teaching supported by Scripture.
We do not accept doctrines, no matter what is claimed as their source, if they do not square with what the Bible says; supposed "modern prophets", "new revelation", or any message—even if apparently given miraculously—must be tested by the Bible.
The Godhead
We believe that there is only one true God who is at work in the world to accomplish His desired end. He eternally exists as three co-eternal and co-equal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While these are distinct persons performing distinct functions under the headship of the Father, they are of the same essence, one God.
Because they are one God, having precisely the same nature, attributes, and perfections, they are also worthy of precisely the same homage, confidence, and obedience.
Bible references: Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Matthew 28:18-19; John 1:1, 14, 18; Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 1:15-20; 2:9; Hebrews 1:3; 1 John 5; 2 John
COMMENTS:
The Bible begins with the phrase, "In the beginning, God..." God has always existed—His nature and being are eternal. We also learn about God from His revelation to us that three distinct "persons" are called God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because the Bible clearly teaches there is only one God (not three Gods), we understand that these three persons must fully share the one and only divine nature. We use the term "Trinity" as a label for the teaching that God has a singular nature but a plural personality.
This creative God desired to share the "community" that always existed within Him, so He made a universe that would reflect His attributes. All that He created is dependent on Him—He made it out of nothing, keeps it together, can reshape it, and is Master over it. God crowned His creation with man and woman, fashioned in His personal image, with whom He could have a relationship, and who could relate to each other. They would reflect His nature by exhibiting unity in the presence of diversity, love in the midst of differences, ruling while remaining submissive all at the same time.
God has been involved in the affairs of His creation from the very beginning, and continues to play an active role in relating to mankind, specifically in rescuing us from our rejection of His love and His legitimate right to be glorified as our Creator.
Some Practical Applications
Knowing God is our highest priority—substituting any activity or allowing any passion to become stronger is idolatry.
We treat creation as something wonderful that God has made; we neither abuse it, nor worship it; we seek to cultivate all that God has shared with us so it can be used to further His purposes, treating it as a stewardship from Him which must be preserved without becoming more important than the people He made to enjoy it.
We cannot agree with any teacher or religious group which rejects God's revelation of Himself as Trinity (as is common among most "cult" groups).
We can count on God to be active throughout our lifetime; He will bring us good things, and He will turn evil things into some good; He works in our lives so we develop a vital relationship with Him based on deep trust that supersedes all other loyalties.
God the Father
God is the self-existent Creator and Sustainer of the universe. He is omniscient and possesses exhaustive foreknowledge of all future events. Everything in all of creation exists to glorify Him. He is an infinite, personal spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, power, and love. He concerns Himself mercifully in the affairs of human beings, intentionally intervening in pursuit of humanity in order to enter into a fatherhood relationship with them spiritually through the new birth. He hears and answers prayer, and He saves from sin and death all who come to him through Jesus Christ.
Bible references: Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Exodus 34:6-7; I Kings 8:27; Psalm 11:7; 40:5; 89:2; 90:2; 115:3; Isaiah 6:3, 5; 40; Malachi 3:6; John 17:3; Acts 17:24-28; Titus 1:2; James 1:17; 1 Peter 1:15; 2 Peter 3:15; 1 John 4:8; Revelation 1:4-6
God the Son: Jesus Christ
God the Son took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. He is fully God and fully man. Jesus perfectly demonstrates all that it means to be human.
He lived a perfect life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for all people by physically dying on a cross and rising bodily from the dead three days later. Having ascended to Heaven, He now sits at God’s right hand as the eternal sacrifice for sin where He, the only Mediator between God and humanity, continually makes intercession for His own as High Priest and Advocate.
We believe in His imminent, personal, visible, and bodily return from heaven to rescue His Bride, the Church, and to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Bible references: Isaiah 53:4-12; Matthew 24; Luke 1:30-35; 24:36-43; John 1:18; 3:16; Acts 1:9-11; 4:12; Romans 3:25-26; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; Philippians 2:5-8; 3:20-21; Colossians 1:13-20; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 1:3; 4:15; 7:25; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:1-2; Revelation 20
COMMENTS:
Jesus is "the God-Man" who is unlike any person who has or ever will live. He is not part divine, part human—He is fully both; all of God dwelt in Him, and His humanity was complete.
His birth evidences his humanity in that He was born in the normal way from a human mother, yet His divinity is established by virtue of the fact His mother was a virgin who conceived miraculously.
In His humanity, He experienced every human limitation except sin; He was like us in every way except that He never disobeyed His heavenly Father.
In His divinity, He was coequal with His Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity. His death did not end His existence, but after He had paid for our sin on the cross, He arose from the dead on the third day.
His resurrection not only shows His complete provision for sin's effects; it also serves as a prototype of our future resurrection when our bodies will be remade in the same way to live in eternity.
Jesus continues to possess both full humanity (though glorified) and full divinity. He is our ongoing mediator between us and the Father, ever mindful of our needs, always concerned for our well-being.
His final words on earth included the promise to return to earth visibly and bodily for the purpose of consummating history.
