The Holy Scriptures

The sixty-six books of the Bible were written by men through divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is inerrant, infallible, and without contradiction. Because God is its author, salvation is its end, and truth without mixture of error is its matter, the Scripture is and will remain the principle foundation for instruction in the governing of the Church and the individual livelihood of the believer. The Church of Fellowship Baptist uses the Authorized King James Version of the Bible.

God

Jehovah God is the one and only living and true God. He is infinitely above all things. He is self-existent and eternal with no origin. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. He has revealed Himself unto man through the scriptures as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This union makes up the Trinity, or Triune Godhead. They each have distinct personal attributes, but without any division of nature, essence, or being. All three persons of the Trinity appear throughout scripture and have simultaneous involvement of the work and will of Jehovah God.

God the Father

God as Father is the self-existent, eternal God that reigns with providential care over His universe. God is omniscient. There is nothing from eternity past until eternity future that God does not know. God is omnipotient. All power comes from God because all power belongs to God. He is eternal, having no beginning and no ending. He is infinite in quality and transcends our deepest understanding, but is also personal. God is immutable. He could never change for the better because He is already perfect. There is not anything greater or higher than His current being. He could never change for the worse because that would make Him all together less than what He is. Neither is God the Father first inclined to justice and then through His goodness chooses mercy, because that would make Him an indecisive God. He is both merciful and just in the same instance. He is soverign. God is God. He is the master and commander of everything, and has the right to do whatever He wishes with His creation. We owe everything to Him because everything belongs to Him.

God the Son

The Bible reveals unto us that the Son of God is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God being coequal to the Father. He is the second person in the Trinity. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. He is eternal having no origin, no beginning and no end. All things were created by Him and for Him, and there was not anything made that was made without Him. Jesus is now at the right hand of the throne of God as High Priest, making intercession for all who believe in His name. Jesus will return in the fullness of His power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.

Jesus Christ Incarnate

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of the Father, while taking upon Himself the demands and necessities of living as human. While on earth, Jesus was one-hundred percent God and one-hundred percent man at the same time. Jesus was in all points tempted, and thus able to completely identify with man, yet Jesus was without sin. He lived a perfect life. He honored the divine law through His personal obedience, and by His death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and is at the right hand of God where He is the one and only mediator for those who believe.

God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He is the third person in the Trinity and coequal to both the Father and the Son. He is infinite in power, knowledge and presence. He is also without origin, eternal and self-existing. He is the inspiring force behind the holy men of old that God used to write the scriptures we now know as the Bible. He is the illumination behind our capability of understanding the scriptures. He is the teacher of the saint. He is the comforter. He exhalts Christ. He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and of judgement. The Holy Spirit is the drawing force that calls men to the Savior. He cultivates Christian character, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which we serve God through His Church. He is the earnest and seal of the believer until the final day of redemption. He is at work in the life of the Christian in order to grow the Christian to be more conformed to the image or character of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service. The Holy Spirit indwells the heart of every believer from the moment of salvation

Man

Man was created by the special act of God, in the image of God and is the crowning work of His creation. God formed man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into him the breath of life. Man is of the likeness of God in that he has three parts. Man has a mind, a body and a soul. In the beginning when God made man, God placed the first man, Adam, in the Garden of Eden. God said that it was not good for man to be alone, so out of Adam, the first male, God created Eve, the first female. Therefore in the beginning God created male and female. They lived together in the garden as husband and wife under the institution of the family established and created by God. Man was given free will, and by his free choice, Adam rebelled against God and brought sin into the human race. Because of this sin, man was driven from the Garden, the earth was cursed, and death passed upon all men. Every person born into this world inherits the sin nature of Adam. As soon as we are capable of making moral action or meet the age of accountability, we become transgressors and are under the condemnation of sin. Only through the grace of God can man be brought back into holy fellowship with God, and only after that fellowship is restored can man begin to fulfill the creative purpose of God in his life. 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 man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is freely offered to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. Salvation is not of works, but of grace through faith in Christ. No man comes unto Christ unless the Father draws them, yet whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Christ Jesus said "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." Christ's atoning death on the cross of calvary was for the sins of anyone that will place their faith in Him alone for salvation. Salvation through Jesus Christ does not come through baptism or any other work, but through Christ and Christ alone. Salvation through Jesus Christ is three fold in that upon confession of Christ Jesus as Lord, the believer is immediately saved from the penalty of sin. As the Holy Spirit works in the heart of the believer to conform them unto the image of Christ, the believer is in the process of being saved from the power of sin. One day when in heaven the Christian will be saved from the presence of sin. By seal of the Holy Spirit, once a person accepts Christ as their savior, they can never lose salvation. They are eternally secure through the power of God. All true believer endure until 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 Holy Spirit, impair their comforts and graces, and bring about reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgement upon themselves, yet they are kept by the power of God.

The Church

The New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is both local and universal. The universal church is made up of the believers across the globe, through all ages. The local church is a group of baptized believers that are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing of the two ordinances of Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. The local church is an autonomous body, free from outside influence in its governing and practice of worship. This self-governing body of believers act under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and are congregationally ran by majority rule guaranteeing equal right and responsibiltry to all members. There are two scriptural offices that make up the church, which are: Pastor and Deacon. The pastor is the overseer and shepherd of the church, responsible unto Christ for ministering unto the spiritual needs of those that make up the body. The deacons are the ministering agents that aid the pastor in the work of the church. The church functions in unity through the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to further the Kingdom of God for the Glory of Christ Jesus.

Church Ordinances

Believers baptism is the immersion of a born again 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 the crucified, buried and risen Savior Christ Jesus. This also symbolizes 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 a prerequisite to the privilege 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 if the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. Both of these are rights of religious practice within the Baptist faith, but are for those who are saved, and not for the saving of the lost. There is no saving power through religious practice. For salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord's Day

It is a Christian institution for regular observance that the first day of the week is set aside as the Lord's Day. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion. The Lord's Day, unless of necessity, shall be set aside for the gathering of the church, unto the worship of the Lord, and should be free of worldly amusement and secular employment.

Last Days

The current church age that we live in will one day come to a close. We recognize that we are living in the last days. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. The dead in Christ will rise first, and then we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. After the judgments of God upon this sinful world during the 7 years known as the Tribulation, Jesus our Lord will come back to earth with His saints to establish His millennial kingdom. This is known as the thousand year or millennial reign of Christ. Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The redeemed of Christ in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their rewards and will dwell in heaven forever with their Savior. The unsaved will be judged and will endure eternal separation from the kingdom of God and will be cast into hell to forever remain in everlasting perdition.

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. In Christian love, missionary efforts rest upon all and are expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. It is the duty of every child of God to seek to win the lost to Christ by effort of personal testimony and the sharing of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and or all other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

Cooperation

The Church under leadership of Christ and direction of the Holy Spirit should, as occasion requires, organize such association and convention seeking the cooperation of other Baptist of like faith and doctrine for the purpose of glorifying Christ and furthering the ministry work in order to advance the Kingdom of God. 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. Under no circumstances shall any other organization or governing body have any authority over one another. We shall at all times remain autonomous in practice, faith, doctrine, constitution, and personal belief reserving the right for self-government of our local assembly. Any cooperation shall remain voluntary, at the discretion of the congregation under the leadership of the Pastor.

Religious Liberty

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrine and commandment 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 freedoms no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil governments being ordained of God, it is the duty of the 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 contemplated spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its opinions for 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 civil power. We recognize and practice that obedience unto God as defined in the scriptures is superior to that of the rule of man.