What we Believe
Beliefs
We hold to the 1689 London Baptist Confession as well as the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. We also hold to the historic Christian creeds including the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Chalcedonian Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. We also find other doctrinal statements helpful including (but not limited to) the Abstract of Principles, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, and the Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.
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1689 London Baptist Confession Baptist Faith and Message 2000
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Apostle’s Creed Nicene Creed Chalcedonian Creed Athanasian Creed
Abstract of Principles The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
Danvers Statement on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
A Declaration of the Complementary Roles of Church and Family
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Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel Christology Statement
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Holy Scripture
The whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for his own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inference contained in the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is ever to be added to the Scriptures, either by new revelation of the Spirit or by human traditions.
2 Timothy 3:15–17; Galatians 1:8,9; John 6:45; 1 Corinthians 2:9–12. 1 Corinthians 11:13, 14; 1 Corinthians 14:26, 40.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-1-the-holy-scriptures/
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ordinances of positive and sovereign institution. They are appointed by the Lord Jesus the only lawgiver and are to be continued in his church to the end of the age. These holy appointments are to be administered only by those who are qualified and called to administer them, according to the commission of Christ.
Matthew 28:19, 20; 1 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 11:26.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-28-baptism-and-the-lords-supper/
All have Sinned
By this sin our first parents fell from their original righteousness and communion with God. We fell in them, and through this, death came upon all. All became dead in sin and completely defiled in all the capabilities and parts of soul and body.
Romans 3:23. Romans 5:12ff. Titus 1:15; Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10–19.
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Effectual Calling
In God’s appointed and acceptable time, he is pleased to call effectually, by his Word and Spirit, those he has predestined to life. He calls them out of their natural state of sin and death to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. He takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. He renews their wills and by his almighty power turns them to good and effectually draws them to Jesus Christ. Yet he does all this in such a way that they come completely freely, since they are made willing by his grace.
Romans 8:30; Romans 11:7; Ephesians 1:10, 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14. Ephesians 2:1–6. Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:17, 18. Ezekiel 36:26. Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:27; Ephesians 1:19. Psalm 110:3; Song of Solomon 1:4.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-10-effectual-calling/
Jesus, the Ultimate Sacrifice for sins
The Lord Jesus most willingly undertook this office. To discharge it, he was born under the law and perfectly fulfilled it. He also experienced the punishment that we deserved and that we should have endured and suffered. He was made sin and a curse for us. He endured extremely heavy sorrows in his soul and extremely painful sufferings in his body. He was crucified and died and remained in a state of death, yet his body did not decay. On the third day he arose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered. In this body he also ascended into heaven, where he sits at the right hand of his Father, interceding. He will return to judge men and angels at the end of the age.
Psalms 40:7, 8; Hebrews 10:5–10; John 10:18. Gal 4:4; Matthew 3:15. Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 3:18. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Matthew 26:37, 38; Luke 22:44; Matthew 27:46. Acts 13:37. 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4. John 20:25, 27. Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9–11. Romans 8:34; Hebrews 9:24. Acts 10:42; Romans 14:9, 10; Acts 1:11; 2 Peter 2:4.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-8-christ-the-mediator/
Saving Faith thru Grace Alone
Assurance of Grace and Salvation
The grace of faith, by which the elect are enabled to believe so that their souls are saved, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. Faith is ordinarily produced by the ministry of the Word. By this same ministry and by the administration of baptism and the Lord’s supper, prayer, and other means appointed by God, faith is increased and strengthened.
2 Corinthians 4:13; Ephesians 2:8. Romans 10:14, 17. Luke 17:5; 1 Peter 2:2; Acts 20:32.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-14-saving-faith/
Temporary believers and other unregenerate people may deceive themselves in vain with false hopes and fleshly presumptions that they have God’s favor and salvation, but their hope will perish. Yet those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love him sincerely, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may be certainly assured in this life that they are in a state of grace. They may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and this hope will never make them ashamed.
Job 8:13, 14; Matthew 7:22, 23. 1 John 2:3; 3:14, 18, 19, 21, 24; 5:13. Romans 5:2, 5.
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-18-assurance-of-grace-and-salvation/
The Church
The catholic—that is, universal—church may be called invisible with respect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace. It consists of the full number of the elect who have been, are, or will be gathered into one under Christ her head. The church is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
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In exercising the authority entrusted to him, the Lord Jesus, through the ministry of his Word, by his Spirit, calls to himself out of the world those who are given to him by his Father. They are called so that they will live before him in all the ways of obedience that he prescribes for them in his Word. Those who are called he commands to live together in local societies, or churches, for their mutual edification and the fitting conduct of public worship that he requires of them while they are in the world.
John 10:16; John 12:32. Matthew 28:20. Matthew 18:15–20. Hebrews 12:23; Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:10, 22, 23; Ephesians 5:23, 27, 32
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https://founders.org/library/1689-confession/chapter-26-the-church/