Some Practical Applications
We are Christians because our message is about Christ—His work, His divinity, and our need to follow Him; any message that does not center on Christ, including His full humanity and divinity as well as His forgiveness for all sin, is not the Gospel.
Because our salvation was secured by a perfect sacrifice of a perfect person, we live knowing that we are totally and unconditionally forgiven from sin now, rather than hoping we will be forgiven at some future point; we are secure in the grace of God through Christ.
Knowing that Jesus will return someday, we hold on loosely to the things of this world, counting on the new heavens and earth to be our permanent home.
God the Holy Spirit
God the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He was sent to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; and to draw sinners to Christ.
We believe that, at the moment of conversion, He permanently indwells each believer: making him holy, baptizing him into the Body of Christ, His Church, and giving him spiritual gift(s) with which to serve the Church in accomplishing the mission of God in the world. He provides each believer with power for living, understanding of spiritual truth, and guidance for making right decisions.
Bible references: Genensis 1:2; John 14:16-17; 16:7-13; Acts 1:8; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 12:13; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 1:13; 4:4-6; 2 Thessalonians 2:7; Titus 3:5-7
COMMENTS:
The Holy Spirit is God, not just a force. Scripture describes Him with personal pronouns and reveals He has personal attributes. He works "behind the scenes" to prepare people to hear the Gospel and then applies the merits of Christ to them at the point of regeneration.
Jesus promised the Spirit's presence to all His followers, assuring us He would actually indwell us in a permanent union. His ministry in us includes: helping us to understand the Bible, making us aware of things we do that don't please God, assuring us we are God's children, empowering us for witness, gifting us to uniquely serve others in the church, helping our prayer life through interceding for us, and producing in us the kind of character that makes us credible, persuasive representatives of Jesus Christ.
Some Practical Applications
As saved people, we are continually striving to be more like the One who saved us; we are not content just to be forgiven; we want to exemplify Christ-like behavior in every area of life—we will never give up the fight to resist sin and be like Him in word and deed.
The Christian life is more than just "being good"—we need the Holy Spirit to bear His fruit in us; therefore, our daily lives must be yielded to the Spirit in a moment-by-moment surrender or our self-improvement efforts will be useless.
When we share Christ with others, the message we present is effectual not because of our superior reasoning or irresistible presentation, but because of the Spirit being free to work through us and in the heart of the person we're talking to; therefore, we depend ultimately on His invisible activity through our limited understanding of what will reach the person.
Because the Spirit is resident in us, we will listen for His promptings, anticipating He wants to direct us and will do so if we are open to Him.
Salvation
We believe that salvation is a free gift of God found only through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. It is only by this act of sovereign grace that fallen people can have their broken relationship with God restored. His shed blood is the sole basis for forgiveness of sins. Salvation occurs only when people turn from trust in merit and good behavior to faith in Jesus as the only sufficient payment for their sin.
We believe that at the moment of salvation, the person who has truly believed has the full penalty of his sin forgiven, is credited with the righteousness of Christ, and is declared righteous by God based on the sacrifice of Jesus. Because Jesus can never sin and never die, His sacrifice is eternal. Thus, we believe that all believers are kept eternally secure by the power of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the eternal sacrifice and high priestly ministry of Jesus.
We believe that God has made full provision for believers to overcome their sinful nature and live for Him by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit working through the knowledge of the Bible. Through yielding to these, every believer should grow in maturity, Christ-likeness, and proper social concern as His ambassadors in the world.
Bible references: Isaiah 53; John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29-51; Acts 13:39; 16:14, 31; Romans 3:23-26; 4:5; 5:1-11; 6:23; 8:30; 1 Corinthians 2:14; 15:20-57; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21; 8:9; Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:1-10; Philippians 3:9; Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:14; 7-10; 1 John 2:1-2; Revelation 21-22
COMMENTS:
The common myth that humankind is basically good is not supported by the Bible. We were originally created good, but the first man and woman rebuffed God's rightful place in their lives, so we are all now infected with the disease called "sin" and are spiritually separated from God. This condition is without remedy through any human effort. If God had left us to ourselves, all of us would continue in disobedience and rejection of Him.
The good news is that He has provided a way out of our dilemma through the death of Jesus Christ, which paid the penalty for our sins. Those who personally appropriate the forgiveness that God offers will be restored to a right relationship with Him. This new life is a gift; it cannot be earned by our activities nor revoked by our failures—what God begins, He finishes. We live with the undeserved promise that the change He's begun in His followers is only the beginning of a total transformation that culminates when we are taken into His very presence to live forever.
Some Practical Applications
Our message to seekers contains the call to turn from fruitless attempts to earn God's favour and to cast themselves without reservation on the perfect and reliable provision of God in Christ.
We live secure in the knowledge that the Christian life we live is a "thank you" to God for the salvation He has fully and completely provided; we neither think our obedience "enhances" His provision for us (as if we could add something to the death of Christ) or treat His grace in a cavalier way (as an excuse to live sinfully).
Knowing we are all sinful, we will never naively assume we're immune to temptation or evil; though confident of being rescued from the penalty of sin, we prudently conduct our lives mindful of sin's ongoing potential to misdirect us.
