The Statement of Faith of Jesup First Baptist Church is The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), which was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention on June 14, 2000. It can be read in full at https://bfm.sbc.net/ including scriptural support, or a hard copy can be obtained in the church office. A summary of The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), is as follows:
The Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of himself. It is truth without any mixture of error and, therefore, totally true and trustworthy. It is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation. It has salvation for its end, is the center of Christian union and is the supreme standard by which all else is judged. (Article I)
There is one and only one living and true God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the 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. God the Son in His incarnation as Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, lived in sinless obedience, was crucified as a substitute for sinners, rose from the dead and ascended to the Father as Lord of all. He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. God the Holy Spirit, fully divine, inspired the Scriptures; exalts Christ; convicts men of sin, righteousness and judgment; calls men to the Savior; effects regeneration; and seals the believer until the day of redemption. This triune God, infinite in holiness and all other perfections, is worthy of our highest love, reverence and obedience. (Article II)
God made man in His own image, male and female, as the crowning work of His creation. Man has been separated from God because of sin and is under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. As image bearers of God, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Article III)
Salvation comes by grace alone through repentance and faith in Christ alone. God the Father sent his Son into the world. God the Son, Jesus Christ, obtained eternal redemption for the believer by His own blood. God the Holy Spirit regenerates sinners, by which they are justified, enabled in sanctification and glorified. 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. 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. (Articles IV, V)
Following the pattern of the New Testament, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the gospel, governed by Christ through his word, seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. The ordinances of the church are believer’s baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. The offices of the church are elders and deacons. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all ages, believers from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. (Articles VI, VII, VIII, XI, XIV)
Christians are under obligation to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in their families, seeking to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth and brotherly love. They are to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come on earth, while awaiting the full consummation of the Kingdom at the return of Jesus Christ. (Articles IX, X, XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII)
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. (Article X)
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