For a fuller description of our beliefs, see the Five Solas of the Reformation and The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.
1. The Holy Bible
The Holy Scriptures, consisting of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is Almighty God’s special written, infallible, authoritative, and sufficient revelation of Himself to all humanity. It was given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit through human authors, is inerrant (without error) in the original manuscripts, and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
2. God & the Trinity
There is only one living and true God, who has made Himself known in three Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are co-equal in substance, power, purpose, and glory. He is the Creator of all things, who exists eternally, is invisible, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, dependent on no one, righteous, holy, absolutely sovereign, just, good, loving, merciful, patient, gracious, and is unchanging in His being and truth.
3. Mankind & Sin
God created our first father Adam perfect, righteous, and in the image of God. Adam stood as the head and representative of the entire human race, but sinned and broke God’s law and commandment, which ruined the image of God in him and brought upon him and all his offspring death, condemnation, guilt, and spiritual deadness. Thus, as sinners, it is beyond their power and ability to have a saving knowledge of God, bear His image, love Him, keep His law, repent of sin, believe the gospel and be saved.
4. The Law of God
The law is eternal, holy, just, and good. At creation, God wrote His law upon Adam’s heart and, though it was marred after the Fall, its work is still written on the hearts of everyone today. This moral law was codified in written form on two tablets at Mt. Sinai and is known as the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments reveal man’s duty towards God and the remaining six, man’s duty to mankind. The law cannot save nor was it intended to save. However, it reveals the character of God, restrains sin and evil in society, gives knowledge of sin, makes everyone guilty before God, is a teacher to lead people to Christ that they might be justified by faith alone, and is a holy rule of life for the Christian to gage how much the believer really loves Christ.
5. The Gospel
The good news is all about Christ the second person of the Godhead, who is the eternally existent only begotten Son of God. He took upon Himself a sinless humanity when conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb and has two distinct natures, the divine and human, inseparably joined in one Person. Jesus came as the representative Head to live a life of perfect obedience to God’s law and offer a substitutionary sacrifice for sin and transgressions on the cross. He died, was buried, and rose again the third day. In His death and resurrection, Jesus accomplished redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father where He is the only prophet, priest, and king. He ever lives to make intercession for all those who come unto God through Him, is the only way, truth, and life and the only mediator and Savior between God and man. No one can come to God except through Him. Because of His work on earth and ascension into heaven, He has been enthroned as Lord of heaven, earth, and hell.
6. Salvation
Salvation is a gift of God’s free and sovereign grace and cannot be earned by any type works. Because people are spiritually dead and affected by the Fall in every area of soul and body, they must be drawn and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who applies the Word. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. God requires all people everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. When a person repents of sin and trusts Christ as Savior and Lord, that person is forgiven of all sins, justified, adopted, sanctified, brought into fellowship and communion with God, given the gift of eternal life, and forever kept by the power of God. The Holy Spirit seals the believer until the final Day of redemption and gives assurance that the believing one is a true child of God.
7. Christian Conduct
A Christian is one who has been radically changed by the gospel, bears the restored image of God, is a new creation in Christ, gives evidence of new life, is a steward of Christ in all that he is, does, and possesses and has a new love. Old things have passed and all things are becoming new by the work of the Holy Spirit in making the believer more and more holy. The conduct of a believer is for the glory of God, directed by the law of God, and empowered by Christ’s gospel and love for Him.
8. The Church
The Church consists universally of the whole body of the redeemed through the ages and is seen in visible congregations of believers, who are baptized on a credible profession of faith, are joined together in a covenant community, and assemble for the purposes of worshiping the triune God, observing the ordinances, building one another up in the faith, disciplining itself in love, and spreading abroad the knowledge of Christ, the only Savior of men.
9. Baptism & the Lord’s Supper
There are only two ordinances of the visible church instituted by Christ – baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is to be administered to disciples only by immersion, in the triune name. It is a sign that Christians have died to sin, have been spiritually raised to walk in newness of life, have taken on themselves the name of Christ, and are confessing that they will follow and obey Christ the rest of their lives, until death. The Lord’s Supper is to be observed for a perpetual remembrance of Christ and His sacrificial death until He returns, is a bond and pledge of the fellowship and the communion that believers have with Christ and one another, and is a means to strengthen them in their faith and walk. The elements of bread and wine remain the same physical substances, not mysteriously becoming the body and blood of Christ. As believers outwardly partake of the elements they do inwardly feed upon Christ crucified by faith.
10. Worship & the Lord’s Day
Worship is appointed and regulated by God Himself. Only activities commanded in Scripture are to be practiced in the public worship of God – the reading of Scripture, singing of God’s praises, prayer, proclamation of the Word, fellowship, observing the ordinances, and benedictions. Since creation, God has ordained, blessed, and set apart one whole day in seven to especially delight in Him in rest and worship, demonstrating our rest in Christ. Since the resurrection of Christ, this day of worship is Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Believers must not allow secular or worldly events to keep them from assembling together to worship in spirit, truth, reverence, awe, and joy with the church or distract them from a focus on Christ on His day.
11. Evangelism & Missions
It is the great privilege, responsibility, and calling of every visible church to be obedient to and participate in fulfilling Christ’s last command before ascending into heaven, called the Great Commission. This command is a charge to go into the entire world, to preach and spread the gospel to all mankind, to make disciples, to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything Christ has commanded us.
12. Last Things
Death does not end all things. Though the body goes into the ground and decays, everyone will live somewhere for all eternity. Upon death, the believer goes into the immediate presence of Christ and there waits for the redemption of the body in the sure and certain resurrection from the dead. The unbeliever goes into a place of punishment and there, too, waits for the resurrection and judgment. God will bring the world to its appropriate and appointed end. Jesus Christ the Lord will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth at His 2nd coming. He will judge the world in righteousness. After the Judgment, those who have trusted Christ and are saved will receive a glorified body and dwell forever with the Lord in heaven. Those who have not trusted Christ and are not saved will spend eternity in the lake of fire, the place of endless punishment.