 |
| Baptist Faith & Message 2000 |
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. Therefore, all Scripture is
totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us
and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of
Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and
religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who
is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an
intelligent, spiritual and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver and
Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.
God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all
things, past, present and future, including the future decisions of His free
creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence and obedience. The eternal
triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with distinct
personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.
A. 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. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving and
all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through
faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
B. 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.
Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human
nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with
mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience,
and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the
redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body
and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His
crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of
God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is
effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and
glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now
dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He
inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He
enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of
righteousness and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour and effects
regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the
Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers and
bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals
the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is
the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature
of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship,
evangelism and service.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image.
He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift
of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man
was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By
his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.
Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God and fell
from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an
environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of
moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the
grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill
the creative purpose of God. 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 person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of
respect and Christian love.
IV. Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is
offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His
own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense
salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification and
glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ
as Lord.
A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace
whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart
wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner
responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith
is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to
Him as Lord and Saviour.
B. Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon
principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in
Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and
favor with God.
C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in
regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes and is
enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence
and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue
throughout the regenerate person's life.
D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the
final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
V. God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which
He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies and glorifies sinners. It is consistent
with the free agency of man and comprehends all the means in connection with the
end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness and is infinitely
wise, holy and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.
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. Believers may fall into sin
through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their
graces and comforts and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal
judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation.
VI. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an
autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in
the faith and fellowship of the gospel: observing the two ordinances of Christ;
governed by His laws; exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in
them by His Word; and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic
processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to
Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men
and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited
to men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of
Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every
tribe and tongue and people and nation.
VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in
the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience
symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried and risen Saviour, the
believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life and the resurrection to
walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the
final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to
the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby
members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the
vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
VIII. The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a
Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection
of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual
devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be
commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
IX. The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty
over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully
acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation
into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ.
Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God's will
be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of
Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
X. Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the
world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will
return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised;
and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be
consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their
resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell
forever in Heaven with the Lord.
XI. Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and
of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all
nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit means the birth of
love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all rests thus upon a
spiritual necessity of the regenerate life and is expressly and repeatedly
commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the
preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to
seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a
Christian lifestyle and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
XII. Education
Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence.
In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound
learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens
all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of
education in the Kingdom of Christ is coordinate with the causes of missions
and general benevolence and should receive along with these the liberal support
of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a
complete spiritual program for Christ's people.
In Christian education there should be a proper balance
between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly
relationship of human life is always limited and never absolute. 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.
XIII. 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 and should recognize all these as
entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According
to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully,
regularly, systematically, proportionately and liberally for the advancement of
the Redeemer's cause on earth.
XIV. Cooperation
Christ's people should, as occasion requires, 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. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed
to elicit, combine and direct the energies of our people in the most effective
manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in
carrying forward the missionary, educational and benevolent ministries for the
extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is
spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups
of Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian
denominations when the end to be attained is itself justified and when such
cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to
Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.
XV. The Christian and the Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will
of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used
for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men
can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the
regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In
the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed,
selfishness and vice and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery,
homosexuality and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the
needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless and the sick. We should speak on
behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from
conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry,
government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of
righteousness, truth and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends
Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause,
always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their
loyalty to Christ and His truth.
XVI. Peace and War
It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on
principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of
Christ they should do all in their power to put an end to war.
The true remedy for the war spirit is the Gospel of our
Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teachings in all
the affairs of men and nations and the practical application of His law of
love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the
Prince of Peace.
XVII. Religious Liberty
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free
from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or
not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to
every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends.
In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be
favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God,
it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things
not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the
civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual
means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose
penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose
taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is
the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to
God on the part of all men and the right to form and propagate opinions in the
sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.
XVIII. The Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution
of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage,
blood or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant
commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between
Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the
framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression
according to biblical standards and the means for procreation of the human
race.
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. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the
church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect and to
lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant
leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship
of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to
him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as
his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.