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Speak thou the things which
become sound doctrine.
TITUS 2:1
OUR DOCTRINE
The most important thing about any church is not its building size, worship style, or programs but what it believes about the Bible and its teaching. A Confession of Faith is a statement that lays out what a church believes. We have adopted as the fullest expression of our faith The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. The ultimate authority in all matters of faith, order, and morals is and must be the Bible alone, which truth is clearly set forth in the opening article of the Confession itself. This historic document, albeit imperfect, is an excellent summary of “the things most surely believed among us” and we find it to be an assistance in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification in righteousness.
Down through the ages, one important way of expressing the Bible’s teaching has been by using the format of questions and answers. This is what a catechism is. Perhaps the most influential Baptist preacher of all time, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92) once remarked, “I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times.” The Baptist Catechism was drawn up and approved by the same group of ministers that produced The Baptist Confession of Faith in London just a few years prior.
1. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were given by the inspiration of God, and are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.
2. We believe in one triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the same in essence, equal in power and glory.
3. We believe in the fall of Adam from original righteousness; in the imputation of his sin to all his posterity; in the total depravity of human nature, and in man’s inability to restore himself to the favor of God.
4. We believe that God has loved his people with an everlasting love; that he chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world; that he called them with a holy and effectual calling; and, being justified alone by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, they are kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation.
5. We believe there is one Mediator between God and man-the man Christ Jesus, who, by the satisfaction made to law and justice, in becoming an offering for sin, has, by his most precious blood, redeemed the elect from under the curse of the law; that they might be holy and without blame before him in love.
6. We believe that good works are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, and are evidences of a gracious state; and that all believers are bound to obey every command of God from a principle of love.
7. We believe that a visible Church of Jesus Christ is a congregation of faithful persons, who have given themselves to the Lord, and to one another, by the will of God and have covenanted to keep up a godly discipline, agreeable to the gospel.
8. That Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are Gospel ordinances, appointed by Jesus Christ, and are to be continued in his Church until the end of the age.
9. That the immersion of the body in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is the only Scriptural way of Baptism, as taught by Christ and his Apostles.
10. We believe in the general resurrection of the dead, and final Day of Judgment; that the happiness of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked will be everlasting.
A Brief Summary of Our Confession’s Teaching
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