The Church
We believe that the Church is the spiritual body of which Christ is the Head sent to announce the reign of God in the world. The members of this universal and invisible Church are all those who have truly placed their faith in the work of Jesus for salvation, regardless of organizational affiliation.
We believe that Jesus ordained the observances of believer’s water baptism by immersion (which symbolizes their identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection) and the Lord’s Supper. The ordinances are not a means of grace or salvation. Rather, in baptism, a believer identifies himself with the universal Church, and the Lord’s Supper calls the Church to remember Jesus’ death on the cross and the promise of His return. It is the mission of the Church to glorify its Head, Jesus, by sharing the message of His death and resurrection for salvation with the whole world.
We believe that the local expression of the universal Church is a group of believers voluntarily joined together in mutual love and service to worship God and glorify Jesus through efforts to disciple others by the preaching of the Gospel in all the world and the exercise of spiritual gifts for the building of the church, impacting the world for Christ. We believe that under the headship of Christ each local church should be self-governing and free from interference by any ecclesiastical or political authority.
We believe in the offices of elder and deacon. We believe in the priesthood of all believers.
Bible references: Matthew 16:16-18; 28:19; Luke 22:19-20; Acts 2:42-47; 10:47-48; 16:32-33; 18:7-8; 20:17; Romans 6:3-5; 12:5; 1 Corinthians 11:26; 12:12-27; Ephesians 1:20-23; 4:3-10; Colossians 1:18; 3:14-15; 1 Timothy 2:9-15; 3:1-7, 8-13; 5:17-22; 2 Timothy 2:2; Titus 1:5-9
COMMENTS:
The Church is first and foremost an organism, not an organization. It is the living body of Christ, made up of all people everywhere who are His followers. It is not defined by the limits of any particular denomination but includes all true believers. The local expression of this body is found wherever His children gather in His name. Scripture describes some of the activities of a church, but it is Christ in our midst that makes us His church, not anything we do.
Some Practical Applications
Non-Christians can belong to an organization, but making us members of the Church is something Christ does; our participating covenant membership system recognizes this invisible work of Christ as distinct from the flexible, human-controlled membership in a local fellowship.
We are a Baptist Church, however, we believe that all true believers are one with Christ and each other, regardless of denominational background. Every gathering of believers is a gathering of the Church.
All believers must have opportunities to learn about and develop their spiritual gifts; we structure our ministry to implement this value so that everyone can participate in some aspect of the church based on their passion and giftedness.
Disunity hurts the body of Christ and His cause. We guard our unity and diligently seek to honestly confront and work through differences in God-honouring ways that both respect the individual (made in God's image) and preserve the oneness in Christ we need to manifest.
Satan, Angels, and Demons
We believe that God created supernatural spirit-beings to serve Himself and believers. These angelic beings, though not eternal, possess immense power. Some of those beings, because of pride, rebelled under the leadership of Lucifer, or Satan.
Although Satan has been ultimately defeated through the cross of Jesus Christ, he is the ruler of this present age; blinding the eyes of those who have not trusted Christ, and attempting to draw the people of God away from devotion to Him. These fallen angels will be judged forever in the Lake of Fire.
Bible references: Isaiah 14; Ezekekiel 28; Matthew 4:11; 18:10; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; Acts 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4; Ephesians 2:2; Colossians. 1:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10; Hebrews 1:14; 2:14; James 4:7, 8; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 13:12-15; 20:7-10
Humanity
We believe that men and women exist to glorify God, having been made in His image; and to reflect His image and character to the world as the supreme object of creation. In their original state, they were pure and innocent, free from sin and in right relationship with the Creator and His creation, including fellow human beings and self. Sin, which entered the world through Adam’s disobedience, blemished all humanity and caused separation from God.
Since that original act of disobedience, all human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, and stand condemned without excuse before holy God. The rift that sin created cannot be bridged through one’s merit as no human (except Jesus alone) can meet the requirement of holiness that God sets. Thus every person, left to his own devices, will fail to reach God’s holy standard.
Bible references: Genesis 1:26; 3; 6:5; Psalm 14:1-3; 51:5; Jeremiah 17:9; John 1:12; 3:16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:29, 53; Acts 13:39; 16:31; Romans 3:9-20; 8:6-7; 1 Corinthians 15:20-57; Ephesians 2:1-3; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 21-22
Eternity
We believe that the blessed hope of the Church is the certain, imminent return of Christ to reign as King. We believe that all people will exist forever, believers immediately upon death entering into eternal conscious fellowship with the Lord and unbelievers immediately entering into eternal conscious separation from Him to await final judgment.
Those that trust in their own good works will exist forever separated from God in a literal Hell. Those who trust in the perfect life of Jesus and His death and resurrection for salvation will exist forever in the presence of God in a literal Heaven.
Bible references: Deuteronomy 30:1-10; Ezekiel 37:21-28; Matthew 24:15-25:46; Luke 16:19-26; 23:42; John 14:1-3; Acts 15:16-17; Romans 8:19-23; 11:25-27; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Jude 6-7; Revelation 20:1-3, 11-15