First Baptist Church Core Beliefs

Bible

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God.

• The 66 books of the Old and New Testament were inspired by the Spirit of God as originally written.
• The Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct · (2 Timothy 3:16).

God

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

• God created the world and all that is in it (Genesis 1-2:1-6).
• God created man and women, two distinct genders (Genesis 2:7; 21-23).

Jesus Christ

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• Jesus is the Son of God, born of a virgin, crucified, buried, and resurrected on the third day (Luke 1:26-34; 23:44-24:1-12).
• Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity (1 Corinthians 8:6).
• Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
• Jesus will return as judge over the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1).
• Jesus has gone to prepare a place for His children and will return to retrieve them (John 14:1-6)

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the absolute and essential deity, and in the person of the Holy Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit is the third Person of Trinity (1 John 5:7-8).
• He convinces of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).
• He regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, illuminates, and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ (Titus 3:5).

Mankind

We believe that Adam was divinely created in the image of God (Genesis 2:7).

• That by the sin of disobedience, he fell from that state (Genesis 3:1-19).
• That all his posterity inherited spiritual depravity and defilement (Romans 5:12).
• That all men therefore are sinners by the inherited nature of Adam and condemned to physical and spiritual death (Romas 3:23).

Salvation

We believe salvation is by the sovereign grace of God (Romans 10:9-13).

• Salvation is through Christ alone, through His complete work on the Cross of Calvary (John 14:6).
• Christ took our sin upon Him through His substitutionary death on the Cross (1 Peter 3:8).
• Justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).
• Those who have received Christ as their personal Lord and Savior are divinely preserved and ultimately perfected in the image of the Lord (Ephesians 1:13).