|
BELIEFS
Southern Baptists
have prepared a statement of generally held convictions called The
Baptist Faith and Message. It serves as a guide to understanding who
they are. Copies are available at Southern Baptist churches. The topics
here provide only a brief, partial summary. The
full text on the issue discussed is
also available.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered
freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His
own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest
sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and
glorification.
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.
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.
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 Savior, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. |
